Which Wifi mesh to buy 'this year'

[Trip]

You're right. That's it. I'm sticking to wired. Cat 5E is all I need.. or Cat 6.. or Cat 7.. oh..

In light of your humor, I realize I'm being a nerdy pedantic here, but Cat6a is all you'll likely ever need and actually be able to use (easily enough) for on-premise copper, for quite some time. Cat 7 doesn't offer any practical bandwidth advantage, nor will it ever be a standard, and Cat 8, for all practical purposes, is mostly confined to datacenter usage at this point. For truly scalable and future-friendly backbone, multi or single-mode fiber is what you want.

 

[Tech Focus]

In light of your humor, I realize I'm being a nerdy pedantic here, but Cat6a is all you'll likely ever need and actually be able to use (easily enough) for on-premise copper, for quite some time. Cat 7 doesn't offer any practical bandwidth advantage, nor will it ever be a standard, and Cat 8, for all practical purposes, is mostly confined to datacenter usage at this point. For truly scalable and future-friendly backbone, multi or single-mode fiber is what you want.

Isn't Cat 6a only relevant after 50m? I.e. unless you have a huge house, Cat 6 is good enough? Especially for proper 6A I thought we need to ground Cat cable on both end.

 

[Trip]

@Tech Focus - 10Gb/s beyond 55m (to 100), yes. And yes, Cat 6 is typically good enough for most houses, smaller ones especially, and will also do multi-gig (2.5 and 5Gb) to full length (100m). I was just referencing the "absolute max" scenario in my earlier reply.

Regarding grounding, it's not necessarily needed when working with 6a. It all depends on the cable quality/type. I'm specifically thinking of Belden (more or less the gold standard in cabling) 10GX and my personal favorite, 10GXS, which both have a polymer sheath (EquiBlock) that gives a metallic shielding level of EMI resistance but without the need to ground, while remaining fully in-spec. Absolutely bad-butt. Now, when you see the price for a 1,000 ft. roll.... make sure you're sitting down (lol), but nonetheless, it's perfectly possible to do great 6a work without needing to monkey with grounding.

TL;DR - I did some 10GX in-conduit for a guy the other week to light up his garage/workshop and he's ecstatic over the performance on that link. Granted, it's not like Monoprice would've been noticeably inferior, but nonetheless, I love using the best stuff whenever possible.

 

[LongRangeSkeet]

Anyone has experience with the eero non-pro three pack?

Can it handle 230+ from ISP?

Is there SQM and is it currently functional.

 

[Tech Focus]

@Tech Focus
Regarding grounding, it's not necessarily needed when working with 6a. It all depends on the cable quality/type. I'm specifically thinking of Belden (more or less the gold standard in cabling) 10GX and my personal favorite, 10GXS, which both have a polymer sheath (EquiBlock) that gives a metallic shielding level of EMI resistance but without the need to ground, while remaining fully in-spec. Absolutely bad-butt. Now, when you see the price for a 1,000 ft. roll.... make sure you're sitting down (lol), but nonetheless, it's perfectly possible to do great 6a work without needing to monkey with grounding.

TL;DR - I did some 10GX in-conduit for a guy the other week to light up his garage/workshop and he's ecstatic over the performance on that link. Granted, it's not like Monoprice would've been noticeably inferior, but nonetheless, I love using the best stuff whenever possible.

If I had known, when I had my guy install Ethenet cables in my home I should have gone with Cat 6a! His installation fee was the same regardless though he tried to recommend 5e. I debated but I ended up with Cat 6 as I worried I could have an issue with ungrounded cable result in poorer performance. But I think the longest cable should still be under 55 m (though close) for my home so I have my fingers crossed.

Having said this, I just googled the cost of 10GXS. Well... I could have him redo whole thing and still get some change if I had used the wire. So may be when time comes I will redo and price of cables may be cheaper then. Especially, UniFi really don't practically support multi-gig yet and 10G support is also very limited.

 

[coxhaus]

Especially, UniFi really don't practically support multi-gig yet and 10G support is also very limited.

