so I live in an old & quite large farmhouse with 3ft thick walls internal & external. We currently have homeplug with 5 devices & all works great in all rooms although you occasionally get the issues of connecting to weaker points instead of the most powerful.
The biggest issue is out in the garden. Unless I sit by a window near an wifi point I get rubbish wifi.
option 1: drill a hole & run ethernet cable & add an external wifi & connect to an existing internal access point
option 2: go mesh, but would this actually help outside or would I still need to do '1' as well
Further mesh questions:
Q1: with the google mesh & their triple pack. Can I buy 6 & actually use 6 or is one in each pack a special for connecting to the external internet provider connection.
Q2: are the mesh wifi broadcasters more powerful than standard wifi points, currently I use Tp-link homeplugs(with wifi). Currently I can be in the room next door to another wifi point (7m away) & one wall & yet get shit connection to that point. Hence why I have 5 home plug points.
Option 1. Wires. Wires. Wires.
Q1 I don’t understand what you’re asking. One of the units in any MESH pack needs to act as the ‘base station’ for the rest of them. It connects to your existing ISP modem. Some MESH kits have all APs the same (eg ASUS). Others have less-featured ‘repeaters’.
Q2. Not really. There are limits on all these devices to avoid unnecessary radio frequency interference.
MESH is a neat idea but it is not able to bend the laws of physics with respect to the inverse square law or transmission through materials of high density.
In most cases, MESH isn’t that different from having multiple access points all with the same SSID. Put in some cables.
Ethernet and an outdoor rated access point for garden Wi-Fi.
Also internal mesh will probably need something like Unify access points and cabling from the router/switch to make it work properly with such thick walls. It won't be cheap to do it properly.
Option 1 - or if you have one use an external socket and plug a homeplug into that (or in a waterproof enclosure).
@chedderchallenged. I thought of that earlier as well. An external power point would be useful there anyway.
@pgp by q1 I meant if I buy 2 Google mesh bundles of 3, will one in the second pack be useless as it can only be used connected to my entry point or are they all the same.
Hardwired ethernet would be the best but a right ball ache.
Q3: could I have a mesh system and then extend it with a homeplug network as well?
Everyone’s experience of mesh systems will differ & they tend to be I brought this & it’s brilliant…
Tp-link do a mesh system that uses powerline as the backhaul link between nodes, I believe it’s the deco m9 but you’d have to check.
Personally assuming you have power in your loft I’d consider running a ethernet cable from your router/modem to the loft and install some tp-link Omada access points and a small poe switch in the loft.
Because the ap’s are suspended well above the walls it allows the wifi radios to form a beam that radiates downwards through the ceiling and floors more evenly rather that being blocked by walls.
For example we have a 3 bed, detached 1900’s property with a open plan gf with a rear extension at least three sizeable steels and most internal walls are brick.
I cover the whole property & garden with a single tp-link eap225 ap along with a few other switch/router bit of kit.
Let me know if this kind of installation is of interest. The Omada range is very much the logical equivalent of unifi but with a much lower price point & they also have external ap’s
Oh and re your external access point question, unless you have provision for a water proof external power source your drilling a hole for power at a minimum.
Cheers captain, I'll look at the omada stuff. Regards external yes you are correct regarding drilling. If I do that I'll get someone else to do the drilling
WiFi does work great vertically so I have one powerline essentially in each vertical segment.
Slightly unrelated I've litteraly just set them all up on a single ssid and that already is providing a better experience.
Always had odd issues with WiFi calling and I'm hoping that may help.
If the change to a common ssid has your poweline ap’s working well now it might not be worth changing.
If you just want a external ap tp link do the eap225-outdoor @ ~£80, it needs a single ethernet cable to one of the existing powerline ap’s (assuming they have ethernet ports?) and should come with a poe injector to send power down the same cable.
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/33345-tp-link-eap225-outdoor/
If you wanted to go for loft mounted ap’s then it’s
Optional management box, you can run software on your Mac/pc/Linux box to manage the devices or use this dedicated unit
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/33134-tp-link-oc200/
Optional router, you can just use the switches/ap’s or have the routing/fw in Omada too
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/44146-tp-link-er605-cloud/
Switch
8 ports with poe so it will power the ap’s and controller
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/44765-tp-link-tl-sg2210p-v5-0-cloud/
Ap’s
Depending on size of property I’d start with 2 and increase if needed
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/44098-tp-link-eap225-cloud/
External ap as above if needed.
Simila rhouse here, just stick one of the repeaters in a window over looking the garden
Re Q1: Google mesh units are all the same and you specify which one is the master.
So yes if you buy 6 then one is the master (and connects to the router) the other 5 will be simple base units.
Oh and re your external access point question, unless you have provision for a water proof external power source your drilling a hole for power at a minimum.
I think the DrayTek outdoor access points are PoE powered, so one cable?
