[PoolBrews]

Originally Posted by Romad

This is as good of a response you will find. I use the Netgear Orbi since I had Quantum fiber before they offered the mesh network. My friends that are new to Quantum fiber say it works great.

I have Quantum fiber (1GB) and the latest Netgear Orbi's with Wifi 6. This is as fast as you get with mesh Wifi. Look at every speed test comparison and you'll find that Orbi's win every time by a comfortable margin.

If you can get Quantum in your area, they give you free wireless pods. Note that they may only give you 2 or 3 based on your home size, but you can go online and get up to a max of 4 free from them. I have the Quantum pods running on a separate network that supplies my 2.4ghz home devices (outlets, lights, pool, etc) and provides some outdoor coverage in areas where signal is weak (I have a poured concrete home). My two Orbi's are my primary network.

With 1GB incoming network speed, my computer, phone, and streaming devices all see speeds around 600MB-800MB. If I connect the same devices to the Quantum pods, speeds are only in the 300MB-400MB range. So while the pods are a nice freebie, they are not the most efficient wireless devices.

With either of these routers, if you plug in a hard connection, speeds go up to 900MB-1.2GB.

I would highly recommend Quantum if it's available to you, and go with the free pods at first. If that handles your needs, you're good. You can always add in a higher end mesh system later on.

[mkjelenbaas]

I have an unopened new mesh system - if interested call me at 2483200456- cash for $100. Thank you

[jrref]

Originally Posted by PoolBrews

I have Quantum fiber (1GB) and the latest Netgear Orbi's with Wifi 6. This is as fast as you get with mesh Wifi. Look at every speed test comparison and you'll find that Orbi's win every time by a comfortable margin.

If you can get Quantum in your area, they give you free wireless pods. Note that they may only give you 2 or 3 based on your home size, but you can go online and get up to a max of 4 free from them. I have the Quantum pods running on a separate network that supplies my 2.4ghz home devices (outlets, lights, pool, etc) and provides some outdoor coverage in areas where signal is weak (I have a poured concrete home). My two Orbi's are my primary network.

With 1GB incoming network speed, my computer, phone, and streaming devices all see speeds around 600MB-800MB. If I connect the same devices to the Quantum pods, speeds are only in the 300MB-400MB range. So while the pods are a nice freebie, they are not the most efficient wireless devices.

With either of these routers, if you plug in a hard connection, speeds go up to 900MB-1.2GB.

I would highly recommend Quantum if it's available to you, and go with the free pods at first. If that handles your needs, you're good. You can always add in a higher end mesh system later on.

I believe the Quantum mesh network is using wifi 6 or 6E but I agree, I've had all my neighbors and friends use their mesh network when they started offering it with the service and the coverage is always excellent. The app they provide also lets you clearly see your coverage and if it's not right it's easy for the homeowner to move any of the pods around to get better coverage.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

Jrref has some really good advice. Not all mesh networks are the same. Some of the mesh networks others are recommending in these posts are already old technology. If anybody is getting a new mesh network today, the bare minimum should have wifi 6e capability or wifi7. These provide much better performance. My WiFi 6e mesh network communicate with each other by a private high speed backhaul channel.

Even with a mesh network, location of the devices make a difference. I used a wired connection from the primary mesh router to the second and then it uses the backhaul to connect to the others. I can go anywhere in my house, lanai, or garage and get high speed which is close to 900Mbps.

Thanks for bringing this up. Most don't understand this. Not all wifi systems are the same. The most important thing is to get a system where you can set it up and forget it vs fooling around with it all the time. For me the 6Ghz band increased the speed and coverage significantly in my 2600 sq ft Ivy home here in the Villages.

[jump4]

A true MESH system is far superior to adding an extender to a regular router. Also, make sure the MESH system you buy will automatically update itself.

[Catfishjeff]

We found that the combination of concrete exterior walls, metal studs and extra insulation makes for a lot of dead spots around the house, lanai and birdcage. And since we have over 50 devices on our WiFi we had to have a near perfect system. So here’s what we did. First we put our Spectrum modem in the closet with the ac return unit where it’s cool. In our layout this closet is only a few feet from where the coaxial cable from Spectrum comes into the same cabinet with the sprinkler system controls. We added a shelf in the closet where the spectrum modem is located and where our 12 port switch is. From there we ran Ethernet cables to four access points inside the house, one in the birdcage and one in the front of the house. This gives us a full 500mps speed inside and outside the house. We had previously tried a mesh system and found that the speed was cut by 50% and with our type of construction the connection between the modules was sometimes less than great which resulted in some very strange connections - like the mesh unit in the garage was talking to the camera in the birdcage or the unit in the lanai talking to the computer in the front office. Now with the access point system the smart devices are talking to the nearest point and thus their performance is usually terrific. And all TVs, computers and IOS devices stream incredibly fast. It was pricey but the results are worth it.

