Recommend me a mesh router

[HiggyBaby 2529]

You may have to go thru an installer but our Luxul setup is real nice.

[shnsajax 3591]

On 1/4/2021 at 12:18 PM, Felix said:

I just got the google one and it was ridiculously easy to set up and my speed and signal have been outstanding all over the house including the back porch and garage area.  Costco had it on sale with 4 access points.  Took me maybe 30 minutes to set it all up using the app.  Not terribly configurable but I don't care about that.  I just want it to work.  I did a side by side comparison on my old router with my laptop and saw significant improvement in ping and downloads.  Uploads was about the same. 

I ended up going with the Google Nest, only comes with 2 access points but figured I could add a 3rd if I need to since the Nest covers more sqft than the Google Home. 

[PantsTent 2002]

I have Google Fiber with TV so have the "network box" with built in wifi and had an old Netgear router as another access point upstairs.  Shit's been getting more annoying about which one you're connected to and signal won't go outside to patio worth a shit.  I chatted with Google in hopes of getting free Google Wifi system but they said I can only either have the network box or Wifi and since I have TV I can't have mesh Wifi.  So since I had to purchase my own, I went with Eero because that conversation kind of pissed me off.  Up and running like a champ now, every device connected to new network and wifi on the fiber box is disabled. Should have done this a couple of years ago!

 

[TexasEd 8067]

I think I need to go mesh to get all my shit on one network.  Right now I have ATT internet 50MB and have disabled their wifi and installed a TP-link AC1750 wifi router that has some of my devices hard wired to it and others are hard wired to the ATT Router.  It creates issues with discoverability for wifi devices like airplay to the roku hardwired to the att router when the iPhone is on the wifi router.  Others too but you get the picture.  

We have several Google devices like a Google Nest hub, and google minis in several locations.  We have 2 rokus and a couple chromecasts, we also have wifi security cameras and a home NAS Server.  Right now everything is kinda just there.  I have CAT 5 or 6 to most of the rooms so I can hardwire access points.  Everything homeruns to a closet in a corner of the house not central.  We will need better coverage for the back yard going forward to add on some IOT devices there and stream music.  security cameras are at the edge of the network now and they are on the house.

The main problem is the hard wire homeruns are all to the corner closet and I have to put the router in the center of the house for better coverage.  so there are devices that are hardwired to two separate routers.

Features I want:

• Ability to put the main router in the closet in the corner of the house and use it to connect out to the mini hubs and remote access points using the premise wiring. This is assuming that is the best way to connect access points.
• Private and Guest networks (no guests on the NAS, printer, camera, Roku, thermostats, Chromecast, etc) guests get internet only
• Not a deal killer but ability to name group of devices (Kid devices) and set bedtimes for their devices to kick them off internet. The ones with cellular plans are trickier but we have bad enough cell service we use a femtocell for calls.
• It may not be necessary but if they had an outdoor rated device that would be nice.  I can run a hardwire to it easily.
• Anything else?

Is the Orbi still the way to go?  Interested in changes for 2021.

Thanks

 

 

[shnsajax 3591]

Netgear CM1000 modem came in today with speeds finally going up in Boise. Went from 40-80 mbps down last week to this now. Thank you all for your help.

[joe dirt 285]

i’ve tried orbi ac, orbi ax, nighthawk, google and google nest with varying success.

orbi ax was the fastest for me, but wasn’t as stable as i needed. if it went offline, i had a hell of a time getting all my iot devices (light switches and shit) back online. sometimes would take days and a couple factory resets to get it all back. after about 6 months of this shit, i finally had enough and returned the orbi ax to costco.

i ended up with a unifi dream machine, poe switch and a wifi 6 long range access point. it’s only been 3 weeks but so far it’s been the fastest and the most stable of everything i’ve tried. i had planned on another access point, but so far, i don’t have the need since everything seems strong to quite strong inside and out. as a bonus, it prompted me to rip out the bullshit “structured wiring box” the builder put in and install a better one. i wired everything up to a keystone panel and made it all look respectable to this novice’s eyes.

the only issue so far is a double nat causing connectivity to the playstation network. instead of trying to fix it, i just dropped a line direct to my stepsons ps4.  problem solved, and gta5 online has been running infinitely better for him.

