Recommend a mesh WiFi system for a standard Edwardian 3 bed house, up to £200

[EvilShmeevil]

Anyone recommend what they've used in a similar property as I'd like to buy in the sales.
We have Virgin media broadband of 100 mbs but barely any signal in the furtherest away rooms.
We may do a loft conversion in the next couple of years so may need to be expandable.
TIA

anyone?

TP_link Deco something or other. Around £100. Solved the Virgin wifi problem for us and very easy to set up.

Just checked. It was the M5 model. It worked. One box per floor.

Thanks @coronabeer
That's one of the ones I've been looking at along with the Google best.
Glad to hear it was easy to setup as I'm a bit of a technophobe!

I'm not sure with your specific house but I can highly recommend Deco's. We have 3 and they were really simple to set up, you put the app on your phone and it goes through step by step.
Best bit is I can threaten to blacklist 16yo DS when he's yelling at his Xbox too loudly as it lists connected devices and can cut connection

I also have TP decos. It’s got the WiFi to the garden office 100ft down the garden. Dh set it up ok.

TP Link as well. At start of lockdown I was like that advert where the woman keeps getting chucked out of meetings. Very rarely happens now.

We have a halls adjoining Edwardian terrace and use a Google system. So good and has made WFH so much easier.

BT WiFi discs. I have Virgin too - their wifi equipment is crap but the broadband coming into the house is excellent. These have been transformative. No drops or black spots any more.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BT-seamless-connection-everywhere-complete/dp/B01NBMMVG7/ref=ascdff_B01NBMMVG7/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=232043227663&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7795945033730171609&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046454&hvtargid=pla-451290293197&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

Google Nest: store.google.com/gb/product/nest_wifi?hl=en-GB

The obscure corners of our 4-bed Georgian terrace are fully covered by a mesh network from a single strategically-positioned NETGEAR WiFi Booster AC1900 - fifty quid.

Deco M5. It was the best fit for us after much research.

I also like the parental controls on it, Saves paying for something like sky buddy but it’s much more detailed. I have quite a lot set up. I also like I can manage this remotely on a phone app.

ha @MissRainbowBrite
That could be the deciding factor. We have an almost 16 year old who screams at his gaming computer most evenings.

4 bed Edwardian here. We added Devolo to the Virgin network. They plug in to the wall sockets and use the copper wires of the electricity network.

Ubiquiti UniFi

I have 3 Deco M5s, 1 on each floor and 1 in the loft. They cover a 5 bed house and I have signal at the bottom of the garden as well.

We have two Deco P9s and two E4s, with the P9s as the master and in the garden office and the E4s filling in the gaps in the bedrooms and kitchen extension.

Very easy to set up, but have needed resetting and re-setting up once or twice when there's been some change in the system like a new Virgin cable modem.

Do these mesh systems just stop you having black spots, or do they actually make your connection better / faster? My kids are often on devices at the same time and they're always saying the wifi is lagging.

Victorian house, with Virgin Hub 3. Tried many solutions over the years, Powerline adapters, multiple Apple airport expresses. I also happen to stream several CCTV cameras, which were always a bit choppy.

Having been impressed with a Synology NAS, I tried their RT200 router (£188) , with a couple of MR2200ac (£122) to extend the range. In short they have been fabulous, I've also install them for three other friends in victorian house and they all work brilliantly.

It has loads of features including…

A) Ability to use multiple ISPs simultaneously to improve resilience. I.e. if working from home is critical you could have BT and virgin accounts connected, so if one goes down it will use the other.

B) Ability to fall over to a Data dongle or (certain) smart phones, I.e. If you loose your primary ISP(s) you can plug in a phone or data dongle and it will share the connection. Obvs this could do “interesting things” to your mobile phone bill If you don’t have unlimited data. (Bear in mind that 5G might actually become cheaper than “fixed line” at some point, so this could be a really useful feature)

C) Web safe filtering controls, I.e. Child “A” can access social media sites between 12:00 and 20:00, Child “B” can see everything till 23:00 Hrs etc.

D) Threat protection / firewall prevent your devices accessing “dangerous things” on the internet

E) File sharing, and support for Apple time Machine. (Plug a hard drive into the router to share files, or back up your Apple Mac computers)

F) Guest network, with availability schedule. Reduces the chances of a “guest” compromising your security with their infected phone or laptop etc.

G) Create multiple Wi-fi networks, (Children-net, Grown ups-net)

H) VPN Server,

Set-up was fairly painless.

Tips

1. Log into your Virgin Hub 3, and put it in to “Modem Mode”,
2. When connecting the MR2200ac, put them near (I.e within a couple of meters) of the MR2200ac
3. The MR2200ac, will be replaced with the RT6600ax but I won’t wait.

@Alabamahammer

Do these mesh systems just stop you having black spots, or do they actually make your connection better / faster? My kids are often on devices at the same time and they're always saying the wifi is lagging.

They just get rid of blackspots by extending the WiFi coverage.

If the kids are gaming online and it's lagging your WiFi might be getting interference from neighbours. You can switch your router to transmit on a different channel and try that. But best solution is usually to plug the console into the router and avoid WiFi altogether.

@Alabamahammer

Do these mesh systems just stop you having black spots, or do they actually make your connection better / faster? My kids are often on devices at the same time and they're always saying the wifi is lagging.

The main point for me was to eliminate blackspots, but they also give you a faster connection in areas where low signal strength previously made the connection slow.

The advantage of mesh wifi over old-style boosters and range extenders (in my experience) is that the mesh systems work seamlessly. When I used a range extender I had to force a device (e.g. my phone) to switch from one hotspot to another manually, and sometimes ended up with two devices (e.g. phone and Chromecast or smart speaker) which couldn't "see" each other because they had ended up on different networks.

The deco mesh setup sorted all these issues out - everything just works as I expect it to.

Extenders are rubbish - they just replicate an already weak signal.

We recently put a Netgear Orbi mesh network in our place. Two boxes, one into the router (BT, but switch off its own Wi-Fi) and the other upstairs. Covers between 3 and 5,000 square feet so should be fine for most houses. It also switches between frequencies for connected devices, so we get much more reliable connections with all our stuff. Definitely recommend- costs about £200 on Amazon and easy to set up.

@Alabamahammer

Do these mesh systems just stop you having black spots, or do they actually make your connection better / faster? My kids are often on devices at the same time and they're always saying the wifi is lagging.

It will depend on the underlying problem. If it's the broadband into the house that's poor then the wifi/mesh can't fix that. If the broadband into the house is good then getting the internal network inside the house right will solve the issue.

If your kids can plug a wires connection directly into the router and that solves the problem then the wifi is the issue. If the problem persists with wired connections plugged directly into the router then you have to take it up with your ISP.

We did what @Dbank did. We have Virgin. Wifi good but router terrible. Wifi dropped incessantly but Virgin insisted the input to the house wasn't dropping. . We thought it was the wifi but after going for it and installing mesh it is as stable as it goes. Virtually never drops now.

We bought the Deco M9. Works fine with large house with stone walls. Three Decos

TP-Link Deco M5 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System, Up to 5500 sq ft Coverage, Compatible with Amazon Echo/Alexa, Antivirus Security Protection and Parental Controls, Pack of 3

We’ve ordered this. It was recommended. Haven’t fitted yet (having work done and moving back into the house in January)