Fwiw, unifi can also do mesh. I have a temporary setup in our new home until I can pull wires which has an ac 6 pro wired to my router, and a 6 long-range in our bedroom and nano ap in the garage wifi meshed. They just each have a Poe ac adapter powering them but they are meshed to the 6 pro.
Prior house each was hardwired cat6, and house prior to that I had only 2 of them but used coax moca 2.5gbps to the second one. All setups worked great.
Things like unify express are about 200 a pop. You get one of those and then standalone access points like i7 pro.
And for wired devices you add some 2.5 gbe or 10 gbe switches.
If you have a home with brick wall or concrete wall or just a larger area I would get something wifi 7 capable.
I replaced my 2 Google nest pro which I had setup as a wired mesh system with a single Ubiquiti UniFi Express ux7 and it’s been incredible.
Can confirm. Last week I decided to connect a smart TV, an Apple TV, and a satellite VCR to a UniFi Express with a wireless uplink to an U7LR in the same room. Only because all those devices are on a movable piece of furniture so I didn’t want to use a cable.
Works like charm.
Mesh will have a potentially hard time with the concrete, wifi simply doesn't penetrate - so mesh will be problematic - placement would be key, the satellites need to have a good signal from the base to work well. You might get away with it by placing them near doorways etc. Many people use ethernet along the base of the walls, over doorway frames etc. and wire access points. Mesh systems do have the advantage of a central controller for the access points, so if you can wire them, your wifi experience would be a lot better. I am not a fan of Netgear, TP-Link Deco is popular in this sub, as is Eero (but there's the fact that it's Amazon and has a semi-subscription model. If you want to be a little more spendy, Ubiquiti UniFi has a great interface and good quality that should last. The UniFi Express models have a built in AP and can be meshed. The Cloud Gateway Ultras would be ideal with multiple access points placed around. (I am a UniFi fan) Asus is also mostly well thought of. I think the TP-Link Deco line would be the most affordable choice.
It's really not a lot worse that something like Asus, who has a decently robust interface (lots of consumer stuff hides everything behind "simplicity"). The payoff is reliability and a long service life (my oldest UniFi AP is 7 years old, still supported, and still working great.)
Just so you know, mesh doesn't bring roaming to wifi - any APs set up with the same authetication configuration (SSID, passphrase, security method) will allow wifi clients to roam amongst them as needed. Mesh uses what setups like Ubiquiti UniFi and commercial networking hardware use to allow *faster* roaming.
UniFi would be my recommendation. It doesn't matter what your brother in law thinks.
UniFi has all the blocking and other features that you'd want. I have not tried it but it now also has ad blocking. At this point, I would never change. It's easy to maintain and upgrade etc. If something does fail, it's pretty simple to replace the component and keep moving. It's got a lot of enterprise type features that I like.
In consumer world - Asus and TP-Link are the better choices. Eero is great hardware has a subscription model for some needed (IMO) features. I would avoid Netgear, D-Link and Linksys - they are not what they once were and have subscription models, sometimes poor support, and varying reliability and quality. You could also consider gl.Inet Flint devices if you're looking for an all-in-one router, they have gained a very good reputation.
I agree that a better choice than any of the above would be Ubiquiti UniFi and TP-Link Omada is also decent - it's different than the consumer gear. Reliability is one of the major points of these prosumer setups. I've been running UniFi for 7 years, it's great.
Top Mesh Wifi Systems on Reddit
1
eero
Pro 6 Series
82% positive of 175 users
Easy, reliable, smart home ready; but paid features.
Blindbatts
