Afternoon all, so i want to boost the WIFI in my house as downstairs its fine but upstairs it starts to get a bit dodgy the further i get away, also the garage signal is a bit hit or miss and this need to be a bit more consistent now i am running apple TV.
So knowing not that much about this sort of stuff, i need something simple, thinking 3 hubs or maybe 4, budget isnt really an issue id rather pay a bit more for something decent but dont want to be paying thousands.
So good old STW what you got and what would you recommend?
Tenda mw3 here. 4 of them in a large 3 bed stone house. I'm not it expert but it has made a huge difference.
I had a few niggles getting things like my sonos to play but other than that easy as. I'm on a 4g data router as local broadband is woeful with 30mb average speed. If you have capacity to work at higher speeds or you move large files around your network lots you might want better but otherwise - good enough.
Sadly I remember seeing a black friday offer for these for pennies that I suspect you have probably missed.
I bought the Google Wi-Fi in the Black Friday sale, the 3 pack and 1 single. It’s absolutely tremendous whole house is now covered and into the garden.
TP-Deco here. It's been faultless.
yes the MW3 2 pack for £20 is gone but the 3 pack for £40 is still there
I got the 3 pack and out of the box, the signal from the first node I conncted was way stronger than the signal from the router. I;ve set up a second node but not bothered with the third as yet, what I have now seesm to be ebough to cover the whole house (three stories)
If you have mega fast broadband you might want to consider something that will handle higher speeds as the wired connection on these will only handle up to 100mb.
i bought the 2 x 2for£20 offer on the MW3's.
mostly good would be my current assessment, when they work they work but I've wanted to throw them out the window a couple of times in the last few days.
current issues:
in DHCP mode, the MW3's setup a subnet that can access the internet, but not other subnets. so if you have wired devices into your modem/router as well, you can't see these over the mesh for services like airplay or sonos. You can run the MW3's in bridge mode that lets the modem/router do all the IP assignment etc but this seemed to cause a heap of other issues so I've reverted to DHCP mode and brought the previously wired devices into the MW3 subnet by using the lan ports on the MW3's.
iOS devices using private address function don't seem to hand over between nodes very effectively.
I got BT whole home mini last year based on STW recommendation. It's been great, super easy to set up and not gone wrong at all. I had to download an app that basically tells you the best place to put each hub based on signal/location. I went from barely having signal at the back of my house to having it the whole way down the garden
TP-Deco here. It’s been pretty much faultless.
We have five units in total, split across two separate stone-walled buildings. Given the construction and layout of the place, it's been pretty brill. Occasionally drops out, but I'll forgive it that for what it's having to cope with.
Can the mesh nodes have seperate SSID's for the 2.4 and 5ghz bands?
I'm wondering whether to get some mesh things, or just get a 30m ethernet cable and stick the router in a more central location.
I don't like in a massive house btw, I just can't be @rsed drilling through the walls as they are all brick, which I suspect is the cause of the poor wifi.
Can the mesh nodes have seperate SSID’s for the 2.4 and 5ghz bands?
the MW3's don't.
I have five Deco discs. Brilliant, and the app means I can monitor and control all the items/PCs/phones/etc. on the system, which is dead handy if you have kids (addicted to smartphones).
I have five Deco discs. Brilliant, and the app means I can monitor and control all the items/PCs/phones/etc. on the system, which is dead handy if you have kids (addicted to smartphones).
Agreed - I like that each user has their own profile so I can isolate a single user's permissions, filter inappropriate content, set usage limits, pause connection etc. It worked just last night when one of the kids ignored repeated requests to come down for their dinner – one click later and they came out saying 'the internet has stopped working'.
Thanks all, im aware i missed out on the black friday deals, but i probably wont be looking to buy until the new year anyway, i just needed a starting point and some real world experience.
Not got super fast broadband and no hard wired connections so that shouldn't be an issue.
I'll look into all the suggestions.
Cheers
Tenda MW set up here. Works well. I've got 3 MW5s and 2 MW3s but that covers the house and the outbuildings and is a little overkill.
Not a huge amount of control over things (similar to a router you'd get from your ISP) but it works for me (browsing, couple of smart home devices and a Plex server).
MW5 is the MW3 but with a higher speed ethernet port
I bought a Tenda MW12 mesh system. It was dogshit. I sent it back. My saga was well documented on STW and indeed there was a thread like two days ago.
I like that each user has their own profile so I can isolate a single user’s permissions, filter inappropriate content, set usage limits, pause connection etc
In the interests of avoiding making it all sound complicated, it's probably worth saying that each user can have their own profile, but you don't have to mess about with that stuff if you don't want to.
