Mesh WiFi Speeds

[eddot98]

We have a TP-Link Deco M4 AC1200 dual band WiFi Router with 3 modules - 1 that acts as the Router and 2 that act as repeaters? We have a Spectrum provided Cable Telephony modem with 300 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up Internet, along with cable tv and home telephone. The Router is placed a foot away from the cable modem and connected by a new Ethernet cat 5e cable to the modem. The Router is connected by a new cat 5e cable to a gigabit switch with 8 ports, 3 of which are connected to desktops with gigabit Ethernet cards. The Router is on the second floor of our 2700 square foot 135 year old house in a front room which is near the left side of the house. The house has the original lath and plaster walls.
WiFi speeds as measured by Ookla speed test vary all over the house. Measured with my iPhone 12 right next to the router I get north of 350 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload. Measured with the same iPhone 12 a few feet from a repeater on the first floor in the front of the house, but in the other corner of the house, I get 101 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload, 20 feet away in the adjacent room, I get 80 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload. This is our tv room where we use our Roku in wireless mode. Sometimes our streaming pauses, doesn’t immediately start, etc. Measured a few feet away from the second repeater on the first floor in the opposite corner in back of the house, I get 27 Mbps download and 7 Mbps upload.

I thought that Mesh WiFi was supposed to “blanket the house in high speed WiFi”. Are the wide range of speeds to be expected? Mostly, our devices work adequately, but not blazingly fast.

Edited to add that, before posting this thread, I searched the Internet for the answer with no results.

[jebmke]

My (primitive) understanding of mesh systems is that dual band systems can have uneven results. Tri-band with wired backhaul seems to be the preferred hardware for more reliable speed.

[02nz]

My (primitive) understanding of mesh systems is that dual band systems can have uneven results. Tri-band with wired backhaul seems to be the preferred hardware for more reliable speed.

This is true. I recently put in a tri-band Eero Pro 6 system (bought when Amazon had a nice deal on a refurbished 3-pack) and have been impressed with ease of setup, reliability, and speed.

OP, you may want to try moving the mesh unit that's serving the location with the weakest speeds, or adding a mesh unit. Your system is a relatively low-end one, though, and probably won't deliver 300 Mbps everywhere no matter what. Worth keeping an eye on Amazon for any refurb Eero Pro 6 deals during the October Prime Day. (BTW, I wouldn't recommend shelling out for the pricier Eero Pro 6E, as the cheaper 6 actually has the most powerful antennae - 4x4 - for the wireless backhaul.)

ETA: This is what I bought - Eero Pro 6 3-pack, certified refurbished, $240. They have a 25% trade-in offer. You could trade in your TP-Link system, or even just some random Roku or Fire TV stick (I just bought a used one off eBay for $10 to get the $60 discount).

[rich126]

Even 27Mbps should be plenty fast and not cause buffering issues. You should periodically reset or power cycle all of the mesh devices. I believe they store info in memory and should be cleaned out.

I don't have amesh system but recently had buffering issues and the issue was resolved after I power down the Verizon equipment including the router. Routers store tables of info which can get corrupted worth a try.

Also if access points are too close they can cause problems because the mobile device gets confused and switches frequently between the multiple access points.

[tortoise84]

You can try moving the repeaters. Right now it appears that you have them on wireless backhaul which means that they communicate back to the main router via wireless so there needs to be a strong signal between them. Try placing the repeater at the midpoint between the main router and the outer wall of the room that you want to cover.

The alternative is to use a wired backhaul of a Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable between the main router and each of the repeaters. In this case, the wireless signal strength back to the main router won't matter anymore, and you can place the extender anywhere in the room that you want coverage in.

[cyclist]

You can try moving the repeaters. Right now it appears that you have them on wireless backhaul which means that they communicate back to the main router via wireless so there needs to be a strong signal between them. Try placing the repeater at the midpoint between the main router and the outer wall of the room that you want to cover.

The alternative is to use a wired backhaul of a Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable between the main router and each of the repeaters. In this case, the wireless signal strength back to the main router won't matter anymore, and you can place the extender anywhere in the room that you want coverage in.

