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Forum Discussion

ahayward66's avatar
ahayward66
Follower
Jul 10, 2021

Home wireless - mesh or wifi extender

Hi,

I am looking to get guidance on the best approach to solving my wifi issues.

 

I have a firewall, router and wireless accesspoint in my house/homeoffice but the coverage throughout the house is poor.  I plan to add more CAT-5/6 cabling overtime but thats not a short-term option.  My WAN connection is a 120bmps Virgin broadband link.

I have been using powerline-adapter extenders which work for a period and then stop so I want a better solution.

 

At home, I have a 2 young-adults who play games, watch films etc and a wife who is always on her laptop.  So, good bandwidth is necessary and the powerline adapters allowed for both extended LAN and wifi access.

 

Should I look at the mesh wifi using Orbi and would this work with my existing switch/firewall or should I use a wifi extender product.  Welcome  your views and guidance.

Andy

 

2 Replies

  • plemans's avatar
    plemans
    Guru
    Jul 10, 2021

    I'd go for the orbi products. 

    Reason is multiple. 

    1. they have the wireless backhaul AND can use a wired backhaul. it gives you many options for setup

    2. you can add satellites as needed for additional coverage

    3. it'll work with your firewall (might need to run Orbi in access point mode)

     

    Orbi is designed to be a mesh system. The extenders are nice but I don't recommend them if you think you'll need more than 1 extender. Then its better to go with a designed mesh system and not cobble one together.