^^ True
Who is your current bb provider this can have implications for what system to use.
Eh?
I've got 2x Tenda MW3 in the house which seem to be working fine and get coverage all over.
I bought 2 twin packs so 4 units in total but just initially started with 2. Is there any advantage in connecting the other 2 if it's already working ok? It's a 3 storey house so thought I'd need all 4 of them. If no advantage I'll return them to Amazon.
I have a TP deco s4. A 3 unit box but we've only got 2 set up so far. Works fine. No faults to report.
Sky routers have difficulties in being put into modem mode, I believe that newer bt home hubs have a similar issue as may some others.
That can have a impact in what mesh system you’d use.
What mesh system works best with Sky?
Sky routers have difficulties in being put into modem mode
Don't do that then?
An Ethernet port is an Ethernet port, it's a standard. If you've got an arsey ISP-supplied router then switch off all the DHCP etc cleverness that might be on the mesh routers and just extend out from that point.
I've got a pair of Tenda MW5s bought in recent sales. I did buy 4 but the pair seem to have solved all the hassles we had before, so a mate will have the others. They were super easy to set up, literally working after 5 minutes out of the box. I'd definitely recommend them. I'm on Plusnet using their standard modem-router.
Cougar
Don’t do that then?
An Ethernet port is an Ethernet port, it’s a standard. If you’ve got an arsey ISP-supplied router then switch off all the DHCP etc cleverness that might be on the mesh routers and just extend out from that point.
Is it the 10mb, the 100mb, 1gb, 2.5gb or the 10gb standard you are talking about?
What would one do if they wanted all that “cleverness” in the mesh system?
What would one do if the router that vendor supplied is a one that purportedly struggles with routing 30 or so devices?
It’s all to easy to say buy a mesh and connect it to your router and be done but as you acknowledged yourself with your tenda experience things are more nuanced that that and following the STW way of simply recommending what you have isn’t necessarily the right answer.
BillMC
What mesh system works best with Sky?
Not as simple as that, sorry.
Sky or SkyQ?
Is the incoming connection fttc or fttp?
What issues are you trying to resolve
How big is your property
How many floors
What’s the construction like e.g. solid or stud internal walls?
Do you have any hard wired devices pc, laptops, nas, smart tv etc.
For those on Zen and wishing to go Mesh then I have discovered that you can pick up Fritz.box 3490 modems for around £20 each and these can be put in to Mesh slave mode and hooked in to the main Fritz router Zen provide very easily.
At £20 a pop it is trivial to get a few dotted around the house 🙂
What would one do if they wanted all that “cleverness” in the mesh system?
If the MW3/5s are the same as the MW12s, there isn't any. 😁
I take your point, and of course if you're replacing the ISP router in its entirety then whatever you buy will need to be compatible with whatever form the WAN presentation takes. But if you aren't then any problem inherent in the router isn't going to dictate mesh system A over mesh system B. With Sky for example (regular Sky, I've never touched Sky Q) you cannot readily swap out their router, you have to use the one provided.
Capt, stone walls, 3 storey, SkyQ. More than that I know not. It's arriving on Tuesday but I thought I'd ask an anticipatory question.
But if you aren’t then any problem inherent in the router isn’t going to dictate mesh system A over mesh system B.
Kinda yeah I guess, if you are going down the route of using the router/ap mesh system as just ap’s’ then it’s much more important to confirm if any features you want to use such as parental control still work in that mode.
With Sky for example (regular Sky, I’ve never touched Sky Q) you cannot readily swap out their router, you have to use the one provided.
There are a number of ways to replace the pony Sky modem/router/ap boxes, you need a replacement that can authenticate via dhcp option61 rather than pppoe, Asus, TP-Link and Draytek are some of the options.
BillMC
Capt, stone walls, 3 storey, SkyQ. More than that I know not. It’s arriving on Tuesday but I thought I’d ask an anticipatory question.
Hmmmmm, lots of folk get on with the SkyQ system okay, let’s hope you’re one of those 😉
More seriously get it in and try it first as it’s a pain to swap out, the mini Q units act as wifi mesh nodes so you might be okay if not this is the experience of a Sky user cutting over from Sky Q to his own mesh
There are a number of ways to replace the pony Sky modem/router/ap boxes, you need a replacement that can authenticate via dhcp option61 rather than pppoe, Asus, TP-Link and Draytek are some of the options.
Ah, that's changed since I last looked at it. Time was there was a web page you could stick the serial number into and it'd decode your WAN credentials. I believe this worked but Sky wouldn't support it - ie if you had a problem then step 1 was to reconnect your old router. There was a rumour that Sky would disconnect you if they caught you but I rather suspect that's an urban myth.
