Ubiquiti - Alien

I had a TP-Link BE85 setup before this and returned it because of constant disconnects which is a known issue with them. I felt like their speeds were higher than Eero but the disconnects and the complexity of three separate SSID’s versus a single one made Eero a better choice. Prior to that, I owned an AMPLIFI Alien setup that I really liked. One of my units started having issues and needed replaced after several years. AMPLIFI has decided not to continue supporting the Alien product anymore so that was stuck on WiFi 6. Before the AMPLIFI setup I owned a Linksys Velop system and it was absolute trash. I don’t think there is a such thing as a perfect mesh system because if there was I would have bought it. That being said, I am sharing the same frustrations as you with the recent firmware updates.

I had the UniFi Amplify Alien mesh system and it was ok, but like the other posters said, it’s 1000x better to go wired even if just to one other spot. I upgraded to a dream machine and a few APs and it’s night and day now, especially if you have friends or kids who do a lot of WiFi gaming.

I have two aliens and they are the best and most reliable routers I’ve ever had.

I love the range of my Amplifi Alien Mesh system. I don't like the limited configuration options though. I needed the range.

I had a WiFi 6 Orbi set up. It worked for about a week and then the mesh point died. The problem was that it died silently. It said it was working but nothing would connect to it. Netgear support was marginal, but once they determined it was faulty, they wanted me to send it back on my dime and they'd send me a new one. Again, the unit was a week old. I returned it and went back to using (already old) Airport Extremes for another year. I had 3 around the house and they started needing to be rebooted regularly. Given their age I couldn't complain at all but I replaced them with Amplifi Aliens. Those have been rock solid. I'll never buy Netgear products again.

The newest latest is WiFi 7. You could get two UniFi Express 7s, a Dream Router 7 and a POE AP 7, or 2 Eero 7s/Pro 7s/Max 7 Budget you could go with UniFi AmpliFi Alien or Eero 6+ that gets you WiFi6 AX (2 generations behind WiFi7, but adequate for most users). Do not bother with anything AC WiFi 5 or older.

There are lots of good choices, For your environment, you indicate you'd prefer not to run ethernet cables, and with a 1G connection, my opinion is you should go for a tri-band consumer mesh system with two or three nodes. Tri-band will give you far better speeds at your satellite nodes than any dual-band wireless mesh. If you could wire for ethernet, it's much more cost effective to get dual-band units and they'll perform about as well when wired in. The nice thing about mesh systems is that most are scalable, so you could start with 2 or 3 and buy/add additional nodes very quickly and easily, if your needs dictate. Examples of this are: Eero 6 Pro, Asus XT8, TP-Link Deco X90, or Amplif Alien. Also there are several iterations of Netgear Orbi and Linksys Velop. Orbi systems and the Asus XT8 use a dedicated backhaul arrangement. Just my opinion but I think Eero's mesh is superior in that it uses multiple bands simultaneously to maintain the mesh and clients can connect to all bands, which is not the case with any tri-band Orbi, or Asus XT8 while the XT8 is in wireless mesh mode. You can free up the XT8's dedicated backhaul band for clients IF nodes are connected via ethernet. Wifi 5 systems are now being sold at significant discounts, wifi 6 systems are kind of the "mainstay" now, and 6E systems are on the market (6 GHz) which are quite expensive and really don't offer a lot of benefit since there are few 6GHz clients on the market right now. Amplifi Alien has quite good reviews and reputation, but it's quite expensive for even a two-node system. I prefer not to buy systems with one router + one satellite, because if the router craps out on you, you can't swap nodes around - so if getting Alien, I'd strongly recommend getting two routers vs. the router + satellite kit. Orbi kits are all router + satellites, so would avoid those for that reason. Eero 6 Pro, Deco X90, Asus XT8, Velop, etc. all come with identical units in their multi-packs. I used two Eero 6 Pros and muy house is 1200 sq ft (main level) and 600 more sq ft (basement), and my lot is 85' x 135', or 11,475 sq ft for the lot, and two 6 Pros covered it all with >100 mbps everywhere ooutside and >300 in the house.

I have two of them, running as AP’s. I think they’re pretty great if you need a desktop/shelf form factor with dedicated power, it looks much nicer in a living room than a big circular AP. The other one is in our master bedroom with the AppleTV hardwired into the 2nd port. WiFi coverage is good, but not as good as the Aliens that I previously had, noticeably weaker to rooms above/below whereas the Alien is much more omnidirectional.

First thing I'd do is get a relatively cheap 75' or 100' ethernet cable from your local big box store. Run that through the townhome as needed to provide immediate connectivity and a fallback for later steps. Then, I'd try a decent router+satellite system. My go-to recommendation is the Amplifi Alien system, although that is getting a bit long in the tooth these days. The important thing is the ability to use an "ethernet backhaul" between the router and satellite. Using your long ethernet cable, experiment with best placements for the router (probably limited) and satellite to give low-latency wifi throughout the house. If you are happy there, this is the link you want to hard wire into place via the walls. Note that if your townhouse is extraordinarily large you may need 2 or more satellites. Running the ethernet cable in the walls isn't hard, but will require a few skills you might not have yet: * Be able to map where you are on one floor to the next; ex, in the basement, know which room you are under and where the walls are. * Drilling through wall headers/footers. Not hard, just need to keep the drill absolutely vertical and go through the center of the 2x4. * Fishing wires through walls. * Minor drywall repair and repaint. * Bulk ethernet termination (you fish unterminated, in-wall-rated ethernet cable, then have to terminate it). If you don't have those skills and don't want to learn them, hire someone to do the ethernet run. It won't be *super* expensive (obviously more expensive than you doing it though). Cable companies and security companies hire unskilled labor off the street and have them doing this in their customers' homes a few days later; it really isn't a hard set of skills to learn, and youtube etc is there to show you everything you need to know. That said, an *experienced* technician will end up with a much more polished end product than the meth head the cable company sends out, but still this is well within the DIY realm for the average homeowner. Personally, I've done this in four houses over the past \~30 years. As I said, it doesn't take much once you've got a handle on the basics, and the results are always leaps and bounds better than what other people hire out (in two of those four houses similar work had previously been done, but poorly), mostly because you'll be the one living with it so you tend to care more about doing things "right".

I switched from Amplifi mesh to Linksys mesh several years ago and have been very happy with it. I put a tp-link ER605 switch/router in front of it to provide the vpn connectivity and boost my throughput.