FTTP 900mb Wifi Speed with Mesh

[ittoryu]

My background: I live in a 3 floors townhouse built in 2019 with ONT box placed under the stairs (I know...) and BT FTTP 900mb. I was using the old BT white discs (3 of them) and getting 150mb max on wifi.

Strong signal all over the house.

Switched to Nest Wifi Pro 3 pack and I get 500+mb if I place my phone on the router; signal much weaker throughout the house (marked as "Fair" on the pixel 6) and even worse if I am using it as pppoe directly. 

I'm sending it back as I can't justify the cost at the moment, but I did love the ease of use.

I am now looking at the possibility of switching to the Asus XT8, starting with two of them and see if they are any good: should I just give up and be happy with my 3 old white discs? 🙂

Ideally, I'd like to get at least 100mb more on the wifi, but I am not sure this is achievable without running cables all over the house. 

Thanks!

[pippincp]

Personally, I would run 1 cable up to the central floor and place the router there. It doesn't have to be next to the ONT.

[JamesBand5]

If a wired backhaul option is not an option, you could potentially try this wireless strategy:

3 nodes (or 4) including the main Mesh router and 2 additional satellites. The first node connected to the ONT and preferably outside of the under the stairs cupboard in the hallway. (If you're using your BT router, that can still remain under the stairs, but try to run an ethernet cable out of that to the first Mesh node placed somewhere more open.)

Then have a satellite node on each of the upper floors.

1. Asus XT8
2. Asus XT12
3. Netgear Orbi RBK853
4. BT Whole Home Wifi 6 discs (NOT the HomeWifi or Premium)

Each of those 4 options are slightly more on the expensive side and really for a totally "wireless backhaul" approach. However, they are all Wifi 6 Triband Mesh systems with a dedicated band for communication between the Mesh nodes.

In the case of the Asus, you could get a pack of the Asus XT12 which comes in a pair, and use a spare Asus XT8 as an additional satellite.

The client device (computer, tablet, phone etc) would also need to be capable of receiving a high speed.

Every house is different of course, but I would say that you'd probably get a higher speed with one of those 4 options than the Nest Wifi. The Asus app (if you want to use an App for management) is also better for privacy without the need to log in.