 

 

[Handcruser 2805]

I think I need to go mesh to get all my shit on one network.  Right now I have ATT internet 50MB and have disabled their wifi and installed a TP-link AC1750 wifi router that has some of my devices hard wired to it and others are hard wired to the ATT Router.  It creates issues with discoverability for wifi devices like airplay to the roku hardwired to the att router when the iPhone is on the wifi router.  Others too but you get the picture.  
We have several Google devices like a Google Nest hub, and google minis in several locations.  We have 2 rokus and a couple chromecasts, we also have wifi security cameras and a home NAS Server.  Right now everything is kinda just there.  I have CAT 5 or 6 to most of the rooms so I can hardwire access points.  Everything homeruns to a closet in a corner of the house not central.  We will need better coverage for the back yard going forward to add on some IOT devices there and stream music.  security cameras are at the edge of the network now and they are on the house.
The main problem is the hard wire homeruns are all to the corner closet and I have to put the router in the center of the house for better coverage.  so there are devices that are hardwired to two separate routers.
Features I want:

• Ability to put the main router in the closet in the corner of the house and use it to connect out to the mini hubs and remote access points using the premise wiring. This is assuming that is the best way to connect access points.
• Private and Guest networks (no guests on the NAS, printer, camera, Roku, thermostats, Chromecast, etc) guests get internet only
• Not a deal killer but ability to name group of devices (Kid devices) and set bedtimes for their devices to kick them off internet. The ones with cellular plans are trickier but we have bad enough cell service we use a femtocell for calls.
• It may not be necessary but if they had an outdoor rated device that would be nice.  I can run a hardwire to it easily.
• Anything else?

Is the Orbi still the way to go?  Interested in changes for 2021.
Thanks
 
 

Get a nice ASUS router for the closet and then some cheaper ones to run their ai mesh.

[horn4life 3761]

OK kids - Didn't know WTF a mesh router was when I stared reading this thread.  But can one of you smart educated guys tell me what I should do?  Save me time PLEASE!

My need is to get WiFi OCCASIONALLY into my trailer parked in the driveway.  I needed to use it as a covid isolation unit and getting wifi out there was a little bit of a pain but not horrific.  I just have the regular ATT wifi so it's not super strong.  BUT I have a wifi- signal booster antenna/repeater that did the job once I got the antennae situated outside the blocking of distance and garage door (I assume) weakening the signal. I was bought a much longer USB cable that I was going to test by trying to bring the antenna inside my garage a lot closer to the wifi signal and see if that fixes the problem.  My signal in my front yard pops in and out causing me to simply switch off my Wifi when I am trying to work in the yard and listen to pandora or spotify. It would be nice, but not necessary to have a better signal in the front yard and not have to run a hard line to a repeater inside the RV. SO.....

Options - 

1) do nothing and use my existing Camp Pro Antennae and repeater with a longer USB for cleaner install when needed to trailer (but spotty wifi in front yard).

2) Get a wifi router that has a stronger signal that can reach front yard better? Have done zero research on cost or distance of signal?

3) go the mesh router route (pun intended). But on cheaper end is it worth it?

4) Buy some other cheaper repeater hooked to my existing ATT wireless? To boost signal to the garage and solve my RV signal needs with existing camp pro antenna and POSSIBLY give me the front yard wifi signal.

Thanks in advance

Edited January 18, 2021 by horn4life

[Hate 20108]

Get a 3 piece mesh router system. It can be the eero or google one (I prefer the eero). Problems solved.

[Superhero 8830]

On 1/18/2021 at 6:09 AM, Hate said:

Get a 3 piece mesh router system. It can be the eero or google one (I prefer the eero). Problems solved.

This. Regular eero as the base station + 2 beacons throughout the house. Put one of the beacons in your garage and you should have coverage in the trailer.

