[Sebring]

This is the ideal case scenario which I followed previously (Jio introductory price of Rs 250, plus 500 for Airtel. Now, I'm in a 3000 Sq Ft flat with a central passage, so with some difficulty mounted it on the roof of the passage, and the 4 bedrooms are completely sorted. The hall was deficit because of which i put some cardboard/ aluminium foil behind the router to direct it more that side, and it worked.

Originally Posted by swoosh

If there are other broadband providers in your area, consider getting a second connection from a different provider.

[kadanaJ]

Originally Posted by contentedbloke

In all, I am disappointed by this whole mesh system and the way it has been marketed (“dead zone killer” etc). I think it’s just better to find a way to route a cat-6 lan cable to all rooms (even if I have to do it openly since concealed wiring provision is not available) and then connect these mesh nodes to the lan cable. That would ensure proper strength of the WiFi.

Any thoughts / experiences on this?

I have TP Link Deco M5s set up in my house, all connected by Cat 5e cables.

Let me be blunt with you. Wireless mesh is marketing nonsense. It's almost as bad as getting a wireless repeater, and I'm sure many have tried those and experienced how slow the internet becomes on the extender. The only advantage mesh provides over a repeater is switching your phone to the closest wifi access point instead of making you fiddle with your phone's wifi settings when you go from one room to another.

However, the moment you add ethernet backhaul, the system becomes amazing! No drop in speed, no latency, no matter which access point you're connected to. It becomes flawless. If you've set up the location of the mesh access points correctly, you can walk around the entire house and the WiFi bar on your phone will always remain full (might drop to 3 bars for a second before the mesh system smartly switches you over to a stronger AP).

TP-Link is pretty good at switching your connected AP. Maybe not as good as an enthusiast grade Ubiquity system, but a heck lot cheaper, and more than enough for 99% of home users.

My recommendation is don't bother with wireless backhaul. It just doesn't work. Put the Cat6 ethernet cables, let them be visible (you can conceal in the future). You will enjoy home WiFi in a way you never had before.

[TorqueAddict007]

We live in a duplex house with a lot of smart devices spread across two floors, and I had a lot of internet problems before, with a lot of rooms being a dead spot, some places didn't even get any internet. I had an ACT connection back then and even though I was using their 400 Mbps plan, the signal was pathetically inconsistent, and power outages were common. So then I shifted to Jio which improved the consistency of the connection by miles for the same 500 Mbps connection. But the Jio router doesn't have antennas and is terrible at penetrating through walls, which meant that the 5Ghz signal wasn't even available at a lot of places.

So I evaluated a lot of options back then, including setting up a mesh network but going by what I read and what I understood, if you had a lot of thick walls and a lot of square feet to cover, you'd need a lot of nodes to make it work, and for me, I'd have to keep something like 8 nodes, so instead of that, I just bought the ASUS RT-AX1800HP WiFi 6 router, drew a CAT6 connection to it from the Jio router, configured its DHCP settings, and set up a new network while placing it strategically in the ground floor, while the Jio router stayed in the first floor.

This basically eliminated dead spots all across my home and I now get minimum 350 Mbps anywhere and get the 5Ghz signal everywhere. Plus Asus has built in support for AiMesh, which means you could always add another router and extend the network. From what I searched and based on what I understood, in order to make the most out of MU-MIMO and OFDMA, which are what make WiFi 6 much better than WiFi 5, you need to have a router with antennas. So get a good stable internet connection, and buy a really good WiFi 6 router, connect with your ISP provided router, and place it strategically. That took care of the entire problem for me for less than half the cost a mesh WiFi network would have taken.

Disclaimer: I am in no way related to or sponsored by Asus or JioFiber.

[Redex]

Quote :
Try placing the router/ master hub as close to the ceiling as possible. From what I've heard wifi signal travels downwards, and you're likely to see a 20-30% difference in speed just by doing this.
If this is true (which I doubt, directional radio waves ?), just turn the router upside down 😂
Putting it near the ceiling just removes objects nearer the ground that block the signal.
Fifteen years ago I did away with the wireless option and ran cable to 5 different locations in my house. Cannot beat it for speed and reliability.

[ritedhawan]

In the indian context where there is no false roof, no wooden floor, thick concrete walls. The so called mesh system especially in a wireless backhaul was bound to dissappoint many people as seems to be the case here.

However, as Naxal stated, wired backhaul is the best fix to this issue.

If people cannot run inside wiring allowing a wired connection of the satellites to the main Deco. Then run cables outside the walls along the edges.

Open WRT , when done correctly may allow many different features, however, if not done correctly can brick the modem\gateway\router.

