4 ms·

I gave up on flaky WiFi mesh networking and connected the APs to my home's inactive cable wiring using MoCA adapters. Local bandwidth increased 4x, and I was ab

by sowbug 4y ago

I gave up on flaky WiFi mesh networking and connected the APs to my home's inactive cable wiring using MoCA adapters. Local bandwidth increased 4x, and I was able to achieve solid coverage throughout the house. I also replaced a rock, a brick, and a rubber wedge with magnetic door holders, each about $5. Now when we're bringing in the groceries, we can keep the door open without the rock, and it's easy to close when we're done.

ajyey 4y ago
Which mesh routing system did u have that was flaky? I just closed on a home and have been thinking about going mesh. Ideally would like most stuff hardwired but I’m being lazy
- lkois 4y ago
  Ethernet over power is another good option. After messing about with bad wifi in a townhouse for a few years, EOP has been going strong for over a decade
  - trafficante 4y ago
    It’s definitely superior to something like a wireless backhaul but, if you have the capability, I’d recommend coax any day vs powerline. Speeds are much faster and (more importantly) far more stable.
- rockostrich 4y ago
  If the house already has coax ran but no ethernet then MoCA adapters really are the way to go. For some reason that's how my 2021 new construction house was built and now I have wired connections in all of the rooms that I care about.
- panphora 4y ago
  I don't know which one OP uses, but I've heard great things about the NETGEAR Orbi Quad-Band WiFi 6E
- philjohn 4y ago
  Honestly, I've tried a few myself, and none of them were that great. The Orbi was pretty fast, but the satellite needed rebooting every couple of weeks. I ended up going for in-ceiling AP's, having the house wired for Ethernet, and powering them with PoE. Now the network is faultless.
- liquidwax 4y ago
  Don't know how big of a home you have but I've been pitched mesh wifi but I realized I didn't really need it (~3k sqft home). My ~$150 Netgear router works perfectly fine. My recommendation is to see if a regular router works for you before you invest in mesh.
- sowbug 4y ago
  Google WiFi (not the Nest ones with the built-in microphones). They're fine for most cases, but every so often I'd discover that one had gotten voted off the island, causing the remaining two in the mesh to deliver a weak signal to some of the house. Another problem with mesh networks in general is that they're very sensitive to placement, because they need to be able to see each other (in an RF sense, not visually) to form the backhaul. It adds an additional constraint on your physical topology beyond the regular one of wanting to use the laptop on the couch and in the kitchen. So you end up moving the mesh nodes to corners of the room where you didn't really want them to be, aesthetically. At a certain point you ask yourself whether it would have been easier to run the damn cable through the ceiling than to play musical chairs every few weeks.
rockostrich 4y ago
How did you spend less than $200 on APs and MoCA adapters? Each MoCA adapter is like $50 and you need at least 2 of them to be useful. It seems like cheaper APs can run ~$30 but only support 2.4Ghz/300 Mbps. I just invested in 4 MoCA adapters and a Ubiquiti UDM/2 small APs (tall & skinny row home with 3 floors but now I get 500 Mbps everywhere in the house including the roof) but it ran way over $200.
- easton 4y ago
  Most of the mesh APs I've seen on the market also have Ethernet ports so you don't have to just extend the wireless signal around the house. So if OP already had the APs (which it sounds like they did), they just needed to get the MoCA adapters.
  - sowbug 4y ago
    Yup, that's what happened. They are $50 each on Amazon US. I think they even included short Ethernet cables, so I didn't even have to root around in the garage to find extras. FWIW, I got only the 1Gbps speed, rather than 2.5Gbps, because my fiber internet tops out at around 900Mbps and I'm the only one in my family who does anything substantial the local network. For once in my life, I might have enough bandwidth at home.
- MegaDeKay 4y ago
  Can I ask what adapters you are using that cost you around $50? Here in Canada I am having trouble finding MoCA adapters that don't cost double that.
  - sowbug 4y ago
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MQG6T61/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MQG6T61/ are $99.99 for a two-pack.
    - MegaDeKay 4y ago
      Thanks but these guys appear to be quite expensive up here. Cheapest MoCA units I can find on Amazon.ca hover around $163 C$ a pair. However, in the process, I discoved that DirecTV DECA adapters can be used on "dark coax" for $41 C$ a pair. Whoa! They top out at 100MBit/sec, but that would be plenty for my use case. And I just happen to have a fair bit of this "dark coax" running through my house.
karmakaze 4y ago
Me too. I was doing a bit of RTS gaming and flaky wifi is terrible. I got a $199 a Base/Satellite Netgear mesh starter kit (Mk62 I think) on some kind of discount. It's also not the latest/top model. I later added a 3rd satellite and it's great. The satellites even have an Ethernet port so that you're only using the base-satellite backhaul channel and not the normal wifi client ones.
supernova87a 4y ago
I helped my building build a simple PoE + wifi access points network and I was surprised at how cheap (~$150) it was and how effective. Makes me think that all the name-brand-Eero-style wifi extender stuff is pointless if you can take just a few more steps to install this kind of thing (which is not hard, but of course depends on your walls/configuration).

