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Community Fibre Linksys router not strong

So, aside from range extender, to explore options:
- add another linksys mx* router (which I assume creates a mesh)
- reuse my Deco m5
- procure, new, better mesh
 
Here is why a range extender is a poor cousin compared to a mesh network.

A range extender is just another WiFi transmitter. It gets it's link to the network via ethernet or WiFi depending on the model and usually just retransmits the same. Your WiFi clients really have little intelligence - they will cling to the first transmitter they attach to until there really is no alternative to switch even through there could be a better second transmitter of the same SSID, they won't bother to look until the signal is so poor from the original transmitter that it's already degrading your experience. Depending on the model you could run the extender with a different SSID but in this case you will need to go into the WiFi settings of devices that move around and manually select the Front or Rear SSID, which is generally a big faff. If you have ever been in a cheaper hotel where they have SSID-1st, SSID-2nd, it's the same kind of experience, where you have manually join and steer your device between the appropriate SSID.

A mesh network is completely different. The master and slave unit(s) share intelligence and a control plane. They all use the same SSID, and they all share information about all the clients joined to the network and the actual and potential signal strength for each client to each WiFi unit. When a client moves and the network can see that a client can sensibly get a better strength signal from an alternative transmitter, the transmitter to which it is connected sends a disconnect instruction to the client. As I have stated above, WiFi clients are relatively dumb, and it now finds itself with no connection and starts scanning, and it sees the SSID it knows and randomly chooses a transmitter to associate with - often the one with the strongest signal, but sometimes not. If the mesh network sees it connecting to the wrong suboptimal transmitter, a disconnect message is sent again, until the WiFi client chooses the transmitter the mesh network thinks it should be using.

Hopefully you can appreciate that there's a much greater level of intelligence in a mesh network than there is in a WiFi extender.

But the experience of a user of a WiFi network is also predicated on the quality of the connection any transmitter can offer to the outside world - if your slave unit is itself using WiFi to make its connection to the master and it only has a poor connection then although WiFi clients can roam to that unit successfully if the quality of the connection from the slave to the master is rubbish, then the rubbish is shared to the clients on that slave unit. So irrespective of whether it's mesh or repeater, if the slave WiFi unit doesn't have a decent connection to the master then the quality of the connection will be crap from the slave. So in your situation you can't put a mesh slave unit in a bedroom that already has WiFi challenges and expect the slave unit to improve things.

Ethernet cable is the bullet proof way of guaranteeing the service from a master to a slave. But if that is not practical line of sight or no significant structural impediments between master and slave using WiFi to connect is very important. Use your current phone and survey the WiFi signal with only your master WiFi unit switched on - you should be aiming for 75%+ WiFi signal at the location of a slave unit that is going to use WiFi to connect to the master. And remember that if the WiFi units are low down humans wandering around will cause temporary signal drops.

You flat does seem to be a challenging design, and as others have noted you probably have not only your water/waste pipes in the wall between the kitchen and bathroom, but also those of the flats above. That will be a significant blocker.

Just by looking at the plan, putting a mesh unit at on the east side of your kitchen as far south as possible would be the first place I would be trying. High level would be better if that is possible. Assuming ethernet is too much drama (you have doors to cross either way) it will have line of sight to your master unit, and it's far enough over that the signal can get into the bedrooms without having to go through the pipework in the bathroom.

As I said, you can pick up a matching Linksys MX mesh unit off eBay for around £50, in my opinion that would be your best bet.

Let us know how you get on.
 
Don't do it!!!! Get something high spec and decent mesh based. Range extenders might seem cheap but the reliability and spec reflects it too.
I don't know, man. In my experience it solved the problem and was very stable.
An Ethernet cable would be ideal though.
 
Ethernet all the way wherever or whenever possible. I support many people and places and WiFi repeaters can be "ok" but the cost savings are not worth the reduced spec/performance.

My current go-to are these Mercusys Halo H70X:

Seems that it's somehow related to tp-link (at least a sticker on the box says warranty is handled by tp-link) and the app is very much like the Deco app. (And I've just noticed Amazon list the manufacturer as tp-link).

Main point: 750-800mbps typical, occasionally 900mbps.

First hop through 1 single skin brick and a cavity wall: 300mbps.

Second hop through 2 breezeblock walls: 100mbps

It's a world of difference in price which in some ways shows really how poor a £22 "repeater" might be.
 
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Ethernet all the way wherever or whenever possible. I support many people and places and WiFi repeaters can be "ok" but the cost savings are not worth the reduced spec/performance.

My current go-to are these Mercusys Halo H70X:

Seems that it's somehow related to tp-link (at least a sticker on the box says warranty is handled by tp-link) and the app is very much like the Deco app. (And I've just noticed Amazon list the manufacturer as tp-link).

Main point: 750-800mbps typical, occasionally 900mbps.

First hop through 1 single skin brick and a cavity wall: 300mbps.

Second hop through 2 breezeblock walls: 100mbps

It's a world of difference in price which in some ways shows really how poor a £22 "repeater" might be.
Are these WiFi 6 mesh units anyway better at transmitting and receiving signal when compared with my Tplink Deco m5 units?

Also, some people have been recommending one additional Linksys mx* router given I have one that the oso (community Fibre) provided..
 
My tests for the Deco M5:
Decent with ethernet backhaul and have 2 gigabit ports
~450-600mbps both directions with a 2x2 AC client

Not really good enough when meshing
~150mbps both directions

The suggestion to buy another Linksys on eBay and add it as a mesh node to your existing router is a good suggestion and the route I would go down.
 
