Recommend a mesh home wi-fi network

Hatter The Mad · 29 May 2018 at 08:59

Hi folks -

Do you have any recommendations to make for one of the home wi-fi mesh networks (BT, Google, Eero, something I haven't heard of..)?

ChrisD. · 29 May 2018 at 09:41

I'm a huge fan of Ubiquiti Unifi products. There are lots of happy users on here.

Pyr0m@nI@]{ · 29 May 2018 at 09:50

I've only tried two AmplifiHD routers, so can't comment on others, but they work well and really easy to set up

matt100 · 29 May 2018 at 09:53

My by kit solved every WiFi problem I had.. triple disc in a town house with 1 per floor.

Friend also has Google, works just as well.

We both bought systems to replace sky q as that's just a lie as best I can tell

dmsims · 30 May 2018 at 09:10

Tenda MW6 - better value and performance than any mentioned here

ChrisD. · 30 May 2018 at 09:42

dmsims said:
Tenda MW6 - better value and performance than any mentioned here

Better performance? Not sure I believe that.

pcfarrar · 30 May 2018 at 09:48

I've got a Ubiquiti AmpliFi system with one HD router and a single mesh point. I have tons of devices connected, ring cameras, mutiple games consoles, homepods, amazon echos/firesticks and everything works perfectly with AmpliFi.

Ianb901 · 30 May 2018 at 14:33

I've just ordered the Amplifi HD system, how do you find it? I've been using the BT whole home wife system and its been generally good, but I wanted something with a bit more customisation.

pcfarrar · 30 May 2018 at 14:45

Ianb901 said:
I've just ordered the Amplifi HD system, how do you find it? I've been using the BT whole home wife system and its been generally good, but I wanted something with a bit more customisation.

I've been using it for just about a year now. It's very reliable, I'm running the latest beta firmware. You can sign up for beta firmwares on the AmpliFi support forum.

ahar · 30 May 2018 at 16:34

Amplifi user here as well - Amplifi HD and a single additional access point. All works well with lots of Wifi devices (tables, laptops, CCTV, Ring doorbell etc etc) across a 3 floor house

Ianb901 · 30 May 2018 at 19:52

Thanks, I will be interested to see how it compares to the BT whole home system

matt100 · 31 May 2018 at 11:37

Ianb901 said:
I've just ordered the Amplifi HD system, how do you find it? I've been using the BT whole home wife system and its been generally good, but I wanted something with a bit more customisation.

Must admit I found the BT app rather sparse but then realised I don't really need much customisation.

Out of curiosity what do you need that BT can't do?

pcfarrar · 31 May 2018 at 12:49

matt100 said:
Out of curiosity what do you need that BT can't do?

Regular firmware updates, that often add new functionality and features. Does BT whole home support 802.11 k/v/r for instance like AmpliFi?

WJA96 · 31 May 2018 at 19:46

pcfarrar said:
Regular firmware updates, that often add new functionality and features. Does BT whole home support 802.11 k/v/r for instance like AmpliFi?

I think you've rather missed why Ubiquiti products need so many firmware updates.... They launch them BEFORE they're actually ready then they issue a swathe of updates to add all the features they should have had when they first launched. UBNT also have a fairly good track record of launching half-baked products then abandoning them when they don't sell especially well. Amplifi would seem to fit that bill very nicely. You only have to spot that Amplifi is the only UBNT product that doesn't have it's own sub-Forum on the UBNT community pages to realise it's another unloved skunk-works project that they launched because they thought they ought to have something like that in the range.

ALL the other UBNT WiFi kit ditched 802.11 k/v/r over 18 months ago because they came up with a proper system that actually works.

