- Visitors can check out the Forum FAQ by clicking this link. You have to register before you can post: click the REGISTER link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. View our Forum Privacy Policy.
- Want to receive the latest contracting news and advice straight to your inbox? Sign up to the ContractorUK newsletter here. Every sign up will also be entered into a draw to WIN £100 Amazon vouchers!
Reply to: Anyone got Mesh Wifi at home?
Collapse
You are not logged in or you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
- You are not logged in. If you are already registered, fill in the form below to log in, or follow the "Sign Up" link to register a new account.
- You may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
- If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.
Logging in...
Previously on "Anyone got Mesh Wifi at home?"
Collapse
-
I re-purposed a couple of old BT hubs as extra wifi access points. I've done it with a hub 1, hub 3, and hub 5, the last one also having 5 Ghz capability. Works fine.
-
Originally posted by sal View PostGL with not having to restart these £20-30 APs on a daily basis and getting any half decent throughput 5" away from them. Even more so being constantly nagged by the wife/kids that the WiFi is broken...
Most vendors sell "kits" of 3 APs at least one of them being a router for around £300 - this can cover 3 story house + garden/garage in most cases. You call that pricey?
The tech behind mesh is not that expensive, but the kit currently on the market comes with high ends specs in terms of number of antennas, throughput intelligent band steering etc. "Build your own" router + WiFi extenders with the same specs will cost roughly the same
It's not purely marketing, although you can say it's a buzz word for a functionality that already existed in the enterprise market for quite some time.
The important bit is that the individual APs "talk" to each other, thus able to seamlessly pass on sessions between them.
Leave a comment:
-
Originally posted by b0redom View PostDepends on the house surely? I'd be very sceptical that it would cover 3 floors and a garden office like my mesh setup does. Even if it does work, I suspect that the speed at the edges would be rubbish....
Leave a comment:
-
Depends on the house surely? I'd be very sceptical that it would cover 3 floors and a garden office like my mesh setup does. Even if it does work, I suspect that the speed at the edges would be rubbish....
Leave a comment:
-
Originally posted by sal View PostGL with not having to restart these £20-30 APs on a daily basis and getting any half decent throughput 5" away from them. Even more so being constantly nagged by the wife/kids that the WiFi is broken...
Most vendors sell "kits" of 3 APs at least one of them being a router for around £300 - this can cover 3 story house + garden/garage in most cases. You call that pricey?
The tech behind mesh is not that expensive, but the kit currently on the market comes with high ends specs in terms of number of antennas, throughput intelligent band steering etc. "Build your own" router + WiFi extenders with the same specs will cost roughly the same
It's not purely marketing, although you can say it's a buzz word for a functionality that already existed in the enterprise market for quite some time.
The important bit is that the individual APs "talk" to each other, thus able to seamlessly pass on sessions between them.
Leave a comment:
-
Originally posted by d000hg View PostIt seems to me the ONLY thing you gain is seamless WiFi. And it IS that pricey. £100 minimum per hotspot for N hotspots plus a router/modem when a simple AP is £20-30 and you still get to use your router so you need N-1 extenders.
I'm not sure if the mesh tech is that much more complex or it's just pricey 'cos it's new.
Most vendors sell "kits" of 3 APs at least one of them being a router for around £300 - this can cover 3 story house + garden/garage in most cases. You call that pricey?
The tech behind mesh is not that expensive, but the kit currently on the market comes with high ends specs in terms of number of antennas, throughput intelligent band steering etc. "Build your own" router + WiFi extenders with the same specs will cost roughly the same
Originally posted by Lance View Postfrom what I can tell 'mesh' is purely a marketing term for multiple access points, with the same SSID and linked together.
In the old days you'd get multiple Cisco APs setup identically (except IP/hostname), all wired to the same VLAN and spread them round the building.
Later Cisco APs, with 2 radios, could be used with one radio linked to the nearest other AP as a bridge, and the 2nd radio doing SSID. This 'mesh' appears to be the same as that.
The device switching from one AP to another is not (or certainly wasn't) a function of the AP, rather it was the wireless NIC driver that determined.
So for those trying to build this manually without expensive 'mesh enabled' devices try putting the APs closer so that the overlap is greater that way it should switch to the other AP while the weaker AP is still strong enough. Expect maybe 150-200ms dropout and TCP connections will carry on without dropping.
The important bit is that the individual APs "talk" to each other, thus able to seamlessly pass on sessions between them.
Leave a comment:
-
Perhaps the question shouldn't be "has anyone got one?", rather "does anyone regret buying one?"
I don't know anyone who has said "it wasn't worth it".
Leave a comment:
-
So each disc/hotspot gives a comparable performance/range to a regular router like what your ISP gives for free, approximately? Not bad.
