New Wifi 7 Mesh Setup

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey guys, 

 

So I am looking to replace my current Wifi 6 mesh setup that I have with a couple of Asus Routers (AX11000 & AC5300) to a more reliable setup. I find that the mesh reliability with Asus just straight up blows. I am having a nightmare keeping the 5Ghz bands up and reliable and the LAN backhaul is so so. So rather than bang my head against a brick wall, I have decided it maybe time to replace the setup entirely. 

 

Wifi 7 by default is relatively expensive, due to the fact it is a relatively new standard. I have seen some solutions up to £1K and beyond which is simply out of my scope. Realistically my cap is £600-700. I am looking for a 2 device mesh setup, one will reside in my office upstairs and one will be in my living room. 

 

Ideally the the LAN backhaul at minimum would be via a 2.5G port, 10G would be nice but likely pushes me way out of my price bracket.

 

Any recommendations ? 

 

Thanks,

E

[The Pook]

WiFi 7 isn't ready for consumers yet, the two "best" options (Deco BE85 and Velop Pro 7) are pushing your budget and neither are problem free.

 

if you can't wait a year or two for them to not be half-baked then go 6e, IMO.  

[Cerberus]

+1 for 6E

 

it can do 1gbps up and down in my use case (s22 ultra)

[ENTERPRISE]

13 hours ago, The Pook said:

WiFi 7 isn't ready for consumers yet, the two "best" options (Deco BE85 and Velop Pro 7) are pushing your budget and neither are problem free.

 

if you can't wait a year or two for them to not be half-baked then go 6e, IMO.  

 

I was considering the Deco BE85, but as you say it is rather pricey. The step down to the Deco BE65 is more affordable and you can get 3x nodes rather than 2 for the price...actually cheaper. 

 

With respects to Wifi 7 maturity, I get your point. I guess I was looking to future proof so I do not have to swap out a system again at a later date. What sort of issues are people having with Wifi 7? I have not ready any in depth reviews or looked at forums yet for peoples complaints.

[The Pook]

7 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

What sort of issues are people having with Wifi 7? I have not ready any in depth reviews or looked at forums yet for peoples complaints.

 

roaming and auto-negotiation issues mostly, TP-Link specifically doesn't (or at least didn't) offer a way to rollback firmware and on more than one occasion they released firmware that was worse than the firmware it was replacing. 

 

I'm still on AC and waiting for it to mature (also poor) 

[ENTERPRISE]

58 minutes ago, The Pook said:

 

roaming and auto-negotiation issues mostly, TP-Link specifically doesn't (or at least didn't) offer a way to rollback firmware and on more than one occasion they released firmware that was worse than the firmware it was replacing. 

 

I'm still on AC and waiting for it to mature (also poor) 

Which WiFi 7 setup were you using?

[The Pook]

I'm still on AC and haven't ran anything newer at home. We've been playing with 7 at work (U7 Pro APs) and it's been noticeably less shite than expected but you're looking at >$1000 to get into the Ubiquiti ecosystem. 

[SoloCamo]

4 hours ago, The Pook said:

 

TP-Link specifically doesn't (or at least didn't) offer a way to rollback firmware and on more than one occasion they released firmware that was worse than the firmware it was replacing. 

 

I'm still on AC and waiting for it to mature (also poor) 

 

Great news to hear considering I just purchased a TP-Link Tri-Band BE9300 Wifi 7 router.  I expect early adopter woes especially with such a "cheap" router but it's only going to have a few devices at most on it and having all 2.5G ports was another selling point.   My other Wifi 6 router will handle the rest.  I was going to pick up a Wifi 6e router instead but the price difference wasn't large enough where I couldn't stand not "future proofing" despite me knowing I'm probably going to be disappointed. 

 

  

3 hours ago, The Pook said:

I'm still on AC and haven't ran anything newer at home. We've been playing with 7 at work (U7 Pro APs) and it's been noticeably less shite than expected but you're looking at >$1000 to get into the Ubiquiti ecosystem. 

 

 

Yup, Ubiquiti is good stuff, especially if are using it for business use.  Every IT company I've worked at over the last decade either migrated to them or stuck with them as the price/performance is hard to pass up.

Edited June 4 by SoloCamo

[The Pook]

9 minutes ago, SoloCamo said:

 

Great news to hear considering I just purchased a TP-Link Tri-Band BE9300 Wifi 7 router.

 

Probably should've said the TP-Link, I was talking about the Deco BE85. They don't disallow it on everything (at least they didn't, maybe they do now for their newer stuff). 

[ENTERPRISE]

11 hours ago, The Pook said:

 

Probably should've said the TP-Link, I was talking about the Deco BE85. They don't disallow it on everything (at least they didn't, maybe they do now for their newer stuff). 

 

I would love to call it a day and get the Deco BE85, just for the sake of ultimate future proofing, but at £885 here (That is for 2x nodes). Not sure I can stretch that far, but the Deco BE65 is still an excellent contender, slower in throughput than the BE85 but you do get 3x nodes for the price which is more likely to kill out dead zones.

 

My wired network at home operates on 10Gb, obviously for the sake of file transfer over Wifi it would be good to have the BE85 with its 10Gb backhaul and approximate overall throughput. If I look at it solely at matching the Wifi speeds to my current FTTP Broadband (1Gb Up & Down) then the BE65 is still a great contender and file transfer wouldn't be too shabby. 

 

Hmmmm decisions decisions. May have to consult the credit card lol.

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey guys, 

 

Been revisiting this and checking out some options and I came across the TP Deco XE200, which is a Wifi 6e device but offers some speed and more powerful MU-MIMO config as shown below, plus comes with 10Gb. Possibly could be a better balance of features over a WiFi 7 device. 

 

 

Any opinions?

[ozlay]

21 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Hey guys, 

 

Been revisiting this and checking out some options and I came across the TP Deco XE200, which is a Wifi 6e device but offers some speed and more powerful MU-MIMO config as shown below, plus comes with 10Gb. Possibly could be a better balance of features over a WiFi 7 device. 

 

 

Any opinions?

I believe there is a newer be10000/11000. That is wifi 7.

Edited June 7 by ozlay

[ENTERPRISE]

4 hours ago, ozlay said:

I believe there is a newer be10000/11000. That is wifi 7.

 

Yeah there is supposed to be a Deco65 Pro launching at some point . Still deciding on which route to go, I have pinged between a few different models as mentioned in this thread. After further research the Deco65's throughput is frankly not that great and the Deco XE200 is far superior, but lacks Wifi 7, even though that is not a deal breaker. 

 

At the moment I am leaning to getting a single Deco85 as it ticks all the boxes, and perhaps getting a second later. Right now I cannot spring for a set of 2 as it is a little on the expensive side, hell even one is stretching it.

[ozlay]

There is a deco95 as well. But it's pricy. Are all your devices wpa3 compatible?

Edited June 8 by ozlay

[ENTERPRISE]

5 minutes ago, ozlay said:

There is a deco95 as well. But it's pricy. Are all your devices wpa3 compatible?

 

Deco95 is a good shout. I am not sure actually regarding WPA3. I am willing to bet not ALL are. The Deco95 is looks harder to obtain. Looks like it is available in the US however.