From that forum, it looks like OFCOM gave them a slap on the wrist for it.
you need a replacement that can authenticate via dhcp option61 rather than pppoe,
Aha, it sounds like that's specifically for Sky Fibre rather than DSL.
Aha, it sounds like that’s specifically for Sky Fibre rather than DSL.
It’s for fttc/vdsl2 and fttp, it’s been a long time since I dabbled with a adsl connection but memory tells me the user & pw needed could be extracted from the original unit
Keeping an eye on this but it’s now gone past my understanding. Tbf, it did after about ten posts.
I have a Vodafone router in front master bedroom. All works fine but we’ve had an extension on the back of the house in which we’ll inevitably spend most of our time. Victorian house and wifi works fine vertically down to tv/games console. But non-existent in back of house.
What would be the best system? I NEED TO CONNECT MY SMART OVENS! 😂
No, but seriously, just for Sonos and general shizzle.
deadlydarcy
Keeping an eye on this but it’s now gone past my understanding. Tbf, it did after about ten posts.
I have a Vodafone router in front master bedroom. All works fine but we’ve had an extension on the back of the house in which we’ll inevitably spend most of our time. Victorian house and wifi works fine vertically down to tv/games console. But non-existent in back of house.
What would be the best system? I NEED TO CONNECT MY SMART OVENS! 😂
No, but seriously, just for Sonos and general shizzle.
Vodafone are another bunch of……
But for this I’m assuming you have a fttc service not a fttp one, in other words the cable thing coming out the wall is copper not a fibre optic cable.
First and cheapest is to move router into a more central position and see if you get coverage then if not then you can look at a mesh system.
If you care about speed then you would look at a tri-band system this means you have a wifi band dedicated to the connection between the nodes and better performance but more cost, the second option is a dual band where you’ll see a lower but still more than adequate for your oven to tell you dinners ready 😉
Tri-band I like the Linksys veloop WHW0302 or TP-Link deco m9 plus
Dual-band Linksys veloop WHW0102 or TP-Link deco m5
Lots of folk on here seem to like the tenda but I’ve not used them so can’t say.
Vodafone are one of those crap providers that try and force you to use their hardware which is often carp so you either turn off the wifi on their unit and set your mesh system up as access points only.
The downside of this is you’ll lose some advanced features like parental controls, firewalls etc, this may not be a issue to you.
The other option is to contact Vodafone support & insist they give you your broadband username/password buy a cheap bt vdsl modem (search “VDSL Fibre Modem” on eBay) junk the Vodafone pos box, set the mesh system up as a router and put in the username/password into the pppoe field in the mesh configuration app.
Simple eh
Edit: When I said junk I meant store safely as if you have line faults at some point Vodafone will make you reinstall the pos box to troubleshoot
I've got a Vodafone router and the Tenda MW3s and MW5s.
Works fine. The router does all the, em routing? Assigns IP addresses etc. The Tenda units do the wireless network part.
Thanks guys.
Vodafone here you with FTTP simply plugged in the Google Wi-Fi base unit job done.
Vodafone here you with FTTP simply plugged in the Google Wi-Fi base unit job done.
I noticed you said earlier that you had the Google ones. Was looking at those. How do they work? One plugged into router then the others plugged in around house?
EDIT: does the Google system then create a new wifi network around the house or is the network still the original Vodafone one?
EDIT: does the Google system then create a new wifi network around the house or is the network still the original Vodafone one?
Evening, quick bump - just wondered if anyone could answer this one please. TIA.
Sorry DD I missed you post.
Yes, one plugs into the router and essentially creates a new Wi-Fi which the others connect to. I’ve now got all my main devices on the mesh as it’s so much better.
Yes, with these mesh network things you turn the wifi on your router off
Lovely, cheers folks. 👍
people still use Vodaphone? Crikey. I thought they'd died on the sword of their own incompetence...
No, still around for me they saved me over £25 a month and have been absolutely fine to deal with.
Asus set up here sand pretty faultless. Kicking out over 400mb deep into the garden and all over the house.
Using a RT-AC68U as the router (plugged into my virgin hub in modem mode), and two zenwifi AX units.
pretty easy to set up using the Asus app (although I needed to use a laptop to set up the router (firmware upgrade needed etc).
Do you have to turn the wifi on your router off? Is there a performance adavantage on the mesh network by doing that?
You don’t have to. I’ve gave the new one a different name and gradually moved stuff across before switching it off. They’ll likely be different subnets so devices on one may not be able to see devices on the other.
