My crown of sauron Netgear Nighthawk X10 isn't cutting the mustard in the far reaches of my home and with certain streaming sites and games. I think I need a mesh setup. Any current suggestions? @Space Ghost
Really like the Eero 6 mesh wifi. There are better out there, I hear. But it's our first mesh that was highly recommended by a buddy in networking and it's been great. Consistent speeds across the house along w/ good coverage in majority of the house. I hear the Eero 6 Pro is better though for about $450 on Amazon. I got the Eero 6 (regular) for like $250 on a sale one time. The bar was low for me for our first REAL mesh network. I had shitty AT&T smart extenders, but they were a joke. Here's a nice link too, since you are filthy rich . Sounds like the Netgear Orbi AX6000 is dope too, but pricey at $700 ish. https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/best-mesh-wifi-routers/
Hmmm....I typed a paragraph. Buy 3 Asus routers for $150-$200 and use AiMesh. Cheaper than buying Netgears'(or anyone else's) Mesh. You can get get gaming performance, especially using Merlin firmware. If you can't run ethernet from the router to where you are trying to game, get these:
I made some adjustments in my DD-WRT custom firmware that may help. I'll test over the next few days. Thanks! I'll check them out. Thanks! Network cabling isn't an issue as the problems I'm having are with wifi only devices. Looking in to the mesh solution.
I'm finally ready to admit that my Netgear Nighthawk X10 has some dead/weak spots in my house. It's probably because I have it mounted under the stairs landing which has a lot of solid wood surrounding it. So I mounted it to the wall (temporarily) outside of that closet and the signal drastically improved. However, I don't really want to leave it there because it's ugly and I have a wife. Anyone here ever used WiFi antenna (RP-SMA) extension cables and can recommend a decently priced, low loss brand? I think I extend, mount and hide the antennas in a nice elegant way. @Space Ghost
Do you just have the one nighthawk or did you ever add a mesh setup? The antenna option might work for WAF but personally I think running multiple APs even if all mounted poorly/hidden would be a better solution. I am still running 3 wireless APs (all split 2.4 and 5) and all named the same ssid based on frequency (ie 2.4 has one name and 5 ghz has the other channel name etc). All are on non-overlapping channels and spread out etc. and all are still hardwired (not technically mesh but works really well being that all are hardwired and regular users won't be able to tell). Ie regardless of location in house everyone is getting near max wireless speed. Anyway, my wife has hidden the one in family room/plain view but the other two being upstairs in different rooms have made up for the loss in signal from the family room one etc.
No, I’m a little leery of how the handoff would work. I need to read up on it. Can I use different makes/models of routers in a dd-wrt mesh setup? Again, Need to read. I really just want this to work with minimum cost and work.
if you're asking for a quality cable, check out https://mmwavetech.com/ They can pretty much make any cable you want. We have purchased thousands of custom cables with no failures. If you're looking to put the antennas outside the closet, I am not sure how well that will work. I believe they work in an array. I've gone the Nest route but their products tend to be a bit expensive. I have one room on the other side of the house that has wifi issues. I opted to bury a shielded cat5e around the house instead of relying on mesh networks.
In my personal experience if you use different makes/models that are put in AP mode it should be really easy with ww-drt. And while it won't be a true mesh network the handoff works pretty good - assuming non overlapping channels/spaced out at reasonable points in the house and all hard wired to your main router (ie main router handles all IPs unless you have reason for managed switches etc). I am pretty sure there are ways to get a true mesh possibly mixing makes but it could make it a little more complicated. I guess I mean the time/effort might not be worth it unless you're doing it for learning experience vs the quick multiple hardwired APs setup. On my network I'm still running pfsense - > multiple wired switches - > then wireless APs. I really haven't had any crazy drops/handoff issues since setting up my network and I'll switch location some days upstairs/downstairs while WFH. I am thinking the antenna could work but in my experience since going hardwired with more APs I won't go back to one central location, especially if your house is bigger than 1500 sqft/multiple floors. Since doing my setup I mentioned I only use 5ghz now, unless I randomly have some legacy device that needs 2.4 etc.
I got this one as a 2-pack - amazon.com/gp/product/B09VW5JHPH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 - went from - couldn't play PS5 downstairs, to enough speed to hear every N-word the 9yr olds on warzone say, without interruption. I run the existing router in bypass mode. Reddit will have directions for whatever scenario (router/provider) you have. Yours is popular. TP-Link Deco AXE5400 Tri-Band WiFi 6E Mesh System(Deco XE75) - Covers up to 5500 Sq.Ft, Replaces WiFi Router and Extender, AI-Driven Mesh, New 6GHz Band, 2-Pack
Sounds like there's a solution with DD-WRT using secondary wired (not a problem for me) routers as APs: https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_access_point Thanks, I'll read about this as well. Children cursing is one of my favorites.
