The problem with a non mesh system is that the transition as you move from one part of the house to another usually means a fairly long disconnect. Your device often tries to hold on to the wi-fi it has for too long, and then takes time to handshake with the better one.
Mesh systems do this for you by magic, so it’s a much better experience in practice. My unifi wi-fi devices are all wired to the router, and form a mesh, somehow deciding which access point you should be connected to. Works well.
Yeah, tbh with the current crop of mobile devices we have, the handovers are pretty quick and smooth.
I found splitting 2.5 / 5GHz SSIDs and having different names helped.
Talktalk can’t offer VoIP on their fast Fibre 500 package which is irritating.
Openreach came & put in the fibre & took out the copper connection. It uses an Eero 6 router which works fine so the broadband is plenty quick enough but for whatever reason VoIP isn’t an option. I had people telling me it was and that it wasn’t. Mostly their advisors didn’t really know.
I can’t believe BT customers round here tapping off the same point (Outreach install) have had to give up their old numbers. I don’t use the landline for making calls but it’d have been nice to have retained the number & I can’t believe the tech to enable that via full fibre doesn’t exist. I guess it might be an issue for this location. Maybe I should ask BT directly whether they offer it.
They offered the Fibre 500 deal, no mention then of VoIP even though I was asking about retaining the line. Before the installation I spoke to someone else at Talktalk who said just wait 24 hours after the install then ask to switch to a VoIP connection, the cost is the same & they’ll provide the box & handset you need. The Openreach guy was non committtal but now TT are saying nah, can’t be done.
We have plusnet. My phone (iPhone 14) on O2 gets voip as did my previous Samsung Galaxy S20, Claire’s (recent-ish Samsung A something) on Tesco (which is provided by O2) doesn’t. So it could be handset or mobile provider dependent, or both.
We went with Squirrel (don’t laugh at the back!) as it became available: £35 per month including phone and 300 Mbps and kept our number. Introductory offer of £6 for the first 6 months ends in Feb, but happy enough to stay with them. If local experience is anything to go by, don’t touch Be Fibre with a shitty stick - constant outages and way-lower-than-advertised data rates.
Just to tag on to this thread, I’m not sure if I need a mesh or just a range extender (are they the same thing?) but I’ve had to move my router towards the back of the house and now my Ring doorbell (yes, I know) receives too low a signal to work properly.
Will one of these do the job, or should I be looking at something else? There seems to be a number of similar looking units but all with different functionalities.
If it’s purely a distance issue one of those should be fine midway. If it’s the structure of the building these don’t really help. eg if the router is now behind a thick stone wall and the signal is shite on the other side this won’t make a difference.
These are a good solution to the latter, give a wired port to use at the other end as well as a wireless SSID for not a lot of money.
