I am looking for a wifi mesh system to improve the coverage in my home. I looked around and found a cheap solution with decent reviews, the Halo 50G by Mercusys (TP Link). I am not a fan of super cheap, super easy to use “magical” solutions, and within minutes of connecting just the access point I was seeing calls to the likes of google, facebook, amazon, etc in my network coming from the device. Not ideal.
I also found that Ubiquiti and Netgear may be the best options out there, but the prices I found are north of 600€ and I can not afford to pay that much right now.
So, my question is: Is there any wifi mesh system that is not using my network against me and does not empty my wallet? I am based in Europe and would like something under 200€ if possible, and ready to buy from the shelf.
Thank you for reading and for any recommendation.
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You can just setup an extender where you need it. That is what I have. No real need for mesh unless your place is really big.
Maybe https://www.gl-inet.com/
As I understand their stuff runs a custom OpenWRT, so you can use them as-is, or if you want vanilla OpenWRT it’s very easy to flash them.
As far as Mesh goes I’m not sure how they would do, for mesh to perform well you need a system that has dedicated mesh radios in the 5/6ghz bands, and only the more expensive mesh systems typically have that.
check out OPNsense routers and use your existing equipment only as access points. You can then make firewall rules to block them from phoning home. protectli sells some inexpensive models.
If you are willing to do your homework:
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/mesh/startThis is what I did. Flashed OpenWRT on all devices and enabled the 802.11r stuff. My “mesh” is just multiple APs connected by ethernet and fast BSSID handover.
802.11s is a mesh where it’s all done over Wifi. 802.11r uses ethernet for comms between APs.
I ditched Netgear due to poor performance and went with Ubiquiti. I’m fortunate that I could afford to buy a console for management but if you’re willing to self-host then there is no cost there. You could then get several APs (they have some as low as $99) and you’re all set.
FYI all ubiquity aps I ever bought broke within 5 years. Ymmv
It might be helpful to specify your network needs. The system you linked is a WiFi 5 system. That’s 10+ year old technology.
What kind of speeds are you looking for? Will your access points be wired or wireless?
My wifi 5 APs from unity get 450-500mbps. The wifi 6 APs get between 300 and 600. Only the expensive 7 pro max get noticeably more, 2.3Gbps, but the wifi 5 is more than enough for 95% of people out there.
Interesting. When I upgraded from WiFi 5 to WiFi 6 it was a significant upgrade but there are a ton of other factors that play into what actual speeds a user may get.
I was more just interested in getting more details about OPs needs as OP basically only provided a budget, which makes it a bit difficult to give advice.
Interesting. What do you get on wifi 6? On what hardware?
For wifi 6 I have unifi ap 6 lite, unifi Express gateway in ap mode and my ISPs router, some Telekom own hardware IIRC.
For wifi 5 I tested mainly unifi ac lite (the first gen). I got around 300mbps from a raspberry pi with hostapd, but that hardly counts as an access point…
For the past 5ish years I had google WiFi pucks (gen 1, ac1200). 4 pucks, one as the router 3 as APs. 3/4 pucks were wired.
Switched over to using a NanoPi R4S (4GB version) as my router and 2x ZyXEL NWA50AX Pros for my APs. The cost for this is actually right around OPs budget, maybe a bit over.
The biggest improvements, in terms of speed for me, are devices that are WiFi 6 capable now getting much better wireless speeds, some going from around 200mbps to about 600mbps.
To be clear there there are over 30 devices on my network spread over 2000 sqft so I am a bit reluctant to reduce everything to a couple of speed tests when there are other factors involved.
Does it have to be new? I can consistently find used ac lites from unifi on Kleinanzeigen.de for 50€, I got two of those and later a 6 lite for another 50€, that’s half my network. They are old and out of warranty, but use very low power and have really decent speeds (~500mbps).
