WiFi Mesh Question

Honestly you can probably get it done with a couple more pucks.

One thing to keep in mind, and there is a bit of speculation here, but I believe the google pucks radiate best up and out, but not down. This means the puck on the 2nd floor is likely doing very little for the 1st floor. The first floor is probably only covered by the basement puck, which depending on your floor might not be doing much either.

Just as a test, maybe try flipping the 2nd floor puck upside down or on its side to see if the 1st floor gets better coverage. If so, maybe you can mount it vertically on a wall to better cover the 1st floor. Try to imagine a dome projecting out the top and sides of the puck, and aim it appropriately for your house. Might be better off putting that puck on the 1st floor and let it cover the top floor. And of course one per level would be best.

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Is there a Mesh system out there that will cover my entire house (2 floors plus a basement, with aout 1200 ft on each floor)? I don't want to spend $500+, but could be convinced to spend $300ish if the coverage is superior.

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You're cutting it tight with that budget trying to cover 3 levels plus a detached garage. Like I said, I'm sure you can get it done with the google pucks, but if you want a truly good signal throughout then your best bet is to run some cable between floors instead of relying on wifi mesh.

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My concern about the extra pucks and put them closer to the other side of the house, that the system might switch to daisy chain mode, which is inherently less efficient, as I understand.

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Even if so, a couple of mesh hops should still result in pretty good speed. Plenty enough to prevent buffering while streaming.

But yeah, this is why hard wire is recommended.

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I guess I put a cap on the budget because I've never spent that much on wifi, before, and am suffering from sticker shock. Used to be that you could get a really good router for a couple hundred.

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Yeah take a look at some of the Orbi systems. $300+ per unit for some, yikes!

And I think that back in the day when a good router for a couple hundred bucks was sufficient, we were doing a lot less streaming and we didn't expect great wifi on our phones over every square foot of the house. Also, the spectrum is getting more crowded since everyone is blasting wifi all over the place, so interference plays more and more into it (assuming you have neighbors nearby).

So 5-10+ years ago people were always looking for wifi extenders and such before the mesh systems improved on that. And having multiple access points is more important now with cell phones because no matter how "strong" your wifi router is, the device still has to talk back to it. So a few lower-powered APs will give a better experience than one high-powered one.

So if you can get past the sticker shock, wiring up the house with cat6 is the best long-term solution. Honestly though it might not be too bad if you call around your local shops. Something like Ubiquiti APs are not very expensive, and maybe you can find someone to hook them up pretty cheap. I would think 2 of them would give better coverage than 3 or 4 google pucks, and you might be able to get it all done for less than $500 all in.

Then your wifi will be basically out of sight on the ceiling rather than on a shelf or whatever plugged into the wall. Ideally your access point should be near the middle of a room, because if it's against a wall then the range is immediately cut down.

Yeah, I have them plugged into the wall closest to the garage, which means the bottom of the puck faces the wifi source. My house is brick, so I wanted the pucks in the house to be as close as possible to the puck in the garage. They still worked okay, but I may experiment with moving them away from the outer wall nearest the garage.

I don't want to spend $200 on pucks that still have the same problem. I think I'd rather pay $400 for a better overall unit, so I'm torn.

Also have the Netgear Orbi, best purchase I've made. My downstairs satellite reaches out to the pool and beyond to my backyard fire pit and RV garage.

I was mad at myself for waiting so long due to the price and throwing other options like crap extenders at the problem. Should have made the switch years ago. Happy as can be now though.

I hear you, but I'm not likely to live in this house for more than a year or so. I can take my new wifi routers with me, but I can't take the Cat6. So it won't work for me.

I was looking at an eero system. A 3-pack of routers for $223. I can get a fourth one for another $100. Looks pretty good and they are Wifi 6 (AC1800) routers. Seems to be a good deal. A three pack of the eero PRO 6's runs $600, by comparison...

I have the Eero system on my Eatel Gig service.
No complaints since I switched to Eero over a year ago.

Netgear Orbi will handle that easily.

Lots of Orbi fans in here. You guys have the Lego style or the air freshener style?


And damn I didn't realize how many different models they have.

I bit the bullet and bought the Orbi AC3000. Router + Satellite on sale for $259 at Walmart right now. Thought that was pretty good. Saw the same thing at Best Buy for $329 on sale.

Orbi AC3000

Thought I'd post a link as it seems to be a good deal.

Followup:

I was getting download speeds of 80-90 mbps at the back of the house (nearest the garage), before. 30-40 on the front side of the house.

After installing the Orbi, I get 230 down on the back side of the house and 160 on the front side.

That's with one unit in the garage and one unit on the second floor landing. The garage unit covers the basement and back of the house and the 2nd floor unit covers the second floor and front of the house. I don't think I'll need a second satellite.

2 additional pucks would cost me $200. The entire Orbi cost me $259. The extra 60 bucks gives me 3x the bandwidth.

An extra AC3000 satellite is running $249, so I'm very glad we didn't need it.

So far, very pleased with Orbi.

BTW - This is WiFi 5, not 6.