I currently have a full fibre bt smart hub router with digital voice and Halo3+.
I have a Dlink covr mesh system with the first covr directly connected by ethernet to the bt hub. This acts as an extender, with a different ssid to the bt router. There are 3 other covr extenders that are wireless ly connected to the first.
Just for good measure, I also have 2 tplink mains extenders wirelessly connected that I use to connect ethernet cables to my streaming media systems.
The issue i am having is that device connections and Internet connections are patchy at best on the dlink and tplink extenders.
I have not been able to identify why this is occurring and am particularly flummoxed by the loss of Internet connectivity when the bt smart hub seems fine.
So I am considering a single mesh system that could replace everything. So I would need to deal with coverage over a house that is 2 storeys 56m2 floor area plus a small conservatory. 3 bedrooms, living room and kitchen plus conservatory. All rooms have devices in them, some of which are poe. Any system would need to cope with up to 100ish devices with the ability to give them static ip addresses (bt smart hub has been patchy with that… maybe to do with whether connected to the mesh or directly as bt hub often treats these as port connections and seems to have issues with applying static to some of these).
Long winded I know but need all info in here. Any suggestions for suitable systems but not top of the price range. Also, some alternative to digital voice would be useful.
For that number of devices, ditch the Mesh.
In my opinion Mesh is for a residential system where people have a dozen or so devices and want signal throughout the house. At the number of devices you have, you need something more robust.
I would also ditch the BT hub. Stick it on a shelf so you can prove to BT support the problem isn’t your router. I would also consider dumping BT.
And as for Digital Voice, loads of options there. Plug and play, something like Vonage would probably do, but if you are prepared to get your hands dirty with VOIP config, then lots of choice.
As for hardware, for the router I find Draytek is rock solid here in the UK and their UK importer has setup a decent support system. Get a pure router without WiFi.
For WiFi, my current preference is Aruba Instant On. Goes against what most on here would say (I am surprised the Ubiquiti fan boys havent been advocating their stuff yet). I would run an Ethernet cable upstairs, maybe going out and up the wall outside then centrally locate it in the loft pointing down. One more downstairs should cover you unless you live in a house with thick walls where each room is a Faraday cage. Another option for getting WiFi around is Powerline, which I used in my parents old house. Gets around 600mbs back to the router which is fine for most things.
Be careful on channel, particularly if you have ZigBee kit as they use the same frequency.
Physically wiring, either Ethernet or Powerline though will make a world of difference.
Sorry I haven’t answered earlier. Got stuck in other issues.
I have questions for both responders:
I am near the start of my bt contract so totally dumping may not be an immediate option. Would just using the bt hub as the broadband router and turning off wifi be a sensible option?
I guess I still could replace the router itself and stay in the contract, assuming that does not make the broadband support from bt an issue.
I really cannot afford to replace many of my mixed bag of devices, with every possible type of protocol, and i only have a few esphome devices (qingping Motion, itag, moisture sensors, lcd epaper display and water butt level sensors). I assume this has no effect on openwrt as an option for replacing the wifi mesh?
Wiring up a mesh replacement totally by cable would be somewhat tricky, particularly to places like my conservatory. So some wireless would be best unless that cannot deliver. Thoughts?