Why is Mesh Better? Help me understand!

[Gileotine]

Evening folks.

 

I came into possession of a few contraband mesh things. They're called AT&T Air 4920 Airties Smart Wi-Fi Extenders and I've been given two of them. I'm sure extenders are different than mesh wifi things, but the labels on the actual units say mesh.

 

In either case. I've tried wifi extenders in the house I'm in and they're kinda crap. That, combined with the weak signal from the crappy at&t gateway made me thing the only solution was better equipment or a powerline adapter.

 

I've yet to install the things since I'm not at home, but if a WiFi extender wouldn't if worked the first time, what's so different about mesh? Speak to me like I'm an idiot on this one.

[Donut417]

12 minutes ago, Gileotine said:

Evening folks.

 

I came into possession of a few contraband mesh things. They're called AT&T Air 4920 Airties Smart Wi-Fi Extenders and I've been given two of them. I'm sure extenders are different than mesh wifi things, but the labels on the actual units say mesh.

 

In either case. I've tried wifi extenders in the house I'm in and they're kinda crap. That, combined with the weak signal from the crappy at&t gateway made me thing the only solution was better equipment or a powerline adapter.

 

I've yet to install the things since I'm not at home, but if a WiFi extender wouldn't if worked the first time, what's so different about mesh? Speak to me like I'm an idiot on this one.

A general extender has one radio. It either communicates with the router/gateway or with the device in question. A mesh system generally has a radio for communication between the extension unit and the router/gateway. So that a radio is always free to communicate with the devices connected to the extension unit. 

[Dujith]

As an extra point to what @Donut417 said, a mesh system will be able to connect to multiple other mesh points creating a web to help with bandwith.

Tho that will only help if you have more then 2  

[THEGURUOFNOTHING]

Mesh gear does not act like an extender. An extender takes the signal it receives from your main AP and rebroadcasts it to get a longer distance. It does nothing else. Think of it as a repeater... a parrot without the attitude. Or beak.

Mesh AP's act kind of a standalone. Mesh equipment usually requires some sort of gateway or main control unit that coordinates communication throughout the system. The gateway monitors signal strengths to connected equipment and determines which AP the device would get a better signal from and deals with switching to make that happen. If they are not wired directly to the gateway, they will act like extenders or repeaters but they are smart enough to do seamless hand-offs to other AP's in the network to maintain the best signal connection possible. Mesh gear communicates with ALL the AP's in the network and makes roaming from one AP to another seamless. They also all have the same SSID so you'd never see the change if you were watching it with regular wifi indicator on your phone or computer. That is a simplified description (and probably technically a little wonky) but it should give you the idea.

[THEGURUOFNOTHING]

8 minutes ago, Dujith said:

As an extra point to what @Donut417 said, a mesh system will be able to connect to multiple other mesh points creating a web to help with bandwith.

Tho that will only help if you have more then 2  

Absolutely! You have to have at least 2 for a mesh to function and most mesh networks have a gateway of some sorts. Ubiquiti (Unifi) mesh systems use a physical gateway or it can be done with their software and that does all the configuration of the AP's. The AP's are not configurable independently that I know of. i am running 5 Unifi wifi pucks on my 5 acre property and I am using their software gateway on a computer as the controller. I have 1 SSID and I get flawless handoffs between AP's. Very nice system. But somewhat expensive.

[Gileotine]

Thanks for all the replies, I think that I get it now. I'll have test them out when I get home. I feel pretty fortunate I managed to land on these things for free.

 

Let's hope they work! Also, are these things actually mesh, or extenders like they say in the box 

[Alex Atkin UK]

https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/u-verse-high-speed-internet/KM1192919?gsi=JbLFTWE

[Gileotine]

Also! Does anyone here know if you can run both a mesh network and a powerline adapter? I want to cover all my bases here.

[THEGURUOFNOTHING]

A powerline adapter is basically a shitty way to get network bandwidth to a remote area within your dwelling. Mesh network gear is high level stuff. Powerline is crap. If you use powerline to get a signal to a mesh AP somewhere, you are significantly handicapping the mesh equipments performance and I would not suggest it. I actually wouldn't EVER suggest using powerline gear. You are better off using a wireless bridge dish setup if you have any kind of distance that a mesh alone can't span. Did I say that I thought powerline is garbage? Oh sorry. I did. But it is.

[Gileotine]

Well lads the mesh things worked! I now have stable, quick (relatively... but we overpay for internet in america) wireless that somehow turns into an ethernet connection when I plug my computer into the mesh thing.

 

Also what's so shitty about powerline adapters? Is it because you can't really tell what the quality of the wires are inside your house so you're basically at the whim of the elements at that point?

[Donut417]

15 minutes ago, Gileotine said:

Also what's so shitty about powerline adapters? Is it because you can't really tell what the quality of the wires are inside your house so you're basically at the whim of the elements at that point?

The newer standards require all 3 wires, the hot, neutral and ground to be done properly. So if you dont have newer wiring up to the newest code, your not going to have a good time. They orginaly were designed to work on a single cirucut. As you know, most people dont have a single cicurt running the whole house. In the US we have two phase power. 2 110volt lines entering the pannel. Then individual breakers after that. While powerline adpaters can cross breakers, if they have to cross a phase it can cause issues. On top of the fact if you have a high draw appance on the same ciruct as the adapter it can cause interfrence on the line. Electricty doesnt care about interference but your data does. In my case, powerline probably wont work. We have a mixture of old and new wiring and I am almost certian none of the wiring in my home is up to the "Newest" code requirement. 

 

 

From what I have read with powerline. You probably wont get speed, but a more stable connection can happen if you have decent wiring. Personally Im more in to Moca as a standard as Coax is able to reliably carry data. I mean your cable provider uses to carry TV, Voice and Internet. On top of Moca can coexist with the cable providers signal on the same line.