I have 40 wifi clients connected to my router, 15 lifx lights among them. I’m experiencing connection problems so, does anyone here have a realiably working network with lifx bulbs? which router are you using? any help will be much appreciated.
Firstly I purchased an asus router. Ended up returning it 2 months after since I’m not expercienced with routers and that one was overwhelming, I couldn’t get it to run stably and I wasn’t up to learn, I wanted something easier
Later I purchased Tenda Nova MW6 because it’s plug and play. Every now and then I entered a room and the light would delay a few seconds to turn on. It wasn’t that annoying but I ended up returning it because there were connection drops while playing and in other use case scenarios.
Lastly I purchased the TP link deco m9 because of the good reviews and because it was still plug and play. I works really well generally but with lifx bulbs. My Lifx Mini bulbs randomly disconnect for 1-15 minutes and the majority of the times connect back. The rest of the lights don’t get that problem.
This time I’m open to learn so any suggestion will be welcome.
Honestly, with 40 wifi clients, no consumer router is really going to do well as most of them crap out between 25-30 clients. You need to start looking into the prosumer space to find routers that can handle that many clients.
If you want a good “plug and play” mesh system, I’d recommend the Amplifi Alien. It’s a little pricey (last I checked, ~$379 US) but given that it’s a Unifi device, it can handle well over 60-75 clients.(https://amplifi.com/alien).
However, you could go the “extreme” direction and buy into a real Unifi system. Definitely pricey and you’ll need to learn some networking basics/concepts, but in terms of capacity and capability, nothing beats it. There’s also the TP-Link Omada series of devices, but from my experience, they don’t have the capacity that Unifi does.
Eh, I’ve had one and while it’s a good device with good coverage, it doesn’t support WiFi6 (nor will it ever) and there are some horrible design decisions in the software. Plus, it’s also a bit under powered for 40+ devices. It can handle it, but you still might see some drop outs.
That’s why I suggested the Alien; It has support for WiFi6 (if you are buying a new router, getting one with support for future technologies is always a plus) and it has more RAM and a MUCH better CPU in it.
However, if you can only get the HD, it’s still a step up from what you have now and will support your network. Plus, you can add more mesh points should you need to.
To give you an idea of what Unifi equipment can handle (this is my home network):