[RRGuyNJ]

Originally Posted by NoMo50

I have a question for the gurus about WiFi to cover a relatively large space. The home is about 2600 square feet, which includes a 300 sqft bonus room upstairs. 3-car garage, and a large lanai/pool deck area out back. I would like to have WiFi coverage everywhere, and suspect a single modem/router setup will not cut it. I also use a WiFi irrigation controller, and like to be able to check the various zones with my phone while out in the yard.

I have heard of Mesh systems, but really know nothing about them. Can someone provide a little info on these, and let me know if this is the way to go? Many thanks!

We use a system in NC called DECO. We have great coverage over our property of 3 acres and in multiple buildings. I'm sure it would help in your home. We found ours at Sams Club. Good luck.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by Catfishjeff

We found that the combination of concrete exterior walls, metal studs and extra insulation makes for a lot of dead spots around the house, lanai and birdcage. And since we have over 50 devices on our WiFi we had to have a near perfect system. So here’s what we did. First we put our Spectrum modem in the closet with the ac return unit where it’s cool. In our layout this closet is only a few feet from where the coaxial cable from Spectrum comes into the same cabinet with the sprinkler system controls. We added a shelf in the closet where the spectrum modem is located and where our 12 port switch is. From there we ran Ethernet cables to four access points inside the house, one in the birdcage and one in the front of the house. This gives us a full 500mps speed inside and outside the house. We had previously tried a mesh system and found that the speed was cut by 50% and with our type of construction the connection between the modules was sometimes less than great which resulted in some very strange connections - like the mesh unit in the garage was talking to the camera in the birdcage or the unit in the lanai talking to the computer in the front office. Now with the access point system the smart devices are talking to the nearest point and thus their performance is usually terrific. And all TVs, computers and IOS devices stream incredibly fast. It was pricey but the results are worth it.

What you did is fine but now is outdated. With the newer mesh wifi systems from Netgear (Orbi), Eero (Amazon) and TP-Link for example, they employ a dedicated backhaul network for the nodes to communicate. Similar to what you are doing by connecting Access Points to the main router. The result is you get near-wired throughput without all the work you went through. With the newer Wifi 6E and 7 they mostly use the 2.4, 5 and 6Ghz bands for the backhaul. The 6Ghz band in our size homes here in the Villages makes a significant improvement to connectivity. The trend is to provide more sophisticated wireless systems at prices that most can afford negating the need for wired internet throughout your home. For example, the new Orbi WiFi 7 has a node throughput, under ideal conditions, of 10GBS. True it's incredibly expensive but over time this capability will come down to "reasonable" pricing. In addition, If you buy a new home in the newer areas in the south Villages such as Dabney, Centric fiber preinstalls the fiber, the router and the Wifi and if you choose to sign up all you need to do is configure your devices and you have Wifi throughout your home with little to no work on your part. True it might not be full speed everywhere but most people in the Villages don't care or even know about that and are happy as long as they get a connection everywhere in the home.

[biker1]

Just curious, what are you doing that you would notice the difference between 300-400 megabits per second and 600-800 megabits per second besides running "speedtest"? With regard to streaming video, 1080p only consumes about 5 megabits per second of bandwidth per stream and 2160p only consumes about 20 megabits per second of bandwidth per stream. Provided you have sufficient bandwidth to support these numbers, additional bandwidth will not provide any improvement in video quality. By the way, "GB" stand for gigabytes. An upper case "B" is bytes and a lower case "b" is bits. Internet transmission speeds are typically stated in bits and not bytes so you would want to use "Gb". Most other computer related bandwidths are stated in bytes, such as disk/SSD IO rates. Many of the internet service provider representatives get this wrong.

Originally Posted by PoolBrews

I have Quantum fiber (1GB) and the latest Netgear Orbi's with Wifi 6. This is as fast as you get with mesh Wifi. Look at every speed test comparison and you'll find that Orbi's win every time by a comfortable margin.

If you can get Quantum in your area, they give you free wireless pods. Note that they may only give you 2 or 3 based on your home size, but you can go online and get up to a max of 4 free from them. I have the Quantum pods running on a separate network that supplies my 2.4ghz home devices (outlets, lights, pool, etc) and provides some outdoor coverage in areas where signal is weak (I have a poured concrete home). My two Orbi's are my primary network.

With 1GB incoming network speed, my computer, phone, and streaming devices all see speeds around 600MB-800MB. If I connect the same devices to the Quantum pods, speeds are only in the 300MB-400MB range. So while the pods are a nice freebie, they are not the most efficient wireless devices.

With either of these routers, if you plug in a hard connection, speeds go up to 900MB-1.2GB.

I would highly recommend Quantum if it's available to you, and go with the free pods at first. If that handles your needs, you're good. You can always add in a higher end mesh system later on.