Mesh network / powerline network recommendations 2021

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Mesh network / powerline network recommendations 2021 - best brands and models

timmmay

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#290240 29-Oct-2021 12:05

I occasionally come across people with networking issues that could be solved pretty easily with powerline or mesh networking. I don't need them myself, so I don't know which brands / products are best.

Can anyone who has experience with mesh networks or powerline networks please post your recommended brands and models to use or ones best avoided?

It might be useful to share:

the scenario you use it in (single story home, apartment, etc)
things you like / dislike about it
how easy it is to set up and use
what kind of performance you get. For example, will it support a video call, gaming, etc.

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#2803492 29-Oct-2021 12:52

I use unifi ap's and mesh those as you can keep adding to the network, also having a controller and getting stats helps.

timmmay

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#2803501 29-Oct-2021 13:03

sparkz25:

I use unifi ap's and mesh those as you can keep adding to the network, also having a controller and getting stats helps.

Unify are quite advanced, right? Not really plug and play for a regular consumer.

dt

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#2803557 29-Oct-2021 13:15

I dont have a massive amount of experience with them but I have used 2x TP link powerline ethernet adapters to get network into my mums dethatched garage for a security camera and it's been rock solid. has a power passthrough port on them as well so can still plug in the vacuum cleaner which is helpful!

trig42

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#2803565 29-Oct-2021 13:40

I recommended a set of TPLink Deco M40s for a friend to get wifi in their lounge. Their ONT is in a corner bedroom, and the ISP provided router gave really poor WiFi at the other end of the house, where they do their living.

I helped them set it up over the phone (I'm in Auckland, they are not), and together we managed to set both units up, connected directly to the ONT (so taking away the ISP router) and they couldn't be happier.

They're only on 100/20 Spark broadband, and couldn't care less if it's 80/15, so long as the WiFi bars are good (it does speedtest at 100/20 though).

I'd happily recommend them again, and I'd be happy to use them myself.

MadEngineer

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#2803687 29-Oct-2021 14:40

Another + for tplink here.

I think with such systems you’re not expecting high performance out of them rather you’re just after basic connectivity for mobile devices in areas you would otherwise struggle to reach.

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GregV

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#2803742 29-Oct-2021 15:00

I'm using two Amplifi HD units with wired backhaul (one in main house, other in sleepout). Connects directly to the ONT, great Wi-Fi coverage, and gives me spare ports at each end. Basic parental controls/stats via the app. And it looks nice on the desk!

When I was first looking at these people said that they struggled with gigabit speeds, but I'm constantly getting 800-900Mbps down with this setup.

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#2803743 29-Oct-2021 15:01

I've been really pleased with TP-Link Deco M5s. I'm lucky enough to have them all wired back to the main unit but for a while was using one wirelessly with no complaints

I can't get Gbps throughput on the internet connection, even on a wired connection - I get 500Mbps or thereabouts. But I don't see that as a major limitation

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sparkz25

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#2803830 29-Oct-2021 18:56

timmmay:

Unify are quite advanced, right? Not really plug and play for a regular consumer.

They are advanced and def not plug and play, but what device is these days, most things need to be connected and set up and faffed about before you can use them.

They are relatively simple to set up and get going. there are plenty of guides out there that can get you going, and also plenty of people here that could help out.

KiwiSurfer

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#2803890 29-Oct-2021 21:11

sparkz25:

timmmay:

Unify are quite advanced, right? Not really plug and play for a regular consumer.

They are advanced and def not plug and play, but what device is these days, most things need to be connected and set up and faffed about before you can use them.

They are relatively simple to set up and get going. there are plenty of guides out there that can get you going, and also plenty of people here that could help out.

As a ex-Unifi user, just wanted to point out that these devices work best with a controller especially if you have more than one and require band steering and roaming (as devices are pretty bad at doing this on their own so need some gentle encouragement from the AP/Controller to connect to the right AP/band). From experience, I don't think Unifi devices are the best solution if you are giving recommendations to family/friends etc. People who are not technically literate would benefit more from devices that can manage itself without any additional software/hardware. However if the person you are giving the recommendation to is happy to get their hands dirty (and/or you don't mind being the on call engineer!) I'd recommend the Unifi Community Controller mentioned elsewhere on Geekzone.

