Hi,

I have a spread-out household. We have the main building, a chalet
bungalow which is quite long and thin; an outbuilding about 25 metres
away and a "park home" about 80 metres away.

I current have BT Whole Home Wi-Fi (white disks, first version)
spreading Wi-Fi around the house. The first disk is plugged into the
router at the East end of the house and there are three further disks
in the house all talking to each other over Wi-Fi. One of the disks is
plugged into a switch into which are plugged things like the TV STB and
other things that don't do Wi-Fi (yet).

There is a length of Cat 6 running to the outbuilding which has a disk
in it and another, longer run to the park home with another disk. Both
of these cable runs go to a switch for things like ATAs and then the
disk.

So six disks in total. It works mostly ok but there are places where a
Wi-Fi calling call drops, even if the phone isn't moving. Looking on
the Internet suggests that this is something that is a known problem

So, I'm thinking of replacing the mesh system.
So recommendations, please?

I would like to make use of newish technology so Wi-Fi 6 would be nice.

Summary - six disks (though perhaps a newer system would work with
fewer in the main house). Wi-Fi 6 perhaps. Ethernet backhaul for some.
Ethernet "user" port for some.

On Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:54:48 +0000, Rupert Moss-Eccardt wrote:

> So, I'm thinking of replacing the mesh system.
> So recommendations, please?

Our house is large, with soem thick walls. Also a neighbour with their
router very near one wall.

I have four Draytek Vigor AP903s. Thes are all wired back (could be
wireless, but I have the wiring) to a central switch, thence to the
firewall and router.

They work very well and have been trouble free.

Bob Eager wrote:
> On Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:54:48 +0000, Rupert Moss-Eccardt wrote:
>
>> So, I'm thinking of replacing the mesh system.
>> So recommendations, please?
>
> Our house is large, with soem thick walls. Also a neighbour with their
> router very near one wall.
>
> I have four Draytek Vigor AP903s. Thes are all wired back (could be
> wireless, but I have the wiring) to a central switch, thence to the
> firewall and router.
>
> They work very well and have been trouble free.

Experience with earlier Vigor APs leads me to agree. Always use a wired
backhaul from each AP. Choose an AP that supports PoE, to minimise
power wiring and potentially allow the whole network (router, switches,
VoIP phones and whatever) to be run from a UPS.

Use a Vigor router for the internet connection. Recent models can
manage APs so provide fine control of the handover of clients between
APs. They also have syslog which helps diagnose problems like a failing
WiFi call.

--
Graham J

On 6 Dec 2023 16:09, Graham J wrote:
> Bob Eager wrote:
>> On Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:54:48 +0000, Rupert Moss-Eccardt wrote:
>>
>>> So, I'm thinking of replacing the mesh system.
>>> So recommendations, please?
>>
>> Our house is large, with soem thick walls. Also a neighbour with their
>> router very near one wall.
>>
>> I have four Draytek Vigor AP903s. Thes are all wired back (could be
>> wireless, but I have the wiring) to a central switch, thence to the
>> firewall and router.
>>
>> They work very well and have been trouble free.
>
> Experience with earlier Vigor APs leads me to agree. Always use a wired
> backhaul from each AP. Choose an AP that supports PoE, to minimise
> power wiring and potentially allow the whole network (router, switches,
> VoIP phones and whatever) to be run from a UPS.
>
> Use a Vigor router for the internet connection. Recent models can
> manage APs so provide fine control of the handover of clients between
> APs. They also have syslog which helps diagnose problems like a failing
> WiFi call.

Thanks both, so far.

Wired backhaul within the house will be tricky (we
have a number of murals, so chasing out and refilling isn't really an
option and surface-mount trunking is certainly not going to win any
approval). I could pretend that Powerline is trouble-free but...

On Wed, 06 Dec 2023 16:09:15 +0000, Graham J wrote:

> Bob Eager wrote:
>> On Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:54:48 +0000, Rupert Moss-Eccardt wrote:
>>
>>> So, I'm thinking of replacing the mesh system.
>>> So recommendations, please?
>>
>> Our house is large, with soem thick walls. Also a neighbour with their
>> router very near one wall.
>>
>> I have four Draytek Vigor AP903s. Thes are all wired back (could be
>> wireless, but I have the wiring) to a central switch, thence to the
>> firewall and router.
>>
>> They work very well and have been trouble free.
>
> Experience with earlier Vigor APs leads me to agree. Always use a wired
> backhaul from each AP. Choose an AP that supports PoE, to minimise
> power wiring and potentially allow the whole network (router, switches,
> VoIP phones and whatever) to be run from a UPS.
>
> Use a Vigor router for the internet connection. Recent models can
> manage APs so provide fine control of the handover of clients between
> APs. They also have syslog which helps diagnose problems like a failing
> WiFi call.

That last bit isn't working yet. The router is the other side of teh
firewall, and its broadcasts aren't getting through to the APs!

On Wed, 06 Dec 2023 16:24:24 +0000, Rupert Moss-Eccardt wrote:

> On 6 Dec 2023 16:09, Graham J wrote:
>> Bob Eager wrote:
>>> On Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:54:48 +0000, Rupert Moss-Eccardt wrote:
>>>
>>>> So, I'm thinking of replacing the mesh system.
>>>> So recommendations, please?
>>>
>>> Our house is large, with soem thick walls. Also a neighbour with their
>>> router very near one wall.
>>>
>>> I have four Draytek Vigor AP903s. Thes are all wired back (could be
>>> wireless, but I have the wiring) to a central switch, thence to the
>>> firewall and router.
>>>
>>> They work very well and have been trouble free.
>>
>> Experience with earlier Vigor APs leads me to agree. Always use a
>> wired backhaul from each AP. Choose an AP that supports PoE, to
>> minimise power wiring and potentially allow the whole network (router,
>> switches, VoIP phones and whatever) to be run from a UPS.
>>
>> Use a Vigor router for the internet connection. Recent models can
>> manage APs so provide fine control of the handover of clients between
>> APs. They also have syslog which helps diagnose problems like a
>> failing WiFi call.
>
> Thanks both, so far.
>
> Wired backhaul within the house will be tricky (we have a number of
> murals, so chasing out and refilling isn't really an option and
> surface-mount trunking is certainly not going to win any approval). I
> could pretend that Powerline is trouble-free but...

The Vigor APs will do wireless backhaul, as long as there is a reasonably
good path back from the distant one to another.