None of these mesh systems are especially great, but if you want a UBNT mesh product, buy one that is actually supported and that means you want the Unifi Mesh-AP or Unifi Mesh AP-Pro. They're proper, fast, wireless access points that work properly with just a power connection.

pcfarrar · 31 May 2018 at 20:40

WJA96 said:
I think you've rather missed why Ubiquiti products need so many firmware updates.... They launch them BEFORE they're actually ready then they issue a swathe of updates to add all the features they should have had when they first launched. UBNT also have a fairly good track record of launching half-baked products then abandoning them when they don't sell especially well. Amplifi would seem to fit that bill very nicely. You only have to spot that Amplifi is the only UBNT product that doesn't have it's own sub-Forum on the UBNT community pages to realise it's another unloved skunk-works project that they launched because they thought they ought to have something like that in the range.
ALL the other UBNT WiFi kit ditched 802.11 k/v/r over 18 months ago because they came up with a proper system that actually works.
None of these mesh systems are especially great, but if you want a UBNT mesh product, buy one that is actually supported and that means you want the Unifi Mesh-AP or Unifi Mesh AP-Pro. They're proper, fast, wireless access points that work properly with just a power connection.

I'm not too sure what you are talking about but AmpliFi has its own forum separate from the main ubnt community. Improvements and updates are regularly ported over from UniFi AP's into AmpliFi. AmpliFi is in no way abandoned.

802.11 k/v/r is also in active development on UniFi AP's and is in the latest firmware/controllers. That is the reason why AmpliFi also got it recently.

matt100 · 31 May 2018 at 23:04

pcfarrar said:
Regular firmware updates, that often add new functionality and features. Does BT whole home support 802.11 k/v/r for instance like AmpliFi?

My point was what actual features is it that they're adding that the bt system doesn't have.. like what can it actually do.. I'm not defending or promoting the bt system at all I really don't care that much I'm just curious what I might be missing!

pcfarrar · 31 May 2018 at 23:59

matt100 said:
My point was what actual features is it that they're adding that the bt system doesn't have.. like what can it actually do.. I'm not defending or promoting the bt system at all I really don't care that much I'm just curious what I might be missing!

You can see the additions here. Quite a few things were asked for by the community on the forum and they delivered.

https://help.amplifi.com/hc/en-us/articles/231456348-Firmware-Release-Notes

Ianb901 · 1 Jun 2018 at 08:25

Well I've had the Amplifi HD for 24 hours now and have to say I'm very impressed. They provide a far more robust and solid WiFi signal than the BT whole home system did. I'm not saying they were bad, but the Amplifi is far a better system, although it is still early days.

Daaaavvveee · 1 Jun 2018 at 08:28

Ianb901 said:
Well I've had the Amplifi HD for 24 hours now and have to say I'm very impressed. They provide a far more robust and solid WiFi signal than the BT whole home system did. I'm not saying they were bad, but the Amplifi is far a better system, although it is still early days.

Just been looking into these, looking really interesting......May be next purchase!

matt100 · 1 Jun 2018 at 08:33

pcfarrar said:
You can see the additions here. Quite a few things were asked for by the community on the forum and they delivered.

https://help.amplifi.com/hc/en-us/articles/231456348-Firmware-Release-Notes

I see a lot of stability improvements.

To be honest I still don't see specifically what this gets you other than repeated firmware updates (which in my opinion are often a PITA) to provide stability and "improved xyz".. I mean I see one where you can manage your account with your google account..

Again, the caveat.. I have no axe to grind here it's only a mesh setup but my experience with BT has been taking it out of the box, setting it up and forgetting about it which to me seems like the point?

Maybe I've been super lucky but having walked into it vaguely sceptical (I mean.. it's BT, they seem to be able to screw anything up) and I'm now a proper convert.

But then I also can't see how it could be any better either, I'm struggling to think of stuff I want it to do that it doesn't even though I don't ask it to do anything other than make the ring doorbell work and allow me to remove the wires and get workable streaming over the house.

I guess maybe I'm too much of a regular consumer now? Most of those firmware notes mean nothing to me which is mad considering how into this sort of thing I used to be