Hi, I don’t know much about networking and I don’t understand what these new mesh things are. I’m stuck with Xfinity Internet in my area, and I have a TP Link AC1750 router wired to a Motorola modem.

Over the last few years, I’ve collected a lot of smart plugs, smart light bulbs, Alexas, & cameras. Those things always say to use the 2.4 Wi-Fi. I’ve had some signal loss issues at some times, inconsistently, and I started wondering if my router is not good enough? Are there too many devices? Some of the mesh things on Amazon say “supports ‘x number of’ devices”, so maybe I need a set of those, but I wasn’t sure which set to get. I am not sure what to look for, and I need to keep it lower cost.

I have the TV and 3 other devices wired to the router, and the 5g WiFi is used for cell phones, iPads, & a few computers.

Does anyone have advice on if a new router would help, or how the mesh stuff works and if that would help? Thanks

  • tcp-xenos@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Mesh is kind of a buzzword and only helps to solve “signal strength” at the cost of everything else… a mesh is basically when your access points are connected to other access points. each hop hurts your ping and bandwidth

    The “proper” solution is hard-wired access points that are each connected back to your router

    If you have cabling in the home, it’s definitely recommended to avoid mesh and go with proper APs