Costco has a 3 pack for $500, I'm thinking of giving it a try. I don't have a huge house, but it's old and the plaster walls just kill my WiFi.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Need a new router
- Thread starter XTheLancerX
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Costco has a 3 pack for $500, I'm thinking of giving it a try. I don't have a huge house, but it's old and the plaster walls just kill my WiFi.
In your case I would save up for it because with your plaster walls signals could bounce offf them. With the three pack the main is downstairs, one satellite is in the stairway in the line of site of the base! Then one in the bedrooms hallway to cover the whole upstairs!
Last edited:
I just got the Google Wifi 3pack from Best Buy and in my honest opinion, for the price point it was totally worth it. I was currently on the recent Airport Extreme non-time capsule. I deployed this at my mom's house, she currently has Comcast with internet speeds at: 175 down/12 up. So it's always been a challenge with the networking at home, which is 2604sq feet. A lot of areas, would lose signal not too far from the access point. I've moved the ethernet modem/AP to the middle of the house, adjusted with all the settings, tried different channels, and tried different high end access points, extended the network with a spare Airport, and I would get similar speeds of 45mb-90mb testing. When I connect my MacBook directly to the ethernet modem, I get the full 175mb speed. Being that I work in IT, especially having a Networking background, I also had to factor in the age of the house (it's materials, and that my bedroom in the upstairs corner had a history in terms of weak signal) had also played a factor in reception strength.
In 2010 I worked for a Networking company called ValuePoint in San Francisco. We manufactured Enterprise grade level networking equipment, so that is where I started learning about our Mesh network equipment. Fast forward to now, where Mesh networking has started to hit it's stride in a home consumer environment, I got excited.
With the Google Wifi configured, I was able to strategically place the access points in parts of the home that covered the dead spots (during setup , Google will let you know the optimal placement for the access points) and the results of the Google built in speed test, as well as using SpeedTest.net, I was getting around 162mb at the farthest point from central access point, all the way to 172-175mb near the middle of the house. The access points utilize 2.4/5 ghz radio, and will automatically switch your device to the best radio if your device supports 5ghz. The access point will also adjust between Channels 1-11 automatically depending on which channel is the least congested in the area.
The only Con I can mention is the lack of advanced configuring available to the user. You can set the WAN IP address if needed, but you can't change the LAN IP address, so I had to change all the devices that used a static from 10.0.xxx.xxx back to 192.168.xxx.xxx. You can set Port forwarding/UPnP if needed, but that's as advanced it will go.
This doesn't bother me, but it may others, you do need a Google account to have your system running. At least with this, I am able to monitor and make changes to the network when I'm offsite, example being that I work and live in San Jose. Being that a single Google Wifi unit is $129 and the 3pack is $299, you're basically getting the 3rd unit for $30 LoL
In 2010 I worked for a Networking company called ValuePoint in San Francisco. We manufactured Enterprise grade level networking equipment, so that is where I started learning about our Mesh network equipment. Fast forward to now, where Mesh networking has started to hit it's stride in a home consumer environment, I got excited.
With the Google Wifi configured, I was able to strategically place the access points in parts of the home that covered the dead spots (during setup , Google will let you know the optimal placement for the access points) and the results of the Google built in speed test, as well as using SpeedTest.net, I was getting around 162mb at the farthest point from central access point, all the way to 172-175mb near the middle of the house. The access points utilize 2.4/5 ghz radio, and will automatically switch your device to the best radio if your device supports 5ghz. The access point will also adjust between Channels 1-11 automatically depending on which channel is the least congested in the area.
The only Con I can mention is the lack of advanced configuring available to the user. You can set the WAN IP address if needed, but you can't change the LAN IP address, so I had to change all the devices that used a static from 10.0.xxx.xxx back to 192.168.xxx.xxx. You can set Port forwarding/UPnP if needed, but that's as advanced it will go.
This doesn't bother me, but it may others, you do need a Google account to have your system running. At least with this, I am able to monitor and make changes to the network when I'm offsite, example being that I work and live in San Jose. Being that a single Google Wifi unit is $129 and the 3pack is $299, you're basically getting the 3rd unit for $30 LoL
I just set up mine as well.
I have a very difficult house in which to get good wifi. I have a long, narrow house with a thick cinderblock wall nearly surrounding the 'office' where the internet interface box is and the only ethernet access to it. House was built in 1956, so no easy way to run cables.
In the far end of the house, where I'm two mesh network hops away from the main unit, I'm getting only around 25Mbit/sec (internet speed test) whereas I'm getting around 70Mbit/sec (again, internet) when I'm connected to the main unit.
A little disappointed in that, but at least I'm getting a nice, consistent wifi signal whereas before in certain locations in the house my devices were bouncing back and forth between two hardwired AirPorts (same SSID) which would result in network stalls. If I set them to different SSIDs, I'd have to manually switch from one to the other at the fringe of coverage - not enough signal to function, just enough to keep my devices from switching to the other network.
I'll give it a few more days and see how it continues to function.
That's where the netgear orbi blows away the Google wifi and Eero. That dedicated backbone keeping the speeds up prevents that from happening. Also stronger antennas you don't need three devices. We have a large one story 2600 Sq ft on 1 acre. It covers the whole house and most of the whole acre with just two orbis.
^^ Actually moved the most distal Google Wifi unit about 8 feet closer to the middle unit; put it on the other side of a wall and actually increased the download speed in the far corner of the house to 45Mbit/sec.
I think it's the best I'm going to get in this house - given all the brick, cinderblock, plaster walls and the split level design, I think it's absolutely as good as it's going to get.
I have 5 NetCams and a Ring Pro doorbell, and they're happy... so I'm happy. They're getting sufficient bandwidth, so that's a very good sign. And the Ring never worked terribly reliably on the Apple AirPorts anyway.
I think it's the best I'm going to get in this house - given all the brick, cinderblock, plaster walls and the split level design, I think it's absolutely as good as it's going to get.
I have 5 NetCams and a Ring Pro doorbell, and they're happy... so I'm happy. They're getting sufficient bandwidth, so that's a very good sign. And the Ring never worked terribly reliably on the Apple AirPorts anyway.
I wish Google implemented a dedicated band for their units to connect to...... but so far no complaints from how well the Google units are holding up. No connection drops or network speed degradation as of yet LoL
I prefer the smaller, compact size of the Google units compared to the Orbi. Does the physical size bother you at all, or did you just get used to it?
Size is a bit large, but where I have them, they are hidden so it doesn't bother me.
