Home network 4 bedroom house with 2 floors - Mesh vs. AP

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Home network 4 bedroom house with 2 floors - Mesh vs. AP

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Home network 4 bedroom house with 2 floors - Mesh vs. AP
Home network 4 bedroom house with 2 floors - Mesh vs. AP
2022-05-22 17:49:23
Model: Archer AX50  
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Hi folks, I need your help to figure out what network solution to go with. I'm going to be moving in a house with 2 floors (ground+2) and here are a few specs:

- The rooms on all floors are linked with cat5 cables through the walls with the possibility of installing a LAN socket in most rooms. I don't know how they're wired but not sure if that matters.

- I have no idea how the walls will affect the Wifi signal. The house is mostly made of timber and I don't think there are any concrete walls. 

- The ISP Access Point is by default situated in a utility room on the ground floor. The ISP supplies a hub with a coax input and Ethernet port output. I will have it set to modem mode because it's rubbish in router mode anyway. 

- Will have a PC on the 2nd floor which needs to connect through a cat5 cable.

- Need a good WiFi connection on all floors. The ISP will provide 250 Mbps for reference. I don't expect to hit that on each devices.

- Must have the same Wifi SSID since I don't want to change networks as I'm going through the house.

- I think my setup will require a router since I want to plug in other things into it like a CCTV DVR and a NAS.

- I have Archer X50 router. I was disappointed when TP-Link announced there won't be OneMesh support for it. Because of this I'm at an impasse right now.

 

I'm wondering if I can put the ISP modem in the utility room and plug it into the cat5 socket and connect it with the router in the living room. The router could then provide wifi for the ground floor. Then get Decos or classic APs on floors 1 & 2, connected through the cat5 cables which are plugged into the wall sockets. I'll then have the PC on 2nd floor connected to the Deco/AP through a LAN cable, then the Deco/AP plugged into the wall socket. Will something like this work?

 

Also do you recommend a Mesh or a classical AP setup? Perhaps I could keep the Archer AX50, but I'm also open to buy a brand new setup from scratch depending on the price.

 

Thanks a lot!

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Re:Home network 4 bedroom house with 2 floors - Mesh vs. AP
2022-05-23 08:25:20

Hello @TessellatedMind 

 

Thank you for posting on the TP-Link Community.

 

Since you have bought the AX50, as you already mentioned that it doesn't support Onemesh due to hardware or firmware limitations. If the return window is not closed yet, I would recommend replacing the AX50 with a Deco mesh system, such as Deco M9 Plus or Deco X55, which allows you to build up a mesh system. 

 

You can visit this page to know more about the Deco mesh system:

https://www.tp-link.com/mesh-wifi/

 

If you cannot return the AX50 now, you may set it up as the main router, then configure the Deco into AP mode, which will also work in a mesh:

How to set up Deco to work in Access Point mode?

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Re:Home network 4 bedroom house with 2 floors - Mesh vs. AP
2022-05-25 20:35:44 - last edited 2022-05-25 20:36:02

@Kevin_Z 

Hey Kevin thanks for the help! I'm not able to return the AX50 router unfortunately since I bought it more than 1 year ago from a different country.

 

So if get some Decos and use them in AP mode:

- will I have the same SSID?

- I still need to connect each with LAN cable.

- They create a mesh amongst themselves but not with the router? Just out of curiosity, I don't really care what they do as long as I have good wifi coverage. 

 

Many thanks!

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Re:Home network 4 bedroom house with 2 floors - Mesh vs. AP
2022-05-27 11:37:37

@TessellatedMind 

 

I see. I will answer your questions one by one.

 

So if get some Decos and use them in AP mode:

- will I have the same SSID?

Kevin: If you connect the Deco in AP mode to the AX50, I would suggest you disable the wifi on the AX50 and only use the wifi of the Deco mesh to avoid interference.

 

- I still need to connect each with LAN cable.

Kevin: Are you referring to the Deco mesh or the main Deco and the AX50? You will need to connect the main Deco to the AX50 with cable, but the Deco nodes can connect to each other via wifi. You can check the article below to understand it better:

Can I use Deco with my existing router?

 

- They create a mesh amongst themselves but not with the router? Just out of curiosity, I don't really care what they do as long as I have good wifi coverage. 

Kevin: That's correct, Deco will not build up a mesh network with the non-Deco device.

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