Nighthawk MR60

[EnriqueM]

Hi everyone. I picked up a Nighthawk MR 60 with 2 satelites a couple of days ago when my older Netgeat N600 router bit the dust. I have a 3 story house with about 800 square feet on each floor, plasterwalls, and tile. My old router and extender did an ok job, but we had deadzones and I wanted to try a mesh system, although I was/am not opposed to a higher end (gaming) router.. 

I picked up an ethernet switch and wired my stuff that needs wired (2 xboxs and a roku) and I am going to pick up two more cabels today and hardwire the satelites. (Hoping that helps resolve the issue below). I was a little bummed at the lack of parental controls on the Nighthawk ap, but I can live with it, I think. 

I am fhappy with the coverage and speeds of the MR60 set up, but it seems to drop devices quite a bit (maybe as they move between sataleite points?) and this morning when I woke up the whole system was down and had to be reset. I see a lot of folks in this forum (and others suggesting) use Office Deposts return policy and move on. 

Are any of you happy with the MR60 set up? I do not want to deal with consistent drops or spends massive amounts of time tinkering with the system to make it work properly. I realize $250 (plus another $50 for a switch) is low end for mesh, but I could get a major regular router upgrade and use my current extender for less. 

Anyway, wondering what to do an appreciate your thoughts. 

[plemans]

If you're planning on harwiring in the satellites points, I'd try it with that setup first. 

The tribands mesh systems tend to be more stable than the dual band systems because of their dedicated backhaul link between router/satellites. but if you're hardwiring them in, that increases the dual band systems backhaul and the stability tends to get much better. 

Plasterwalls/tile? LIke plaster lathe or like sheetrock? Plaster lathe does a great job of blocking wifi signals and can cause roaming issues.

also, how close/far apart are the router/satellites? 30ft minimum is recommended for devices to roam properly. 

[EnriqueM]

It is plaster lathe. Our 8 year old netgear N600 did ok w/ an extender into the basement (we have a stairwell in the middle of the house). But we are looking to do better. There is one bedroom (in between router and tile bathroom) that could not get much of a signal. Same with a bedroom in basement of house. 

No way are these mesh points 30 feet from each other. I am not sure I have that much space to work with because of where electrical outlets and ethernet cable are (1938 house). I just put one on each floor. I unplugged the one in the attic. The one in the basement is probably 25 feet from the router. I am looking into how to get more distance. Or another solution. 

Thanks for your reply. 

[plemans]

You can have them closer. Its just that devices (phones/etc) might not roam as well. Meaning they can sometimes be connected the router/satellite that might be further away. 

but they'll still work. 

I'd try playing around with it a bit. 

netgear has pretty great mesh systems (I've used several vendors) and they all operate fairly similar. 

Try the wired backhauls and use it for a week or 2. Sometimes they need to "learn" which devices should be on 2.4ghz/5ghz. 

when I first got into mesh systems I noticed more issues at the start with devices roaming between 2.4ghz/5ghz and having issues with new installs. Not as much anymore but maybe the MR60 series is similar.