Good luck to you or family/friends getting over covid bro.

[CooterBrown 18014]

Some brands also make weatherproof satellites if you need to go a bit of distance outdoors to get to a garage or workshop.

[Grimas 669]

I've got a 3 node Velop Tri-band AC6600 mesh with my 80mbps Xfinity internet with 2 of the 3 hardwired to each other.  Getting 1000mb fiber installed in the coming weeks.    I currently get rock-solid signal across the whole house and no one in the house bitches about any lag or buffering (2 kids stream Xboxes and all the TV's and devices streaming as well and lots of Teams and Zoom conferences from the backyard).  What's considered "fast enough" for a SpeedTest at a device?? Is it worth the coin to upgrade to a WiFi 6 mesh system? With my current provider, I'm doing fine with this current setup with a 80mbps connection but with the new fiber coming I should be able to increase the speed at every device by quite a bit.  Yes, a WiFi6 would deliver even better performance but is it worth the money to do this upgrade when I'm content with the current mesh on a slower connection?

Edited March 31, 2021 by Grimas

[Handcruser 2805]

I’d just stay with what you got

[Goofyboy 3293]

i’ve tried orbi ac, orbi ax, nighthawk, google and google nest with varying success.
orbi ax was the fastest for me, but wasn’t as stable as i needed. if it went offline, i had a hell of a time getting all my iot devices (light switches and shit) back online. sometimes would take days and a couple factory resets to get it all back. after about 6 months of this shit, i finally had enough and returned the orbi ax to costco.
i ended up with a unifi dream machine, poe switch and a wifi 6 long range access point. it’s only been 3 weeks but so far it’s been the fastest and the most stable of everything i’ve tried. i had planned on another access point, but so far, i don’t have the need since everything seems strong to quite strong inside and out. as a bonus, it prompted me to rip out the bullshit “structured wiring box” the builder put in and install a better one. i wired everything up to a keystone panel and made it all look respectable to this novice’s eyes.
the only issue so far is a double nat causing connectivity to the playstation network. instead of trying to fix it, i just dropped a line direct to my stepsons ps4.  problem solved, and gta5 online has been running infinitely better for him.
 
 

I need to do this to my set up. I have wires everywhere. The builder crap doesn’t actually do anything. Any advice on where to start?

[joe dirt 285]

On 3/31/2021 at 7:53 PM, Goofyboy said:

I need to do this to my set up. I have wires everywhere. The builder crap doesn’t actually do anything. Any advice on where to start?

first i took inventory of all the wires we actually used. the little shitty builder enclosure was stuffed with tons of unterminated coax. i did decide to keep them accessible just in case, but i coiled them thru the extra punch downs on the top right. i picked the keystone panel, 1/2 shelves and power supply based on the brand enclosure i went with (legrand/on-q) since i knew they would fit right. i’m sure there’s cheaper ways though.

then i used excel (fuck off) to map everything out so i knew what size enclosure i needed. bought a cheap punch down tool, watched a 2 min youtube video on terminating cat 5e and off i went.

[Hefeweizen 5324]

Well I just dropped six hundred on the eero pro 6 system which will be here Monday.  Sick and tired of netgear and their shitty firmware which regularly breaks what has been a rock solid system, albeit with slight hiccups, for a couple of years.  I am done with my Orbi, it had random drops in connection, slowdowns for no apparent reason, and then the weird firmware stuff.  
 

I looked into Ubiquity but wanted something more plug and play.  Man I hope the eero is good.  Wired Ethernet in this old house is not happening.

[Hate 20108]

You’ll love it.

[TwiceHorn 31487]

As reported elsewhere, I got the cheap Orbi, dual band with two satellites.

Had it up for a couple of days now and once I got the satellites placed (a bit closer than I had thought), it's rock solid and gives me 60-70% of rated speed if I'm 5Ghz on any of the nodes.  

I could get better coverage by spreading the satellites out a little further, but then backhaul drops to 2.4 and speed drops accordingly.

When it's 2.4 connected, either backhaul or to device, the connection is still useful for all but the most demanding stuff, but it's still a bummer.