I’ve finally resolved the issues I was having with mine. The link to my workshop/office is over powerlines. It really didn’t like having a node connected that way so that’s now separate from the mesh and behaving.
If you do keep the old WiFi network on you probably want to make sure it's not on the same channel as the mesh WiFi, I can't really see the point though unless you have dozens of devices and it's too much hassle to change them over in one go.
When I set up my mesh network , I turned off the router WiFi first, then created the mesh Wi-fi.
I gave the new network exactly the same name and password as the old one.
All devices just re-connected without any additional input from me.
Be gentle with me: we've got a Plusnet router and need a little help getting better quality wifi around the house.
What is the simplest reliable way to do this?
Check you have the log-in credentials for your current router (if you don't have these you won't be able to set it up correctly). These may be on the base of the current router.
Buy a mesh system.
Log-in to your current router dashboard by typing 192.168. 1.254 (the most common IP for Plusnet routers) into a browser which should give you the Plusnet dasboard (which you will need to log-in to using the above credentials).
Set the current router to 'modem' mode.
Plug in the mesh hub to the Plusnet router using a Cat5 cable.
Pop the other mesh access points around the house.
Install the mesh app on your phone.
Follow the instructions to set it up.
(Well it will be something like that, perhaps not exactly that as the mesh system you get may have specific instructions).
thanks
What's the mesh system of choice on here nowadays?
What’s the mesh system of choice on here nowadays?
Most people get on with the Tenda stuff - I’ve got the MW6 ones. @Cougar didn’t though.
I have a TP-Deco and have been very happy with it. I now get reliable speeds throughout the house irrespective of how many devices are online.
Most people get on with the Tenda stuff – I’ve got the MW6 ones. @Cougar didn’t though.
Indeed. I had the supposedly top-of-the-range MW12s. They were beyond terrible. They went back. I replaced them with one big dead-spider router in the middle of the house and never looked back.
How they compare to the more popular MW6 et al, I couldn't say.
Our Plusnet router is upstairs (can't be moved easily) and I have my work laptop and IP telephone connected directly to it.
The idea is to add a magic WiFi box to improve the WiFi downstairs and maybe in the garden too.
I've got TWO plusnet routers. I also have a cat5 network through the whole house: the previous owner was an IT consultant who worked from home a lot and had his office up in the attic. The main router is plugged into the master socket in the attic workroom, and the second was set up as a wifi repeater downstairs, connect via the cat5 network
I recently bought a 3-pack of the tenda MW3 nodes. I removed the slave router and as above, I turned off wifi on the main router. I have one node in a bedroom and one in the living room (both connected via the cat5 network admittedly) and with just the two nodes I have better coverage and faster connection speeds than when I was using the routers.
A tip for when you install a mesh system after putting your router into modem mode = change the name and password of your mesh system to match what the router is/was. Then everything will automatically connect to the "new" wifi and it all just works. No having to change passwords on everything. Netgear Orbi system here with gigabit fibre. Not cheap but amazingly fast all around the house.
@ndt - thanks. We're just on ~40Mbps plusnet (ex-BT) connection and don't have CAT5 cabling in the house despite it being a reasonably new home.
Does your Plusnet router look like this?
If so, replace it with a new BT Home Hub off of eBay. Cost you about £40 and they're so much better. Assuming you don't live in a castle it'll solve all your problems.
Sky routers have difficulties in being put into modem mode
Don’t do that then?
An Ethernet port is an Ethernet port, it’s a standard. If you’ve got an arsey ISP-supplied router then switch off all the DHCP etc cleverness that might be on the mesh routers and just extend out from that point.
I have SkyQ and found it easy to turn the WiFi off and set up my TP Link Deco - works miles better than the sky wifi and I have now hidden the huge sky router away.
A tip for when you install a mesh system after putting your router into modem mode = change the name and password of your mesh system to match what the router is/was. Then everything will automatically connect to the “new” wifi and it all just works. No having to change passwords on everything.
A tip for you if you haven't changed the password on your original router from the default one is to NOT follow the above advice as some routers (especially older ones) have shockingly simple default passwords.
@ElShalimo same as me. I actually get about 30mb on a good day, using the router pictured above and a cat 5 cable. Using the router wifi I'd get maybe 12-15mb. Using mesh, i'm getting the same rate as a wired connection. You might notice a small lag / drop in speed if you just run everything wireless and maybe need all 3 nodes (perhaps even 4 if you have a big area to cover) but you'll definitely see an improvement
A tip for you if you haven’t changed the password on your original router from the default one is to NOT follow the above advice as some routers (especially older ones) have shockingly simple default passwords.
