Mesh, extender or powerline adapters

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Mesh, extender or powerline adapters

meatshield87

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#248585 1-Apr-2019 14:55

Finding connection in our new place to be a problem as it's 2 stories! Though not an issue for myself as the router and connection both come into the house through my office, the rest of the flatties are complaining about not having a reliable connection for their own computers/devices. One of them said he might get a powerline adapter but I thought i'd ask people here whether that is worth, or if simply all chipping in and buying a cheap mesh system would be better.

I'm sure someone has asked this before but please look at it from the point of view of a bunch of young twenty somethings allergic to spending money =P

Dynamic

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#2208701 1-Apr-2019 15:10

Powerline can be inexpensive but the results, while stable, are typically slow. Fine for browsing and streaming but speedtest results will be poor. I use them at home for internet in my converted garage.

Mesh would be ideal but not the cheapest. Repeaters are not the best in my experience, but see what others say.

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meatshield87

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#2208741 1-Apr-2019 15:39

Thanks =)

I should also point out that the router we are using is of course the one that our ISP (voda) has supplied us.

A few years ago I got my mum a cheap repeater/extender from pbtech that seemed to solve her problems in a similar sized house. Only she doesn't do anything more than browsing the web on her laptop.

rhy7s

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#2208744 1-Apr-2019 15:42

Both can be let down by the environment, either house wiring or noisy spectrum. There's no chance of running ethernet cables to a couple of key locations to run other APs from? For reliability, if going wireless I'd recommend a bridge and AP in each location, or if using a mesh network, one that can do the equivalent by using different channel/s for backhaul than is used by client devices. (edit: e.g. on Pricespy)

jarledb

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#2208749 1-Apr-2019 15:50

I have tried the TP powerline extenders and I wouldn't call them stable. Needed to pull them out of the socket and have them reboot about once a week.

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jonathan18

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#2208751 1-Apr-2019 15:54

Cheapest option would be to get another router, connect it via Ethernet cable to your main router, and set it up as an AP (disable DHCP etc). Biggest issue is the cabling - especially given I assume it's a rental? Many on here will say this approach will always end in tears, but it's certainly the best bang-for-buck, and so many people have a spare HG659 or similar router hanging around unused. We functioned with such a set-up for many years. Another advantage is that it'll give you a wired 'switch' in the bargain, eg put the second router behind your TV and you can plug in devices like gaming consoles, therefore get more devices off wifi (always preferable if available).

Repeaters are rarely (never?) recommended here, as they'll slow your through-put by half.

As Dynamic says, Powerline can be a bit hit-and-miss, and I assume you'll also be wanting to expand your wifi coverage? If so, some Powerline adapters have wifi built in, but they seem fairly small units so unsure of how good they'll be. For my mother's place I've connected another router to a Powerline adapter to act as an access point (as per my first para), which avoided running a cable - in that case decent throughput was not needed, so may not be a good option.

But, seriously, there are SO many threads that cover this territory so I suggest you put your google fu to work and dig some of these out!

josephhinvest

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#2209176 2-Apr-2019 06:08

jonathan18:
Cheapest option would be to get another router, connect it via Ethernet cable to your main router, and set it up as an AP (disable DHCP etc). Biggest issue is the cabling - especially given I assume it's a rental? Many on here will say this approach will always end in tears, but it's certainly the best bang-for-buck, and so many people have a spare HG659 or similar router hanging around unused. We functioned with such a set-up for many years. Another advantage is that it'll give you a wired 'switch' in the bargain, eg put the second router behind your TV and you can plug in devices like gaming consoles, therefore get more devices off wifi (always preferable if available).

Repeaters are rarely (never?) recommended here, as they'll slow your through-put by half.

As Dynamic says, Powerline can be a bit hit-and-miss, and I assume you'll also be wanting to expand your wifi coverage? If so, some Powerline adapters have wifi built in, but they seem fairly small units so unsure of how good they'll be. For my mother's place I've connected another router to a Powerline adapter to act as an access point (as per my first para), which avoided running a cable - in that case decent throughput was not needed, so may not be a good option.

But, seriously, there are SO many threads that cover this territory so I suggest you put your google fu to work and dig some of these out!

Seconded and agree. Recently I was able to FINALLY run an Ethernet cable to downstairs. Retired the netcomm powerline thing (worked adequately well, not amazing) and set up my old Spark hg630b as a bridge to primary Synology rt1900 upstairs. Was a bit tricky for me to configure the bridge mode but got it working after an hour or so and it’s great.

bignose

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#2209264 2-Apr-2019 09:19

Repeaters are rarely (never?) recommended here, as they'll slow your through-put by half.

old-school repeaters (single radio) did indeed kill thruput - however the modern generation of repeaters/mesh routers aren't so bad as they generally use a dedicated radio for backhaul (so either have 2 5ghz radios, or dedicate the single 5ghz radio to backhaul and repeat only onto the 2.4ghz band)

if you've got the budget (and the 5ghz spectrum available) to use a repeater/mesh with it using a 4x4 5ghz radio in 80mhz bandwidth mode just for backhaul results can be very good - I've got a short link here using a netgear ex7300 (in AP mode) to a linksys ea8500 (in media bridge mode) - iperf across the link is in the high 800s, so close to wire rate.