I needed to make a fast decision as my HomeHub was crapping out and got a TPLink VR900 IIRC... I'll wait on Mesh becoming less early-adopter by which time I might have a need for wifi in the garage and garden rooms.
Leave a comment:
-
Originally posted by d000hg View Post
Yeah I love the idea but can't see if I can justify the cost just for saving me 5s if I want to play chess on the bog which is covered by the extender
I've seen at least one setup lets you chain devices with ethernet to cover bigger distances e.g. house<-->garden, I wonder if powerline/homeplug (are these the same?) can do this too.
You said you're got 3 discs and presumably turned WiFi off on your original router, is that one per floor or what? How big is your house and how far away is the garden office? I'm a bit dubious the range of a single disc compared to a regular router... a decent router will cover most but not all my house.
I have one disc at the front of the house attached to the router where the DSL enters the house, one in the loft conversion at the back of the house (ie 2nd floor) and one in the office at the bottom of the garden all cabled back via cat5.
I did need to turn off one of the discs (the one in the office) when I was doing some rewiring, and my laptop still had a decent signal back to the house, although my phone didn't.
As with a lot of things my time is way more expensive than just chucking stuff at the problem.
The discs will use wifi to mesh if you don't have cat5, but I've not bothered experimenting with that as I have wires anyway.
They app does add some extra stuff, like the ability to force devices off the network, set up a guest wifi access point in software, show which devices are connected to which disc, and advise on disc placement.
TBH I think given the cost they're great.
Leave a comment:
-
Sorry I mis-read that it was wireless both ends. Although I'd still have hoped it could work with a little coaxing.
Leave a comment:
-
Originally posted by TheFaQQer View PostIf you have wireless devices like a printer you'll need to make sure you're on the same network before accessing it though, which can be an issue (particularly for children).Originally posted by d000hg View PostI was never sure about this, if the printer is plugged into the central router and you're on MyNetwork_kitchen which is a repeater for the router, shouldn't it still work? I have the same curiosity with Google home/chromecast. Not tested yet to find out.
I have a printer that connects to one SSID in the house. If I connect to the other one (guest wifi rather than main) then I cannot find the printer because it's on a different network.
Leave a comment:
-
Originally posted by Lance View PostThey definitely do if you're using Cisco Aeronet APs.
I can't comment on other technologies as I only use Cisco.
This article mentions Asus adding mesh functionality to their products via firmware which is an interesting idea if others do it.
http://www.alphr.com/technology/1006...-uk-wi-fi-woes
Leave a comment:
-
Originally posted by d000hg View PostI was never sure about this, if the printer is plugged into the central router and you're on MyNetwork_kitchen which is a repeater for the router, shouldn't it still work? I have the same curiosity with Google home/chromecast. Not tested yet to find out.
Everything else works hunky dorey and always connects to the strongest signal just this one bloody printer. It's an HP 6970. The HP 6600 I had before wasn't perfect either but never took the time to diagnose it to this level.
I don't know anyone else having the same problem and couldn't be arsed logging it to see if they knew as it works fine as it is.
Maybe something to consider if you start having problems.
Leave a comment:
-
Originally posted by TheFaQQer View PostIf you have wireless devices like a printer you'll need to make sure you're on the same network before accessing it though, which can be an issue (particularly for children).
I didn't do anything to configure it to do this either, it was setup to work like this out of the box.
Leave a comment:
- Home
- News & Features
- First Timers
- IR35 / S660 / BN66
- Employee Benefit Trusts
- Agency Workers Regulations
- MSC Legislation
- Limited Companies
- Dividends
- Umbrella Company
- VAT / Flat Rate VAT
- Job News & Guides
- Money News & Guides
- Guide to Contracts
- Successful Contracting
- Contracting Overseas
- Contractor Calculators
- MVL
- Contractor Expenses
Advertisers
Contractor Services
CUK News
- Streamline Your Retirement with iSIPP: A Solution for Contractor Pensions Sep 1 09:13
- Making the most of pension lump sums: overview for contractors Sep 1 08:36
- Umbrella company tribunal cases are opening up; are your wages subject to unlawful deductions, too? Aug 31 08:38
- Contractors, relabelling 'labour' as 'services' to appear 'fully contracted out' won't dupe IR35 inspectors Aug 31 08:30
- How often does HMRC check tax returns? Aug 30 08:27
- Work-life balance as an IT contractor: 5 top tips from a tech recruiter Aug 30 08:20
- Autumn Statement 2023 tipped to prioritise mental health, in a boost for UK workplaces Aug 29 08:33
- Final reminder for contractors to respond to the umbrella consultation (closing today) Aug 29 08:09
- Top 5 most in demand cyber security contract roles Aug 25 08:38
- Changes to the right to request flexible working are incoming, but how will contractors be affected? Aug 24 08:25
Leave a comment: