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New house build look for mesh ceiling mountable

bruinsrme

bruinsrme

macrumors 604
Original poster
Oct 26, 2008
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We just started the process of building a new 1900 sqft single level house.
The builder prewire is about $100 per drop with includes the run, box and face plate connection. Three drops; bed rooms, living room/master bedroom and the undecided outside.
The cable modem and Poe switch are standard.
Looking for some recommendations on ceiling mounted mesh systems.
TIA
 
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If you have ethernet runs throughout the house, there is zero reason to buy a "mesh" system. The only thing "mesh" does that regular plain old access points don't/can't, is use a non-standard frequency for 'backhaul', so they don't steal available bandwidth from devices.

I don't know what "1900 soft" means (in any context, except maybe the worlds worst porno), but I'd just buy 2 or 3 Wifi Access points with PoE from a reputable brand and be done with it.
 
I’ve been very happy with my Eero system. Very easy setup and administration. I have a mixture of hardwired and wireless Eeros. Advantage to a mesh system is automatic switching between access points.
 
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glenthompson said:
I’ve been very happy with my Eero system. Very easy setup and administration. I have a mixture of hardwired and wireless Eeros. Advantage to a mesh system is automatic switching between access points.
Click to expand...

i had good luck with my last EEros system. i Had an access point network prior to that. had Occasional drops with access points or the device not seeing it. The mesh never suffered from that.

both systems are still in play as the house won’t be ready until august.
 
If you have drops run, I would strongly recommend Ubiquiti APs. Lots of choices, depending on power/range, location, etc. All one network, no wireless backhaul, even have weatherproof outdoor APs, plus APs for single gang wall boxes. Mix and match as needed. Cool skins for some models too. Even the lowest end new APs are great.

I have 3 in a medium-size house (2 inside, one outside to cover backyard and detached garage), and zero issues for many years of use.

And yes, while mesh is now available, they still take power. For that single connection, I much prefer the low cost, low voltage POE for a wired AP. I would only choose a wireless (mesh) AP if there was no easy way to get ethernet to the desired location.

Beyond sqft coverage, don't forget that metal in walls, wall construction, and other variables can cause shadows or weak spots. With no issues, a good, modern AP might cover the entire house. To be safe, I would probably get at least 4 drops (covering the outer edge of the house, and overlapping in the center coverage), and possibly 1 or 2 outside (under an eve, or someplace protected from most weather) for yard coverage. Outdoor can overlap some with indoor space with a unidirectional antenna, or, you can look at directional antennas to extend the outdoor range if you have a large area to cover.
 
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On top of the enterprise wifi APs, one can also do UBNT security cameras, door bells, and access, all with the same free management software tool. Pretty compelling. This will go in the next house I build, should that happen again.
 
hobowankenobi said:
If you have drops run, I would strongly recommend Ubiquiti APs. Lots of choices, depending on power/range, location, etc. All one network, no wireless backhaul, even have weatherproof outdoor APs, plus APs for single gang wall boxes. Mix and match as needed. Cool skins for some models too. Even the lowest end new APs are great.

I have 3 in a medium-size house (2 inside, one outside to cover backyard and detached garage), and zero issues for many years of use.

And yes, while mesh is now available, they still take power. For that single connection, I much prefer the low cost, low voltage POE for a wired AP. I would only choose a wireless (mesh) AP if there was no easy way to get ethernet to the desired location.

Beyond sqft coverage, don't forget that metal in walls, wall construction, and other variables can cause shadows or weak spots. With no issues, a good, modern AP might cover the entire house. To be safe, I would probably get at least 4 drops (covering the outer edge of the house, and overlapping in the center coverage), and possibly 1 or 2 outside (under an eve, or someplace protected from most weather) for yard coverage. Outdoor can overlap some with indoor space with a unidirectional antenna, or, you can look at directional antennas to extend the outdoor range if you have a large area to cover.
Click to expand...
Yes hence 3 points. the Agent used His phone to show me the drop off indoor to outside.
definitely need one outside. Very small back yard.
I will have to take a serious look at the ap again.
 
Stephen.R said:
I don't know what "1900 soft"
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LOL. It is 1900 sqft (square feet).


---

Also....mesh seems get used a couple ways. When I see/hear mesh, I understand that to mean wireless access points (no wired data connection). I see other folks use "mesh" to mean a group of APs that all form a single, continuous network, including both wired and wireless APs.
 
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There are advantages to having multiple APs over coverage. Each AP can only be communicating (either transmitting or receiving: not both at the same time) with a single client (per radio). Very modern Wifi 5 (Wave2) and Wifi6 devices may be able to work round this with MU-MIMO but at the moment you will have too many non MU-MIMO clients to really make this work. So if you have lots of client devices they end up having to time-slice transmit and receive with the base station. This is basically a competitive sharing! So as you ramp devices you get some cross talk requiring re-transmit which reduces bandwidth for all clients.

