Upgrade MESH wifi for thick walls - hybrid solution
Discussion
I moved house 2 years ago and my old house I had 5 Velop nodes (the early ones).
My house is quite large (c.3500sq ft) and has very thick walls. I now run 8 nodes and have ok coverage but the network is slow as anything.
At peak I get maybe 100mb/s but in reality its 30-50mb/s. To get full coverage I need lots of nodes, but lots of nodes slows everything down and also I often get weird routes set up - so I am constantly re-starting to try and force it to take better paths back to the master.
Would a TP-Link Deco PX50 help me? I have never heard of a hybrid solution like this before.
In an ideal world I would drag cat 6 to each room but its basically impossible due to the layout of the house and I am not starting to drill through walls etc.
TIA
My house is quite large (c.3500sq ft) and has very thick walls. I now run 8 nodes and have ok coverage but the network is slow as anything.
At peak I get maybe 100mb/s but in reality its 30-50mb/s. To get full coverage I need lots of nodes, but lots of nodes slows everything down and also I often get weird routes set up - so I am constantly re-starting to try and force it to take better paths back to the master.
Would a TP-Link Deco PX50 help me? I have never heard of a hybrid solution like this before.
In an ideal world I would drag cat 6 to each room but its basically impossible due to the layout of the house and I am not starting to drill through walls etc.
TIA
I dont want to pull cables. Its an 1890s house and the chances of getting cables to where I need them are low. PnP would be better.
If it was a modern build I would just drop some cables in but its lath and plaster with a combo of limestone (3ft thick in places) and brick construction.
There are fire places / chimney stacks etc - its just a nightmare for running cables.
If it was a modern build I would just drop some cables in but its lath and plaster with a combo of limestone (3ft thick in places) and brick construction.
There are fire places / chimney stacks etc - its just a nightmare for running cables.
The issues are how many power link devices you can support and what kind of speed you looking to achieve?
I’m assuming that your mesh nodes have a Ethernet connection if so I’d buy four power line nodes and try connecting the four depending on the layout, obviously one needs to connect to your router and the rest can be split apart.
Don’t expect power line devices to fix everything, they are not like wired Ethernet where everything can be run at its rated capacity, if I recall correctly it’s more like a token ring system where each node can only generate traffic and then hands over to the next node.
It might be better than what you have it might not, only testing will tell.
Obviously buy from Amazon and if it’s not working then send back.
Again obviously you might find you get better coverage with a mix of power line connected nodes and WiFi mesh nodes, but again testing is key.
Good luck.
I’m assuming that your mesh nodes have a Ethernet connection if so I’d buy four power line nodes and try connecting the four depending on the layout, obviously one needs to connect to your router and the rest can be split apart.
Don’t expect power line devices to fix everything, they are not like wired Ethernet where everything can be run at its rated capacity, if I recall correctly it’s more like a token ring system where each node can only generate traffic and then hands over to the next node.
It might be better than what you have it might not, only testing will tell.
Obviously buy from Amazon and if it’s not working then send back.
Again obviously you might find you get better coverage with a mix of power line connected nodes and WiFi mesh nodes, but again testing is key.
Good luck.
Do you have TV coax running to many parts of the house? You can buy stuff that uses that which is much better than powerline.
I’d maybe look at a mixture of technology. If you can get a few decent connections to another part of the house, maybe using external grade Ethernet cable and attaching it to behind guttering, and/or the coax carrier option, then using these as effectively hard wired access points would improve the mesh performance for any you can’t get to. The coax route also means you’d be able to attach tvs to essentially wired connections which for streaming would be ideal.
All I’ll say is in our barn conversion which has challenges we ended up finding ways to hardwire whenever the opportunity arose as it’s much more robust than power line (albeit the capabilities it had 10 years ago) and WiFi mesh.
