Deco P9

I liked the Deco P9 I had set up around my apartment. The roaming feature is nice and I got full coverage everywhere. I had to get rid of it because the routers and nodes were terrible for in-house streaming from Sunshine and PS5.

Will powerline work in your house? If so I'd get something like TPLink Decos with the powerline backhaul.

it's not, but the decos have it built in and will pick the best signal strength between wireless backhaul and powerline. In the OPs case wired of some kind will be the best option, first would be ethernet, second powerline (provided the wiring is good enough for it)

I have two apartments both are like faraday cages, I have Ubiquiti in one and Deco Powerlines in the other. I'm pretty impressed with the Decos for the prices

I used to use Deco (mix of P9 and M4). It's pretty cheap and very easy to set up, but doesn't give you much control over what it's doing. Wen a couple of my ageing P9's failed I switched to Unifi, which is probably a bit overpriced for what it is, but works well and was was pretty easy to set up. It can do way more than I need but is able to do things like specify the channel, which I couldn't do with Deco, meaning I can set it not to overlap with my Zigbee network. No experience of Eero. I went with the Unifi UDR7, which is a combined router (they call it gateway) and wifi access point. In hindsight I might have been better off with a separate gateway as the best place for it isn't always the best place for the access point, but an all in one device is a a good starting point. I then have one of their POE switches (Lite-8) so my other access points don't need their own power supplies which simplifies the installation nicely. I have it set up with 3 wifi networks, my main 5GHz network, a 2GHz only network for a few specific devices that don't like 5GHz (Ring doorbell, a couple of old wifi smart switches and a printer), and a separate guest network.

I have a tp link deco mesh network, initially it was 3 nodes. I’m up to think 6 nodes now across probably 10k square feet over 2 levels. For the most part, it’s been perfect.

It’s been in about a year, I think it’s ac1200.

I moved into a new place a year ago and ran.limited Ethernet cable. Using a tp-link deci mesh system to cover 3200 sqft (two floors). Great coverage throughout. I was surprised as I took the approach you are describing with my old house. Honestly, both perform the same. General use is streaming and remote work. No gaming. So, depending on your use, you might be overthinking. I saw the cat8 comment - you have a house not a colo, no need for cat 8.

I have a TP-Link Deco mesh system running to cover my 3200sqft two story house. I have no issues whatsoever. And mesh systems are not simply extenders. As you move about your house you will have seamless coverage with mesh.

1000 sqft does not need a mesh network. Get a solid AP or wireless router. I have the TP-link Deco network and it covers my 3200 sqft two story 4 bedroom house nicely. Anymore than one AP or wireless router will be overkill and unnecessary.

In my old house I had PoE unifi APs all with the same network name and it generally worked as a mesh network. When I moved I switched to a TP-Link Deco Mesh network with three APs. I was going to backhaul all of them, but after using it for a few months I found the speed and coverage was fine and the backhaul wasn't needed. They are not PoE units, so each one would need to be plugged in. But they are unobtrusive in the house. The first month the system seemed to learn as it was spotty. But then I found great coverage. The biggest difference I have found is that the Unifi APs tended to hang on to the connection vs handing it off to the next AP like the Deco does. I was very reluctant and skeptical of mesh after reading reviews, but I really could not be happier and the set up was a heck of a lot easier than running new Ethernet lines.

I use deco pods. Super easy to set up. I'd recommend wiring in every access point. Mesh systems tend to lower total available bandwith, since things need to get broadcast more than one.

Yup, if you go in the app it will show you. I use deco pods in my home.

Yup, if you have Ethernet where your desktop is, you can wire up the deco and have it provide WiFi to that area.

If you go with Ubiquiti, have IT guy install it. Otherwise go with simple (TP link Deco with Ethernet back haul). Ubiquiti is not for amateurs

Deco is easy / inexpensive: minimal level of effort. Ubiquiti is expensive / high maintenance and for very high number of users (public buildings)