If you have multiple base stations then the clients on one base station have no impact on the clients on another (assuming you set the radio frequencies well). The UniFi In-Wall solutions are designed as one-per-room for hotels etc. This is quite an expensive way to go but what I have at home with 7 in-wall access points providing rock solid coverage everywhere with minimal sharing and one outdoor AP covering the back garden
 
robbieduncan said:
There are advantages to having multiple APs over coverage. Each AP can only be communicating (either transmitting or receiving: not both at the same time) with a single client (per radio). Very modern Wifi 5 (Wave2) and Wifi6 devices may be able to work round this with MU-MIMO but at the moment you will have too many non MU-MIMO clients to really make this work. So if you have lots of client devices they end up having to time-slice transmit and receive with the base station. This is basically a competitive sharing! So as you ramp devices you get some cross talk requiring re-transmit which reduces bandwidth for all clients.

If you have multiple base stations then the clients on one base station have no impact on the clients on another (assuming you set the radio frequencies well). The UniFi In-Wall solutions are designed as one-per-room for hotels etc. This is quite an expensive way to go but what I have at home with 7 in-wall access points providing rock solid coverage everywhere with minimal sharing and one outdoor AP covering the back garden
Click to expand...

For most homes, as long as the wifi bandwidth is adequate to prevent streaming issues, everybody is happy. APs that manage device handoffs well minimize the need to tweak or troubleshoot. My older UBNT AC Lite APs never even hiccup with multiple streams and gaming happening at the same time. Up to 20 devices connected with no issues, no handoffs to manage...pretty much perfect.
 
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I probably will have 20 wireless devices but TVs, ATVs, laptops will be wired.

I need to understand the difference between AP, Mesh (wireless) and Mesh devices (Wired)
 
AP is an access point. Technically everything you list is an access point. You basically have two choices: wired backhaul or wireless. Traditional multi-AP networks use wired backhaul to a switch or switches onto the network. Some APs support a weird sort of wired mesh where you can link AP to AP instead of wiring then all back to a switch but you’d need a really good reason to do this rather than just wire back to the switch

Most of what is called Mesh now is wireless backhaul. So the AP is just sat out somewhere connected to power but not the network and the AP talks to other APs using WiFi. Cheap mesh shares the WiFi radio for backhaul with the devices using WiFi. This definitely reduces performance. Better mesh uses dedicated radio for backhaul

The best performance option will be wired backhaul to a switch. This will have lowest latency. Next would be some sort of wired mesh. Worst is mesh as each wireless hop to get to the router is expensive
 
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bruinsrme said:
I probably will have 20 wireless devices but TVs, ATVs, laptops will be wired.

I need to understand the difference between AP, Mesh (wireless) and Mesh devices (Wired)
Click to expand...
Mesh is multiple access points that connect to each other wirelessly.
The main router or access point will be hard wired any additional access point or satellite, depending on the company terminology, will connect to the main router via a wireless connection.

A non-mesh network that has multiple access points are just all hard wired.

WiFi itself is just a confusing set of terms and networking companies of all kinds take advantage of that.

So wireless or hardwired network, the ideal end result is a strong signal throughout the home and mobile devices seamless jump or roam to the closest or strongest access point.

On many hard wired networks it is called seamless roaming. So as the connection signal from the device and a particular access point gets less and less, the device will move to the next in range access point with the stronger signal, ideally.
This is essentially how cell phones on cellular networks work. Cell towers are hard wired, as you drive down the road and get further from one tower and closer to another, the cell phone changes tower.
 
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mmomega said:
Mesh is multiple access points that connect to each other wirelessly.
The main router or access point will be hard wired any additional access point or satellite, depending on the company terminology, will connect to the main router via a wireless connection.

A non-mesh network that has multiple access points are just all hard wired.

WiFi itself is just a confusing set of terms and networking companies of all kinds take advantage of that.

So wireless or hardwired network, the ideal end result is a strong signal throughout the home and mobile devices seamless jump or roam to the closest or strongest access point.

On many hard wired networks it is called seamless roaming. So as the connection signal from the device and a particular access point gets less and less, the device will move to the next in range access point with the stronger signal, ideally.
This is essentially how cell phones on cellular networks work. Cell towers are hard wired, as you drive down the road and get further from one tower and closer to another, the cell phone changes tower.
Click to expand...
thank you. this definitively helps
 
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When I built my house, I made sure to pass CAT7 STP cables for Ubiquiti wireless APs. Best thing ever. I strongly suggest you to invest into Unifi APs and hardwire them to a PoE Unifi switch and UDM-Pro. These things are incredibly stable. The UDM-Pro had a tough market entry but with latest firmware everything seems to be smooth. Really, best thing I've made during the construction of my house.
 
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pldelisle said:
When I built my house, I made sure to pass CAT7 STP cables for Ubiquiti wireless APs. Best thing ever. I strongly suggest you to invest into Unifi APs and hardwire them to a PoE Unifi switch and UDM-Pro. These things are incredibly stable. The UDM-Pro had a tough market entry but with latest firmware everything seems to be smooth. Really, best thing I've made during the construction of my house.
Click to expand...
Interesting to hear about the UDM-Pro. One of these is on my future roadmap as an upgrade from my old USG-Pro but I think I’ll wait a little to see it all settle out!
 
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