Take a look at the Cisco SG350X switches. They are 10G switch and ready to go plus you can do layer 3, but you don't have to use layer 3 you can stay layer 2. I bought a good used one SG350X-24 off eBay for $300. It is a NA, North American model.

 

[Trip]

@Tech Focus - Yes, enviable performance on that cable, but spendy as heck, that's for sure. Still, you should plenty good for quite some time with the Cat 6 you've got, so real practical no worries there.

@LongRangeSkeet - It all depends on what you mean by "it" in regards to throughput. Any wired node with a wired client can of course do so. Wirelessly, a 2x2 5Ghz client connected to the base unit would be able to, but not when connected to a 1-hop mesh node; the best you're going to see there is 75-150Mb/s. You'll need Eero Pro tri-band for 200-300Mb/s when connected to a wireless mesh node 1 hop away from the base.

 

[puntloos]

As you might've guessed I'm designing my house right now, and indeed I'm planning to have cat 6a to most everywhere, as well as a base fiber layout at least to a few select places spread across the house.

Any competitors to UniFi that are perhaps slightly further along the release path of Wifi6? Or should I wait to xmas season?

 

[Tech Focus]

Take a look at the Cisco SG350X switches. They are 10G switch and ready to go plus you can do layer 3, but you don't have to use layer 3 you can stay layer 2. I bought a good used one SG350X-24 off eBay for $300. It is a NA, North American model.

That does look good, but I have a total collector mentality.... In fact, I have had Netgear multi gig switch but my collector mentality had me switch to UniFi switch, far more expensive, less 10G ports, Multi-gig support.

 

[puntloos]

Interesting fact about poor apple roaming: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206207

 

[coxhaus]

I don't have a MAC but the iPhones and iPads seem to roam fine if you do not put the wireless APs too close together. Using a mesh system I could see how the roaming could be an issue because a mesh requires the units to be close together so they can be a redundant system to each other.

 

[Enthusiast]

Interesting. I wonder if these will be allowed everywhere (I'm in europe) at the time of launch.


But I don't care *at all* about wifi backhaul, since I will be using wired backhaul everywhere. I actually have a modern house

My main reason for buying mesh is a smooth handover between nodes and supporting many smarthome devices.

They are alreadly approuved:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5_GHz_or_5.8_GHz_(802.11a/h/j/n/ac/ax)

Don't mix Wifi6E and Tri-band, they are 2 different things.

 

[Enthusiast]

If Nov/Dec is fine, then I suggest waiting for 2021 Q1 to make a sound decision.

A real Tri-Band/Tri-Radio router solution may be out by then (2.4GHz, full 5GHz, full 6GHz). This will give benefits we don't have access to today.

What you're getting 'badly wrong' here is deciding what to do in the future with today's info.

HTH.

Tri-band router already exist ! I suggest you read about the DFS channels:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5_GHz_or_5.8_GHz_(802.11a/h/j/n/ac/ax)

 

[L&LD]

Tri-Band is a marketing term. A real Tri-Band/Tri-Radio solution isn't here yet.

 

[Enthusiast]

Tri-Band is a marketing term. A real Tri-Band/Tri-Radio solution isn't here yet.

5.3 to 5.7 GHz exist, it's the third band. Look at the fact in the wikipedia article !

DFS channels are only available to those router who scan for a radar presence.

 

[L&LD]

Afaik, 5.3 and 5.7 are both included in the 5GHz band.

 

[Enthusiast]

Afaik, 5.3 and 5.7 are both included in the 5GHz band.

Ok, Here a more simple text from TP-link:

https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/763/

Please, educate yourself.

 

[L&LD]

I am educated. I don't believe in marketing schemes.

TP-Link. lol...

 

[Enthusiast]

Then if you an expert, here the FCC link:
https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/kdb/forms/FTSSearchResultPage.cfm?switch=P&id=27155

Maybe their in your conspiracy like wikipedia !

 

[L&LD]

Never claimed to be an expert nor do I believe in conspiracy theories. Just calling a spade as I see it.