Happen to Anyone Else with Amazon?


 
Oh, it doesn't have to go 75' out of concrete. My basement in the back is above grade. So if you look at my house from the back it looks like a 1.5 story home but from the front it looks like a regular 1 story ranch. In the back is where I need the extended range. Jury is out with the WIFI 6 thing with me. I think the only thing I own that takes advantage of it is my Samsung S22 Ultra. (WIFI 6E) everything else like my cameras and switches are all still on the good ol 2.4 ghz WIFI 5
Funny thing is, because of my home's layout I would likely be best served by 3 devices. The Orbi you recommended is VERY reasonable brand new at only $150 for a 2 pack. I priced another satellite and it's $240! So more than the whole 2 pack! Go figure.
I have Xfinity 1gig Blast service 1G down 30 Mb up. Real world it gives me "wired" just a hair under 1G and between 28 and 33 Mb up. All the WFIF 6E stuff is priced in the stratosphere and I have only one device that could actually use it that I don't even use much in the house anyway.
Other ones I am/was considering, Amazon EERO 6+ ($299) for 3 pack and Google Nest about $180 for 3 pack.
 
Since I use a couple of Synology NAS units, I decided to try their wireless router RT2600AC. I no longer need to use the extra access points that I needed in the living room and the garage. I bought it a couple of years ago and so far I’ve been very happy with it!

Gerry
 
Larry based on your setup I think the Orbi would probably work fine with just the included satelite. Yes additional satelites are priced absurd but its basically made to not use them I like I said am covering about 4500 square feet. Depends on your setup but if it does not work send it back to Amazon.
 
Larry, since you have a basement, can you run ethernet under the house and add wired access points at the distant corners of your house?

Much cheaper to add a couple of wifi routers setup as access points.
 
DanHoo said:
Larry, since you have a basement, can you run ethernet under the house and add wired access points at the distant corners of your house?

Much cheaper to add a couple of wifi routers setup as access points.
Click to expand...
I did that. But the extra range is to reach back to my back garage where I use a smart plug to control my battery maintainer on the tractor, and for my soon to be installed cameras.
My cable comes in the back of the house, my modem and main router would be there in the exposed portion of the basement. So, my hope is that main unit would reach the outbuilding and my rear cameras well, and then I could install the satellite in a front bedroom to maintain connection to the rest of the house and front camera(s), smart plugs/switches and so on, in addition to my smart garage opener
 
I tried a similar high power unit in the basement location and they work but "barely". I have something like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HXT8R2O/?tag=tvwb-20 and it works pretty well. It has 2.4 and 5 ghz radios, and is VERY configurable. But, it is running out of capacity in my setting, and does not reach effectively out to the back because it needed to be located as close as possible to the RING doorbell. I was also running out of capacity from Comcast, and stuff was dropping out. So I had to upgrade my Xfinity service to higher capacity and speed, but now the Ubiquiti is a little "outclassed". IOW I am paying for Xfinity 1gb blast and only am able to muster about 40 mb to 50 mb from the Ubiquity. Cool thing is I can add another access point but I am getting tired of constantly calling my son in law to make the system work correctly. You need to be an MSCE to be able to do even minor configs on this system. So looking for something a little "easier" and more effective. I had a Google Nest system working great, then started with trouble and had to return it. Given all the trouble I am having with my Google Nest Doorbell (refuses to work in the cold) IDK I wanna give Google any more $$$$
 
Lessee..... house has a main Ubiquiti 24 port switch, a branch 5 port Ubiquiti switch, and a pair of Ubiquiti AC-LR access points. Main & branch switches are connect by a pair of Trendnet MOCA devices (1gbps.) These MOCA devices have really been awfully nice here, means that I don't have to figure out how to run cabling here, which would be a lot of drywall work. I have as many devices hardwired as possible. Thus far, I can't saturate my WiFi networks with my available devices, nor can I saturate my external link except from a hardwired device (media downloads generally.) There is a caveat here, I am an IT nerd, and have multiple networks running and coexisting peacefully. My Ubiquiti stuff pretty much runs silently, although I did find a very bad switch firmware update a couple of years ago that shut me down pretty hard for the better part of 3 days, until I rolled back the firmware update. Oh, firewall is a Netgate 3100 running pfSense.

I would not recommend Ubiquiti equipment unless you have a pretty good grounding in TCP/IP networking and Ethernet. It's pro-sumer gear, and if you don't grok networks, gateways, etc., I'd suspect you'll have a bad time. Actually.... Ubiquiti's Amplifi gear might be a decent candidate for a lot of people with it's integrated mesh networking, it's working pretty well for my sister with a rather spread out house.

Orbi and Eero are both generally well regarded. I'm a bit leary of a lot of devices from Asus, Netgear (high on my list of do not buy,) TPLink (has a bad reputation for not handling VLANs properly,) etc.
 