The key to reliability and speed seems to be a) avoid spacing the satellites so they drop to 2.4Ghz for backhaul.  Which probably means buy more satellites for more coverage, which probably starts to push the cost toward the more expensive systems that can maybe get away with larger spacing.

[Catpfish 618]

On 4/2/2021 at 11:09 AM, Hefeweizen said:

Well I just dropped six hundred on the eero pro 6 system which will be here Monday.  Sick and tired of netgear and their shitty firmware which regularly breaks what has been a rock solid system, albeit with slight hiccups, for a couple of years.  I am done with my Orbi, it had random drops in connection, slowdowns for no apparent reason, and then the weird firmware stuff.  
 

I looked into Ubiquity but wanted something more plug and play.  Man I hope the eero is good.  Wired Ethernet in this old house is not happening.

I guess it's a little late, but I was having real issues with the latest update (so I thought) to Orbi.  Turns out that the issue was related to daylight savings time and the built-in traffic meter.  I turned off the traffic meter and haven't had a single instance of having to restart the router in over a week where I was restarting twice a day.

 

 

[Superhero 8830]

On 4/2/2021 at 9:09 AM, Hefeweizen said:

Well I just dropped six hundred on the eero pro 6 system which will be here Monday.  Sick and tired of netgear and their shitty firmware which regularly breaks what has been a rock solid system, albeit with slight hiccups, for a couple of years.  I am done with my Orbi, it had random drops in connection, slowdowns for no apparent reason, and then the weird firmware stuff.  
 

I looked into Ubiquity but wanted something more plug and play.  Man I hope the eero is good.  Wired Ethernet in this old house is not happening.

Good choice on the Eero. We've had ours for almost a year, and so far I've had 0 drops.

My only complaint is the base station runs HOT. I wanted to hide it, but it doesn't do well in enclosed spaces. The beacons run pretty warm as well.

[Goofyboy 3293]

first i took inventory of all the wires we actually used. the little shitty builder enclosure was stuffed with tons of unterminated coax. i did decide to keep them accessible just in case, but i coiled them thru the extra punch downs on the top right. i picked the keystone panel, 1/2 shelves and power supply based on the brand enclosure i went with (legrand/on-q) since i knew they would fit right. i’m sure there’s cheaper ways though.
then i used excel (fuck off) to map everything out so i knew what size enclosure i needed. bought a cheap punch down tool, watched a 2 min youtube video on terminating cat 5e and off i went.

Thank you for the write up. I have Cat5 running to every room in my house already. I can’t take advantage of it because of the shitty builder closet design. Time to budget and start reading.

[Hefeweizen 5324]

On 4/2/2021 at 11:24 AM, Hate said:

You’ll love it.

No lie.  Eero is rock solid, no drops, no instability.  Night and day from the Orbi system.  Highly, highly recommend it.

[TexasEd 8067]

On 1/17/2021 at 6:37 PM, joe dirt said:

i’ve tried orbi ac, orbi ax, nighthawk, google and google nest with varying success.

orbi ax was the fastest for me, but wasn’t as stable as i needed. if it went offline, i had a hell of a time getting all my iot devices (light switches and shit) back online. sometimes would take days and a couple factory resets to get it all back. after about 6 months of this shit, i finally had enough and returned the orbi ax to costco.

i ended up with a unifi dream machine, poe switch and a wifi 6 long range access point. it’s only been 3 weeks but so far it’s been the fastest and the most stable of everything i’ve tried. i had planned on another access point, but so far, i don’t have the need since everything seems strong to quite strong inside and out. as a bonus, it prompted me to rip out the bullshit “structured wiring box” the builder put in and install a better one. i wired everything up to a keystone panel and made it all look respectable to this novice’s eyes.

the only issue so far is a double nat causing connectivity to the playstation network. instead of trying to fix it, i just dropped a line direct to my stepsons ps4.  problem solved, and gta5 online has been running infinitely better for him.

