Virgin Media Community

[G944S2]

I’ve had enough of the dreadful hub 3 so now looking to improve my Wi-fi speeds, have tried the virgin booster but it was slower using it. 

Having read many reviews I’m slightly unsure whether to just buy a better router or go for a mesh system.

The main issue I have is Wi-fi performance upstairs, the 5GHz does not really reach the rooms so I end up using 2.4 which isn’t great for speed.  My house is a modern 3 bed so no thick walls to worry about.

Budget is around £300 and I was initially drawn to the TP-Link Archer AX11000 although not sure I like the look of it!

Any experiences of purchases that have worked for you would be great.

[gary_dexter]

It depends on budget, coverage required, internal build, number of devices, types of device etc.

[G944S2]

Budget as above is around £300, approximately 20 devices such as desktop pc, PS4, Xbox, Sonos speakers and cctv along with multiple iPads and iPhones.

[gary_dexter · Accepted solution]

You can get a decent tri -band mesh system for around that price.

Are you more set on a router or mesh system?

[tehwolf · Accepted solution]

i have no experience of mesh systems, but most (maybe all?) of them use spanning-tree as a means to minimise the risk of switching loops (and broadcast storms as a result of the loops).

Sonos players also use spanning tree for the same reason.

do you know whether your sonos setup is running on the in-built sonos wifi mesh, or whether you have it connected to your own wifi..?

Use 'About my Sonos System ...' and check that the Wireless Mode (WM) is zero for each device, i.e it shows: "WM:0".

If you are in SonosNet mode already, Sonos devices will be picking up their WiFi signal from other Sonos devices, not from your current wifi setup.

if you end up going down the mesh route, it might be worth doing some research on any reports of issues between your preferred mesh system and sonos.

Sorry, problems not solutions, but figured it was worth pointing out. 

If you want to avoid the mesh, then any premium router from ASUS, TP-Link, ZyXel, Netgear etc. should be fine.. if you still find that it doesn't reach the entire property, i'd probably opt to add an access point somewhere by running an ethernet cable from the router to wherever the wifi is week and stick an AP on the end of the cable.. 

[G944S2]

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@gary_dexter wrote:

You can get a decent tri -band mesh system for around that price.

Are you more set on a router or mesh system?

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I really don’t mind, I’ve never really looked at mesh systems before now as I thought they were more useful in larger houses.

[G944S2]

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@tehwolf wrote:

i have no experience of mesh systems, but most (maybe all?) of them use spanning-tree as a means to minimise the risk of switching loops (and broadcast storms as a result of the loops).

Sonos players also use spanning tree for the same reason.

do you know whether your sonos setup is running on the in-built sonos wifi mesh, or whether you have it connected to your own wifi..?

Use 'About my Sonos System ...' and check that the Wireless Mode (WM) is zero for each device, i.e it shows: "WM:0".

If you are in SonosNet mode already, Sonos devices will be picking up their WiFi signal from other Sonos devices, not from your current wifi setup.

if you end up going down the mesh route, it might be worth doing some research on any reports of issues between your preferred mesh system and sonos.

Sorry, problems not solutions, but figured it was worth pointing out. 

If you want to avoid the mesh, then any premium router from ASUS, TP-Link, ZyXel, Netgear etc. should be fine.. if you still find that it doesn't reach the entire property, i'd probably opt to add an access point somewhere by running an ethernet cable from the router to wherever the wifi is week and stick an AP on the end of the cable.. 

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My Sonos speakers are all using the virgin Wi-fi but I will give the SonosNet a try as the one that’s furthest away does experience some dropouts when listening to it.

[Eeeps · Accepted solution]

If you are more interested in raw speed over WiFi in the same room as the main router then go for a high end single router.

If you are more interested in excellent coverage with reasonable speeds then a mesh system would be best.
The mesh would also allow you to add additional nodes if you have an area that's not well covered.

For your budget I would expect that you could invest in a mesh system that uses a separate wireless band for the backhaul to the main unit (and your SH3).

A third solution is to fit out your home with Ethernet cables and place wireless access point on them.
More installation effort but less outlay.

[G944S2]

Thought I’d update this post to say that I bought a TP link deco M9 plus system, the Wi-fi upstairs which was the issue is now very stable.

One issue I’ve noticed while logging into the routers is that my connection is showing as 500Mbps but according to Virgin they upgraded me to M600 a while ago and it also says M600 on my bills.

The Wi-fi speed near the router is around 480Mbps now and upstairs is around 250Mbps.