This. It looks like the weak link in your system is between the primary unit and the repeaters.

Cyclist

[snic]

Do those speeds actually impact anything you do on wifi? They are plenty fast for pretty much anything you'd want to do unless you're a serious gamer or you regularly download extremely large files. For example, a 4k video stream takes about 25 Mbps, so if your lowest speed is 80, you have more than enough for 3 simultaneous 4k streams going through that one mesh unit. Is that ever going to happen?

If you really want faster speeds, it would probably help a lot to connect the mesh units with ethernet cable. This is what I did and it's not that hard if you don't mind drilling through some walls and having some cables running along your baseboards.

[zlandar]

Depends on the shape of your home and the material between it and the access points.

I have one corner of my house that juts out further than the others. Causes a large drop in WiFi signal strength as soon as you walk into it.

Hardwiring the APs gives the best performance. Otherwise the APs have to use WiFi to communicate with each other. That wireless backhaul is often in the 5Ghz band which has a higher bandwidth but less range/penetration than the 2.4 GHz band.

So if your AP is an area that attenuates the WiFi signal + use the 5 GHz band to communicate it's a double whammy.

Using ethernet to connect the APs is best. MOCA adapters are a close second and are very reliable/fast. Good choice if your home has cable outlets. Powerline adapters 3rd and reliability/speed vary on your electrical wiring.

[eddot98]

Do those speeds actually impact anything you do on wifi? They are plenty fast for pretty much anything you'd want to do unless you're a serious gamer or you regularly download extremely large files. For example, a 4k video stream takes about 25 Mbps, so if your lowest speed is 80, you have more than enough for 3 simultaneous 4k streams going through that one mesh unit. Is that ever going to happen?

If you really want faster speeds, it would probably help a lot to connect the mesh units with ethernet cable. This is what I did and it's not that hard if you don't mind drilling through some walls and having some cables running along your baseboards.

While you are right that the speeds that I get are technically not supposed to affect what we do on WiFi (no gaming, no large file downloads), we do get some lagging while streaming Apple TV, Netflix, etc. and I get some complaints from DW that her desktop is slow. I’ve gotten so that I restart it every morning and that seems to help. She has 20+ Edge windows open at all times, no matter how many times I try to explain how that might slow the computer down.
I can’t easily add memory as it is an all in one because that’s just neater looking.

My next step is to rearrange the satellites, as suggested up thread.

[TomatoTomahto]

I’ve gotten so that I restart it every morning and that seems to help.

I have a “smart plug” on my Eero router that is set to turn off a few times a week at 3:00 AM and restart at 3:01AM. Works like a chat.

[Diluted Waters]

One of the most helpful things I learned about Wi-Fi is that it is a cooperative technology not competitive.

More power can hurt more than it helps as your access points scream while your mobile devices are speaking or whispering. Turning up the power on the access points doesn’t do anything for the power of the mobile device.

Counterintuitively, turning down the Wi-Fi radio power may help connectivity significantly if your devices give you that control.

[jebmke]

If restarting the router regularly helps, I'd investigate if one of the devices (even a wired one) is tying up the routing function. Years ago I had a problem with speed degradation so I pulled all the devices off and added them one at a time. It turned out that one hard wired device had a defective Ethernet card that was constantly polling the router at high speed and the routing function (not the wifi) was being saturated with traffic.

I also know that Rokus can continue running even when you turn off the connected TV. We have gotten in the habit of making sure we stop everything in progress with the pause button and back out of the service to the home screen of the Roku before shutting off the TV. It wasn't causing a network problem for us but what it was doing was continuing to the next episode of a series without us. When we pulled up the series, the Roku showed the next episode well in progress.

[SpanishInquisition]

Do those speeds actually impact anything you do on wifi? They are plenty fast for pretty much anything you'd want to do unless you're a serious gamer or you regularly download extremely large files. For example, a 4k video stream takes about 25 Mbps, so if your lowest speed is 80, you have more than enough for 3 simultaneous 4k streams going through that one mesh unit. Is that ever going to happen?