 

 

nice, I have an On-Q box but the screw on door.  I should upgrade to a hinged door.  Would make life nicer.

 

[Buzzrock 14921]

Has anyone added on an outdoor range extender? I have the Velop 6600 setup with four nodes and it’s great, but the coverage at the pool is weak. I have Ethernet and power run to a fairly well protected spot under my deck (marked in red below), I just need to know what to plug in to it. Would like to keep the same SSID. I’m thinking something directional would be best.

[TexasEd 8067]

On 5/22/2021 at 11:41 AM, Buzzrock said:

Has anyone added on an outdoor range extender? I have the Velop 6600 setup with four nodes and it’s great, but the coverage at the pool is weak. I have Ethernet and power run to a fairly well protected spot under my deck (marked in red below), I just need to know what to plug in to it. Would like to keep the same SSID. I’m thinking something directional would be best.

lulz, I recognize that pic from the pool thread.  And if my pool ever gets finished I will have the exact same problem.  Need better coverage to the pool area for Sonos, women on facebook and insta, and the pool automation stuff.

[Superhero 8830]

On 4/15/2021 at 4:50 AM, Hefeweizen said:

No lie.  Eero is rock solid, no drops, no instability.  Night and day from the Orbi system.  Highly, highly recommend it.

Haven’t had a single drop since last April.

I have a beacon in my garage. Across the street from me is the community pool (yes totally worth because I don’t have to maintain it).

Sitting the lounge chair about 150’ away from the house, I still have enough signal to type this. 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10249]

In case anyone comes looking now.. I was very happy with my Nest WiFi.. literally set it and forget for past year and half... but Google decided to get rid of their Google WiFi app and roll settings control into their all in one Google Home app.  Good idea, cluster integration. They goofed Port forwarding so no longer can be counted on right now. Been this way for months now. If you had setup and working a-ok.. but can't change/add/delete without running into issues.

I'm about to have to drop a router in front of Nest Wifi until they fix (or permanently)... PITA for something that should be considered pretty important to fix for a router

[JSB 677]

I am looking now, and with Prime day coming up, Amazon has the eero 6 with one router and two extenders on sale for $181  

and the eero pro with one pro and two beacons on sale for $191

 

What is the difference between these, and which should I go with? I don't need anything fancy, I just want good coverage with minimal hassle. I am sick of having to hear "the internet is out again" from the wife just because the signal doesn't work in every corner of the house.  

[TwiceHorn 31487]

24 minutes ago, JSB said:

I am looking now, and with Prime day coming up, Amazon has the eero 6 with one router and two extenders on sale for $181  

and the eero pro with one pro and two beacons on sale for $191

 

What is the difference between these, and which should I go with? I don't need anything fancy, I just want good coverage with minimal hassle. I am sick of having to hear "the internet is out again" from the wife just because the signal doesn't work in every corner of the house.  

It looks like the Pro has a second 5Ghz radio.  In a conventional "triband" router, that makes two 5Ghz "channels" available for connection, thus doubling the available 5Ghz bandwidth available.

I suspect, though, that the second 5Ghz radio in that system is dedicated to "backhaul" or communication between routers and satellites, as opposed to bandwidth available for connecting to devices. In "lesser" mesh systems, which would seem to to be the eero 6, part of the two radios (5Ghz or 2.4Ghz) is parceled off to backhaul, which can slow or destabilize device connections.

The backhaul connection in a mesh network is pretty key to speed, so that may be a significant advantage.  If your backhaul connects at 2.4Ghz, that is pretty much a bottleneck on a 5Ghz connection to a device. And even a 5Ghz connection that is unstable can bottleneck your speed even though you have a 10x10 connection between the device and a satellite. The problem is, if you stretch the spacing between router and satellites, you doom yourself to a slow backhaul, either 2.4Ghz or unstable 5Ghz.  Having the dedicated 5Ghz backhaul is a good thing.

Someone with more familiarity with eero can correct this if I am off.

Also, just going by product description, it looks like the cheaper one has "zigbee" radios for IOT/home automation things, while the Pro doesn't.  Don't know if that matters to you, and the descriptions may be wrong.