I’d maybe look at a mixture of technology. If you can get a few decent connections to another part of the house, maybe using external grade Ethernet cable and attaching it to behind guttering, and/or the coax carrier option, then using these as effectively hard wired access points would improve the mesh performance for any you can’t get to. The coax route also means you’d be able to attach tvs to essentially wired connections which for streaming would be ideal.
All I’ll say is in our barn conversion which has challenges we ended up finding ways to hardwire whenever the opportunity arose as it’s much more robust than power line (albeit the capabilities it had 10 years ago) and WiFi mesh.
I found powerline devices are better than nothing, but that's not a very high bar 
The key thing with a mesh network is to always have a good connection between two nodes all the way to the router.
Place the nodes not where they are good for the end devices but where they get a good connection to another node.
Also floors are generally better at passing radio waves than walls, so think vertical placement rather than horizontal.
If you have a spare afternoon, get a WiFi mapping application, turn off all the nodes except the router node, find a place that gets good connection, place a node there, rinse and repeat with the other nodes. With 8 nodes though be mindful of always having a good path back to router,
If you want to get really fancy pants, you can add floorplans and create a heatmap.
The key thing with a mesh network is to always have a good connection between two nodes all the way to the router.
Place the nodes not where they are good for the end devices but where they get a good connection to another node.
Also floors are generally better at passing radio waves than walls, so think vertical placement rather than horizontal.
If you have a spare afternoon, get a WiFi mapping application, turn off all the nodes except the router node, find a place that gets good connection, place a node there, rinse and repeat with the other nodes. With 8 nodes though be mindful of always having a good path back to router,
If you want to get really fancy pants, you can add floorplans and create a heatmap.
Yeah my WHW03's are approaching 10 years old so they are struggling - but I think its the house more than anything.
In the lounge I get full speed, near enough, as thats where the BT feeds in and the master node is.
But there are limited routes out of the lounge to send a cat 6 out or anything else. There are only 2 sockets in the lounge also - both in very awkward spots.
My second node is in the hall way about 15 feet from the master, but its struggling for a good connection as the lounge walls are c.2-3 feet thick in places.
There is some coax however its very hit and miss as the previous owners ripped most of it out during the last renovation and it only runs to the lounge and living room. Its going to terminate somewhere in the loft which has several layers of insulation so finding it will be "interesting".
I appreciate I sound lazy - but I just know its opening a can of worms going looking for cables up there.
In the lounge I get full speed, near enough, as thats where the BT feeds in and the master node is.
But there are limited routes out of the lounge to send a cat 6 out or anything else. There are only 2 sockets in the lounge also - both in very awkward spots.
My second node is in the hall way about 15 feet from the master, but its struggling for a good connection as the lounge walls are c.2-3 feet thick in places.
There is some coax however its very hit and miss as the previous owners ripped most of it out during the last renovation and it only runs to the lounge and living room. Its going to terminate somewhere in the loft which has several layers of insulation so finding it will be "interesting".
I appreciate I sound lazy - but I just know its opening a can of worms going looking for cables up there.
Similar size house with some thick walls and with only copper to the house and fibre to the cabinet we are limited to around a max of 50 dl with any provider although previously only got around 30.
Have switched my previous system with 2 Tp router / extender links to BT Smart hub 3 with 2 extender hubs placed strategically and now get 50 anywhere in the house.
Have switched my previous system with 2 Tp router / extender links to BT Smart hub 3 with 2 extender hubs placed strategically and now get 50 anywhere in the house.
My dad had some power over ethernet instead of cables or wifi and when he had to call out Openreach to check an issue with the broadband the engineer said the PoE devices were causing the broadband to run slower, even for the devices connected directly to the hub rather than via PoE. Seems BS to me but they're supposed to be the experts.
Certainly a simple option for getting connectivity around, he even had it working via a spur to his garden shed at their old place, when wifi won't cut it and don't want to run cables or make holes in walls. Otherwise it's wifi repeaters at strategic points to widen the signal while retaining enough strength. Tried one years ago and don't think we got it working reliably enough so stuck with PoE, may be a lot better/idiot proof these days.