Looking at this I'm very tempted to get two MX56's from eBAY to use as a mesh network at home as it could definitely do with an upgrade, but I have a few questions that I would appreciate answers to:



1. Can one of the Linksys routers work as a main router (handling DHCP, NAT etc)?

2. Are these routers configured using an app, a website or both.



I'm asking since we're with a different FTTP Provider, County Broadband, who only provided us with a WiFi 5 Altice GR241AG router which also connects directly to the fibre and so also acts as the ONT. This router doesn't have very good coverage, has intermitent DHCP Issues and its guest network feature has never worked despite it being an advertised feature. Port forwards on ports 80 and 443 are also entirely broken with a cryptic message saying that "The port is already in use" even when there are no other port forwards set up.



So we are therefore looking to replace our set-up (this router combined with a now 8-year-old TP-Link powerline adaptor maxing out at about 23 MBPS on WiFi 4 2.4 GHz only) and I would like to get something reliable that will improve our experience and work seamlessly with one SSID. Per

https://service.countybroadband.co.uk/index.php?rp=/knowledgebase/47/Full-Fibre-FAQs.html

we should be able to essentially put our router into Bridge mode so it only acts as an ONT, and then plug our own, better router into it. We're thinking about this as CBB's own solution is a WiFi 6 Smart WiFi extender locked to their routers only for £100 paired with this existing router which is not ideal considering this is an old router and the fact that if we do switch to Gigaclear (which is now live here and looking very tempting) once our contract is up (we have 300 MBPS for £48.99 and Gigaclear have some offers that beat that by a long way so if we can't negotiate a deal we'll likely switch) we would have to change our set-up but using our own equipment we could just switch it over.

We're only on CBB as it was the first FTTP provider to go live here and the fact I managed to convince my parents to pre-order it before it went live.
 
Are these WiFi 6 mesh units anyway better at transmitting and receiving signal when compared with my Tplink Deco m5 units?

Also, some people have been recommending one additional Linksys mx* router given I have one that the oso (community Fibre) provided..

WiFi 6 can be better than WiFi 5, but if there are fundamental problems with signal blockage from metal and pipes and water (basic physics) then WiFi 6 isn't going to work noticeable miracles over WiFi 5.

Performance of any WiFi solution is going to be influenced by the environment and any physical constraints.

By all means give the Deco units a go, but bear in mind that the basic advice I have given - line of sight between WiFi joined master and slave units. If Deco units appear to work then you can decide if that is good enough or elect to upgrade your WiFi 6 Linksys with another unit.
 
Looking at this I'm very tempted to get two MX56's from eBAY to use as a mesh network at home as it could definitely do with an upgrade, but I have a few questions that I would appreciate answers to:



1. Can one of the Linksys routers work as a main router (handling DHCP, NAT etc)?

2. Are these routers configured using an app, a website or both.



I'm asking since we're with a different FTTP Provider, County Broadband, who only provided us with a WiFi 5 Altice GR241AG router which also connects directly to the fibre and so also acts as the ONT. This router doesn't have very good coverage, has intermitent DHCP Issues and its guest network feature has never worked despite it being an advertised feature. Port forwards on ports 80 and 443 are also entirely broken with a cryptic message saying that "The port is already in use" even when there are no other port forwards set up.



So we are therefore looking to replace our set-up (this router combined with a now 8-year-old TP-Link powerline adaptor maxing out at about 23 MBPS on WiFi 4 2.4 GHz only) and I would like to get something reliable that will improve our experience and work seamlessly with one SSID. Per

https://service.countybroadband.co.uk/index.php?rp=/knowledgebase/47/Full-Fibre-FAQs.html

we should be able to essentially put our router into Bridge mode so it only acts as an ONT, and then plug our own, better router into it. We're thinking about this as CBB's own solution is a WiFi 6 Smart WiFi extender locked to their routers only for £100 paired with this existing router which is not ideal considering this is an old router and the fact that if we do switch to Gigaclear (which is now live here and looking very tempting) once our contract is up (we have 300 MBPS for £48.99 and Gigaclear have some offers that beat that by a long way so if we can't negotiate a deal we'll likely switch) we would have to change our set-up but using our own equipment we could just switch it over.

We're only on CBB as it was the first FTTP provider to go live here and the fact I managed to convince my parents to pre-order it before it went live.

So without any experience of CBB and their kit, provided you can put the Altice into bridge mode as per your link, and you get two Linksys MX mesh units, you connect an ethernet cable from the Altice to the master Linksys and set that up using a Linksys app. Get the master unit up and running. Then turn your attention to the slave unit. You initially pair it using WiFi backhaul and again you use the Linksys app to set it all up. But once it's paired you have the option to use an Ethernet cable from the master Linksys to the slave. (The slave can daisy chain other slaves by ethernet cable)
 
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Update - I won an auction on eBay for a boxed & sealed Linksys SPNMX55.

The idea is that this additional Linksys SPNMX55 + my Community Fibre-issued Linksys SPNMX56 in a slightly more strategically positioned mesh config will handle the signal better than 3x Deco M5 units that I was previously using (albeit with Virgin Media), with less frequent dropouts.

Given I got the router for £34 incl postage, it's not too expensive an experiment, was my thinking.

Let me know thoughts (if any)
 
Last edited:
Update - I won an auction on eBay for a boxed & sealed Linksys SPNMX55.

The idea is that this additional Linksys SPNMX55 + my Community Fibre-issued Linksys SPNMX56 in a slightly more strategically positioned mesh config will handle the signal better than 3x Deco M5 units that I was previously using (albeit with Virgin Media), with less frequent dropouts.

Given I got the router for £34 incl postage, it's not too expensive an experiment, was my thinking.

Let me know thoughts (if any)
How did it go? Any improvement with the two node Linksys setup over the three node Deco setup?
 
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