Yeah, working with the Ubiquiti stuff is insanely hard for me. All I can do is hope it continues working. Not long ago, it went down HARD. Why? It did a system update. Got hold of son in law, I had to hardwire a computer and he had to tunnel in, roll the update back and then install all the backups he was wise enough to make for me. When it works it's solid but it's a PIA to maintain. I did try an Amplifi. The one with the cube and little display, and some weird looking devices you have to hang off outlets. It was very unstable. Constant drop outs and such.
Odd you noted Netgear on the list of "do not buy" when the Orbi products seem so well regarded
 
LMichaels said:
Odd you noted Netgear on the list of "do not buy" when the Orbi products seem so well regarded
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Netgear historically has not been a good "network neighbor." Among other things, they used a private NTP source as their default configuration, hammered the poor guy running it into the ground, and refused to accept responsiblity.

Odd you had such problems with the Amplifi mesh network. Yes, you do need to make sure that you have enough bandwidth to handle both basic traffic as well as the backhaul. If they're spaced too far apart, or you've got RF interference, that's the sort of behavior I'd expect.
 
DanHoo said:
Having quality gear you are comfortable configuring is key.
Click to expand...
Exactly. First issue is how to know you're buying quality gear. Second issue is, it seems they either make it too easy and unable to configure to work well for your application or it's so hard no one short of an engineer can touch it.
Right now on phone with Google for another issue I have been fighting. I bought a Google Nest Doorbell. Sadly the stupid thing can't work in the cold. Duh?! Why would you sell a product in a place where it's not uncommon to have long stretches where the temps don't go above 0 deg F?! And a SECURITY product no less! Ugh. Last night I was being "alarmed" that person was detected. Nothing there. It does it just before dying
 
LMichaels said:
I need it to reach outside the house. Out about 75' away to cover security issues and such. So this thing looks like the cat's pajamas.
Click to expand...

Have you used a wifi network analyzer? Lots of free apps on android and apple.

www.netspotapp.com

Check the best WiFi analyzer apps for Android

Learn more about the reasons for using a WiFi analyzer app and check the list of best WiFi analyzer apps for Android.
www.netspotapp.com www.netspotapp.com

You might have a neighbor using the same channel as you.

eyenetworks.no

10 Things In Your Home That Interfere With And Block Wi-Fi Signals

Anything from building materials such as steel and concrete to aquariums and electronics can get in the way of wifi signals in a home.
eyenetworks.no eyenetworks.no

Edit: I just analyzed mine and found the new printer we got a month or two ago had 2.4Ghz wifi enabled for direct printing from phones. It latched on to a default channel ( along with my neighbors ) but it is now turned off.
 
I have the paid version of WIFI analyzer. On my Unifi I can fine tune this. On the dumbed down products I cannot. I can only hope automatic channel selection works
 
Brian B Atlanta said:
Larry based on your setup I think the Orbi would probably work fine with just the included satelite. Yes additional satelites are priced absurd but its basically made to not use them I like I said am covering about 4500 square feet. Depends on your setup but if it does not work send it back to Amazon.
Click to expand...
Looking at the shape of it. Does that dictate the direction of the signal or is it simply a styling element?
 
Well Amazon threw on a lightning sale price on their brand new EERO 6+ (6 plus) ($60 off) and only about $12 more than the "renewed" Orbi system. So I snagged the EERO 6+. Will be here tomorrow and time permitting I will check it all out
 
Brian B Atlanta said:
Larry for sure do a review.
Click to expand...
I will. I just figured it's worth a try. Not every day you see something like that which is not a "renewed" thing and get it $60 off. Seems to be a well respected product so we shall see. My son in law has MSCE certification and he loves Ubiquiti stuff. But what you have to go through is crazy to set it up. He said I could use different Ubiquiti WAP devices throughout the house but trying to administer that thing is nuts. He did a set up like that in my brother's house but my brother pays him to tend to the system. Too much for me.
Thing is I have a little knowledge and know how to do more administrative tasks on a system than most folks. I would like to be able to do SOME configurations. It seems they either make systems you need to be an engineer to run or dumber than a box of rocks. Nothing in between
 
LMichaels said:
Thing is I have a little knowledge and know how to do more administrative tasks on a system than most folks. I would like to be able to do SOME configurations. It seems they either make systems you need to be an engineer to run or dumber than a box of rocks. Nothing in between
Click to expand...

Asus routers with Merlin firmware.

Asuswrt-Merlin is a third party alternative firmware for Asus routers, with a special emphasis on tweaks and fixes rather than radical changes or collecting as many features as possible.

Home | Asuswrt-Merlin

www.asuswrt-merlin.net www.asuswrt-merlin.net
 
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