Edited June 9, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[VolenteHawk 495]

8 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Also, just going by product description, it looks like the cheaper one has "zigbee" radios for IOT/home automation things, while the Pro doesn't.  Don't know if that matters to you, and the descriptions may be wrong.

That's true, but JSB is comparing the new Eero with old Eero Pro.  The newer version (Eero Pro 6) is their flagship and has all the featured.  It's fantastic, but it's also $600, which runs counter to him trying to do it on the cheap.

[TwiceHorn 31487]

14 minutes ago, VolenteHawk said:

That's true, but JSB is comparing the new Eero with old Eero Pro.  The newer version (Eero Pro 6) is their flagship and has all the featured.  It's fantastic, but it's also $600, which runs counter to him trying to do it on the cheap.

Ah, so the pro is an old pro, and the 6 is not a pro.

In that particular context, if the zigbee doesn't matter, seems like the "old" pro is a pretty good deal.

Edited June 9, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[BurntOrange&White 39934]

On 4/19/2020 at 8:00 PM, Quagmire said:

Now bump your service down to 100-200 and save some money cause you’ll never use all that.

I have google fiber and I pay 72$ post including taxes for 1000/1000

[Hate 20108]

I believe the difference between the extenders and the beacons is that the extenders merely plug into a power outlet and extend the signal (daisy chain) while the beacons can be plugged into a wired network. The wired network would give better bandwidth as the extenders are merely daisy chaining the signal. Each daisy chain further away for the “main device” plugged into the router would get less and less…if that makes sense.

[BurntOrange&White 39934]

The house we're building location doesn't have google fiber so we will have ATT fiber there....these are the mesh points your talking about with google, right?

 

 

I have two of these for our current home. Was curious if I could use them with ATT at our next home?

[VolenteHawk 495]

6 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Ah, so the pro is an old pro, and the 6 is not a pro.

In that particular context, if the zigbee doesn't matter, seems like the "old" pro is a pretty good deal.

The old pro also doesn't have WiFi 6, if that's matters to him.

[TwiceHorn 31487]

4 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

The house we're building location doesn't have google fiber so we will have ATT fiber there....these are the mesh points your talking about with google, right?

 

 

I have two of these for our current home. Was curious if I could use them with ATT at our next home?

That looks like a standard "Google mesh" device.

One should be a "router" and one a satellite, with slightly different functions.  The "router" should be configured to be connected to a modem via ethernet cable, usually with a yellow jack.  The satellite may also have an ethernet/cat 5 jack, but it won't be yellow.

If that's the case, yes, you can use it with any internet service.

Edited June 9, 2021 by TwiceHorn

[JSB 677]

ok, I'll have to do some digging, looks like either would be better than what I'm working with, an 8 year old ASUS router with one range extender. 

[Hate 20108]

Do you have Cat5 drops throughout your house that are routed back to where your router comes in?

[TexasEd 8067]

35 minutes ago, Hate said:

Do you have Cat5 drops throughout your house that are routed back to where your router comes in?

I do so I am looking at a system with a wired back haul.

[JSB 677]

40 minutes ago, Hate said:

Do you have Cat5 drops throughout your house that are routed back to where your router comes in?

I've got Cat5 throughout, but the damn things are a mess, so basically, I've got the modem in the closet, connected to the cat5 I found that runs to the office, and the wireless router then in the office. Would love to map all those wires, but its going to be a pain in the ass since each room has two cat5s running to it, and I guess I would just have to keep running around my house with my laptop plugging in different wires to see which wire runs where. 