If you really want faster speeds, it would probably help a lot to connect the mesh units with ethernet cable. This is what I did and it's not that hard if you don't mind drilling through some walls and having some cables running along your baseboards.

While you are right that the speeds that I get are technically not supposed to affect what we do on WiFi (no gaming, no large file downloads), we do get some lagging while streaming Apple TV, Netflix, etc. and I get some complaints from DW that her desktop is slow. I’ve gotten so that I restart it every morning and that seems to help. She has 20+ Edge windows open at all times, no matter how many times I try to explain how that might slow the computer down.
I can’t easily add memory as it is an all in one because that’s just neater looking.

My next step is to rearrange the satellites, as suggested up thread.

I’ve been using eeros since 2016, as you may well know Amazon bought eero some years ago, so they are Amazon’s babies now. Amazon updates the firmware regularly & etc. They have only gotten better & better. Admittedly it’s a sentimental thing for me because my dad pre-ordered the 1st gen set of 3 for me before they were even fully developed and manufactured. It was the introduction of mesh to the consumer market. I probably have too many eeros up & running because I find it fun to have one of each kind. They used to result in about half speed after the mesh bounces but now they will go up to full speed (about 300 mbps for my service) or close throughout my house, for whatever reason, with the help of the latest models. They work great with my Apple TV, which I notice you have. No problems with Netflix, YouTube tv, etc. Family of 5, dozens of devices, no problems here.

So, I guess, one thing is you could just go buy a 3-pack of eeros and perhaps (?) be done with all of the heartache.

[foghorn300]

I have a Netgear Nighthawk MK-83 system that is similar to yours (Router + 2 satellites). I have had it 1.5 years and for the most part it works fine. However, it did not start out that way and only with lots of reading and experimenting did I get to a situation that I now find acceptable.

Here are some things to try:

1.) As suggested by others, play around with the placement of the satellites. Mine are now in different locations than I originally planned and tried.

2.) If your system lets you change the 5Ghz channel, try changing that. In my system I need to use the Website version of the system interface. The app on my phone does not allow for this (or at least I cannot find it). There may be more "space" on one of the other channels that will help the system operate better.

3.) The thing that helped me most was to "re-sync" the system. The sync out of the box was not good (I think). In my case, there is a sync button on the back of the router and a sync button on the back of each satellite. I followed the instructions to "re-sync" the system and most of my connection and slow speed problems went away.

4.) Make sure any firmware is up to date.

5.) Lastly, about once a month (or more), I reboot the system with the app on my phone. Seems like good housekeeping.

Good luck. These mesh systems are great in theory - but can be challenging practice.

[illumination]

Another vote for Eero, one of the best "cheap" upgrades to my home.

I fortunately have a home that is networked, so I have an ethernet line to each of them. I have 3 total Eero pros. If I'm in a room with an Eero, I get like 350-400mbps. Just outside the room, around 250mbps. There's like one "less good" spot in the house that gets in that 80mbps, but otherwise it's strong. I really should have 4 Eeros, if i wanted peak performance, but it seems to be fine. I also have them "hidden" for the wife acceptance factor. If I had them in better spots, they would do way better.

One thing I didn't really discover until later was I had an older 100mb router in my chain that was slowing things down on one my Eeros. So check that out.

[TomatoTomahto]

Another vote for Eero, one of the best "cheap" upgrades to my home.

I love my Eeros. Because of fieldstone construction (the only thing it insulates against is wifi), we have to have many Ethernet back hauled nodes. I’m sitting by the pool now (only nodes are indoors) and getting 35 Mbs.

[jebmke]

Someone should invent a Roomba that wanders around the house with mesh nodes finding the optimal locations.

[rockstar]

What actually matters is the use case for each area of your home. Does each place get sufficient speeds for how you're using network? Then, set up your network appropriately if it doesn't. Wired APs is really your best option.

Don't rely on speed tests.

