Best options to enable wifi around the home

G

Green

Registered User
Messages
592
Have a bungalow and getting the attic converted later this month. Getting good broadband speeds 500mb to 1gb but interested in how I can get it to perform better in certain rooms in the house, should I go with a mesh system or get cabling to each room where its needed? Thanks
 
100% cabling to each access point if you can while having the renovations done! There are a number of access points (eg. Netgear WAX214) that can be mounted in the ceiling and powered over the Ethernet cable, giving you a tidy setup with a single CAT5 cable.
 
agree cabling if renovating and it can be done. That being said the wireless mesh systems are pretty good. I have 4 mesh pods on my vm 1gb broadband at home. It’s really good and they have Ethernet ports so you can connect cabled internet devices to them..

Cabled system is a better option though
 
Cables are better. Especially if anything is sensitive to lag. Gaming etc. But for most things that people will do, a mesh will almost as good for a fraction of the effort. Huge improvement to regular WiFi.
 
Last edited:
If you can cable, do. Otherwise, as others have said, mesh is good. it solved our bunglow wifi problems. I was able to run one cable to a mesh unit in a central location, and make that the main wifi spot, then all the other units sync with that. I also have a PC connected via cable to one of them.
Also setup is very easy, wizard driven from your phone.
 
I've run cables to 3 TP-Link X50 units in a 2-storey. One upstairs in the middle and two downstairs at either end. Works well.
 
We have a mesh with 4no. access point over three floors. The access points are linked using ethernet cable. Service inside and outside the house is excellent. As a test I disconnected the cables (so running everything wirelessly) and the wi-fi connectivity diminished but remained useable. At a minimum run a few cat 6 ethernet cables between the floors, and from front to rear/ side to side during the renovation work. Specify LSOH or LSZH if doing this.
 
As others have said if you can run cable it's always preferable, if it's a hassle mesh systems work pretty well.
 
Thanks to everyone who took the time to give responses to this - it looks like cabling is the way to go.
 
I have a Vodafone router and I renewed my annual contract with Vodafone.
They sent me a new router but did not request the old one back.
If I wire them together with a CAT5 cable and set the secondary one to the same SSID and password via the admin settings, am I able to simulate the extended reception here ?
 
AndroidMan said:
If I wire them together with a CAT5 cable and set the secondary one to the same SSID and password via the admin settings, am I able to simulate the extended reception here ?
Click to expand...

In principle the answer is yes, but it is somewhat complicated. The two devices (Vodafone Gigaboxes) will perform different functions and will need to be configured differently. The “main” one, which connects to the incoming broadband connection will be configured as a router, and the second one will be configured as an access point. The router creates your home network and the access point extends it. If you google this you should find some articles on how to achieve this using two Vodafone Gigaboxes.
Note these devices are not really designed to be used in this way, and this usage is not supported by Vodafone and you will most likely experience issues. I would ditch both and replace them with a couple of devices that are designed and supported to run in this way, i.e. a mesh configuration.
 
I had set up the system as Freelance explained above (using an old router ad an AP/wireless extender). The main trouble is that it would not switch between them on mobile devices like phones as you moved around the house.
You're better off picking up a mesh system as he suggested. I did and have no regrets.
 
Buddyboy said:
The main trouble is that it would not switch between them on mobile devices like phones as you moved around the house.
Click to expand...
Yeah, devices may hop from channel to channel on an access point but won't move from one to the other until the lose signal on the first. The advantage of a proper mesh system is that it will constantly analyse performance and move the device to attach to the best access point.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register