Broadband in Large House

[Tom8]

Just looking at options to move away from BT, but, we have quite a large house so rely on BT discs to spread wifi to all parts. If we move away from BT we lose the discs. Do other suppliers offer similar to the discs? Don't want to go cheap and have no coverage!

Thanks

[Mr E]

Proper way. Ethernet to properly configured APs
Easy way that’s probably good enough. Decent mesh setup.

[sgrimshaw]

Tom8 said:

Just looking at options to move away from BT, but, we have quite a large house so rely on BT discs to spread wifi to all parts. If we move away from BT we lose the discs. Do other suppliers offer similar to the discs? Don't want to go cheap and have no coverage!

Thanks

BT discs are a very easy to set up mesh, which will work with any other suppliers router.

Cheap enough on Amazon to buy a new set.

[Tom8]

Thanks All will have a look at buying some of those!

[Captain_Morgan]

Tom8 said:

Just looking at options to move away from BT, but, we have quite a large house so rely on BT discs to spread wifi to all parts. If we move away from BT we lose the discs. Do other suppliers offer similar to the discs? Don't want to go cheap and have no coverage!

Thanks

As ever it’s in the detail.

The incoming line speed will dictate how concerned you are about overall speed of the wifi network.

Which to some extent drives budget.

The new isp can also have a impact, some allow you to use your own ‘router’ some force you to use their ‘router’.

Also as it’s not been mentioned I assume you have no wired devices & as not mentioned no plans to wire any devices?

How many bt disks & where do you have now?

Are these yours or on loan from bt?

With these points answered it’s easier to give a more specific response.

[mattyprice4004]

You can buy mesh network kit from several manufacturers - ours is a cheap-ish Tenda system with 3 nodes and covers our 4 bedroom house (and both gardens) easily.

They plug in and work with your ISPs router, so it doesn't matter who you move to.

[Tom8]

Captain_Morgan said:

Tom8 said:

Just looking at options to move away from BT, but, we have quite a large house so rely on BT discs to spread wifi to all parts. If we move away from BT we lose the discs. Do other suppliers offer similar to the discs? Don't want to go cheap and have no coverage!

Thanks

As ever it’s in the detail.

The incoming line speed will dictate how concerned you are about overall speed of the wifi network.

Which to some extent drives budget.

The new isp can also have a impact, some allow you to use your own ‘router’ some force you to use their ‘router’.

Also as it’s not been mentioned I assume you have no wired devices & as not mentioned no plans to wire any devices?

How many bt disks & where do you have now?

Are these yours or on loan from bt?

With these points answered it’s easier to give a more specific response.

We have three discs that belong to BT so would have to go back. Line speed is pretty poor as we are rural, we are about 15/17meg. No, no wired devices and no plan to do so.

[eeLee]

what service have you chosen to replace this with?
how is your 4/5G service and do you care about latency? If you don't know what that is, tell us how many gamers you have in the house.

[Captain_Morgan]

Tom8 said:

We have three discs that belong to BT so would have to go back. Line speed is pretty poor as we are rural, we are about 15/17meg. No, no wired devices and no plan to do so.

Who’s the new provider?

[dimots]

I have a few Ubiquiti points through the house and it works perfectly. Never had a single issue since installation 5 years ago. House is about 4500 square feet, high ceilings lots of internal walls/corridors and I think we have two or three access points/repeaters.

[Captain_Morgan]

dimots said:

I have a few Ubiquiti points through the house and it works perfectly. Never had a single issue since installation 5 years ago. House is about 4500 square feet, high ceilings lots of internal walls/corridors and I think we have two or three access points/repeaters.

£300-800 for unifi ap’s depending on what’s available at the time plus installing ethernet cabling to connect them back to the switch seems a bit overkill for a 17-20 Mb/s incoming line.

[Tom8]

I haven't chosen anything yet, only looking at offers online. We don't have any gamers in the house, but I work from home, only conventional office use though, not heavy on data. We stream some TV stuff but not a great deal.

House is about 60ft long, two storey one end where cable comes in, four storey the other end where discs are required. Thick stone and brick walls

[Tom8]

eeLee said:

what service have you chosen to replace this with?
how is your 4/5G service and do you care about latency? If you don't know what that is, tell us how many gamers you have in the house.

We have no 5g and 4g is poor.

[Captain_Morgan]

Tom8 said:

I haven't chosen anything yet, only looking at offers online. We don't have any gamers in the house, but I work from home, only conventional office use though, not heavy on data. We stream some TV stuff but not a great deal.

House is about 60ft long, two storey one end where cable comes in, four storey the other end where discs are required. Thick stone and brick walls

Okay I ask because as I said some let you use your own router others not.

So I guess you have the bt ‘hub’ at the two story end & either one bt disk at a ‘mid’ point & the other two on different floors of the four story end?

Or you have the bt ‘hub’ at the two story end & the three disks on different floors of the four story end?