Overseas, on the heels of the massive data leak that happened 2 weeks ago through one of the top US based ISPs has once in for all brought into prominence the need for IDS\IPS (Intrustion Detection Systems\ Intrusion Prevention Systems). That is the talk of the town--figurative meaning.

Only those equipment providers which are inculcating such and many other features like VLAN capability, firewall rules, IDS\IPS etc are worth investing in, to be safe for the future.

Ubiquiti Uni-fi is one of those providers which are leading in terms of providing the above and many additional features however, thier products are expensive and once bitten never shy, its like a rabbit hole.

TP link Omada line is attempting to emulate the same feat of Ubiquiti Uni-fi, but still are behind, there is Synology WRX560 - Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 Router, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, VLAN Segmentation, Multiple SSIDs, etc which are doing the same in bits and pieces.

[iamswift]

If your TVs support 2.4GHz, connect to that instead of 5GHz.
2.4GHz signals can penetrate blocks more when compared to 5GHz signal.

[swami]

Since you are ok with using non-concealed wiring, wired backhaul between the node and main should solve your problem. Do not invest in another device before trying this. Also, as @arnieshwartz, suggested please use an app to figure out if you have deadzones of WiFi reception (not backhaul).

[gururajrv]

I feel these nodes don't work quite effectively / efficiently as intended if there are multiple walls / obstructions in between. Instead, I feel best bet is to have ethernet cable lines extended and place routers in specific areas / points so that the speed is consistent.

Atleast, this has worked with me in my apartment. Main router is placed in my room and there's another router that is placed close to the living area. Main router is connected to my gaming pc which consumes major bandwidth, whilst the secondary router serves my smart tv and mobile phones. Load seems equally distributed and performance seems stable for last few months.

[sachind]

I have a similar issue with my flat as the builder used a sheer wall (concrete) technique to reduce wall thickness but ended up creating a Faraday's cage in each room. I tried many options however the only solution that was robust at all times of the day (the Wifi signal interference seems to differ a lot by time of day) was to route wired Ethernet to each room and connect them all together. I used UniFi as I wanted seamless roaming when doing calls across the access points. So I would suggest you bite the bullet and go for wired backhaul.

[samitjain]

My experience with MESH, opposite to age old concept - quality over quantity.

It’s better to have more lower end /specs MESH satellite then to have few better specs MESH.

I have 5 M4 installed at home.
Some though cable and some wirelessly and overall result is satisfactory.

[Sebring]

None of our TVs connect to 5GHZ, and we have the latest. Only 2.4GHZ

Originally Posted by iamswift

If your TVs support 2.4GHz, connect to that instead of 5GHz.
2.4GHz signals can penetrate blocks more when compared to 5GHz signal.

[dryk]

I have around 6 decos spread over my house. All of them are connected via cat6 cable. The physical connection ensures no drop in speed. I don't have the latest decos either. They are the cheapest ones available but I have ensured all of them have an ethernet backhaul. Also I have an external switch. The new 6e's are really good in case you want to go competely wireless since one band is dedicated to just connecting the mesh system together. But backhaul imho is best.

[MNITDEVIL]

I think the issue is more due to the device used than anything else. While looking to get mesh routers, I researched a bit on this since X20 was on my radar but then chose to go with X55 since the backhaul capacity was literally double of X20 IIRC. Hence may warrant to either shift to X55 (or better) otherwise get a wired ethernet backhaul.

[contentedbloke]

Guys, thanks for all your suggestions, inputs and for sharing your experiences. Basis the feedback received, I am exploring drawing Cat6 cables (currently unconcealed) to each of the deco unit into each room from a central switch (my main deco has only two Ethernet ports of which one is connected to the main router). So I may need to have a Ethernet hub / switch to connect all the RJ45 cables to this main router.

Also I was checking if I could run Power over Ethernet (POE) to connect to the deco mesh units, as this would allow me to place the units in the ceiling or other strategic locations without needing access to a plug point / wall socket. Unfortunately, I don't think M5 deco supports POE. As per TP link website, only the x-55 supports POE which is too expensive. Also don't have any experience in using a POE injector hub / switch which will deliver power to the deco units.

Any suggestions for this?

[NaXal]

Hello,

I am exploring drawing Cat6 cables (currently unconcealed) to each of the deco unit into each room

What's stopping you from drawing a pair of power wires via the same route along with the network cable? Then terminate the cable in a female socket to allow your DECO adapter plugin !!

You can always select CAT6A for better shielding, though as per my personal experience, for 1G speeds, CAT6 is sufficient !!

Thanks.