[REQUEST] Residential Wi-Fi, Large House, Recommendation

[Metanis]

I haven't kept up with Small Business WAP technology and systems. What are people using for larger houses that need a 2nd or even a 3rd WAP?

IMHO Range Extenders are too flaky. And I don't mind running a bit of Cat8 in a basement to reach other points where I could add a WAP. I know that Netgear Orbi's will use a wired Ethernet backhaul, but I'm wondering if some of the small business solutions would be more robust and reliable?

I look at some of these expensive ASUS and Netgear residential beam-forming arachnoid monstrosities and I think there's got to be a better way! Cheaper maybe too!

 

[britechguy]

Serious question since this is for residential: Have you (or the client) considered using their smartphone's mobile hotspot feature?

These days most plans have very generous mobile hotspot data allowances, particularly if the WAP is being used for low intensity stuff like emailing, web browsing, and even some streaming. Many don't even know that their phones have the capability to act as a WiFi hotspot that they can carry with them, not only within the house, but when they're out and about elsewhere.

Depending on what the usage need is, and what their service plans do or do not provide as far as mobile hotspot data, this can be an ideal solution if their reception is such that they have good data throughput. Particularly on 4G LTE or 5G.

 

[Metanis]

Central Wisconsin rarely has the cellular capacity or proximity for good data. However, I hadn't thought about that and it may apply for houses that are in good coverage locations.

I would also be concerned since the people that have the money for these large houses also tend to have a plethora of Wi-Fi connected devices such as security devices, cameras, IoT, Nest, Alexa, etc.

 

[britechguy]

It certainly does depend on what the use intent is.

Mobile hotspots make absolutely no sense for 24/7 connections. When I hear most people complain about their WiFi at home it's generally because their laptops/tablets can't get good reception in certain areas when they want to use them there.

It's really funny because while there are a lot of Ring doorbells in my area as well as quite a few Alexas, there are very few homes with WiFi security cameras (or any security cameras, for that matter) or lots of IoT devices. When it comes to Alexa, it really doesn't matter if it loses internet connectivity if the person(s) using it are not at home when it does, but very often for families, somebody's home while others are not.

Like all things, WiFi configurations are a "tool to task" thing.

 

[Markverhyden]

I highly recommend doing a hotspot survey if the house is really large and has solid, as in brick, internal walls. Doing one is that complicated, you can get it done probably with in a hour or so with just you laptop and a wireless AP. Guesstimate AP locations. Place the AP at each location, power up, and then look at the signal strength as you walk around. Make notes on a floor plan of the building. Also get the customer to spell out what they "want" to balance that against what is possible.

Short of that a centrally located AP on each floor usually does the job. It's preferred that each AP have a home run back to the ISP location. If you use an AP in extender mode, using a 802.11 connection to a wired AP, node hop will have half the bandwidth which, obviously, may impact performance.

I've not worked with Orbi's but I'm pretty sure the only hardwire connection is to the base. The connections to the satellite(s) are wireless. The ports on the satellites are for local LAN connections. https://www.netgear.com/ae/media/RBK852_tcm166-80590.pdf

Personally I've used Ubiquiti's AmpliFi system. Really easy to setup and manage. Done through a smart device app interface. Their satellites plug directly into an wall power outlet.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We've done a lot of "large houses/mansions"...I still treat them like a small business, Ubiquiti Unifi system, Unifi APs wired to Unifi switches.

For smaller setups, actually todays better "mesh" products are great. Modern day mesh systems are not like yester-years old "repeater" systems that shared the same radio. Todays better mesh systems use a dedicated 3rd radio for the backhauls...thus no "bandwidth is cut in half with every hop and with every client".

Of course placement still requires good survey and planning.

 

[HCHTech]

We're on the Unifi train as well. We lit up 2 big homes in the last month. One has 4 APs the other has 6. We used NanoHDs because that's about all you can get these days. I was hoping to get the wifi6 units for the bigger install, but they're consistently out of stock. Ditto for the small Unifi POE switches - you just can't get 'em. Any POE+ switch will work, though. We've been using ZyXEL units when the Unifi ones are out of stock, which is always these days. How many APs you need depends on the layout of the home, of course, so you've got to do a survey first, then recommend what they need. I always leave the door open for additional APs if there are any uncovered areas that turn out to be important. We always quote 3 stages, survey/planning, installation, and post-installation tuning. We use Hostifi so can do the tuning all remotely - that's a great benefit.

 

[Metanis]

The Editor's Choice Mesh is only $270 and supports Ethernet backhaul!

The 10 Best Mesh Wi-Fi Networks for Your Home

If you've been suffering Wi-Fi dead zones around the house, then one of these mesh Wi-Fi networks may be just what you need.

www.makeuseof.com

 

[Markverhyden]

A company I do work for handles Internet for group residential setting like apartments and student housing. They use these all the time for PoE.

8-Port Gigabit Desktop/Rackmount Switch with 8-Port PoE+

8-Port Gigabit Desktop/Rackmount Switch with 8-Port PoE+

tp-link.com