[Drewman]

I tried a Plume Mesh system in our 3400sq ft home and then I tried the Netgear AC1000 router. I found that the very cheap $40 Netgear router far outperformed the expensive Mesh system. The 2.4ghz band of the AC router (I turned off the 5ghz mode) went quite further, like 50 yards around our home and worked great. We pay for 40MBPS down and 40MBPS up. Right now outside I get 28 down and 26 up, which I am very pleased with. The router is in our concrete basement even.

The caveat to my system is that I would not expect blazing fast speeds if I took full advantage of the fiber speeds available to me. However, I have found that my speed are great for my needs. 2.4ghz is great at slow speeds over far distances. 5Ghz is great at very high speeds within short distances (sub 10 feet).

Science experiments!

[eddot98]

I rebooted the Deco satellites, moved one of them as close as possible to the upstairs Deco router, checked the firmware version, checked the system (app says that there was some interference and it fixed it), optimized the network through the app, and I’m still in the same situation. The router unit was also restarted along with the cable modem. I’m assuming that the system is working as well as it can. Running Ethernet cable is not an easy task between floors in this old house with plaster walls and blown in insulation behind the walls. At one time I did run a cable out of the side of the house upstairs, along the top of the porch roof, down the side of the house, into the cellar and up through the floor into the room with the all in one desktop. That wire is old, probably not cat 5 and my days of doing stuff like that are over. I had a moca system set up, but it was a 10/100 system and wouldn’t allow full use of our 300Mbps service, so the Spectrum guy took the units out.
My next step will be to wait for Prime days and probably buy a eero Pro 6 three unit system.
The Deco M4 supposedly uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and sends the best signal to each device.

[Drewman]

The Deco M4 supposedly uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and sends the best signal to each device.

This is correct as dose something cheap like the Netgear AC1000 router for $32. What I was able to do was to login into the router and turn off the 2.4ghz portion. THen I could walk through and perform speed test at usage locations, then I logged back into the router and turned off the 5ghz and turned on the 2.4ghz band then repeated the test.

[Drewman]

Another option I just thought of would be the powerline adapter. This uses your existing electric as the line. So it's not wifi but it could provide a sort of hard wired solution for something that is stagnant like say a TV or desktop.

Just a thought.

[hoofaman]

I had a moca system set up, but it was a 10/100 system and wouldn’t allow full use of our 300Mbps service, so the Spectrum guy took the units out.
My next step will be to wait for Prime days and probably buy a eero Pro 6 three unit system.
The Deco M4 supposedly uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and sends the best signal to each device.

Assuming you can't/don't want to run ethernet, if you already have your house wired for Coax MoCA is worth considering as the next best option. MoCA is point to point, it might make sense for you to setup one or two MoCa bridges to reach 2 floors up/other side of house and then connect a WiFi access point to that wired connection. Consider the distance/obsticles between your current WiFi access points and think of the most strategic run for a MoCA bridge

I've used MoCA bridges to setup WiFi at my parents house years ago, they didn't want to run Ethernet and pure mesh wifi wouldn't cut it for that particular situation. In their case, I only needed to setup 2 MoCA bridges, each for a WiFi access point. One run is to their detached pool house which happened to have a coax feed. End result was great and those adapters have been trouble free, they have been running without issue for years

The MoCa 2.5 standard is rated up to 2.5Gbps, MoCa 2.0 is rated up to 670Mbps. You can find these adapters on Amazon

[gavinsiu]

Mesh network does require a bit of tweaking. It's not a magical it should work.
* Arrangement of the mesh network is important. Your device actually moves between the different node in the mesh, picking the best node to connect to. You want your mesh node to be close enough to have a good connection with eachother, but not so close that they overlap too much, making the device confuse on which node to use. You may want to move the mesh nodes around.

* You should avoid setting up mesh network to not have more than 1 hops. Ideally, you start with a centralize node around your ISP router and setup your modes as a ring around this central node.

