Networking ppl, need help (router stuff)

Say a big two stories 6 bedroom house or mansion, router can't keep up with the range. Only have one outlet for cable, and don't want to run Ethernet cables from router to other routera or PCs

What is my best option? Someone suggested open mesh

Network extenders or Ethernet over power are good options too. It really depends of the your house layout and the devices you have.

@npiet1: Ethernet over powers won't require any cabling? Running cables from device to router

https://www.amazon.com/Open-Mesh-5GHz-Access-Point-A42/dp/B07957J7BV

@Hydrolex: it does for wired from the router to the powerpoint. So you can use the same plug for the device eg. Router powerpoint also powers the device., but for wireless version. No you don't any cables except for initial setup

@npiet1: any wireless ones you can recommend plz? Budget is 800 bucks total

@Hydrolex: what's your house made out of? 5ghz or just 2.4ghz?

@npiet1: 2.4hz

@Hydrolex: it's been a while since I've set up networks so prices have gone down a lot. Here's a 5g/2.4ghz one. If your house is just wood you should only need 1 if it's brick or concrete you might need 2

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV1000Mbps-Powerline-WiFi-Extender/dp/B0725LPTZR/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1548048262&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=power+of+ethernet+wireless

@npiet1:

Thanks, will look!

There're powerline extenders/wifi adapters but I wouldn't waste my time on them unless you want to connect via cable or pretty sure about the electricity lines that running inside your house, poor electricity configuration could result in poor speed with pings even by using a cable. I'd take the more expensive approach and grab some 3 point mesh.

Could someone explain the difference between a "mesh" and an "extender"?

@PredatorRules:

Thanks, any idea which one? Money not an issue

I heard the ones from Google are great, TP Link counts as the cheapest but quite do the job well. Netgear is also a good option.

mrbojangles25 Mesh is basically 3 APs (Access Points) configured to work flawlessly on the same wifi name. Before Mesh was a whole product that sold as 1 unit network people were configuring as many APs as needed using different brands sometimes and different models to solve wifi problems at work / homes.

Wifi extender basically takes the signal that comes from your router and amplifies it / repeats it (see Wifi repeater).

Mesh is the more expensive and the better solution out of them all, you can apply more than 3 of those, they're also sold separately or in twos so that you can add as many as you need. Typically 3 point mesh would be more than enough for a 2 floor house.

@PredatorRules:

If you need any kind of control over your wireless (in depth things), Google mesh is awful. You cannot connect multiple wired devices to the APs if you're in mesh mode and if by some chance you need to utilize Plex and have it connect to the web for outside your network connectivity - it won't work.

I was gifted a 3 puck Google Wi-Fi. Cool. Looks neat, but I wasn't in need of it. It sat in the box for 8-10 months. Then one day, the router I was using was causing issues and after power cycling it, it wouldn't power back on (sent in to ASUS for warranty). Thankfully I had the Google Wi-Fi to use for backup.

I get it setup - which it self is pretty simple. You need a smartphone, be it Android or Apple and download the Google app for the wi-fi. You set up the first puck as your main AP. Then you find a couple other spots around your place to setup the other pucks in mesh connection. This works great, no issues with this basic setup.

In my case I need a handful of things wired (my PC - I won't game on wireless, it just sucks compared to wired, my PS3 at the time and a couple of other devices) and the main puck for your wireless mesh can be the only one a wired device can be plugged into, but each puck only has 1 RJ45 port. I need 4 devices wired, but only one port.....time to connect up a 5 port switch.

I plug in the switch, connect my wired devices and none of them are on the network. If I plugged 1 wired device directly into the puck, it would get on the network. The puck didn't work well with the switch if you don't set it up in the correct steps.

• I have to now factory reset all the pucks and unplug power to the two mesh points - the factory reset takes about 10 minutes
• I have to setup the main puck again without anything else plugged into it (I cannot have the switch or any other wired device plugged into it).
• Now I connect my switch and plug in each device one at a time and verify they all get internet connectivity
• Now I setup the other mesh points
• Everything is working! Yeah!
• Roughly 24-48 hours later the mesh points are flashing amber/red color, instead of the clear/blue because the mesh points are not connecting with Google to verify their firmware version. The mesh points still work within the network even though they're currently flashing the amber/red color
• After 7-10 days, the mesh points stop working on the network. The Google Wi-Fi app on my phone shows they're not connect anymore
• I have to factory reset the system again and go through all the above steps again. I did this 3 different times over the course of about 2 weeks. After that, I said screw it and stopped using the mesh setup.
• Apparently a switch plays havoc with the mesh configuration

I setup one puck to the be the wifi router for my house, but it doesn't quite provide the range at the far end of the house, but whatever. I connect the switch and everything is working fine. A few days later my RMA'ed ASUS router comes back, but since things are working fine with the Google WiFi puck, I just leave it.

Fast forward a couple months later. I build a system to use for my Plex server. Upon getting it setup, movies copied to it I give the subscription based version of Plex a try. My brother likes it, he can stream any video I have on the server without issues......for a few hours, then the connection to the internet for the plex server fails. I have to restart reboot (power cycle) the Google puck and at the same time, restart the Plex server to get the internet to connect again for the server. But, after a short period of time the Google puck fails to keep the plex server accessible outside of my network. I tried to setup port forwarding on the puck, but that made zero difference. I factory reset the puck and tried setting it up again - no change.

I eventually said F it and damn near threw the Google Wi-Fi pucks away. I plugged in my ASUS router in and my Plex server popped online without a hitch. I plugged in all my wired devices without an issue and I have so much more control over my ASUS router - MAC address blocking for the kids devices, QoS for my computer and limiting the upload for the plex server so when others are streaming it doesn't bog everything else down that requires upload bandwidth.

Long story short - if you just need wifi, Google mesh network should work just fine. If you need any number of devices wired or have a Plex server that others access, avoid Google WiFi pucks.