Ive got a flat thats the ground floor of a large Victorian house with very thick walls and Im lucky enough to get my Internet connection from someone on the top floor €“ I have a Cat5 cable plugged into their router and that comes down to my flat. Its a decent fibre to the cabinet Internet connection.

In my flat the cable goes into a Netgear powered switch with 8 ports. One port then connects to a TP Link RE350 which gives me wi-fi around the flat. Its centrally located under the stairs but because of the thick walls the speed I get reduces from about 70 near the device to more like 10 in the other rooms.

Im thinking of replacing the TP Link device with a cheap mesh network setup such as the Netgear Orbi RBK13 with 3 units.

Will this improve my wi-fi speed around the flat €“ and Id quite like it to extend into the garden too?!

If you have an 8 port switch already could you run a few cables from that to strategic places and then put normal WiFi routers there? You tend to be able to pick these up cheaply on eBay.

"Murmansk" wrote in message
...
Ive got a flat thats the ground floor of a large Victorian house with
very thick walls and Im lucky enough to get my Internet connection from
someone on the top floor €“ I have a Cat5 cable plugged into their router
and that comes down to my flat. Its a decent fibre to the cabinet
Internet connection.

In my flat the cable goes into a Netgear powered switch with 8 ports. One
port then connects to a TP Link RE350 which gives me wi-fi around the
flat. Its centrally located under the stairs but because of the thick
walls the speed I get reduces from about 70 near the device to more like
10 in the other rooms.

Im thinking of replacing the TP Link device with a cheap mesh network
setup such as the Netgear Orbi RBK13 with 3 units.

Will this improve my wi-fi speed around the flat €“ and Id quite like it
to extend into the garden too?!

When you say "about 70", is that the link speed in Mbps as reported by a
computer (eg Task Manager of Windows)? Or is it the throughput speed as
reported by Ookla Speedtest or something similar; if it's the latter, what
is the comparable speed for a
computer connected by Ethernet?

Maybe best to concentrate on reported link speed while you are assessing the
effect of wifi signal strength.

How does the speed compare in a room that is immediately adjacent
(horizontally or vertically) to the TP Link RE350 wifi access point? Are you
connecting to a 2.4 GHz network or a 5 GHz one? Maybe best to rename the
SSID of the 5 GHz (temporarily) in the TP Link RE350 so you can distinguish.
2.4 has longer range (less attenuation per unit distance) than 5 GHz.

We have Linksys Velop mesh devices and they mostly work very well. We're in
an L-shaped house with the router at one end of the L. Initially
communication was in a daisy chain: router to node1 to node2 to node 3 etc
inwards along one leg of the L and then
outwards along the other one. However, after repositioning the router, all
but one of the nodes communicates directly with the router.

The problem with mesh devices (well, certainly our Velop) is that they use
short-range 5 GHz comms to communicate between one node and another, and
then use both 2.4 and 5 for communicating with computers. Unfortunately
we've a few older devices that can *only* speak 2.4, so that network needs
to be turned on. And with the devices just at the limit of good comms for 5
GHz back to the primary (router) node, they are so close together that their
2.4 GHz networks overlap - and with six nodes, even with
auto-channel-selection turned on, there are clashes, so sometimes a node
will go offline while it tries to find a better 2.4 GHz channel to use.

I really need to get a new laptop and some new security cameras that can
talk 5 GHz, and then I can turn off 2.4 and the problem will go away. It's a
shame that with Velop you can't turn on or off 2.4 for each individual
node - ie turned off at most nodes but turned on at the node which the
cameras and laptop will normally be connected to.

Positioning of nodes for best reception may take a while, both to find any
obstructions - hot water cylinders, big metal fireplaces etc - and so get
the nodes so they are as far apart as 5 GHz will allow but far enough that
they don't stomp on each other's 2.4 GHz. For reception in the garden, you
will probably need 2.4 GHz, depending on the size of the garden. The node
for covering the garden is best placed as close to the window as possible.

Good luck.

Thanks for all that

The speed I quoted is from the Speedtest app on my phone. Next to the TP link wifi device I get 30mbps, in the bedroom I get about 1mbps, on the PC which is connected via ethernet I get 70mbps.