* Your neighbor's wifi could be an issue, particularly in buildings. Typically something like 2.4 Ghz is useless since there might be dozens of neighbor signals intereferring. Using a higher band might help because they actually have a lower range thus less interferring. In addition, higher band routers are expensive, so there are few people using the higher bands like 6E.

* As suggested by other posters, a wire backhaul is always better. Note that when we use wire backhaul, I meant ethernet or even moca. Something like powerline are probably not good backhauls because of bandwidth limit. However, I have used them for example to get a stable connection for 4K streaming.

* In a lot of cases, wired backhaul is not a possibility. A tri-band may be better because you can dedicate one of the bands for backhaul. This is because backhaul takes up bandwidth.

* At airports, your 5 Ghz might have an issue with DFS channels. For example, if your router detect airplane radar and you are using a 5 Ghz in the DFS range, the router might shutdown the communication to avoid interference. This will result in a connection disruption. in higher end routers, there may be a connection to avoid DFS channels. However, on most entry level routers in the US, there is no such settings because they just don't allow DFS channels.

[zlandar]

I had a moca system set up, but it was a 10/100 system and wouldn’t allow full use of our 300Mbps service, so the Spectrum guy took the units out.
My next step will be to wait for Prime days and probably buy a eero Pro 6 three unit system.
The Deco M4 supposedly uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and sends the best signal to each device.

Like another poster said the newest MOCA 2.5 adapters are blazing fast. 10/100 is MOCA 1.0 which is ancient. Both provide a stable connection which is > raw speed for streaming stability.

Switching to another AP system doesn't fix the poor wifi strength problem. Your wifi backhaul will still be unreliable because of poor signal.

[Cruiser]

Another thing to keep in mind - your device may not immediately switch to the best mesh device. In other words, you run a test by your main device, which your phone is connected to - great results. Then you wander down the hall to a satellite device and run the test again; your phone may very well still be connected to the main device.

In my experience with my 1st gen eero system, it takes some time after I've moved locations for the phone to connect to the nearest satellite device.

[tm3]

We have a TP-Link Deco

I made the switch to mesh by getting an Eero system. It seemed to be the best bang for the buck. I found the setup kind of confusing (app is similar to the alexa app, which is not well executed). Once set up, it did not work. Spent an hour on the phone with customer service, it never worked, I returned it for a TP Link Deco. Setup was a breeze.

I initially connected two of the TP units with an ethernet cable in an effort to get the fastest possible performance, but then decided to experiment and found that the speeds were faster without the ethernet cable. Also, I got significant speed changes from seemingly minor changes in device placement. At my modem the speed is roughly 300 and I'm getting 120 or so proximal to each TP unit, which is plenty for me.

My research of mesh units suggested that higher purchase price might yield faster speeds. The Netgear Orbi in particular is supposedly one that delivers, provided that your service is actually capable of really high speeds and that you need really high speeds (>500, say). But the Orbi is spendy.

Hope this helps you sort it all out.

[gavinsiu]

Regarding Moca, I do notice some coxial connectors in my wall. How to do test it to see if they can be use for MOCA?

[TomatoTomahto]

Regarding Moca, I do notice some coxial connectors in my wall. How to do test it to see if they can be use for MOCA?

I don’t think this is unethical, but you might disagree. I would order the MoCa device(s) and try them. If the coax doesn’t work, return them. Fwiw, we had old coax at our house and it worked wonderfully to get Ethernet to the garage (which also had coax).

If you have Verizon Fios, I think they have MoCa built-in to the router, so you only need on adapter; otherwise two.

[MGBMartin]

I had a moca system set up, but it was a 10/100 system and wouldn’t allow full use of our 300Mbps service, so the Spectrum guy took the units out.
My next step will be to wait for Prime days and probably buy a eero Pro 6 three unit system.
The Deco M4 supposedly uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and sends the best signal to each device.

