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Forum Discussion
Creating wifi mesh by adding to existing router
As stated above, I have the NETGEAR Nighthawk X6S AC4000 Tri-band WiFi Router. My house is 1600 sf with a large rear deck and a detached garage. I have a travel trailer next to garage that I want to have wifi in. The house and some interior walls are block so wifi range is not great. I currently have 2 old routers acting as access points. One under cover out on the deck, the other in the garage. I have echo devices to control lighting all over the house incuding the Garage and deck. So I currently have 3 seperate networks and want mesh to make it seemless. Definately want ethernet backhaul since i already have the cable run. My main router was expensive and still pretty new so I want it to stay put. I'm looking for the best solution to bring it all together. Any recomendations would be great because I want to do this soon.
Mike
5 Replies
mmcglynn264 wrote:As stated above, I have the NETGEAR Nighthawk X6S AC4000 Tri-band WiFi Router. My house is 1600 sf with a large rear deck and a detached garage. I have a travel trailer next to garage that I want to have wifi in. The house and some interior walls are block so wifi range is not great. I currently have 2 old routers acting as access points. One under cover out on the deck, the other in the garage. I have echo devices to control lighting all over the house incuding the Garage and deck. So I currently have 3 seperate networks and want mesh to make it seemless. Definately want ethernet backhaul since i already have the cable run. My main router was expensive and still pretty new so I want it to stay put. I'm looking for the best solution to bring it all together. Any recomendations would be great because I want to do this soon.
Mike
You're not really going to be able to make is seamless unless you move to an actual mesh system like orbi/eero. You can "rig it" so it'll work.
You can name your networks with the same ssid but they'll tend to be "sticky". Meaning that devices will tend to linger on one ssid/AP.
What I'd do? Create 2x ssid networks. 1 for the 2.4ghz and 1 for the 5ghz.
Here's why I'd do it.
2.4ghz broadcasts through more material and further. So the low bandwidth devices you can place on that and its not as big a deal with roaming because they aren't needing the high throughput of the 5ghz.
5ghz is going to struggle with distances and broadcasting through your block walls or travel trailer. So devices on the 5ghz are going to more easily drop signals and transition to the next device/AP than the 2.4ghz signal would as you move around.
This will help a bit with the roaming issue and let you try it to the best of its capabilities. If it doesn't work, you're not out anything as you already have the equipment. It if isn't as seamless as you'd like, then you can investigate buying int a true mesh system.
- I'm OK with a little "sticky." My devices including echos don't play well with the multiple ssid. Especially when I try to use multi room music. I'm currently doing what you mentioned. My main router is triband so I have devices separated based on frequency and range. However, concrete walls really kill the range. Which is why triband mesh won't help. It needs to be ethernet back haul. Plus, the netw cables are already there. I thought nighthawk has mesh built in that it wouldn't be "rigged."
There's some nighthawk mesh extenders but they don't function as mesh when hardwired in as AP mode.
as well as they struggle to run mesh with more than 1 extender.
If you're needing more than 1, I'd recommend actually going with a mesh setup like orbi/eero/etc. They can be hardwired in with a wired backhaul and work well in my experience.
