Cutting the cord (this again!)

ebarker9 said:
Out of curiosity, what don't you like about the Orbi setup? My brother upgraded and I got his older Orbi. Been very reliable, good speeds and coverage.
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There were a few offices that used Orbi satellites to get an Ethernet port at the front for an IP phone. The satellites would disconnect a few times a day, needing a power cycle and re-sync. Sometimes that wasn't enough and needed to remote into external IP of the router unit and hope that it was seeing the satellite to save a drive to a small fish client. They also didn't want to spend money to run a cable for the phone, so they paid many times more in phoning it in instead of fixing it properly or upgrading to non-Orbi.
 
Magic said:
If you don't want to run wires through your walls for a proper network, the mesh stuff is great. Eero is probably the one I've seen least issues with, otherwise I like TP-Link myself but have no experience with their mesh. I have their full Omada network at home. From supporting smaller clients, Eero is good and Orbi is shit. Haven't dealt with many others.
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eero runs great - i also have an outdoor antenna from "others" that I run as an access point.
Nice when outside - and takes care of the home automation stuff out there.

i'm running an eero 5 mesh. 1 wired, 3 remote.
There is a bug in their spanning tree alg in bridge mode (at least in the 5s) which takes them offline every so often.
It was really bad when I had two wired, not so bad with 1. Happens about 1x per day.

I just can't see putting my cable modem in bridge mode - xfinity has more resources and more at stake than eero.
 
Patrick said:
There is a bug in their spanning tree alg in bridge mode
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Magic said:
If you don't want to run wires through your walls for a proper network, the mesh stuff is great. Eero is probably the one I've seen least issues with, otherwise I like TP-Link myself but have no experience with their mesh. I have their full Omada network at home. From supporting smaller clients, Eero is good and Orbi is shit. Haven't dealt with many others.
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I have the TP-Link Deco mesh system and it works great for streaming and work, way better than my previous AC-2900 router.
 
Captain Brainstorm said:
I have the TP-Link Deco mesh system and it works great for streaming and work, way better than my previous AC-2900 router.
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How is it better? Did you have a mesh setup with the AC-2900?

The TP-Link router I'm using now supports onemesh/easymesh and I was thinking of just getting another access point that works with it once I can figure out ethernet cabling in my weird house.

I was considering the Deco but I didn't see the benefit if I didn't have Ethernet backbone.

Yesterday I did install a TP-Link ethernet-over-power with one unit plugged in the basement next to the router and the other in my office on the other side of the house and it's working surprisingly well.
 
Santapez said:
How is it better? Did you have a mesh setup with the AC-2900?

The TP-Link router I'm using now supports onemesh/easymesh and I was thinking of just getting another access point that works with it once I can figure out ethernet cabling in my weird house.

I was considering the Deco but I didn't see the benefit if I didn't have Ethernet backbone.

Yesterday I did install a TP-Link ethernet-over-power with one unit plugged in the basement next to the router and the other in my office on the other side of the house and it's working surprisingly well.
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Sometimes coverage is better than a single router, even if it's faster. 5Ghz degrades quickly over distance. Assuming that may be the case here as the old one looks better on paper.

What router did you go with? As far as I know, proper TP-Link mesh only works if you have the controller. The AP's will still work without, but it facilitates roaming and band-steering. iPhones and some other devices like to hold on despite signal strength, but everything else seamlessly moves to the stronger signal.

I quickly threw this together when we moved in so I could work out of the basement during reno. ER-605, OC-200, 24 port PoE switch, 2x EAP-620HD. Just need to clean it up some day, or make it look pro with a patch panel.
rrack.jpg
 
Magic said:
Sometimes coverage is better than a single router, even if it's faster. 5Ghz degrades quickly over distance. Assuming that may be the case here as the old one looks better on paper.

What router did you go with? As far as I know, proper TP-Link mesh only works if you have the controller. The AP's will still work without, but it facilitates roaming and band-steering. iPhones and some other devices like to hold on despite signal strength, but everything else seamlessly moves to the stronger signal.

I quickly threw this together when we moved in so I could work out of the basement during reno. ER-605, OC-200, 24 port PoE switch, 2x EAP-620HD. Just need to clean it up some day, or make it look pro with a patch panel.
View attachment 205193
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I think I have an AC-1200? I actually grabbed it from my job as we had it leftover from testing that didn't work out.

