Wifi mesh

Hope I'm not breaking any rules. Still looking to sell my TP Link Deco units. Won't link to the classified ad, but it's there or PM me for details.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Think of each mode as a cellphone tower.

If the towers were connected to each other wirelessly until they reach the data centres, you would have kak internet.

You need each node to have the best available speed, and that's via cable. You connect each node to each other until it reaches your router. The main advantage of a mesh is a unified network, not to avoid cables...
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Ethernet backhaul frees up your local Wi-Fi spectrum for the last link to your devices. Also the real magic with mesh routers is the way they provide seamless handover between APs similar to cell towers
 
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Most newer units have a dedicated 5/6Ghz band for wireless backhaul to mitigate any speed issues, however if your line is 500Mbps or higher, then do Cat6 backhaul.
 
Romito said:
Most newer units have a dedicated 5/6Ghz band for wireless backhaul to mitigate any speed issues, however if your line is 500Mbps or higher, then do Cat6 backhaul.
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I'm not sure 6Ghz in going to get through concrete walls and floors, great for same room connectivity though
 
netstrider said:
Isn't that the point of a mesh though?
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I would think the APs would use the low frequency 2.4Ghz for backhaul since it can go through walls and the high frequency 5/6Ghz for the consumer devices since it cant go through walls. Maybe someone can correct me?
 
Tim_vb said:
I would think the APs would use the low frequency 2.4Ghz for backhaul since it can go through walls and the high frequency 5/6Ghz for the consumer devices since it cant go through walls. Maybe someone can correct me?
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Correct but speed is going to suffer badly on 2.4 Ghz...
 
Tim_vb said:
I would think the APs would use the low frequency 2.4Ghz for backhaul since it can go through walls and the high frequency 5/6Ghz for the consumer devices since it cant go through walls. Maybe someone can correct me?
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Different devices use different channels for backhaul. Remember that the devices aren't limited to "standard" wifi protocol on the backhaul, so the engineers can optimise for backhaul capacity.
 
Nerfherder said:
no, meshing is creating one seamless network using several nodes. Its for extending your network.

A mesh could get you around the issue of concrete walls but its not always going to work.
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I know it's for extending the network with seamless handover - which is what I was getting at. Unless you have an extremely thick concrete wall you should be fine. If not, that's why you put up more APs.
 
The Airties nodes i had used a form of 5GHz for the backhaul channel and that worked great even through walls - not sure how they did it
 
TP Link Deco's work well and are good value for money.

M9 have dedicated backhaul/uplink radios for increased speed, but more expensive.

All models can do mesh/wireless uplink or use a cable where you are able to use a cable.
 
I am not much clued up with these things and am hoping someone can give me some guidance. I need to extend my connectivity to my back room as well as the granny flat (where connectivity is almost non-existent). Since there is quite a price difference between Range Extenders and Mesh systems (I am looking at the TP-Link E4 & M4), I would like to know if 2 Range Extenders would be sufficient for the back room (Wife's working station is setup and we steam on the TV) as well as granny flat (mostly cellphone reception) or should I rather look at the Mesh and why? Thanks in advance.
 
CoetZA said:
I am not much clued up with these things and am hoping someone can give me some guidance. I need to extend my connectivity to my back room as well as the granny flat (where connectivity is almost non-existent). Since there is quite a price difference between Range Extenders and Mesh systems (I am looking at the TP-Link E4 & M4), I would like to know if 2 Range Extenders would be sufficient for the back room (Wife's working station is setup and we steam on the TV) as well as granny flat (mostly cellphone reception) or should I rather look at the Mesh and why? Thanks in advance.
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I had range extenders but had issues. Since upgrading to the Tenda M5 I get WiFi over 90% coverage on my 1 000m² property including the garden cottage in the back corner.
 
CoetZA said:
I am not much clued up with these things and am hoping someone can give me some guidance. I need to extend my connectivity to my back room as well as the granny flat (where connectivity is almost non-existent). Since there is quite a price difference between Range Extenders and Mesh systems (I am looking at the TP-Link E4 & M4), I would like to know if 2 Range Extenders would be sufficient for the back room (Wife's working station is setup and we steam on the TV) as well as granny flat (mostly cellphone reception) or should I rather look at the Mesh and why? Thanks in advance.
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You need a proper site survey looking at distances placement of routers, stations walls etc

Would start with cheap Decos linked with outdoor ethernet cable wherever possible
 
I've got the WiFi 5 AmpliFi HD, & it works very well. My brother even uses their VPN app to circumvent his works Internet policy restrictions. My next choice would be the MikroTik Audience as it has a dedicated 5GHz for the mesh network. So each AP has one 2.4ghz & one 5GHz for connectivity & then another 5Ghz interface to interconnect the radios.
 
For these WiFi Mesh setups, do you get the combined speed of the 2.4 + 5GHz bands when in mesh mode?

Let's say I can do 6MB/s with 2.4GHz & 24MB/s with 5GHz- would a mesh system give me ~30MB/s?

Using an Afrihost Huawei WS5200 with an old AP I plan on selling to part fund another used WS5200 from classifieds.

The WS5200 in Mesh mode has a 'prioritise' 5GHz function which I assume will use that band over the 2.4 where available. If that uses only the 5GHz band then I'm back to where I started with 2x devices with 2x separate bands :(

Combined speed not needed for internet but for large file transfers over the LAN.
 
Budza said:
For these WiFi Mesh setups, do you get the combined speed of the 2.4 + 5GHz bands when in mesh mode?

Let's say I can do 6MB/s with 2.4GHz & 24MB/s with 5GHz- would a mesh system give me ~30MB/s?

Using an Afrihost Huawei WS5200 with an old AP I plan on selling to part fund another used WS5200 from classifieds.

The WS5200 in Mesh mode has a 'prioritise' 5GHz function which I assume will use that band over the 2.4 where available. If that uses only the 5GHz band then I'm back to where I started with 2x devices with 2x separate bands :(

Combined speed not needed for internet but for large file transfers over the LAN.
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No you do not...they are separate bands. What you do get is a combined SSID for both 2.4 and 5ghz, so between your phone and the AP the best band within that SSID is selected and as you move from AP to AP the same SSID is used
 
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