Mesh vs Access Points

[jcwillia1]

What is the current state of the argument for Mesh Wi-Fi vs WAP's?

When I last checked in here a couple years ago, the vote was clearly in favor of Wireless Access Points. But the mesh wi-fi market continues to grow and mature - just seeing have we reached a point yet where mesh is a better option that Wireless Access Points.


My Network Story...

I own a three story (basement, first, second floors) house and fortunately I was able to get some ethernet drops installed before they finished construction. I've attached my floor plan.

First floor is by far the best floor in the house. I have a Black Diamond that basically serves the entire house operating in the pantry (very close to the ceiling).

Basement is "fine" - I have my ATT GigaPower modem / router (which by the way you can not add a router to their box, very annoying) which serves wi-fi to the basement. Most of the time I just connect to the Pantry instead.

Upstairs is by far the worst. The Pantry doesn't really reach most of the bedrooms (which are on the perimeter of the house, the bathrooms are in the middle). I tried to put another Black Diamond in my son's closet which is the most centrally located room on the second floor and his brother right next door gets basically no wi-fi. Our bedroom on the other side of the house is also terrible so I bought an extender (off the Pantry) and that seems to be working.

I'm not a big spender so if the answer is going to be "go out and drop $300" then I'll just keep fighting with what I have. But if there are reasonable cost upgrades, I'd love to hear them.

 

[thiggins]

Think of mesh Wi-Fi systems like a multi-AP system that sets itself up (and, for the most part, can't be mucked with) and uses Wi-Fi to connect the APs to your Ethernet-connected router.

If you don't have Ethernet between where your router is and where you want to place AP(s), then mesh is really your only choice aside from using extenders.

If you do have Ethernet, then the difference between APs and mesh is manageability. Most mesh systems let you optionally use Ethernet to connect the nodes (wired backhaul).

As I said, mesh systems don't allow you to do much beyond setting a network name (SSID) and security password. You can't set the channel(s) and most systems don't let you name 2.4 and 5 GHz radios differently.

 

[jcwillia1]

Think of mesh Wi-Fi systems like a multi-AP system that sets itself up (and, for the most part, can't be mucked with) and uses Wi-Fi to connect the APs to your Ethernet-connected router.

If you don't have Ethernet between where your router is and where you want to place AP(s), then mesh is really your only choice aside from using extenders.

If you do have Ethernet, then the difference between APs and mesh is manageability. Most mesh systems let you optionally use Ethernet to connect the nodes (wired backhaul).

As I said, mesh systems don't allow you to do much beyond setting a network name (SSID) and security password. You can't set the channel(s) and most systems don't let you name 2.4 and 5 GHz radios differently.

thanks tim - what's your opinion on relative performance? That TP-Link set has been on sale a couple times around $100 - am I going to see a measurable performance increase over the wired AP's that I described I have already?

 

[thiggins]

Generally, using Ethernet as backhaul means all AP/mesh node bandwidth can be used for devices. It also means you don’t have to worry about losing backhaul throughput due to distance between mesh nodes.

For range, APs/routers tend to be more alike than different. Most APs/mesh nodes are two-stream (AC1200/AC1300 “class”).

The TP-Link EAP225 is a good little AP for the money.