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Create a Mesh network with a Nighthawk RAX70 router
Hello everyone, I'm currently trying to make a plan how we create a mesh network for our office space. We are covering around 60sqm of a single office with a Netgear RAX70 router. As our small te...
1. Check with whomever you're renting/buying the office spaces from. A lot of them come with ethernet pre-wired in office configurations. And a dual band setup is much cheaper than a triband (for dedicated backhaul). With stability and speeds being important in an office, you want a solid connection between router--satellites. If it for certain doesn't have the wired connection, then I'd be looking at a triband setup. If its wired, the dual bands perform pretty close to the same between the orbi pro's.
2. I'm a fan of the orbi pro system. I've used the SXK30 (dual band) system with a hardwired backhaul and its been a rock solid performer.Very stable and allows a lot of devices to connect
3. With an expectation of 30-40 people, you have to basically double or more triple your connections. Figure each person will have at least a computer and a phone. so you need to ensure a reliable connection. The business grade devices have the option of mulitiple ssids. You could setup one for the business equipment (computers) and seperate one for phones/personal devices. And you coud have them on seperate vlan's. That'd help with security as well as you can set the bandwidth allowed between each ssid to ensure the work devices have decent speeds.
4. there tends to be a little more support options with the pro equipment. A good choice when the business relies on it
5. The pro level devices are more designed for stability. You see much less complaints in the forums because its designed to "just work". And when you do see people on the forums with issues, the mods tend to be more active on the business equipment.
6. . Downfall is Insight. A lot of the pro equipment use insight to manage it. There's different subscription plans but the base ones aren't to expensive.
And last off all, depending on your plans, Orbi might not be right either. there's even more business grade products/access points you could look at. Tends to get more expensive/user intensive. But Orbi is a good place to start. Its well rated, works great, and pretty user friendly for people just getting into business grade products.
Are these offices wired with ethernet (for a wired backhaul?
Or are you needing to use a wireless backhaul?
are you looking at setting up a business class setup using something like the orbi pro?
Or sticking with consumer gear?
The RAX70 can't be integrated into a mesh but you can use it as a primary router and connect a mesh system to it with the mesh system in access point mode.
Or you could simple add access points to the RAX70. The devices connected to the RAX wouldn't roam as effienctly as the devices on the access points but they should still roam with their own internal roaming protocols.
the only issue is you're starting with the RAX70 which isn't mesh or a business grade device.
Hey plemans,
thanks for your message!
After my first research I had the same impression that the router was just not the right choice from the beginning.
I assume that we are not able to have a wired backhaul, so I think we need a reliable wireless solution.
It's definitely a (preferred) option to also get started with a robust business solution for the Wifi. We are right now scaling up the company, expecting to grow from 15 people to 30-40 people within the next months. Therefore a scalable and reliable solution is the top-priority.
What do you think, which would be your setup of choice for our current situation? Is it the Orbi Pro?
Budget is not unlimited, but as a whole office staff dealing with unreliable Wifi is a way bigger issue...1. Check with whomever you're renting/buying the office spaces from. A lot of them come with ethernet pre-wired in office configurations. And a dual band setup is much cheaper than a triband (for dedicated backhaul). With stability and speeds being important in an office, you want a solid connection between router--satellites. If it for certain doesn't have the wired connection, then I'd be looking at a triband setup. If its wired, the dual bands perform pretty close to the same between the orbi pro's.
2. I'm a fan of the orbi pro system. I've used the SXK30 (dual band) system with a hardwired backhaul and its been a rock solid performer.Very stable and allows a lot of devices to connect
3. With an expectation of 30-40 people, you have to basically double or more triple your connections. Figure each person will have at least a computer and a phone. so you need to ensure a reliable connection. The business grade devices have the option of mulitiple ssids. You could setup one for the business equipment (computers) and seperate one for phones/personal devices. And you coud have them on seperate vlan's. That'd help with security as well as you can set the bandwidth allowed between each ssid to ensure the work devices have decent speeds.
4. there tends to be a little more support options with the pro equipment. A good choice when the business relies on it
5. The pro level devices are more designed for stability. You see much less complaints in the forums because its designed to "just work". And when you do see people on the forums with issues, the mods tend to be more active on the business equipment.
6. . Downfall is Insight. A lot of the pro equipment use insight to manage it. There's different subscription plans but the base ones aren't to expensive.
And last off all, depending on your plans, Orbi might not be right either. there's even more business grade products/access points you could look at. Tends to get more expensive/user intensive. But Orbi is a good place to start. Its well rated, works great, and pretty user friendly for people just getting into business grade products.
Thanks!
I highly appreciate your answer, it's a great start to do further research. I'll check with the landlord and figure out the best approach for us, but I'll definitely use your suggestions as guidance :)