ایک pfsense روٹر کے ساتھ میری BT SmartHub کی جگہ کے بعد, میں نے اس کے ساتھ ساتھ گھر کے وائی فائی اپ گریڈ کرنے کے لئے تلاش کر رہا ہوں. وائرلیس بمشکل ایک حقیقت تھا جب سب سے زیادہ کمروں میں سال قبل اپنے والدین کے لئے نصب کنکشنز وائرڈ ہے کے طور سب سے زیادہ آلات وائرڈ کر رہے ہیں. تاہم فونز, گولیاں, ای قارئین, اور لیپ ٹاپ واقعی وائرلیس کے ساتھ بہترین کام کرتے ہیں (یا صرف بعض صورتوں میں وائرلیس کے ساتھ), اور اچھی طرح سے کام کرنے کے ل a ایک وائرلیس سسٹم کی ضرورت ہے جو نقل و حرکت کو قابل بنائے.
Our house is old and fairly large — no single wireless point has ever provided reliable coverage, so I previously had 2 netgear EX6150 access points to ensure full coverage. میں نے یہ بھی دیکھا گیا 1 PC linked via powerline adaptors which I have been very unimpressed with. I had looked at wireless mesh networks and reviews a few times but felt (اور اب بھی محسوس) that £100-£200 per access point is daylight robbery. There are plenty of basic devices out there for £50 or less than have all the hardware required, so I decided to investigate if these cheap devices could be turned into a mesh network
I should be clear about the difference between a mesh network and a collection of access points, as many other articles are not clear on this point. The key difference with a mesh network is that the access points communicate with each other and then tell client devices which access point to communicate with. With a set of normal access points a client device will stay connected as long as it can and will only switch to a new access point if it loses connection to the original. This means you can have a very low speed signal from a distance access point depite being near to a much stronger signal from a different access point. To put it simply — if you want to be able to roam and always get the best possible connection you need a mesh network.
To turn a cheap device into a mesh-compatible device just means the software on it needs to be able to communicate with the other access points and then issue advice to clients about the best access point to use. Of course no-one if giving away free software upgrades to old or cheap devices — instead they’d rather you junk the old hardware and splash out on new. Fortunately there are several open source replacements available, OpenWRT, اراکین, DD-WRT, اور ٹماٹر بہت پرانی routers اور رسائی پوائنٹس پر flashed کیا جا سکتا ہے جس.
Unfortunately for me, none of the open source builds appeared to be compatible with either my BT SmartHub (V6) or the Netgear EX6150 access points, probably because they’re برطانیہ صرف آلات. I considered buying 2 یا 3 cheap routers to flash and had a look around for sales on any routers with wireless-ac support. The only models under £50 were TP-Link devices which were also not listed as supported by any of the open source builds.
I had resolved to wait for devices to come down in price but then spotted that the BT Whole Home WiFi system was on offer with 2 ڈسکس صرف £ 100. After a little research I ascertained that all devices featured a wired ethernet port, that the system supports wired ethernet “backhaul” and that 2 sets would work together as a single big set. میں نے حکم دیا 2 کٹس, لہذا صرف £ 200 کے لئے مجھے مل گیا 4 رسائی پوائنٹس.
Initial impressions (صرف ایک ہفتے کے بعد) are very positive. Setting up the system was straight-forward — connect each device in turn via a wired connection so that it can receive the settings for the system across the wired network, پھر یہ unplug, locate it where you need (within range of another access point) اور دور تم جاؤ. I connected all of my devices to wired connections and left them there. I now get multi-hundred megabit wireless connections in every room in the house, and when moving between rooms handover works fantastically and seamlessly. For the price I’m very impressed with the system so far.
“Hi James I realise it has been a long while, but I just checked this on windows 11 (build 23H2)…”