Any recommended Wifi 6 WAPs/MESH Routers?

[tech3475]

I'm currently using a trio of BT Wholehomes MESH for Wifi but I'm considering moving on from them due to some issues I've had, such as device discovery (e.g. Bonjour with my printer) which I don't believe are related to signal strength and I have some Wifi 6 capable devices now from which I like to do LAN file transfers.

For reference:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07643DVCT

I was thinking of going with something like a single Ubiquity WAP like this Ubiquiti UniFi 6 Long-Range:
https://eu.store.ui.com/collections...ss/products/unifi-6-long-range-access-point-1

I know this seems like overkill, but I had issues with a single 'domestic' WAP in the past (e.g. Asus RT-AC88U), one of the reasons I went with the Wholehome.

Wait for something like this to sell and have 2 of them on either side of the house (I've since added Ethernet to the other side of the house) Ubiquiti Access Point WiFi 6 Pro:
https://eu.store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-wireless/products/unifi-ap6-professional-beta

I have heard though that Ubiquti's QA has gone downhill though, so on advice go for something like the TP-Link Omadas (which I'm currently looking into):
TP Link EAP620HD:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08MWN1VTJ
TP Link EAP660HD
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08L9KTXNW

Or whether to go with a different MESH setup, but I'm concerned I'd end up with the same problems.

Does anyone have any equipment they recommend? Budget is £200 to £300.

Thank you.

 

[FAST6191]

Things that cause dramas and traumas in computing for me

1) Wireless anything (includes bluetooth)
2) Printers
3) Anything delivered "as a service", especially if a person who is not as cynical as myself set it up in the first place.

If people had wired everything, outsourced printering or at least went laser then the vast majority of issues for me would be solved. The bill for 3) is probably going to come due in a few years as we have only seen a prelude thus far. Wireless printers taking up two of those, if not three, means they are worse still. If there is any way to plug it into an ethernet port or USB of your router to have it act as a local server then do that. That basically nothing in the serious professional printer world has wireless on it barring maybe something to speak to phones tells me a lot, though I suppose this is also the same world that will sell me an all in one inkjet for a pittance but straight facedly try to sell me a cheap colour laser for the same, bolting a scanner on it is too hard though so that will cost 4x as much.

That said I still have to get things to work, which sometimes means validating the bad decisions people make.

Outside of serious range setups (think office building) and weatherproof devices (which usually means range as well) I am actually moving away from more traditional mesh setups at this point.
Also in a turn of events that surprised even me is standalone wireless distribution devices are actually worth a consideration. The hierarchy still runs fat old LAN cable bundle (could be optical I guess), ethernet over powerline and then wireless distribution but where wireless distribution was once only considered if professional or repurposed routers doing the deed then today the little cylinders you buy from belkin, tplink and all the rest are worth something, maybe even preferable if multiple phases or questionable house wiring (possibly a HAM in the area as well to be respected but let's not start a trend) makes ethernet over powerline a dubious prospect. They are also pretty transparent to the host network too; some otherwise tricky Chinese box CCTV setups have been drop in and go, which means I felt kind of bad doing my "going to be a nightmare" call out rates for what almost amounted to plugging in a patch cable and setting up a phone app (actually stayed and did a few more tablets and phones for that one). Sadly don't have model numbers right now though as I did not spec most of those.
I don't know that I would necessarily go for the replace a plug face with a wireless booster option (decent USB chargers are more preferable for that one, on a related note https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-white-plug-socket-shelf/p/0455233 are great) but that is more because I have not tested that many, and what tests I have done or seen says eh (not to mention people seem to be about non protruding/flush, brass, black or brushed aluminium if I am replacing sockets for them). With USB sockets being worth considering and the standalone wireless signal booster stuff being worth my time then it is a very real possibility, even more so if ethernet over powerline with a pass through and wireless points of their own (which can be persuaded to work well) continue to be the silly money for a half decent setup over more entry level things.

My general setup then becomes best router you can and I look to see what the setup is; large borderline mansion with lead paint and a router by the front door is different to office in the shed at end of a long garden of old row house (and different again to "want to be able to use internet just outside the back door/front door when I am working on the car").
I actually like a lot of the gamer/"higher"** end asus stuff here, and by itself that has solved a few problems (I usually take my old netbook around and that gets wonderful reception where much else failed). That said if you are using BT stuff have you also had your phone service shuffled over to the router yet? That makes things marginally more annoying unless you are going to consider a secondary router the base of your network and the BT side of things just something that guzzles power (possibly almost to the point of BT network is the other side of a gateway and the only way anything speaks to it is coming from the outside world).

**high end in my world means you have juniper, cisco or equivalent on the box and somewhat ironically will likely not work out of the box. Though for others that made it through my waffling above then the difference between a decent asus router or equivalents and whatever your "was the cheapest available" ISP or the local big box shop/supermarket has from netgear/belkin/... is probably still going to be night and day.

As far as wifi ax/wifi 6 then you are still a guinea pig here whatever you go, maybe not quite as bad as a few in the draft n days ultimately got stung but... yeah. That would also mean I get to take by my earlier comments about the nice little cylinders as none of those were ax/6 at this point. As far as ubiquiti going downhill then yeah, and it is not just people looking to upgrade or replace more genuinely broken things that keeps prices high on the older stuff.

 

[tech3475]

Fortunately the BT Wholehome is separate to the BT ISP router, unfortunately I have to use their **** router for the landline (planning on moving to dedicated VOIP so I can ditch it) so I had to use a separate router for DHCP, DNS, etc.

More or less anything which can use Ethernet is, but this still leave plenty of devices where it isn't practical/possible e.g. the Printer.

I have tried using a single 'powerful' Wifi router before (Asus RT-AC88U) but it just gave me connection problems over Wifi.

I plan on also buying from Amazon, mainly because of their returns policy effectively giving me a 30 day demo, in case it doesn't work.

 

[linuxares]

I know a pair that I know works IRL.

An friend of my use them.
TP-link Deco M9 Plus Mesh-system AC2200

He is (next to atleast) computer illiterate and he managed to install them without issues!

 

[Dr_Faustus]

I have the Amplifi Alien Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router. Amplifi is a premium consumer brand under Ubiquiti (which does UniFI as well). I actually got this when it was the only Wi-FI 6 system that Ubiquiti had at the time and my TP-Link AC router was failing on me. It works amazingly well and I have been using it for a good year and a half now. Still gets updates as well.