Recommend Mesh Systems

[paulcostello24]

Evening all,

Looking to replace my Tenda system to work along side the hub 3, what’s everyone recommending these days and what experience’s have you had.

Currently have the Tenda Nova which is really struggling.

Cheers

[lotharmat]

Decos are popular on here - they seem to be well supported and easy to set up!

I don't have them - (see sig) but lots of others have and say they are great!

[jbrennand]

Yes.. 3 of my mates have the Deco M5 units and they work fine. The less expensive M4's are well regarded on here too. But figure out what you need for your layout and be sure the router or Mesh specifically says that they have 1GB ethernet ports - some of the cheaper ones only have 100Mbps ports. WiFi6 is also future proofing for faster connections but a bit more expensive.

[Andrew-G]

All depends on what you want to spend (in a range from £100 to £1,600), what sort of property you're putting it in, what speed connection you have, and whether you're after peak performance at all and every device, or just want universal coverage.    

I'm very happy with a TP-Link Deco M4, but if you can elaborate on the above then the forum members can offer more tailored advice and options.

[jimthing]

Is it good to have the new "Thread" (software) and/or "Matter" (hardware) support on these? 

"Thread is a low power, secure and Internet-based mesh networking technology for home and commercial IoT products." https://www.threadgroup.org 

"Matter, formerly Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP), is a proprietary royalty-free home automation connectivity standard." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_(standard) 

Also, for Apple users, are there better ones to go for that have better operability functionalities with Apple OS (iOS/iPadOS/macOS/etc) & HomeKit devices? 

I've heard Eero is maybe decent, while Apple UK & US stores sell the Linksys Velop AX4200: 

UK: https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/accessories/all/mesh-wifi-networking / US: https://www.apple.com/shop/accessories/all/mesh-wifi-networking 

[minispiney]

I have an Eero, it works fine.  It's not the fanciest router as far as features go, but the mesh part is solid.

[jbrennand]

I am all Apple. But they have pulled out of the network equipment market. So no More Airport Extremes and Express's... Unless you get old kit 🙂

Many of the Apple Tech employees moved to... 'Ubiquiti". Their range is very "Mac like" and well regarded by users on here - take a look.

Eero is from Amazon... I would prefer to buy equipment from a bona fide company that makes networking equipment.... Netgear, TP-Link, Ubiquiti, Linksys, Zyxel, etc.... rather than one that has built a business on data collection