Plan now is to get D-Link Covr-2202

On 06/06/2020 11:53, Murmansk wrote:
Ive got a flat thats the ground floor of a large Victorian house with very thick walls and Im lucky enough to get my Internet connection from someone on the top floor €“ I have a Cat5 cable plugged into their router and that comes down to my flat. Its a decent fibre to the cabinet Internet connection.

In my flat the cable goes into a Netgear powered switch with 8 ports. One port then connects to a TP Link RE350 which gives me wi-fi around the flat. Its centrally located under the stairs but because of the thick walls the speed I get reduces from about 70 near the device to more like 10 in the other rooms.

Im thinking of replacing the TP Link device with a cheap mesh network setup such as the Netgear Orbi RBK13 with 3 units.

Will this improve my wi-fi speed around the flat €“ and Id quite like it to extend into the garden too?!


I've just installed some BT Mesh boxes.

In simple terms, you plug the first one into the router via a cable, set
it up (easy using their app), then add the others. The app helps you
check if your planned location is good enough (assuming you've not got
network cable point there). Then you use the app again. You repeat until
you've installed all of you units.

The question is, how many units do you need for your property. There is
some guidance on the BT site and a tool to select which 'level' of unit
(BT do three).

I'm more than impressed with the performance. My wired network was
always good but the Wifi varied due to a combination of house
layout/sized and construction. Now it is excellent everywhere and Wifi
is (all but) as fast as the wired network (ie the limiting factor is the
ISP speed).



--
https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-...forced-labour/

That tends to confirm what I've been reading thanks - I feel confident it's going to improve things

Murmansk wrote:
That tends to confirm what I've been reading thanks - I feel confident
it's going to improve things


+1 for BT mesh system. Beats having multiple routers/access points hands
down as moving between nodes is seamless. No having to check which hotspot
youre attached to and manually switching.

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

On 06/06/2020 22:56, Tim+ wrote:
Murmansk wrote:
That tends to confirm what I've been reading thanks - I feel confident
it's going to improve things


+1 for BT mesh system. Beats having multiple routers/access points hands
down as moving between nodes is seamless. No having to check which hotspot
youre attached to and manually switching.

Tim

Its a bit like renewable energy. You think 'great' but it isn't, and
then you add even more technology....and wish you had simply stuck to
CAT5 in the first place


--
€œThose who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit
atrocities.€�

€• Voltaire, Questions sur les Miracles Ã* M. Claparede, Professeur de
Théologie Ã* Genève, par un Proposant: Ou Extrait de Diverses Lettres de
M. de Voltaire

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 06/06/2020 22:56, Tim+ wrote:
Murmansk wrote:
That tends to confirm what I've been reading thanks - I feel confident
it's going to improve things


+1 for BT mesh system. Beats having multiple routers/access points hands
down as moving between nodes is seamless. No having to check which hotspot
youre attached to and manually switching.

Tim

Its a bit like renewable energy. You think 'great' but it isn't, and
then you add even more technology....and wish you had simply stuck to
CAT5 in the first place

And how will that improve Wi-Fi access?

The BT mesh system is very easy to set up and ours has been utterly stable
since installation about 18 months ago.

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

"Tim+" wrote in message
...
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 06/06/2020 22:56, Tim+ wrote:
Murmansk wrote:
That tends to confirm what I've been reading thanks - I feel confident
it's going to improve things


+1 for BT mesh system. Beats having multiple routers/access points
hands
down as moving between nodes is seamless. No having to check which
hotspot
youre attached to and manually switching.

Tim

Its a bit like renewable energy. You think 'great' but it isn't, and
then you add even more technology....and wish you had simply stuck to
CAT5 in the first place

And how will that improve Wi-Fi access?

The BT mesh system is very easy to set up and ours has been utterly stable
since installation about 18 months ago.

The ideal mesh network (as far I can see) is one that has multiple nodes
that work together to present a single seamless network, but... communicates
from one node to another by Cat 5 rather than wifi. It is the node-to-node
comms which has caused most problems with our mesh network.