Wifi, wherefore art though, Wifi.... what do we like these days ?

[cbelt3]

The Asus AC1200 T-Mobile 'freebies' I've been using for a while are pretty well dead. 2.4Ghz performance is terrible, and of course all the 'smart' devices insist on using that. 5.0Ghz is okay.

The house is large and devices are spread out. I'm wondering if I should go Mesh ? I do have sort of a Cat5e backbone that can do gigabit

[Acer]

Mesh it, baby. I'm using google's pucks and they've been rock solid. Interface is very streamlined. If you're a micromanager you may not be satisfied, but mesh is set-and-forget by design.

[mattkime]

mesh is set it and forget it. ubiquiti if you don't mind / enjoy tinkering

[raz]

Macintouch's Ric Ford has a nice writeup on the Ubiquiti routers. I'll probably switch to that over the holiday break when I have time for such things.

[Robert M]

cbelt,

Mesh all the way, especially if you live in a home that isn't wifi friendly. My apartment kills wifi. Prior to mesh, the choice was to hardwire or use MoCa. Hardwire wasn't a friendly solution since it mean wire molding all over the apartment. MoCa got annoying because it mean dealing with multiple networks in the apartment.

Once MESH networks became viable, I invested in a Netgear Orbi system. I still use the Verizon FIOS router for routing (which is recommended and preferred by Verizon) and the Orbi system in bridge mode as a super wireless network. Wifi is no longer an issue.

I don't recommend the Google system because it cannot be put into bridge mode. At least the model I checked out a few months ago couldn't be put into bridge mode. If you're entirely replacing your existing router, it's not an issue. Definitely a possible problem if you need to keep your existing router and want to use the Google system as a super enhanced wireless access point system.

Robert

[Zoidberg]

I've been through a number of systems since replacing my Apple Airports some years ago -- eero, Ubiquiti AmpliFi -- and landed happily with the Netgear Orbi system.

All the previous systems, regardless of mesh, had spotty connectivity & dead zones. The Orbi uses a 5GHz backhaul, meaning there's a dedicated channel just for the devices to speak to one another, while wireless devices use the 2.5 or 5 GHz wireless band separately.

What this translates to is that my iMac in my office (through a multitude of walls and blockage) still gets near 100% of the speed that the main router gets. Before, my office peaked at around 80 to 110 Mbps; these days, it's 250 to 280 Mbps. (FWIW, my tier is 250 Mbps with speedboost)

The app is clean & easy to use as well. I'll say that, with every other system, I was constantly checking Speedtest to see why things seemed off; since switching to the Orbi, I've only launched speedtest for bragging rights. It's been rock-solid, fast, and reliable.

I'm sold on it and recommend it w/o reservation.

[macphanatic]

I went the Synology route and added their mesh router or whatever they call it. It's been rock solid. Synology updates firmware as needed and if you pop in a SD card, you can install apps that expands the router's capabilities. Not a cheap router, but it's really good.

[Robert M]

Zoid,

Although the app is easy, it doesn't offer access to some of the advanced options for configuring the Orbi system. For that, you have to use the Orbi's web interface, which is also a nice, easy to use system. You need to jump into the web interface if you want to put the Orbi into bridge mode.

Robert

[cbelt3]

Thanks for the answers ! Looks like I'll have to invest when I next have the opportunity. In the mean time I'll set up a roaming network with one main router and a few access points on the ethernet backbone.

Heck, I have to set up an 802.11 b access point someplace for a few antique devices.

[Carm]

Late to the Meshup. Orbi Mesh from Costco on sale was the best deal I could find.
*edit: IIRC Doc mentioned that google mesh can’t be put into AP mode. Orbi can.