WAPs or consumer mesh with wired backhaul?

[h.gilbert]

Which would you recommend?

I just need to extend the wifi of a large house (approx 10,000 sq.ft). Most seem to recommend the more enterprise oriented WAPs however for wifi 6 the more consumer 'mesh' systems seem cheaper. I don't need any fancy features so I'm thinking 'mesh' is the way to go. Plus it will all be centrally managed and I wouldn't have to buy a controller like with multiple WAPs.

 

[Bigwaff]

10K is a really large area. What type of construction are the walls? The construction will certainly impact the placement and number of mesh units required for good coverage.

I use the Gryphon mesh system w/ Ethernet backhaul (2 towers) for 3500 sq home. It’s worked flawlessly for several years. Reboot only necessary when updating firmware. I’ve got 50+ devices, wired and wireless. If you like to tweak and prefer access to low level admin features, the Gryphon might not be the right choice. Gryphon firmware is truly for consumers who like to “set it and forget it”. The Gryphon parental controls can’t be beat.

I’ve also used Synology routers as well and they support Ethernet backhaul. These perform equally well and the firmware is top notch, providing access to low level functionality, allowing you to tweak a great number of settings.

Good luck!

 

[h.gilbert]

10K is a really large area. What type of construction are the walls? The construction will certainly impact the placement and number of mesh units required for good coverage.

Half the house is a couple hundred years old, the other half is about 80 years old. Walls are solid 😂

I use the Gryphon mesh system w/ Ethernet backhaul (2 towers) for 3500 sq home. It’s worked flawlessly for several years. Reboot only necessary when updating firmware. I’ve got 50+ devices, wired and wireless. If you like to tweak and prefer access to low level admin features, the Gryphon might not be the right choice. Gryphon firmware is truly for consumers who like to “set it and forget it”. The Gryphon parental controls can’t be beat.

I’ve also used Synology routers as well and they support Ethernet backhaul. These perform equally well and the firmware is top notch, providing access to low level functionality, allowing you to tweak a great number of settings.

Good luck!

Not heard of Gryphon, will have a look thanks.

 

[Bigwaff]

Half the house is a couple hundred years old, the other half is about 80 years old. Walls are solid

By “solid” do you mean brick, plaster, drywall? Wood or metal framed? Are the walls hollow? These may seem like tedious questions but understanding the construction material will help you understand how many units and their placements. Wi-Fi isn’t magic. Walls are signal killers. Besides tempering expectations for “how fast” your Wi-Fi is, it will help you understand your costs (how many mesh units).

 

[h.gilbert]

By “solid” do you mean brick, plaster, drywall? Wood or metal framed? Are the walls hollow? These may seem like tedious questions but understanding the construction material will help you understand how many units and their placements. Wi-Fi isn’t magic. Walls are signal killers. Besides tempering expectations for “how fast” your Wi-Fi is, it will help you understand your costs (how many mesh units).

Some are stone, some are brick, some are probably lath and plaster so all in all not great for coverage and will probably need quite a few APs/mesh nodes

 

[dictoresno]

I decided to go full TP Link Omada (enterprise level) mesh after having TP Link Deco mesh (consumer oriented). Full mounted basement rack with their hardware controller, hardwired router and all but one hardwired backhaul access point. way overkill for my 2400 sq ft house, but I love it.

cheapest solution that would avoid needing a rack mounted system with proper backhaul, most of the TP Link Deco series of mesh should suffice (last one I used was the X50 PoE) of which 3 could cover like 6500 sq ft for $300-350 fully wireless backhaul. you can add more satellite nodes one by one as you need to create a larger footprint. look into those which could easily cover your needs.

my parents have a 6500 sq ft house and 3 older Deco S4's fully cover their entire house including the back deck and pool area.

you can go Omada, but I wouldn't recommend it unless your looking to rack mount the ER605 router, OC200 controller, PoE switch and hardwire all or most access points to really gain the benefits. however the true power of that system can't be beat for the price. again, unless you or the owner of the system knows how to configure and maintain it, its probably overkill. the Deco mesh is a good simple plug an play app controlled mesh.

 

[h.gilbert]

I decided to go full TP Link Omada (enterprise level) mesh after having TP Link Deco mesh (consumer oriented). Full mounted basement rack with their hardware controller, hardwired router and all but one hardwired backhaul access point. way overkill for my 2400 sq ft house, but I love it.

cheapest solution that would avoid needing a rack mounted system with proper backhaul, most of the TP Link Deco series of mesh should suffice (last one I used was the X50 PoE) of which 3 could cover like 6500 sq ft for $300-350 fully wireless backhaul. you can add more satellite nodes one by one as you need to create a larger footprint. look into those which could easily cover your needs.

my parents have a 6500 sq ft house and 3 older Deco S4's fully cover their entire house including the back deck and pool area.

you can go Omada, but I wouldn't recommend it unless your looking to rack mount the ER605 router, OC200 controller, PoE switch and hardwire all or most access points to really gain the benefits. however the true power of that system can't be beat for the price. again, unless you or the owner of the system knows how to configure and maintain it, its probably overkill. the Deco mesh is a good simple plug an play app controlled mesh.

I was actually debating between the X50 PoE and Omada. In the end I decided to go Omada. I'd need the PoE switch anyway for the the X50s so adding a small OC200 wouldn't make a difference. Others also suggested Omada stuff will be supported longer seeing as it's more business oriented

 

[dictoresno]

I was actually debating between the X50 PoE and Omada. In the end I decided to go Omada. I'd need the PoE switch anyway for the the X50s so adding a small OC200 wouldn't make a difference. Others also suggested Omada stuff will be supported longer seeing as it's more business oriented

awesome. if you have any questions let me know. the software side of the controller is easy enough to grasp with basic networking knowledge.

which Omada AP's did you go with? I have 3 EAP-610's around the house with an EAP-225 in the detached garage (hardwired backhaul through underground conduit) and one in the basement projecting out a basement window to cover the entire back yard.

the X50's are Deco Mesh and aren't compatible with Omada Mesh FYI. so you will need Omada mesh AP's. side note, a lot of TP Link stuff is on sale on amazon. im setting up my buddy's house with wired backhaul for his X50's and we grabbed a few unmanaged 8 port and 5 port switches on sale.

here's my basement rack setup. and yes, I made my own patch cables by hand and punched down my own keystones.

 

[h.gilbert]

awesome. if you have any questions let me know. the software side of the controller is easy enough to grasp with basic networking knowledge.

which Omada AP's did you go with? I have 3 EAP-610's around the house with an EAP-225 in the detached garage (hardwired backhaul through underground conduit) and one in the basement projecting out a basement window to cover the entire back yard.

the X50's are Deco Mesh and aren't compatible with Omada Mesh FYI. so you will need Omada mesh AP's. side note, a lot of TP Link stuff is on sale on amazon. im setting up my buddy's house with wired backhaul for his X50's and we grabbed a few unmanaged 8 port and 5 port switches on sale.

here's my basement rack setup. and yes, I made my own patch cables by hand and punched down my own keystones.

That's a proper setup!

I had my basket ready to get the Omada system and stopped. The place I'm getting it for is used as a family holiday home. No one there knows anything about networks. Inevitably something will go wrong and they'll be faced with a confusing interface and no idea what to do.

For that reason I think I'm now going to get some X50 PoEs, all wired up since the house is big and has solid walls. If anything goes wrong the app should be intuitive enough for anyone to sort it out.