I am following this thread with interest as I get a lot of enquiries about improving reception in sleepouts, garages, far corners, etc. I always explain it's best to set up good quality APs with wired backhaul--and yet this advice is almost never adopted due to the cost and efforts involved. I think many people don't really mind if the performance is not 100% as long as they have something reliable that they can Facebook and Netflix on! So hoping to learn more about, for lack of better words, 'low' to 'mid' tier solutions that are cheapish but still deliver a functional improvement for typical home usage.

Technofreak

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#2803904 29-Oct-2021 21:30

We have the standard Spark Huawei HG630b modem/router which was installed when we went VDSL. I re-purposed the old LinkSys modem/router changing it to bridge mode and have it hard wired back to a port on the Spark router.

We get good coverage, BUT, as mentioned elsewhere some of the mobil devices don't swap between routers very well and hang on the the weak signal even when close to the other router. What is the best fix for this issue?

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rhy7s

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#2803916 29-Oct-2021 22:06

KiwiSurfer:

...I always explain it's best to set up good quality APs with wired backhaul--and yet this advice is almost never adopted due to the cost and efforts involved. I think many people don't really mind if the performance is not 100% as long as they have something reliable that they can Facebook and Netflix on! So hoping to learn more about, for lack of better words, 'low' to 'mid' tier solutions that are cheapish but still deliver a functional improvement for typical home usage.

So many products people get just turn their WiFi environment into a total mess of interference and duplicated traffic. Rapidly orphaned devices with weak antennas and poor thermal design running convoluted and opaque administration interfaces with bad defaults. More costly devices at least have backhaul channels, but wiring dedicated APs and bridges is so much better. Trying to hide the minor complexity of planning things properly behind a façade of simplicity/magic makes for a much more fragile system.

eonsim

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#2803923 29-Oct-2021 22:32

I've played around with a number of different systems:

TP-link Deco M4 (gigabit, wifi5, dual band), functional but basic. Set this up for the parents with 2 units covering a ~120sqm very easily. They deliver the full speed of the 100/20mbps fibre connection through out the house in wireless mesh mode. Entirely configured by the app, need to turn off mobile data to set up. App offers basic QoS, blacklisting of devices, Parental controls (time and access), and lets you see whats going on, no monthly stats or anything though (M4 anyway may differ for the higher end models). It's very much set and forget, can do wired or wireless backhaul, occasional security updates and compatible with VLAN10 ISPs, no band control. Can mix and match different models just use the most powerful one as the master node (E4, M4, M5, M9, P9, X20, X60, X90 etc).

Google Wifi (first gen, gigabit ethernet, wifi5, dual band), what I've currently got at home for the primary network. App controlled, seems regularly and silently updated. On gigabit fibre they deliver 400mbps up/down (occasionally seen 500mbps but very very rare), with Gigabit wired backhaul. App provides a decent amount of data tracks data usage realtime, day, week, month. Provides QoS, port forwarding reserved IP addresses, individual device tracking and control via tagging and family groups, option to enforce safesearch on specific devices. 'Smart' band selection. IPV6 works well, not official compatible with VLAN10 ISPs, need a router or smart switch to disable the VLAN10 (though seems they do work for some people if given enough time). WPA3 or WPA2 support but not both at the same time. Have a three wired node setup with ~70 devices connected and it works well, laptop gets 400mbp in the next room... Not alot of customization or configuration but cover the basics. No band control. Can mix and match with GWifi Gen2.