I suspect you're thinking admin passwords. From the routers I've had, the default WiFi password is normally really complex (and it doesn't matter so much) - but the admin password is something like Admin1234.
On my TP link deco M4 mesh, with the 2 main nodes connected by ethernet backhaul, I get 500mbps from them. The third node is wireless but I still get 200mbps from that one.
Wired speed from the router is 800mbps+.
It's fair to say that even a lowish priced mesh will be fast enough for most of people, can't say I really need 800mbps download speed on my phone... And tbh nothing outside file downloads or speed tests can max out my connection currently.
^ True.
#fail 🙂
I've been looking at getting a mesh system for the house. We have the Plusnet router pictured above.
Our wire comes into the corner of the house, so the router is in that room (dining room).
I have been wondering if it's sensible to get the wire moved/extended to the centre of the house (hallway downstairs) but would want it done neatly (channelling into the wall, rather than tacking around the walls.
Or would it just be better to keep the wire (and router) where it is & stick a mesh node in the hallway downstairs instead, then add another one upstairs? I suspect I know the answer, as moving/extending the cable will probably be a) a ballache & b) expensive.
Also - how would I plug my NAS drive into the network, once I got a mesh thingy set-up? Would it stay connected to the router (presumably switched to modem mode) or into the mesh boxes. I notice that most of them only seem to have a single ethernet port.
Ta.
O.P. said they want better WiFi, not a lecture in wifi security. The default passwords to get on the wifi network are usually pretty decent, not so much the admin password for the ISP supplied router, which if it's in Modem mode you would need to be hard wired to anyway.
would it just be better to keep the wire (and router) where it is & stick a mesh node in the hallway downstairs instead, then add another one upstairs
Yes. One node attached to router, one in hall way, one upstairs.
how would I plug my NAS drive into the network, once I got a mesh thingy set-up? Would it stay connected to the router
I'd keep the NAS attached to the router, it should work fine
edit - maybe not, the mesh wil be on a different subnet to the router. Someone else wil be able to confirm, I'm not a network guyy
From the routers I’ve had, the default WiFi password is normally really complex
But potentially procedurally generated. The Sky ones definitely used to be.
how would I plug my NAS drive into the network, once I got a mesh thingy set-up? Would it stay connected to the router (presumably switched to modem mode) or into the mesh boxes.
I don't know if it's representative of other providers, but with my Virgin 'hub' in Modem mode all bar one of the Ethernet ports is shut down
My big mesh-capable router has our or five ports. If yours only has one you could add a switch.
Also – how would I plug my NAS drive into the network, once I got a mesh thingy set-up? Would it stay connected to the router (presumably switched to modem mode) or into the mesh boxes. I notice that most of them only seem to have a single ethernet port.
if the NAS is plugged into the router rather than a port on of the mesh nodes, it would likely be on different subnet to the mesh system. I had real issues with this and getting discovery services like airplay to work consistently, in the end I brought everything into the mesh system and its just worked ever since.
MW3's by the way, amazon were doing four for £40 on black friday.
In the tradition of recommending what you’ve got, I’m very happy with the ASUS ZenWifi XT8[1] system I’ve just put in. Two identical units in the package, either can be the router or the node. Typical 1930s three bed semi with solid walls, BT FTTP 900, and I’m getting 888Mbps wired, 800Mbps wireless in the same room as the router at the front of the house, 700Mbps in the same room as the node, which is in a back bedroom. No less than 650Mbps wireless in any other room.
Plugged directly into the fibre ONT, so the BT router is back in its box where it belongs.
It did take a little fiddling to set up nicely, so probably best aimed at someone with a little understanding of networking, and Sky Q decided to be a bit of a pain and needed me to reactivate the mini boxes.
[1] It was £307 when I bought it.
Q: I have VF router and TP mesh. I never put the router into any other mode (modem mode) - will I be losing speed?
Just fitted Tp link Deco S4, 3 units, one master connected into router and then two other basestations.
Working brilliantly so far!
I’ve just set up a pair of MW3 to act as mesh access points and had a nightmare getting them to act in bridge mode. They kept assigning IP address on a different subnet exactly as you described (shouldn’t be DHCP serving at all).
I managed to sort it by having the primary MW3 connected through its LAN port instead of the LAN/WAN port to my ISP router, so everything is on one subnet including all of my physically connected devices.
I've never bothered putting my router (TP Link Archer VR90) into modem mode either. Seems to work ok with the MW3s.
Netgear Orbi here. Master + 2 remotes covers a largish 4 bed plus the garden.
Master hard wired into the Vodafone fttc router.
60Mb wifi (limited by the fttc) all over the house.
They install themselves pretty much.
