Mesh kits vs Powerline

[Avast Business]

Hi, all

I have recently moved, and I need to improve my home network coverage, as my wife is working from home and needs access to the company's systems. I am considering buying a wireless mesh kit with 3 dishes, but I wonder if a powerline kit with built-in wireless a better option would be. What do you guys think?

My house has two floors, but the areas in each room are relatively small...

 

[DontAsk]

In previous houses I never had an issue with power line, even when plugged into extensions. In current house it has issues going between different rings unless plugged directly into sockets (which, to be fair they say you should do)..

 

[Ozzy]

Personally I've used both depending the purpose, as mesh kits tend to have high latency I've found (which is not great for gaming but fine for streaming).
So we have a 1GB fibre coming into my Man Cave (*cough* Home Office *cough*) and then from that I have a wireless mesh to the living room for all our viewing pleasure.
I then have some a powerline adaptor to my son's room for his Xbox, a powerline adaptor to my daughters room for her Xbox, and wait for it... a powerline adaptor to the living room (!!!) for my wife's xbox. The consoles are all in effect hard wired but everything else uses wifi, and mainly because of the way wifi transmission workds. Even the wireless hubs that have 3 or 4 transmitters don't switch fast enough for high traffic burst rate communications like gaming across several consoles.

 

[Solve My Problem]

If you can use hard wired solutions, that is the best option. Although not always practical.

We had a client recently who had an outbuilding office, they used BT powerline adapters but these were unreliable. We used TPLink before going for a more direct route and these have worked flawlessly since.

Going back a couple of years but an old grade 1 listed farmhouse with 3 floors was a harder beast, but with power lines we were able to cover most of the building. It wasn't 100% coverage but the key areas were all covered.

The best option, buy from Amazon, try and if it doesn't work return. As @DontAsk says sometimes they work great, other times not so much. It only takes a noisy equipment to throw these out.

You can also find with too many wireless access points they will reduce power as they detect each other. Sometimes less is more.

Darren

 

[Avast Business]

Thanks, all!

I was considering using powerline just for her office and get a SSID just for her and her daily tasks - in this sense i guess the Powerline with wifi option makes sense, but the thing is that i could do that with an advanced mesh kit that would also allow me to create a 2nd wifi SSID... Just can't make up my mind.

Solve my problem, in the case of Mesh kits, that AP argument is still important? Do you consider the mesh dishes as different APs?

 

[Solve My Problem]

Solve my problem, in the case of Mesh kits, that AP argument is still important? Do you consider the mesh dishes as different APs?

It's less important but also needs to be considered, it's not my area of expertise. We typically outsource larger installs. We did a site survey in a hotel last year and the wireless engineer pulled up that the two AP's in the corridor were actually knocking each other out.

I suspect you are doing what we all do and over thinking it, so easy to spend hours on deciding something that actually would work with either solution

Darren

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Why not ethernet them all via a Lan or is that to old fashioned

 

[KM-Tiger]

Why not ethernet them all via a Lan or is that to old fashioned

Actually that's the best solution, but it will be costly in money or time.

As said powerlines do work, and work best when plugged directly into a wall socket, and all wall sockets are on the same ring main.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Huawei Q2 pro base plus 2 satellites powerline with build in wifi mesh around & 80.Ghetto solution but works well and stable. If money is no issue network cable and draytek all the way. Stay away from ubiquiti. Overpriced gear that went down hill a lot in the last years.

 

[Avast Business]

Thanks, all. Wired network throughout the house is no longer a choice because bnon't want to do construction work (NEVER AGAIN!!!!!) In addition, We would always have to have an Access Point, because we have my wife also uses a tablet to work.

I'll think about all the recommendations and try a solution. I think I'll test powerline, but I have a friend who will lend me a TP-Link M9Plus mesh kit so I can also do some tests...

 

[Avast Business]

Hi, everyone. Just to let you know: TP-Link M9Plus mesh kit with 3 dishes and working just fine!

Thanks all!