Certainly a simple option for getting connectivity around, he even had it working via a spur to his garden shed at their old place, when wifi won't cut it and don't want to run cables or make holes in walls. Otherwise it's wifi repeaters at strategic points to widen the signal while retaining enough strength. Tried one years ago and don't think we got it working reliably enough so stuck with PoE, may be a lot better/idiot proof these days.
gotoPzero said:
I moved house 2 years ago and my old house I had 5 Velop nodes (the early ones).
My house is quite large (c.3500sq ft) and has very thick walls. I now run 8 nodes and have ok coverage but the network is slow as anything.
At peak I get maybe 100mb/s but in reality its 30-50mb/s. To get full coverage I need lots of nodes, but lots of nodes slows everything down and also I often get weird routes set up - so I am constantly re-starting to try and force it to take better paths back to the master.
Would a TP-Link Deco PX50 help me? I have never heard of a hybrid solution like this before.
In an ideal world I would drag cat 6 to each room but its basically impossible due to the layout of the house and I am not starting to drill through walls etc.
TIA
I'm sure adding wires will a pain but the more WiFi nodes you add, the worse it will be as they fight eachother for channel space, and reflections off your walls make it even worse. If you have wooden floors between up and downstairs, 1-3 wired ceiling APs upstairs will pass through the floors easily giving you good coverage. Not quite the same but my house is concrete and the walls were always a problem until I did this. Plugs have to deal with so much interference on the power lines, it's really only an 'it'll do' solution, and again the more you add the worse it it, tried that myself.My house is quite large (c.3500sq ft) and has very thick walls. I now run 8 nodes and have ok coverage but the network is slow as anything.
At peak I get maybe 100mb/s but in reality its 30-50mb/s. To get full coverage I need lots of nodes, but lots of nodes slows everything down and also I often get weird routes set up - so I am constantly re-starting to try and force it to take better paths back to the master.
Would a TP-Link Deco PX50 help me? I have never heard of a hybrid solution like this before.
In an ideal world I would drag cat 6 to each room but its basically impossible due to the layout of the house and I am not starting to drill through walls etc.
TIA
Adding some cables might be costly but would make life much easier in the long run. I use TP link Omada with a controller for roaming between points, with 3 WiFi 5 points, works quite well and I can easily change the points out for faster ones if I feel the need.
Just an update as to what I have done so far. I have removed half the nodes.
I now have 1 in the lounge, kitchen, garage and 3rd floor landing.
So far my speeds have gone to c.150 ish which is a good improvement.. I will of course have to monitor devices for going off line but a quick walk test showed better than -80dBm in all rooms except one - which is the utility at the very back of the house and I can live with that. I would say I am in the low 70s or better everywhere else. I can only assume the noise floor was just not jiving with the extra units - coverage was great though!
If this works ok then my plan is to buy probably 4 wifi 6 nodes and put them in for a minor speed bump and better backhaul.
I tested my incoming and I get c.675 so going wifi 7 seems pointless. I think only my phone is wifi 7 too - so devices wise its not worth it for the huge price jump.
I now have 1 in the lounge, kitchen, garage and 3rd floor landing.
So far my speeds have gone to c.150 ish which is a good improvement.. I will of course have to monitor devices for going off line but a quick walk test showed better than -80dBm in all rooms except one - which is the utility at the very back of the house and I can live with that. I would say I am in the low 70s or better everywhere else. I can only assume the noise floor was just not jiving with the extra units - coverage was great though!
If this works ok then my plan is to buy probably 4 wifi 6 nodes and put them in for a minor speed bump and better backhaul.
I tested my incoming and I get c.675 so going wifi 7 seems pointless. I think only my phone is wifi 7 too - so devices wise its not worth it for the huge price jump.
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