The issue with the bt hub & disk when replacing it is that’s actually four access points in use (the bt hub & disks act as a single mesh system). It means when replacing it you’ll likely need at least three nodes & that doesn’t include the new ‘hub’ as you’ll likely end up turning the wifi off on that.

Assuming the wiring in your place is in good shape I’d consider using a mesh system with a powerline interconnect often you can get away with fewer nodes as they do not need to be in radio contact with each other to provide whole coverage.

I’d consider these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-Powerline-coverag...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/devolo-Mesh-WiFi-2400-Who...

Should you have fallow zones you can buy additional nodes if needed.

If the wiring isn’t good then a two channel mesh system with four nodes in the current location should suffice.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tenda-Nova-Coverage-Paren...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deco-M4-Seamless-Coverage...

You’ll have to buy an additional node if needed.

In general always buy from Amazon so if there are issues it’s a easy return.

You could buy & set them up now so when you decide on a new isp you know you have a working wifi solution.

You’d turn off the bt disks, turn off wifi on the bt hub.
Set the new devices up in access point mode & change the ssid & wifi password on the new mesh system to be the same as the existing bt hub one (this means you don’t have to put a new wifi ssid & password into all your devices.

If that all works okay then when the new isp hub turns up you just have to ensure the IP address range matches the old one, turn off wifi and plug the mesh node into the new hub & job done.

[Chicken Chaser]

I'm also looking at this. I'm leaving Virgin and their M200 service but generally the booster boxes are lossy and under 100mbps around the house. The other provider options available to me are under 100mbps so I need something which can fire around the house with the speed it's coming in.

I currently have 1 booster downstairs and 1 upstairs but could probably do with another downstairs as it struggles in the kitchen and nothing in the garden.

Can you get a mesh for £100? I was looking at TP Link but not sure if this was just for extra pods.

[adamfawsitt]

11.5k Square ft and 11 EERO PRO units which have been truly excellent - highly recommended.

[randlemarcus]

You may choose a mesh setup, and then move in, and discover the blooming fabric of the house turns out to be a series of interconnected faraday cages for the 5Ghz band. I have a Unifi setup, 97% Wifi Experience on 2.4Ghz, and 16% on 5Ghz. Am waiting to be quoted on hardwiring

[Pintofbest]

I've got the DECO system, works great, good coverage and is very stable.

[mattyprice4004]

Chicken Chaser said:

I'm also looking at this. I'm leaving Virgin and their M200 service but generally the booster boxes are lossy and under 100mbps around the house. The other provider options available to me are under 100mbps so I need something which can fire around the house with the speed it's coming in.

I currently have 1 booster downstairs and 1 upstairs but could probably do with another downstairs as it struggles in the kitchen and nothing in the garden.

Can you get a mesh for £100? I was looking at TP Link but not sure if this was just for extra pods.

Mine was just under £100, and works great. TP Link is the same end of the market as Tenda.

I have to say, I'm a heavy Internet user and I'm only on 76Mbps FTTC - I never have issues buffering etc even playing 4K content while downloading other things.

[Tom8]

Captain_Morgan said:

Tom8 said:

I haven't chosen anything yet, only looking at offers online. We don't have any gamers in the house, but I work from home, only conventional office use though, not heavy on data. We stream some TV stuff but not a great deal.

House is about 60ft long, two storey one end where cable comes in, four storey the other end where discs are required. Thick stone and brick walls

Okay I ask because as I said some let you use your own router others not.

So I guess you have the bt ‘hub’ at the two story end & either one bt disk at a ‘mid’ point & the other two on different floors of the four story end?

Or you have the bt ‘hub’ at the two story end & the three disks on different floors of the four story end?

The issue with the bt hub & disk when replacing it is that’s actually four access points in use (the bt hub & disks act as a single mesh system). It means when replacing it you’ll likely need at least three nodes & that doesn’t include the new ‘hub’ as you’ll likely end up turning the wifi off on that.

Assuming the wiring in your place is in good shape I’d consider using a mesh system with a powerline interconnect often you can get away with fewer nodes as they do not need to be in radio contact with each other to provide whole coverage.

I’d consider these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-Powerline-coverag...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/devolo-Mesh-WiFi-2400-Who...

Should you have fallow zones you can buy additional nodes if needed.

If the wiring isn’t good then a two channel mesh system with four nodes in the current location should suffice.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tenda-Nova-Coverage-Paren...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deco-M4-Seamless-Coverage...

You’ll have to buy an additional node if needed.

In general always buy from Amazon so if there are issues it’s a easy return.

You could buy & set them up now so when you decide on a new isp you know you have a working wifi solution.

You’d turn off the bt disks, turn off wifi on the bt hub.
Set the new devices up in access point mode & change the ssid & wifi password on the new mesh system to be the same as the existing bt hub one (this means you don’t have to put a new wifi ssid & password into all your devices.

If that all works okay then when the new isp hub turns up you just have to ensure the IP address range matches the old one, turn off wifi and plug the mesh node into the new hub & job done.

That's really helpful, thank you. Your second assumption on the discs is correct.