[BurntOrange&White 39934]

20 minutes ago, JSB said:

I've got Cat5 throughout, but the damn things are a mess, so basically, I've got the modem in the closet, connected to the cat5 I found that runs to the office, and the wireless router then in the office. Would love to map all those wires, but its going to be a pain in the ass since each room has two cat5s running to it, and I guess I would just have to keep running around my house with my laptop plugging in different wires to see which wire runs where. 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-Tone-and-Probe-Tester-and-Tracer-Kit-VDV500-705/311456018?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&mtc=Shopping-VF-F_DYNM-G-D27E-27_11_TOOLS_%26_ACCESSORIES-KLEIN_TOOLS-NA-Feed-SMART-NA-RMP-MK464343327_9016028252_FY21_1927&cm_mmc=Shopping-VF-F_DYNM-G-D27E-27_11_TOOLS_%26_ACCESSORIES-KLEIN_TOOLS-NA-Feed-SMART-NA-RMP-MK464343327_9016028252_FY21_1927-71700000083602792-58700007073070013-92700063677501837&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzYGGBhCTARIsAHdMTQxTMI-tx8WNZUs8nJjVem0p0TyZMKuEdfvSrcmMUh6_UgxAX87Vh40aAl8HEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Hate 20108]

I do so I am looking at a system with a wired back haul.

Get the Eero pro 6 with the 3 beacons and forget about your network for the next 6 or 7 years.

Or get this. I can’t get the link to post correctly on tapa, but if you search Amazon for this it will come up. This one does not have Alexa or the smart home hub built in.

[VolenteHawk 495]

4 minutes ago, Hate said:

Get the Eero pro 6 with the 3 beacons and forget about your network for the next 6 or 7 years.

[TexasEd 8067]

1 hour ago, Hate said:

Get the Eero pro 6 with the 3 beacons and forget about your network for the next 6 or 7 years.

Or get this. I can’t get the link to post correctly on tapa, but if you search Amazon for this it will come up. This one does not have Alexa or the smart home hub built in.

 

 

1 hour ago, VolenteHawk said:

So I looked at that but it seems to be lacking in wired access ports.  This is the mixed topography I am thinking of so I can use my hard wired VPN and have some streaming devices and media servers hard wired. So I need a router with at least 6 ports on it.

[Hate 20108]

The “beacons” have two ports I believe. You could always daisy chain them without losing too much performance if they are close by. I have 3 beacons only one of which is wired. I get great speeds from the daisy chained beacons. You could also easily get a wireless adapter for your computer.

[TexasEd 8067]

36 minutes ago, Hate said:

The “beacons” have two ports I believe. You could always daisy chain them without losing too much performance if they are close by. I have 3 beacons only one of which is wired. I get great speeds from the daisy chained beacons. You could also easily get a wireless adapter for your computer.

Nope.

I have star wiring for the wired lines,  I can't daisy chain without pulling new wires.

My work computer is on a hardware VPN that sits on a wired connection between the computer and the router.  I also have a media server that is Ethernet only and a couple streaming devices I need/want hard wired to keep traffic off wifi.

[HouTex 1867]

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This. It’s easy to figure that out. My house is wired cat 5e and it’s pretty awesome. All TVs are hard wired and the wifi (Orbi) works very well for everything else.

[Hate 20108]

1 hour ago, TexasEd said:

Nope.

I have star wiring for the wired lines,  I can't daisy chain without pulling new wires.

My work computer is on a hardware VPN that sits on a wired connection between the computer and the router.  I also have a media server that is Ethernet only and a couple streaming devices I need/want hard wired to keep traffic off wifi.

I don't see why you couldn't put an 8 or 10 port switch behind the eero that is connected to your ISP's router. 

Edited June 10, 2021 by Hate

[Enchubben 5510]

On 6/9/2021 at 7:12 PM, Hate said:

I don't see why you couldn't put an 8 or 10 port switch behind the eero that is connected to your ISP's router. 

Yep. This is the answer. I utilize a switch with the eero due to number of access points and it works great.

This is from the corner of my house farthest away from the routers.

[Superhero 8830]

On 5/30/2021 at 8:37 AM, Superhero said:

Haven’t had a single drop since last April.

I have a beacon in my garage. Across the street from me is the community pool (yes totally worth it because I don’t have to maintain it).

Sitting the lounge chair about 150’ away from the house, I still have enough signal to type this. 

Thinking of moving it upstairs to see if I can get reception in the jacuzzi.