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Recommend a new mesh system?
I current have 1 gig cable service. Using Google wifi. I have the main router plus 4 access points.
Testing speeds at the router itself, I get about 850mbps. No device on wifi gets more than about 150mbps - even with most devices powered off. I've been very unimpressed with their mesh system. Nodes drop offline, and speed is horrible on other rooms - usually 25-50mbps. Maybe I just got a bad system, but my regular old non-mesh router is faster - coverage just isn't sufficient.
I'm changing providers and going to a 2gig service. I know I won't see 2 gigs on my wifi devices. I don't have unrealistic expectations. This 2gig service is cheaper than I'm paying for the 1gig service with my current provider.
Can someone recommend one of the best mesh systems?
Home is 4500sq ft. Upstairs and down. 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms. 4 phones, 4 TV's, three gaming consoles, 2 laptops on wifi at any given time, plus another handful of smart home devices. Things like TVs and gaming consoles are going to have older network adapters that will limit their speeds. I get it.
I do not have any cable ran to any of the rooms, but I would consider running some if it made a big difference. I would prefer not to.
I don't need VPN or any sort of antivirus. I just need to be able to open some ports, etc. Parental controls would be a bonus, but not necessary.
Budget? Would prefer to stay under $500 for a 2-node system. Would add more nodes at a later time if necessary.
Take a look at the Synology routers. They’re a little less talked about but I’ve had good results with my two node system before moving to a UniFi system.
I second Synology. I have been rocking them for over a year and they've been rock solid. They have great parental controls in the form of "Safe Access", where you create profiles for each member of the family and assign devices to them. You can have multiple filters assigned to different people and switch between filters based on a schedule.
If you need WIFI 6 (ax) speeds throughout the house, I'd recommend using the RT6600AX as the main router and using WRX560 as APs.
If WIFI 5 (ac) sufficient I would go for the RT2600ac as the main router and MR2200ac as APs.
As other have mentioned, hardwiring your APs will give you the best results.
The Netgear Orbi would be a good option for you, as it should fit within your budget and provides excellent performance.
But the issue may not be the Google WiFi mesh system itself. Nearby WiFi networks, Bluetooth devices, or other wireless gadgets could cause interference that slows things down; having too many devices connected simultaneously can clog up the available WiFi bandwidth, and the Google WiFi units themselves might be faulty. Try resetting them to default settings doing a fresh setup updating the firmware and lastly moving the router and nodes as they may be in a bad position
Respectfully, recommending a basically-identical mesh wifi system or suggesting units are faulty are probably gonna give OP false hope. Mesh is just ass, no two ways about it, as you say in the second half of your comment.
I have similar size home as yours and also 2-stories. I bought 2-pack Asus ZenWifi Pro ET12, and have them wired backhaul. So far no complaints, works pretty smooth and I like having it simple. Asus app is also great, and comes with a free VPN app (Instant Guard) to leverage the router. The only thing is that, ET12 does not have Asus Merlin support yet (XT12 does have), but not a big deal and I can wait. Have been using Asus + Merlin for years (last one is AX88U), and always like how it’s being reliable.
For that size of house you would really benefit from some ethernet cables. My house is 'only' 2,800 at and I have two hard wired access points and I get amazing coverage everywhere. It will cost more than $500 to get cables run and get good access points (Unifi or TP-link Omanda) but it will run circles around anything mesh based.
Yup. +1 to Omada (and Unifi though I like them less) and wired backhaul. There is absolutely zero bullshit in my Omada setup with two ceiling APs
Consider the TP-Link Deco X20 Ax1800 mesh system. Excellent coverage, reliable performance, and good speeds.
Wired backhaul - "running cable to the rooms" - is really your best hope. Do you have coax in the house? MoCA is annoying compared to real ethernet but hell of a lot better than wireless backhaul.
Can you access the attic and crawlspace easily? Do you have a datacloset where your coax (or phone) comes into?
Don't upgrade your internet service until you sort all this shit out.
Please explain your house and topo more
I have access to the crawl space and attic (two story home). I'm not against running wires to the access points if that's my best bet. Coax exists, but I simply don't want to use it. I'd rather run proper network cable. It would be no problem to run. The crawl space is large and I've been all through it and the attic. We plan on living here for a long time so I'm not worried about making permanent modifications.
What devices would you recommend using if I were to run cable to 2 or 3 rooms for access points? I don't mind spending $500-800 if there's something significantly better at that price as opposed to the "unde 500" I originally mentioned.
I'm familiar with terminating Cat 5 cable (although I assume I need Cat 6), so creating and running the cables isn't really an issue.
I'm a "tech" person - I'm just out of the loop on the latest wifi stuff!
While I'm running cables - bonus points if the access points allow wired devices for gaming consoles (kids). That would also free up a lot of wifi bandwidth because those same consoles are used for streaming TV.