ATT BGW210 -> BGW320 = lost Wifi range

I just recently installed a $90 RockSpace 1200 Mbps Mesh system that comes with 3 routers. I connected 1 of the 3 mesh routers via Ethernet cable to my AT&T Gateway and the other RockSpace routers connect to each other and the "main" RockSpace router automatically via Wi-Fi. My house is about 5000 sq ft including the decks. What an amazing improvement over the existing AT&T Uverse Wi-Fi.

Both RockSpace and the Uverse Wi-Fi run simultaneously, but I've moved most of my devices over to the RockSpace Wi-Fi since it is so much faster and better. The RockSpace Wi-Fi is 5 bars all around the house and outside of the perimeter of my 2 story with basement now and connects much faster than my crappy Uverse router. The RockSpace mesh is so much more reliable also. It never has drops compared to the Uverse Wi-Fi which often dropped especially while on my deck. I even connect to my Wi-Fi about 75' outside of my house to a Wifi camera by my creek out back. Best $90 bucks I've spent this year.

You're welcome. I highly recommend it. If for some reason you didn't like it, it has Amazon's Free 30 day return policy. There are several reviews of the RockSpace Mesh Network on YouTube and you can see how easy it is to set up.

There are two versions on Amazon. I got the cheaper version at $89.99 and it's awesome. I think it may be the newer version oddly enough. It was so easy to set up. Wish I would have done it sooner. I can't imagine a more expensive mesh system working any better than this setup. You can also add a bunch more of these (you have to order 3 routers at a time for $90). However, 3 was more than enough for our house. If someone had a really large house with a detached garage and pool house out back, etc., then perhaps they might need to order another 3 mesh routers (6 total).

We had approx. 20 WiFi devices in our home (phones, cameras, TVs, etc.), and you can add up to 60 devices. The Rockspace system has a great app for managing the network. Each time I moved a device to it, I immediately renamed it in the app, so I will always know what's on my mesh network. If I ever were to see anything I didn't recognize, I would add it to the blacklisted devices which is included in the device management on the app.

Using the app, you can click on each router node in the mesh and get details on it, plus you can see what every device connected to the mesh is doing, how much bandwidth each device is using, if each device is active or when it last connected to the network, etc.

You can also grant "Guest" access with its own password and make it temporary and with restrictions, etc. You can also set parental controls, set QoS parameters, do port forwarding and a bunch of other stuff that I don't use. It can do its own speed test.

So not only is the mesh network fast and reliable, the app and management of the system is feature rich and intuitively easy to use.

Once you get the 3 routers set up, its easy to know if they are spaced appropriately, as you can tell on the LED light on each router. It's easy to move them around. Each router has two Ethernet Ports. Only one Router has to be connected to your ISP router/gateway. If you had a device in your home that has no WiFi but uses an Ethernet port, one of the two Ethernet Ports on each RockSpace node is an "Out" port that you can connect directly to say a printer or PC, etc, if you needed to do that.

In your case, I wouldn't run any additional Ethernet cable anywhere without trying to let the mesh routers work their magic first. If your garage is detached, you could try setting up one of the mesh routers in the main house near a wall adjacent to the garage and on the same level as the garage (or ABOVE the garage). If that didn't work well, you could try putting a node in the garage.

In our case we have one mesh router on our 2nd floor, and two on the main floor and none in our basement. Two are near windows near the front wall, and one on our main floor is near windows near our back wall. The RockSpace WiFi signal in the basement and out into our backyard is still stronger than our Uverse Wifi (our AT&T Gateway is installed in our basement). We already had Ethernet cable ran to multiple locations throughout the house, so our main mesh router is on our 2nd floor. All three routers are identical and already paired with each other right out of the box. Just install Ethernet cable to one of them and then turn on the other two and they'll connect automatically. You can rename each router using the app.

Our 3 RockSpace routers create a "triangle" and they are roughly 30 feet apart from each other and through floors and multiple walls. The instructions say to space them no more than 25 feet apart if I remember correctly. But I think they can probably be spaced a good bit further apart than that. One person wrote in the Q&A "...we have each pod placed approximately 50 feet from the base unit in two different directions and receive a strong signal out another 75 + feet from each pod. This covers the entire 2500 square foot home, 1500 square foot front porch and the pool area in backyard." Based on the performance of our mesh network I would agree with their assessment.

Here's the link on Amazon to the one we bought.

Rockspace Mesh WiFi System - 1200Mbps Whole Home Wifi Mesh Network

Awesome. I didn't even realize they had an upgraded system. You may not notice any improvement over the $90 system now but you've likely future proofed your setup for more years as technology improves with faster and more bandwidth intensive devices. Definitely let us know how well your setup works.

If those rockspace units get the job done for you, then that's a tough value to pass up.

However, from what I've read, while they will certainly give you broad coverage, it's not going to be fast coverage. I see lots of reports of only 40mbps. For many users that might be fine.

Also it seems they use the very old TKIP with no option to use the newer and stronger AES (I think the newest iOS will warn you about this when you connect to these units). TKIP is no longer considered secure, so that might be a concern if you have neighbors within range or if someone decides to do some wardriving through your neighborhood.

Also see lots of reports of these units just breaking after a while, but for $90 who cares?

I didn't mean to disparage the purchase (I said it seems like a good value), rather I just wanted to put some of the information I found out there in case it matters to anyone.

quote:

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I'll take my chances spending $90 versus thousands of dollars on the most secure and fastest and more feature rich Unify Ubiquity system that some people feel like they need to have the "best".

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I do have a UniFi system, mostly because I like being able to create multiple networks to segregate my more questionable devices from my important stuff, and UniFi makes that easy. But also I like the clean look of a ceiling-mounted access point.

And it doesn't cost "thousands of dollars". If you spend something approaching a thousand dollars, including installation fees if you can't DIY, then you've got business grade networking in your house.

Are most mesh users running true mesh or at least wiring the access points to the main one? with the ease of things these days, i don't understand why people would not wire as much as they could. I have thoroughly enjoyed my Ubiquiti setup and have installed a few others. Looking at Aruba Instant On for next test platform and can't wait to see how that one goes.