Tenda MW3 (100mb ethernet, dual band, wifi5) and MW5 (gigabit ethernet, dual band, wifi5). Picked up a bunch of these off Aliexpress as a backup/play around MW3's are ~$30ea, M5 ~$80ea. Fairly basic the MW3's are very cheap and with only 100mbp ethernet will max out at 100mbp internet, though the wifi connection is faster than the ethernet ports. The MW5 has gigabit so can offer full speed gigabit internet via ethernet and manages 400mbps via wifi. You can use the M5 as the master node for a group of MW3's and they'll provide faster internet around the 300mbps+ mark. They have a nice clean bridge mode, so will act as a mesh with out taking over the entire network. Some 'interesting' design choices such as they preform a maintenance reboot at 3am each night (can be disabled). Have a nice temp 2.4ghz only mode for helping connect up IoT devices, and a capacity mode to force devices to spread out between nodes. Have basic QoS and live data transfer rates, no longer term stats, not sure about VLAN10, port forwarding etc. Seems to work fine, happily does wired backhaul, and very cheap, all controls via App I think. No band control. Also high spec versions MW6, MW12 (Triband), EX6 (wifi6), MWX6 (wifi 6).

Those are the only ones I've had direct experience about. Reading about other options it seems the ASUS AI-Mesh is very powerful, full on device controls or app, every setting you can imagine, and dozens of different devices can work together, however occasional fragile mesh, as different device firmwares can get out of sync. Orbi generally one of the faster options, plenty of controls though app focused, but big and expensive.

eonsim

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#2803976 29-Oct-2021 22:59

With regards to powerline I've used a couple of different TP-link models with the pass through power socket. They work fine just variable network speed.

Types were TP-link TL-PA9020P AV2000 and TL-PA7010P AV1000.

Both worked fine, I couldn't really see any difference in performance between them, the AV2000 model might have been better if I had, had multiple devices connected up to them. Have used them in two main scenarios:

Long distance backhaul to provide internet to a sleepout ~30m away from the house ~50m of power cable and two circuit boards. In that setup both systems delivered a useable connection of ~60-90mbps, that was noticeably more reliable with a mesh system using wireless back-haul between the house and the sleep out (two external walls and ~30m of air). Worked well for downloads and streaming (happily stream two Youtube 4k streams at the same time as browsing), but latency was a bit variable for Zoom/Teams no packet loss but the packets would be delayed to an extent that Zoom/teams would toss them (300-400ms delay). Note the devices claimed the connection was 200-300mbps between the two powerline adapters but it averaged 70mbps with a max of 100mbps at one point. Eventually replaced with a MikroTik wireless wire as that provides full gigabit over the 30m distance.

Within room wired backhaul, provide a wired connection to far corner of a room with no ethernet, maybe 10m of powerline (1980's house) probably same circuit. Both AV1000 and AV2000 systems deliver 230-300mbps usable bandwidth, claim to have a 400-500mbps connection between them. No issues with latency for Zoom or Teams and provides a faster connection back to the internet than wifi via a google mesh unit 12m and two walls away. Works well in this case and now being used to provide wired back-haul to a mesh-node in the far corner of the house.

Biggest benefit of the PA9020 was dual gigabit ports on the devices, so didn't need a switch at the far end.

nampat

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#2804218 30-Oct-2021 12:16

We had spotty wifi on the other end of the house including 2 bedrooms, bought Kogan Home Mesh couple of months ago and wifi connectivity has drastically improved. We usually we have more than 10 devices connected to wifi and it seems to be working quite well. Only downside is that you can't manually switch between 2.4/5ghz, it automatically picks the best connection frequency, not biggie for us. Overall quite satisfied with this setup.

eonsim

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#2804235 30-Oct-2021 13:14

nampat:

We had spotty wifi on the other end of the house including 2 bedrooms, bought Kogan Home Mesh couple of months ago and wifi connectivity has drastically improved. We usually we have more than 10 devices connected to wifi and it seems to be working quite well. Only downside is that you can't manually switch between 2.4/5ghz, it automatically picks the best connection frequency, not biggie for us. Overall quite satisfied with this setup.

The Kogan Home Mesh appears to be a relabeled Tenda MW3, exactly same body (including the shaped top) and spec. I guess it may use a different app, is probably limited to 100mbps ethernet and this internet.

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