Assuming you can't/don't want to run ethernet, if you already have your house wired for Coax MoCA is worth considering as the next best option. MoCA is point to point, it might make sense for you to setup one or two MoCa bridges to reach 2 floors up/other side of house and then connect a WiFi access point to that wired connection. Consider the distance/obsticles between your current WiFi access points and think of the most strategic run for a MoCA bridge

I've used MoCA bridges to setup WiFi at my parents house years ago, they didn't want to run Ethernet and pure mesh wifi wouldn't cut it for that particular situation. In their case, I only needed to setup 2 MoCA bridges, each for a WiFi access point. One run is to their detached pool house which happened to have a coax feed. End result was great and those adapters have been trouble free, they have been running without issue for years

The MoCa 2.5 standard is rated up to 2.5Gbps, MoCa 2.0 is rated up to 670Mbps. You can find these adapters on Amazon

+1 on using coax and MOCA if you have existing coax wiring in the house.
This can be a very inexpensive way to get good Wi-Fi and Ethernet coverage around your house.
The MOCA/Ethernet/Wi-Fi devices can be found on eBay brand new for $15-20.
I set up several of them around my house, made them all the same SSID and they are super reliable, never have to reboot them.

[PottedPlant]

A couple of observations.
1. Sometimes fewer nodes give better performance. We had 4 Eeros and when I removed one, performance went up everywhere in the house.
2. It can take many hours for the nodes to adjust to each other.

[02nz]

The Deco M4 supposedly uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and sends the best signal to each device.

But because it lacks a dedicated band for communicating between the mesh nodes ("wireless backhaul"), it has to use the 2.4 or 5 GHz band for that as well. And that can slow down the speed quite a bit; generally it'll cut your effective speed by half (think two-lane highway vs. divided highway with two lanes in each direction). As noted above, the Eero Pro 6 is really good for this, with powerful 4x4 antennae for its dedicated backhaul.

[eddot98]

My (primitive) understanding of mesh systems is that dual band systems can have uneven results. Tri-band with wired backhaul seems to be the preferred hardware for more reliable speed.

This is true. I recently put in a tri-band Eero Pro 6 system (bought when Amazon had a nice deal on a refurbished 3-pack) and have been impressed with ease of setup, reliability, and speed.

OP, you may want to try moving the mesh unit that's serving the location with the weakest speeds, or adding a mesh unit. Your system is a relatively low-end one, though, and probably won't deliver 300 Mbps everywhere no matter what. Worth keeping an eye on Amazon for any refurb Eero Pro 6 deals during the October Prime Day. (BTW, I wouldn't recommend shelling out for the pricier Eero Pro 6E, as the cheaper 6 actually has the most powerful antennae - 4x4 - for the wireless backhaul.)

ETA: This is what I bought - Eero Pro 6 3-pack, certified refurbished, $240. They have a 25% trade-in offer. You could trade in your TP-Link system, or even just some random Roku or Fire TV stick (I just bought a used one off eBay for $10 to get the $60 discount).

What do you think of the Eero Pro refurbished linked here for $100?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C87 ... em_1p_0_lm

The reviews are great and, since we only have 300 mbps service, I don’t need a gigabit router.

[jebmke]

My (primitive) understanding of mesh systems is that dual band systems can have uneven results. Tri-band with wired backhaul seems to be the preferred hardware for more reliable speed.

This is true. I recently put in a tri-band Eero Pro 6 system (bought when Amazon had a nice deal on a refurbished 3-pack) and have been impressed with ease of setup, reliability, and speed.

OP, you may want to try moving the mesh unit that's serving the location with the weakest speeds, or adding a mesh unit. Your system is a relatively low-end one, though, and probably won't deliver 300 Mbps everywhere no matter what. Worth keeping an eye on Amazon for any refurb Eero Pro 6 deals during the October Prime Day. (BTW, I wouldn't recommend shelling out for the pricier Eero Pro 6E, as the cheaper 6 actually has the most powerful antennae - 4x4 - for the wireless backhaul.)

ETA: This is what I bought - Eero Pro 6 3-pack, certified refurbished, $240. They have a 25% trade-in offer. You could trade in your TP-Link system, or even just some random Roku or Fire TV stick (I just bought a used one off eBay for $10 to get the $60 discount).

