Setting up a WIFI mesh

[Fender Stratoplaster]

Hello all... sorry if this is the wrong place for this but my fibre broadband contract is up and I was considering switching provider for a cheaper per month contract. Currently I'm with EE with a 500mbps plan who are quite expensive and I'm paying an extra £10 per month to add their WIFI-7 boosters so I can get WIFI in my garden cabin.

It's not been very successful, the WIFI is not strong enough to allow me to work consistently and I understand basically WIFI spread across distance is not reliable (despite their own advertising claims) so up until now I had a powerline connecter which was giving WIFI and also had one of the Smart TV's hardwired into it and then I was using one of EE's boosters which I plug my laptop into with an ethernet cable. I was getting decent enough speeds of 100mbps but it seems to have completely dropped down today for no reason at all

This led me to think about buying my own mesh setup, if I can get one for £100ish then I would save in the long run rather than having to pay £10 a month. I'd then try and run ethernet cables from the router to the satellite mesh routers and run a long cable from the house to the cabin so I had the best connectivity, plugging devices in with an ethernet to the satellite mesh router points

Can anyone recommend me a good and cheap WIFI7 mesh kit?

Should I even bother with this or just go for the cable all the way down to the cabin and have something else on the end of it to allow ethernet connections?

Thanks

 

[Stivino]

Just get yourself a couple of these.

 

[Fender Stratoplaster]

Just get yourself a couple of these.

Thanks, I've got one of these already but its got ethernet ports on it too so you can connect by cable. I'm now getting about 70mbps with ethernet cable coming off the EE WIFI extender.

What kind of speeds are you getting with those WIFI ones you posted

 

[Stivino]

What kind of speeds are you getting with those WIFI ones you posted

I don't know, I don't care. They do everything I need them to do, that's all that matters to me.
I have one upstairs and I can pick it up at the bus stop 50m away.

 

[Rodders53]

Do it properly. Run ethernet cables and use switches plus wifi access points when needed for the truly mobile devices.

WiFi and Powerlines will always be variable feasts. WiFi in particular is subject to local interference / congestion from other nearby dwellings.

A quality Mesh network will be a nearer £200 or more I'd expect, although Amazon may have offers on at present. Do you have devices that use WiFi 7 or is that 'want' just for future-proofing?

My Tenda mesh is 2.4 and 5 GHz only and most connected (smart) devices are using 2.4 GHz.

 

[Fender Stratoplaster]

Do it properly. Run ethernet cables and use switches plus wifi access points when needed for the truly mobile devices.

WiFi and Powerlines will always be variable feasts. WiFi in particular is subject to local interference / congestion from other nearby dwellings.

A quality Mesh network will be a nearer £200 or more I'd expect, although Amazon may have offers on at present. Do you have devices that use WiFi 7 or is that 'want' just for future-proofing?

My Tenda mesh is 2.4 and 5 GHz only and most connected (smart) devices are using 2.4 GHz.

I ended up just switching to Vodafone as they have a deal on at the moment where you can get 500mbps, with their WIFI-7 Ultra Hub and boosters for £38 a month... if I can use their boosters and have ethernet cables run out to them then that's as good as ethernet cable and switches right? And then I'll plug laptop in via ethernet to the back of those satellite units?

I have a £60 gift card which I may be able to put towards some of this... My work laptop is Wifi-7, but in any case I'll cable it if I can

 

[yorksbuilder]

if I can use their boosters and have ethernet cables run out to them then that's as good as ethernet cable and switches right? And then I'll plug laptop in via ethernet to the back of those satellite units?

Yes, and yes you can plug a device into the booster hub. I have found them just on WiFi repeating mode are good

 

[foxhole]

I use Deco mesh system , get decent signal in annex ( about 35m away).

 

[mrrusty]

My setup is 3 wifi routers with 2 running in bridge mode all cabled together - just about all wifi routers can act as a bridge/switch if you turn DHCP off and give it a fixed IP, which is handy if you have some old ones knocking around. One is wifi 6 the others whatever the previous generation was and TBH it all works fine. I also have a couple of cheap switches when I needed more ports https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07RQHL251?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1and also a TPlink wifi extender with a CCTV camera on it with a POE injector https://www.amazon.co.uk/RE220-Univ...760284297&sprefix=tp+link,aps,168&sr=8-4&th=1 Nothing is meshed - I just have the same SSID on all wifi routers and it works fine.