When paired with a onemesh compatible access point it should work like a mesh network, not just an access point that shares the SSID. They even have a powerline version but I want/need all the bandwidth for the powerline for my work computer.

My setup is way more hokey. I slapped this together with some re-purposes shelves from where we now store our bikes. Probably more DIY thread... Shared music drive/synology.

Circled the ethernet/power device that seems to be working for now. Straight up from this is basically a closet and then another closet above the. If I can *cleanly* get ethernet cable up (and maybe another power cable) into the top closet that would be idea for the mesh access point. When I had the router with the T-Mobile upstairs the signal was great throughout the house.

@Norm I'm on day #2 of one of these, may work for you. They make many versions that does wifi in the 2nd location. Amazon product ASIN B01H74VKZU
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I have a question for people with mesh routers.
How does it handle "handing off" a device from one router access point to the next?
I have 2 wifi routers in my house connected via Ethernet cable. If I walk around with my phone, it has to get to almost zero signal before my phone logs onto the other router. Does a mesh network do a better job at keeping the device on the strongest signal?
Currently I'm using separate SSIDs to allow me to manually logon to the other router if I choose. I could configure it to be all on the same SSID but I'm concerned my phone will stay on the low signal and I'd have no way to make it log onto the stronger signal.
 
JPark said:
I have a question for people with mesh routers.
How does it handle "handing off" a device from one router access point to the next?
I have 2 wifi routers in my house connected via Ethernet cable. If I walk around with my phone, it has to get to almost zero signal before my phone logs onto the other router. Does a mesh network do a better job at keeping the device on the strongest signal?
Currently I'm using separate SSIDs to allow me to manually logon to the other router if I choose. I could configure it to be all on the same SSID but I'm concerned my phone will stay on the low signal and I'd have no way to make it log onto the stronger signal.
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I think it's basically the mesh devices talk to each other and THEY handle the handing off from one to the other. In reality your phone doesn't know who it's talking to, just the SSID as it sees it as one device. Right now they're swapping back and forth between two different networks entirely and will need to get a new IP address etc each time.
 
JPark said:
I have a question for people with mesh routers.
How does it handle "handing off" a device from one router access point to the next?
I have 2 wifi routers in my house connected via Ethernet cable. If I walk around with my phone, it has to get to almost zero signal before my phone logs onto the other router. Does a mesh network do a better job at keeping the device on the strongest signal?
Currently I'm using separate SSIDs to allow me to manually logon to the other router if I choose. I could configure it to be all on the same SSID but I'm concerned my phone will stay on the low signal and I'd have no way to make it log onto the stronger signal.
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Technically yes, mesh networks usually handle this a bit better, but it's not perfect. The device usually chooses the network instead of the AP choosing a device. In my TP-Link network, the controller is supposed to facilitate seamless roaming between my AP's on the same SSID. This does work great on almost all of my devices and laptops, but iPhones and some other devices tend to be sticky. When I've done some testing with my phone, it seems like it would stay on the same AP and instead steer to the 2.4Ghz band when the signal became weaker. Since it works on other devices, I don't care about the phone switching to 2.4Ghz. I could remedy this by disabling the 2.4Ghz band on the regular network since all of my IoT devices are on their own hidden 2.4Ghz SSID.

If you have overlapping AP's, also make sure you turn down their transmit power to help devices move from one to the other, even if there is some sort of roaming feature. Most people tend to max it out, but it makes switching to the stronger signal more difficult. And you save a few watts. It doesn't hurt to try with the equipment you have. Look for Tx power or something in settings and turn down the power on both AP's and see if that helps them move. Some of it will also depend on your devices roaming protocol.
 
JPark said:
I have a question for people with mesh routers.
How does it handle "handing off" a device from one router access point to the next?
I have 2 wifi routers in my house connected via Ethernet cable. If I walk around with my phone, it has to get to almost zero signal before my phone logs onto the other router. Does a mesh network do a better job at keeping the device on the strongest signal?
Currently I'm using separate SSIDs to allow me to manually logon to the other router if I choose. I could configure it to be all on the same SSID but I'm concerned my phone will stay on the low signal and I'd have no way to make it log onto the stronger signal.
Click to expand...

My eeros are sticky - cycling airplane mode will get the more powerful one.
Not sure why - this has been around forever. (ie cell towers, and wifi calling -> cellular data...)
 
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