Our home in the mountains has a lot of stone in it and it seems to be hampering our wifi signal going throughout the house so we’re thinking of gettin a couple of wifi boosters to improve the signal inside the home.

What’s working for you guys?
Thanks.

PS. We’re on Spectrum internet if that makes any difference.

EERO WiFi 6 Mesh system.

I found extenders to be of zero help, the best solutions have been to put in a mesh router system, there are several out there, from Google Pucks, Netgear has Orbi, get the Wi-Fi 6 models, if you have a Costco/Sams it would be a good place to look. The size of the home dictates which system you need.

Price wise the Google systems lead, I put one in my daughters home and it alleviated all the issues they had with wi-fi inaccessibility


I have the Netgear Nighthawk AX3000 works great for fixing dead spots and access.

https://www.costco.com/Catalog...l&keyword=wi-fi+mesh

Consider adding additional AP's if feasible.
MESH still has to communicate through the same stone but may work.
Extenders and MESH should only be used if a hard wired AP is not possible (and can be difficult in already built homes).
I almost never install them but if I did I would insist on a complete system of the same brand not just an add on, disable any built-in router Wi-Fi.
EnGenius is my primary brand but it is not the only one.
Additionally, planning and thinking through the details of the installation including any testing will go a long way.

My house is laid out long. Router is in mg office. Router/modem is in my home office on one far end. Multiple walls and rooms and a stair case. We use a EERO 6 as well with no problems.

How to choose between eero and engenius? eero, originally sf based company now owned by amazon. engenius is owned by taiwan company.

both seem recommended here. both sound like good products. how to choose one over the other.....?

I basically live in a faraday chamber, tried just about every mesh system with limited results. I finally setup a ubiquiti network with two wired APs and two meshed APs downstairs locked to the AP directly upstairs from them

A little learning curve, some channel modification, broadcast strength tweaks it’s now the best (and most secure) I’ve ever had

As usual, Schulzy has top notch advice. My philosophy is never use radio when cable (copper or fiber optic) is an option. A cluster of APs with a cable backhaul will always outperform a radio-based design except in very unusual circumstances. Pulling wire isn't that hard. If you have to do over-the-air backhaul, try to implement something with aimable, directional antennas, antenna quality is often more of a factor than the radios, especially when distance is involved. This means buying units with an external antenna jack, and appropriate antennas. It is worth the extra effort to pull a cable unless you absolutely can't (e.g. APs on both the North rim and the South rim of the Grand Canyon).

As far as brands go. I have had lots of good experiences with Engenius, and no experience with eero, just looking at their product pages on Amazon, it appears that eero is more focused on marketing than on technology. I also like Ubiquiti access points and routers, if you can manage to avoid getting tangled up in their UniFi centralized management platform.

I've nothing to add to what smschulz and architect wrote. They've pretty much nailed it. Except...

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
I also like Ubiquiti access points and routers, if you can manage to avoid getting tangled up in their UniFi centralized management platform.

Which you cannot, at least with their APs, as UniFi centralized management is the only option with them--unless something's changed?

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
I've nothing to add to what smschulz and architect wrote. They've pretty much nailed it. Except...

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
I also like Ubiquiti access points and routers, if you can manage to avoid getting tangled up in their UniFi centralized management platform.

Which you cannot, at least with their APs, as UniFi centralized management is the only option with them--unless something's changed?

It is possible to use their CLI with SSH. The command syntax is just different enough from Vyatta/EdgeOS to be disconcerting, but it is possible to do almost everything without a UniFi console.

BTW, if you are managing scores of APs, routers, P2P links, and SIP phones UniFi is definitely worth the effort, it is just too unwieldy for small to medium scale implementations. I first got involved with Ubiquiti with their mFi line of IP-based switches, sensors, RS-232 interfaces, and cameras, great for remote computer room monitoring and control. Then, of course, they discontinued this line, and never integrated mFi and UniFi devices or consoles, talk about a schizophrenic company!

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
BTW, if you are managing scores of APs, routers, P2P links, and SIP phones UniFi is definitely worth the effort, it is just too unwieldy for small to medium scale implementations.

