Quality Wifi for current times

The days of having a single all-in-one box supplied by the ISP (or third-party) provide all the WiFi needs for a modern household are mostly over. The near-exponential growth of personal devices (laptop + smartphone + smartwatch + tablet) and more critically, the Internet of Things (IoT) in our homes mean burdening a single box with dozens upon dozens of wireless clients is no longer practical.

Part of this is airtime contention. Every time a device wants to use the network, it must wait for airtime to become available on the channel it using to the WiFi Access Point (AP). The mix of devices can also cause problems, as slow IoT devices will use lower speed standards, therefore using up more airtime and in some cases, driving the AP to use slower standards for all clients.

Also, the WiFi airspace in urban and even suburban areas is extremely congested, with scans revealing dozens of Access Points on the same, or overlapping the channels from the home WiFi.

Thus, we often are contenting for airtime not only within our own homes but with the neighbors as well.

WiFi coverage is also a challenge in many homes, as structural (walls, HVAC ducts) elements or furnishings (that big mirror in the hall) weaken, block or reflect the WiFi radio signals.

The answer to the above is not a bigger, badder, antenna-festooned box, but a divide and conquer approach with multiple distributed (and ideally managed) Access Points located strategically within the home to balance the load and coverage.

The less congested, faster, but shorter range 5GHZ band especially benefits from increased coverage from multiple APs.

Ideally, these additional access points are all hardwired back to the principal home router, as that will maintain low latency and network capacity for the clients on those access points.

There are multiple options available these days to achieve that, even if the home does not look like it was pre-wired with Ethernet drops everywhere. It is worth the expense (usually not big) and effort to have wired Ethernet to critical locations. This article on wiring options describes the various approaches.

If hardwired is absolutely not possible, then a fallback is a multi-unit wireless mesh setup. But the better ones get quite expensive, as they need three radios per AP to deliver reasonable performance. Most default to a router mode, but all support an Access Point mode and that is what should be used with the IQrouter managing the network.

The recommended WiFi solutions, in order of best to least desired, are as follows:

Best

A managed business-class WiFi system with stand-alone access points, hardwired to a POE switch and managed by a local controller will provide excellent WiFi. These are designed for congested, high-density buildings and can deal with many devices per AP. More importantly, the managed aspects will ensure that client devices are using the most appropriate AP.

Turns out that many so-called ‘smartTV’s are really dumb about which AP they connect to, and typically connect to the first AP to send an SSID it knows, even if that is the furthest, weakest AP in the home. A managed setup will detect that there is a closer, better-quality signal available, and will force the client to switch. Same for most IoT devices as well.

Several vendors have their own ecosystem of business WiFi solutions, some are more geared toward IT staff, and others are more accessible to the technical user in their interfaces.

We’ve had very good results with the TP-Link Omada series, as the hardware is a good value, the apps and UI are easy to use, and their managed system can be run entirely locally, without any form of subscription costs.

A trio of the EAP225v3 access points plus the OC200 controller are less than $400 for a setup that will outperform many mesh systems costing twice as much.

While they work best hardwired, one can indeed mesh another EAP wirelessly to one of the wired EAPs to increase coverage for less-loaded areas, such as a detached garage.

For new IQrouter Pro customers without an existing managed WiFi system, we recomend the Omada system. This document describes in great detail how to use the Omada EAP series with the IQrouter.

Next-best

If wiring is not possible or only to one additional location, or you lack technical skills, then the next best would be a consumer mesh system from any of the leading network vendors. Just check that they fully support Access Point mode.

The better ones are the tri-band ones, where the third radio is used to link up the APs.

Meshed APs have limits on placement (as they must be able to provide good enough wifi to the radios making the links between the APs), so the AP count might be higher than if wired is an option.

Even though they support wireless links, they also support wired backhaul, so you should wire up any location with access to an Ethernet.

Note: As much as we like and recommend the TP-Link Omada system, we can not say the same (at this time) about their consumer mesh models, as in AP mode, they have a horrible, network-breaking bug. If that is ever fixed, then they are good value.

Good

Many smaller (or less congested) residences might get away with just adding on an additional access point to an IQrouter v3. In which case, the reuse of an existing WiFi router (configured for AP mode) might work, as often they have decent WiFi, and with the IQrouter managing traffic, can now deliver decent performance.

Adding a single dedicated wired access point, such as the affordable (~$70) TP-Link EAP225v3 can greatly extend 5GHz coverage and can handle a bevy of 2.4Ghz IoT devices since it is designed for congested, high-density use. Here is a detailed guide on how to integrate with the IQrouter.

If you have a limited number of devices, but a very spread-out home layout, then the lower-cost 2-band mesh systems might work.

Avoid

WiFi to Wifi extenders

Those cheap (<$60) plug-in ‘boosters’ or extenders are really bad, as they cut speeds in half and add a load of latencies. Signals might appear stronger (as the radio is indeed closer), but all performance metrics will be significantly worse than a wired AP or even a decent TriBand mesh.

Powerline links

Back in the day when 25Mbps was considered fast Internet acces, Powerline-based distribution within a home was something to consider, although they had their own issues.
But now that most service is >100Mbps, these will impose serious capacity (speed) limits and worse, potentially add significant latency when congested. So best to avoid them.

Wifi configuration strategies

Split vs single SSID

Unlike stand-alone APs, mesh and managed APs typically do better with a single WiFi name for either band, that way modern devices can select the best band to jump onto and do so quickly if they need to switch. And if managed, the controller will ‘push’ devices onto the ideal band and AP.

Sometimes, it is helpful to create a unique SSID on a specific AP to ensure that certain devices only connect to that AP. But in general, truly managed networks do not require that trick anymore.

Enable Guest/IoT SSID

Many systems have an isolated Guest network option, and this is a good choice for not only visitors but also for many IoT devices that rely 100% on their cloud systems for access. A good example are the Thermostats that just chat with their cloud services, and the mobile app does the same.

Some devices, like WiFi plugs or lights, need to be on the same network as the smartphone app.

The goal is to put as many of the IoT things on an isolated network, if possible, as that reduces security risks.