What do you think of the Eero Pro refurbished linked here for $100?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C87 ... em_1p_0_lm

The reviews are great and, since we only have 300 mbps service, I don’t need a gigabit router.

I don't know much about these. The link indicates it is 2017 vintage hardware so I'd be concerned about how long it will get firmware updates. I prefer fairly new hardware versions.

[02nz]

My (primitive) understanding of mesh systems is that dual band systems can have uneven results. Tri-band with wired backhaul seems to be the preferred hardware for more reliable speed.

This is true. I recently put in a tri-band Eero Pro 6 system (bought when Amazon had a nice deal on a refurbished 3-pack) and have been impressed with ease of setup, reliability, and speed.

OP, you may want to try moving the mesh unit that's serving the location with the weakest speeds, or adding a mesh unit. Your system is a relatively low-end one, though, and probably won't deliver 300 Mbps everywhere no matter what. Worth keeping an eye on Amazon for any refurb Eero Pro 6 deals during the October Prime Day. (BTW, I wouldn't recommend shelling out for the pricier Eero Pro 6E, as the cheaper 6 actually has the most powerful antennae - 4x4 - for the wireless backhaul.)

ETA: This is what I bought - Eero Pro 6 3-pack, certified refurbished, $240. They have a 25% trade-in offer. You could trade in your TP-Link system, or even just some random Roku or Fire TV stick (I just bought a used one off eBay for $10 to get the $60 discount).

What do you think of the Eero Pro refurbished linked here for $100?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C87 ... em_1p_0_lm

The reviews are great and, since we only have 300 mbps service, I don’t need a gigabit router.

I have one unit of the Pro and three units of the Pro 6 (I bought all of them refurbished from Amazon). The Pro is good, too, but aside from "only" being Wi-Fi 5, its backhaul band antennae are only 2x2, not the Pro 6's more powerful 4x4. Buy the Pro and see if works well for you. (And let us know!) It'll almost certainly be a big improvement over what you have now.

[Chuckles960]

You don't need to install ethernet or moCA backhaul. Powerline backhaul works well if using G.hn

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BS9KL1HZ?th=1

[jebmke]

You don't need to install ethernet or moCA backhaul. Powerline backhaul works well if using G.hn

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BS9KL1HZ?th=1

I can't speak to these specific devices but I have found that Powerline works sometimes and not others. Ideal is that the adapters are on the same circuit. Less than ideal but OK as long as they are on the same panel. I've never gotten them to work when on two different panels.

[Chuckles960]

You don't need to install ethernet or moCA backhaul. Powerline backhaul works well if using G.hn

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BS9KL1HZ?th=1

I can't speak to these specific devices but I have found that Powerline works sometimes and not others. Ideal is that the adapters are on the same circuit. Less than ideal but OK as long as they are on the same panel. I've never gotten them to work when on two different panels.

The bad reports are for Homeplug. G.hn is much better and definitely works across circuits.Then again, every home is different. You are correct that it does not work across different panels, but this is not common in homes.

[jebmke]

You don't need to install ethernet or moCA backhaul. Powerline backhaul works well if using G.hn

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BS9KL1HZ?th=1

I can't speak to these specific devices but I have found that Powerline works sometimes and not others. Ideal is that the adapters are on the same circuit. Less than ideal but OK as long as they are on the same panel. I've never gotten them to work when on two different panels.

The bad reports are for Homeplug. G.hn is much better and definitely works across circuits.Then again, every home is different. You are correct that it does not work across different panels, but this is not common in homes.

Every house I have owned had more than one panel. My present house, which is not large, has two + a small slave panel (which is technically part of one but for some reason doesn't do as well as same panel.

Will have to look at the newer protocol - although my current tri-band mesh runs pretty fast - intra-house speeds are running at 700-800mbs which is fast enough for me. I do have a shed out by the water that the mesh doesn't reach so maybe that will work -- it is about a 500 foot run though.

[Chuckles960]

I do have a shed out by the water that the mesh doesn't reach so maybe that will work -- it is about a 500 foot run though.