I simply don't trust it. I never did much like it, but, when Ubiquiti up and arbitrary stopped support for OpenJDK, without warning, pushing an update that killed UniFi on my servers both at home and at work, and their only answer was "upgrade to Oracle Java," that was the end road for me an UniFi.

Thanks everyone. It looks like I’ll be getting a mesh system.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
how to choose one over the other.....?

Can't speak to engenius, but if support matters, my experience with eero support has been that native English-speakers picked up the phone within a couple of rings and the reps were technical enough they didn't need to forward to someone else to solve issues.

Just want to echo what others had said - pull cable for backhaul to your nodes and it'd be better than everything else.

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
Just want to echo what others had said - pull cable for backhaul to your nodes and it'd be better than everything else.

OP posted that he intends to buy a mesh system which means that the OP would also need to choose a mesh system with wired (aka ethernet) backhaul. Not all have wired backhaul, but the following non-exhaustive list do:

TP-Link Deco X20, X55 (I own and recommend this), X60, XE75, X90

Linksys Atlas WiFi 6

Netgear Orbi 960 Series AXE11000

---

Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

Just a note if it matters to your purchase decisions:

1. TP-Link is a chicom company. That's a no-go for me.

2. Linksys was a go-to company for me back in the day. But they seem to have lost their way (product quality, etc) after ownership by belkin and foxconn. Even when cisco owned them, it seemed to be going downhill.

3. Netgear seems like a hybrid US/chinese company; I don't like them but still buy their products under duress (since motorola and cisco are no longer viable for me). They have security issues (at least more visible than other brands), they fail like clockwork (I need to replace them every 2 years), and I HATE their app and the need to create an account (the web interface is preferred but it's very unstable). I'll be looking at engenius moving forward.

I'm not saying the products suggested are bad. But manufacturer to me is a consideration. There is a difference, however pragmatic, between buying a product from a chicom company vs a product from an non-chicom company but manufactured in chi-land.

If your cell service is poor--Wifi 6 enables much better Wifi calling.
Mesh is nice--Mesh can be made better by hardwiring the Mesh units together. As others have stated--copper is better than radio.
I continue to use and upgrade my Eero system. Eero is relatively simple to install.

Link to Eero chart https://evanmccann.net/blog/ee...ro-comparison-charts

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:
Just want to echo what others had said - pull cable for backhaul to your nodes and it'd be better than everything else.

OP posted that he intends to buy a mesh system which means that the OP would also need to choose a mesh system with wired (aka ethernet) backhaul. Not all have wired backhaul, but the following non-exhaustive list do:

TP-Link Deco X20, X55 (I own and recommend this), X60, XE75, X90

Linksys Atlas WiFi 6

Netgear Orbi 960 Series AXE11000

Depending on the hardware the OP already has, some brands have mesh capability in their separate components. Most mesh-only products are very low-end, IMO. Specs are OK, but build quality & software suffer to meet a price point.

For a small step up in capability, TP-link & Asus have routers & extenders that can create a mesh network, in addition to their products that are mesh-only. I already had a TP-link router that was mesh-ready. Added a $20 extender, set it up in mesh mode (<5 minutes) and have better wifi on that end of the yard. No replacing components, learning new setup routines, etc.

I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with my Netgear router (wifi6 and GB LAN). The LAN has gone awol twice over the past month or so; easy recovery (just reboot the router) but it's inconvenient at best.

I looked at engenious - I'm might be missing it but I only see switches and AP's. No router similar to what I'm using?

If so, then to replace my current router with wifi/lan, I should buy a VLAN switch (to act as a router subnet under my modem; I know this is not entirely necessary) and an AP (to which I would attach to the switch)? I need to buy 2 engenius devices (actually just the AP; I have a spare VLAN switch I could use here)?

Take a look at Synology.
Taiwanese.

Can use mesh , or not ,and can use wired or wireless backhaul
Good security , and latest versions can set up vlan
Also can set up guest network and either bridge to main or not.