by sowbug 4y ago

ajyey 4y ago

Which mesh routing system did u have that was flaky? I just closed on a home and have been thinking about going mesh. Ideally would like most stuff hardwired but I’m being lazy

lkois 4y ago
Ethernet over power is another good option. After messing about with bad wifi in a townhouse for a few years, EOP has been going strong for over a decade
- trafficante 4y ago
  It’s definitely superior to something like a wireless backhaul but, if you have the capability, I’d recommend coax any day vs powerline. Speeds are much faster and (more importantly) far more stable.
rockostrich 4y ago
If the house already has coax ran but no ethernet then MoCA adapters really are the way to go. For some reason that's how my 2021 new construction house was built and now I have wired connections in all of the rooms that I care about.
panphora 4y ago
I don't know which one OP uses, but I've heard great things about the NETGEAR Orbi Quad-Band WiFi 6E
philjohn 4y ago
Honestly, I've tried a few myself, and none of them were that great. The Orbi was pretty fast, but the satellite needed rebooting every couple of weeks. I ended up going for in-ceiling AP's, having the house wired for Ethernet, and powering them with PoE. Now the network is faultless.
liquidwax 4y ago
Don't know how big of a home you have but I've been pitched mesh wifi but I realized I didn't really need it (~3k sqft home). My ~$150 Netgear router works perfectly fine. My recommendation is to see if a regular router works for you before you invest in mesh.
sowbug 4y ago
Google WiFi (not the Nest ones with the built-in microphones). They're fine for most cases, but every so often I'd discover that one had gotten voted off the island, causing the remaining two in the mesh to deliver a weak signal to some of the house. Another problem with mesh networks in general is that they're very sensitive to placement, because they need to be able to see each other (in an RF sense, not visually) to form the backhaul. It adds an additional constraint on your physical topology beyond the regular one of wanting to use the laptop on the couch and in the kitchen. So you end up moving the mesh nodes to corners of the room where you didn't really want them to be, aesthetically. At a certain point you ask yourself whether it would have been easier to run the damn cable through the ceiling than to play musical chairs every few weeks.

rockostrich 4y ago

How did you spend less than $200 on APs and MoCA adapters? Each MoCA adapter is like $50 and you need at least 2 of them to be useful. It seems like cheaper APs can run ~$30 but only support 2.4Ghz/300 Mbps. I just invested in 4 MoCA adapters and a Ubiquiti UDM/2 small APs (tall & skinny row home with 3 floors but now I get 500 Mbps everywhere in the house including the roof) but it ran way over $200.

easton 4y ago
Most of the mesh APs I've seen on the market also have Ethernet ports so you don't have to just extend the wireless signal around the house. So if OP already had the APs (which it sounds like they did), they just needed to get the MoCA adapters.
- sowbug 4y ago
  Yup, that's what happened. They are $50 each on Amazon US. I think they even included short Ethernet cables, so I didn't even have to root around in the garage to find extras. FWIW, I got only the 1Gbps speed, rather than 2.5Gbps, because my fiber internet tops out at around 900Mbps and I'm the only one in my family who does anything substantial the local network. For once in my life, I might have enough bandwidth at home.
MegaDeKay 4y ago
Can I ask what adapters you are using that cost you around $50? Here in Canada I am having trouble finding MoCA adapters that don't cost double that.
- sowbug 4y ago
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MQG6T61/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MQG6T61/ are $99.99 for a two-pack.
  - MegaDeKay 4y ago
    Thanks but these guys appear to be quite expensive up here. Cheapest MoCA units I can find on Amazon.ca hover around $163 C$ a pair. However, in the process, I discoved that DirecTV DECA adapters can be used on "dark coax" for $41 C$ a pair. Whoa! They top out at 100MBit/sec, but that would be plenty for my use case. And I just happen to have a fair bit of this "dark coax" running through my house.

karmakaze 4y ago

Me too. I was doing a bit of RTS gaming and flaky wifi is terrible. I got a $199 a Base/Satellite Netgear mesh starter kit (Mk62 I think) on some kind of discount. It's also not the latest/top model. I later added a 3rd satellite and it's great. The satellites even have an Ethernet port so that you're only using the base-satellite backhaul channel and not the normal wifi client ones.

supernova87a 4y ago

I helped my building build a simple PoE + wifi access points network and I was surprised at how cheap (~$150) it was and how effective. Makes me think that all the name-brand-Eero-style wifi extender stuff is pointless if you can take just a few more steps to install this kind of thing (which is not hard, but of course depends on your walls/configuration).