We have a detached garage ~100ft away via buried power cable that Homeplug couldn't reach but G.hn can. YMMV.

[eddot98]

My (primitive) understanding of mesh systems is that dual band systems can have uneven results. Tri-band with wired backhaul seems to be the preferred hardware for more reliable speed.

This is true. I recently put in a tri-band Eero Pro 6 system (bought when Amazon had a nice deal on a refurbished 3-pack) and have been impressed with ease of setup, reliability, and speed.

OP, you may want to try moving the mesh unit that's serving the location with the weakest speeds, or adding a mesh unit. Your system is a relatively low-end one, though, and probably won't deliver 300 Mbps everywhere no matter what. Worth keeping an eye on Amazon for any refurb Eero Pro 6 deals during the October Prime Day. (BTW, I wouldn't recommend shelling out for the pricier Eero Pro 6E, as the cheaper 6 actually has the most powerful antennae - 4x4 - for the wireless backhaul.)

ETA: This is what I bought - Eero Pro 6 3-pack, certified refurbished, $240. They have a 25% trade-in offer. You could trade in your TP-Link system, or even just some random Roku or Fire TV stick (I just bought a used one off eBay for $10 to get the $60 discount).

What do you think of the Eero Pro refurbished linked here for $100?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C87 ... em_1p_0_lm

The reviews are great and, since we only have 300 mbps service, I don’t need a gigabit router.

I have one unit of the Pro and three units of the Pro 6 (I bought all of them refurbished from Amazon). The Pro is good, too, but aside from "only" being Wi-Fi 5, its backhaul band antennae are only 2x2, not the Pro 6's more powerful 4x4. Buy the Pro and see if works well for you. (And let us know!) It'll almost certainly be a big improvement over what you have now.

I ordered the 3 pack of the refurbished Eero Pro for $100 plus I added an extra puck for $35 - $20 for a trade in of a Fire 7 tablet with 16gb that’s a piece of junk.
I will update how the Eero’s work once they are delivered and setup.

[02nz]

My (primitive) understanding of mesh systems is that dual band systems can have uneven results. Tri-band with wired backhaul seems to be the preferred hardware for more reliable speed.

This is true. I recently put in a tri-band Eero Pro 6 system (bought when Amazon had a nice deal on a refurbished 3-pack) and have been impressed with ease of setup, reliability, and speed.

OP, you may want to try moving the mesh unit that's serving the location with the weakest speeds, or adding a mesh unit. Your system is a relatively low-end one, though, and probably won't deliver 300 Mbps everywhere no matter what. Worth keeping an eye on Amazon for any refurb Eero Pro 6 deals during the October Prime Day. (BTW, I wouldn't recommend shelling out for the pricier Eero Pro 6E, as the cheaper 6 actually has the most powerful antennae - 4x4 - for the wireless backhaul.)

ETA: This is what I bought - Eero Pro 6 3-pack, certified refurbished, $240. They have a 25% trade-in offer. You could trade in your TP-Link system, or even just some random Roku or Fire TV stick (I just bought a used one off eBay for $10 to get the $60 discount).

What do you think of the Eero Pro refurbished linked here for $100?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C87 ... em_1p_0_lm

The reviews are great and, since we only have 300 mbps service, I don’t need a gigabit router.

I have one unit of the Pro and three units of the Pro 6 (I bought all of them refurbished from Amazon). The Pro is good, too, but aside from "only" being Wi-Fi 5, its backhaul band antennae are only 2x2, not the Pro 6's more powerful 4x4. Buy the Pro and see if works well for you. (And let us know!) It'll almost certainly be a big improvement over what you have now.

I ordered the 3 pack of the refurbished Eero Pro for $100 plus I added an extra puck for $35 - $20 for a trade in of a Fire 7 tablet with 16gb that’s a piece of junk.
I will update how the Eero’s work once they are delivered and setup.

Try it first without the fourth unit. As another poster noted, having too many units can sometimes cause problems.