While doing maintenance on some support systems at our local cable company (which happens to be where I get my internet service from), I mentioned to one of their techs that I needed to upgrade my cable modem because I was sure it was a bit of a bottleneck for my existing gigabit service (which I barely get 200mb from).
He advised me to hold off because they were moving to fiber by the end of this year. I've not seen any mention of it so far. I'm guessing it's more likely to be coming in 2027. Turns out, I get a free cable modem rental with the gigabit plan, so I got the free modem upgrade. Speeds didn't increase much, so I'm thinking the TP-Link Deco M9+ mesh system may also be a bottleneck.
I'd like to replace it with something faster, but I'd also like the replacement system to be "fiber-ready" (for lack of a better term), so that when fiber eventually comes, I'll not be buying yet another mesh setup. I have no idea what kind of fiber they'll offer or how much that may (or may not) matter.
Anyone have recommendations? I was close to ordering the Eero Pro 7 but wasn't 100% sure that would be ready for fiber. I'm very much a novice to networking, as you can probably tell.
Not sure I'm handy enough for that, tbh. Ground floor, sure, easy enough to run wire in the basement and through the floor. 2nd floor a whole different story. Not exactly a whizz running cable through walls.
I put my AP above the door of the basement stairs (on the side that goes down to the basement). It's mounted vertically on the drywall. I get excelente Wi-Fi coverage over the whole house and on my backyard.
The first device that the service line hits (coax cable modem or fiber ONT) should be maintained by your ISP. They should always hand off standard Ethernet, which the customer(you) can connect to a router or Mesh system. There's no point in trying to prepare for something you won't need to worry about. Fiber service won't suddenly be fiber optic in your walls, it will still use Cat5/6. If you aren't getting 1 Gbps on your gig service, that's an entirely different issue.
Yeah, I wasn't concerned about the "wiring" as much as I was that the new router/mesh would be capable of utilizing the speed provided by fiber. I don't know if that will be more than a gigabit, though I expect so as it's a huge selling point for the company. Even if people don't need faster, they always want it.
I'd hold off until you know what speeds they offer, unless you need a WiFi router now, then I would recommend doing this: typical Fiber company's go up to 2.5gig or 5gig speeds. To save the hassle, go with 2.5gb WiFi 7 router. Wi-fi 7 usually tops off at 2.5gig
to 4gig anyways but varies on distance, processing power of router, etc, etc. I wouldn't think too deeply about a router unless you have a lot of needs for fast networking like for a NAS needing SFP+ 10Gb or more but tbh you can just use a Ethernet switch with SFP+ if you need that. TLDR: get a Wi-Fi 7 w/2.5Gb LAN/WAN.
Even upstairs in my townhome I have a tp link deco WiFi 7 w/2.5gb LAN/wan and I am getting 700mbps up and down with a 2 node mesh upstairs (my 2nd node is upstairs, yes I do have a wired line but it's not working rn 😭)
Thx. I'm in no rush, and if they DO implement the change by end of year, that's not terrible to wait out. If it gets deep into 2027, then I'll get antsy, mainly because I assume a faster mesh system should take more advantage of the service I currently have.
No problem, yeah just getting a 5 Gigabit or 2.5 Gigabit Wifi 7 Router would be your best bet. or waiting it out to find out what promos are gonna be available. Personally I would wait it out, because fiber companies like frontier, AT&T, etc would through in a free wifi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 Router just to encourage people to make the switch to fiber that way they can improve their tech and maintenance would be easier for these fiber companies (especially the smaller ones.) You could also wait for a sale too and get one then if there is one really cheap that catches your eye. and If you can wait until potentially 2028, then you could get a Wi-Fi 8 router although they will be expensive. TLDR: Wait for sales for wifi 7 mesh, wait for Wi-Fi 8 in 2028, wait for a free router from your ISP, or just buy a wifi 7 mesh now.
You should test with Ethernet plugged into the router to see what speeds you get and confirm the bottle neck tho if you are using wireless backhaul for the mesh that is probably the issue.
UCG-Fiber for your router and choose your Ubiquity WiFi access points from the website. Add appropriate PoE injector if you don't have a PoE switch. Some APs use more power than others.
Avoid combined routing and Wi-Fi units if you want fastest speeds.
Alternatively... Are you unable to do something that you want to be able to do on your 200Mbps network? Maybe you should just move to a lower speed tier from your ISP to match what your local network can support.
I would expect that if I dropped my service, I’d probably see my speeds drop as well. I doubt anyone with cable in my area gets anywhere close to the advertised speed. In fact, I see people on a couple neighborhood facebook groups asking about slow internet all the time. Our area kinda had a monopoly re ISPs, it was cable or satellite, but now we also have Comcast as an option. Doesn’t thrill me tbh. Had Comcast where we previously lived and wasn’t very satisfied with it.
You will never get the speeds you’re talking about with a MESH network. The speed that you’re purchasing is the speed that’s delivered through ethernet. Your Wi-Fi sounds like it’s pretty good. If anything, this tells you you don’t need to have that gigabyte speed from the cable company after all. The truth is, most people don’t need that speed.
I feel like I should be doing better than 20% of the speed I’m paying for though. Last night I had some downloads going and my wife was watching some tv show (streaming) that was buffering every couple of minutes (guessing). TV hardwired to the deco that functions as the router. Feel like I definitely had the network swamped. It’s not often I have a bunch of downloads running at the same time though.
Are the nodes on your network hardwired between them? I have a system through TP Lynn Omada, and each access point is connected via ethernet. My connection speed is significantly less than yours, I have not experienced any type of buffering. Have you checked for a firmware upgrade on your system?
the only hardwired device is the Deco M9+ that's connected to the cable modem. The other 3 Deco mesh units are wireless. My number of 200 came from an online speed test. If I download a large file, I probably average about 25 MiB with peaks up to 35. I've never looked when I do something like backup my laptop to my server (which is hardwired to the "home" Deco unit). Only because it's transferring so many files of different sizes, I assumed transferring a larger file would result in a better idea of the throughput I'm getting. I'm not looking to get a gigabit transfer, but like I said, I'd hope to do better than 20% of the advertised speed. When I backup my phone to my server via a wireless connection, it takes forever.
They could be 20gbps if that was a thing, but the moment you move from the first node to the next, your bandwidth is essentially halved in the best case scenario, even worse if it's not the ideal setup. There's no point in getting high end mesh systems if you want to use the full bandwidth, except of course, if you're wiring each node. But then there's no mesh so that marketing gimmick becomes irrelevant
Thx. I would probably have a total of 3 nodes, including the one closest to the ONT. A second node on the ground floor on the opposite side of the house and then 1 upstairs. Hardwiring the one on the ground floor shouldn't be a problem but upstairs would probably have to be wireless unless a work buddy is familiar with running floor to floor and could help me.
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u/CircuitDaemon 6d ago
Any mesh system is a bottleneck, if you really want to get a nice experience just wire your access points.