Home Wifi – Wired Wifi vs Mesh Wifi
How to improve Wifi in a residential setting
In the modern home WiFi should be treated as a utility – everyone needs it and it should be fast, reliable and always available. Unfortunately the ISP provided routers are generally low quality and built to very tight budgets. This can result in a WiFi signal which is great in the room which houses the router but the WiFi signal can become weak and under powered as clients move around the home. Add in a few family members streaming to portable devices and the whole system can quickly become unusable!
What do the terms Wired Wifi and Mesh Wifi actually mean for Home WiFi?
There are two ways to improve WiFi around the home but both use the same principal to get a better signal – they place a Wireless Access Point closer to the client device. An incoming telephone line is often in to an area which is not ideal for a client to use the WiFi – customers don’t often stand in the hall or closet to surf. Both of these technologies move the WiFi emitter in to the main living space and in larger houses then multiple WAPs provide a WiFi signal to ensure great coverage throughout.
What is Wired WiFi?Wired Wifi uses network cables such as Cat5e or Cat6 for the backbone of the Wifi system. We install cables to each room and plug a wireless access point in ensuring strong and reliable coverage. The backbone speed is gigabit and also provides power for the WAP, creating a neat and reliable installation with fast throughput and excellent roaming.
What is Mesh Wifi?Mesh Wifi creates another 5G network and uses it to replace traditional network cables. This approach enables us to place a wireless access point anywhere in the home – ensuring great coverage and a strong signal throughout.
What is Hybrid Wifi?In a hybrid situation we utilise the benefits of both mesh and wired networks. Where possible we use a wired wifi installation but have the option to extend the network using mesh technologies. Each wired WAP can allow a mesh uplink providing a huge range of options.
WiFi & Networks
Smart Home
Crestron
Multi-Room Audio
Security
How to handle Roaming Clients
With the above technologies it is easy to see how a Wired WiFi solution will outperform a Mesh network – even the newer Mesh technologies – as they have a dedicated connection and they share less infrastructure on the way to the internet. All these WAPs can cause an issue with client devices though, imagine an iPhone on the ground floor which is streaming from YouTube. The WiFi signal may only have to travel a couple of meters and the device will show 5 bars, full power. If that iPhone then moves up the house it may stay connected to the original WAP – it had a good signal and it will stay connected for as long as it can to make the most of the signal it had. The phone wont necessarily appreciate the fact that it has a closer WAP on the 3rd floor which will also provide that great signal. This approach makes perfect sense for the vast majority of people who only have one router. With our WiFi systems we install a Wireless controller which monitors the signal from all WAPs and auto optimises them to work together – providing the best possible WiFi signal throughout the house but also handling client devices – passing them from WAP to WAP as clients move around the property. The end result from a client device perspective is one huge network which doesn’t vary as clients move around the home – WiFi perfection!
Hybrid Wifi Systems
Most homes in the UK do not have network cable installed to key locations – although our full home systems do! – which means pulling cables can be difficult if not impossible. Our high end WiFi systems therefore allow us to mix and match technologies – wired WiFi to key areas with mesh backup for areas with weak or no signal. The disadvantage of the mesh network is minimised as the signal may only have one hop – a mesh WAP talking to a wired WAP – before the client reaches the internet. The same wireless controller handles the entire management ensuring clients get a fantastic user experience.
Kids Wifi Networks and Guest Networks
Children nowadays are fully connected and expect an always on connection. This can be great but obviously has some issues with some of the content available. Our networks can restrict access to certain sites and – a firm client favourite – be set to a time schedule. Children’s WiFi can be switched off at a clients preferred time, ensuring devices aren’t used past bed time – bringing the end of family arguments! Guest networks can sit alongside client networks and provide guests with all the benefits of the internet without allowing access to your local devices, so a visitor wont automatically try to connect to your Apple TV or have access to your family photos.
Extending Wifi to a Garden Room
One of the most common enquiries we get, especially at the moment, is how to extend Wifi to a garden room. With more and more people working from home a garden room can make huge amounts of sense. Regardless of the use of the room – office / gym / cinema or games room – they all need good, strong wifi. There are a number of ways to achieve this but by far the most reliable is by installing a Cat5e (or Cat6) cable down to the room itself from the internet router in the home. This allows us to install a Wireless Access Point in the garden office which provides Wifi. If we have installed a whole home wifi system then the wireless access point will simply emit the same wifi as the home so you will easily be able to roam between the two. If we haven’t upgraded your home Wifi and you just have the internet router then we would install a stand alone system in the garden room with its own network name which the devices can switch to when in range. If it is not possible to install a network cable then we do have options to extend the wifi wirelessly, creating a wireless link between the house and the garden room. This will be more expensive and less reliable than a wired connection – install a cable if you can!
Survey, Design and Monitoring
Every network we install begins with a detailed site survey rather than a guess at how many access points a house of a given size might need. Building construction matters enormously: stone, concrete, steelwork and thick timber all affect signal propagation differently, and a six-storey London townhouse, an Alpine chalet and a Dubai villa with extensive grounds each present a completely different problem. From the survey we map the layout, identify access point locations and plan cable routes before specifying any equipment.
The survey becomes a complete system design — access point positions, cable routes, switching architecture, VLAN structure and management platform — reviewed with the client before any work begins. We specify enterprise-grade equipment from Cisco Meraki, Ruckus, Pakedge and Ubiquiti UniFi, whose controllers manage the wireless environment with far more sophistication than consumer hardware, from intelligent band steering to seamless roaming between access points. Access points go where the design says they should go, not wherever happens to be convenient on the day, and the equipment is housed in proper networking enclosures.
Once installed, every network is remotely monitored by our team. We receive alerts when an access point goes offline, when a switch port fails or when unusual traffic patterns appear, and in most cases we can identify and resolve an issue before the household notices it. Software updates, configuration changes and the addition of new devices can all be handled remotely without a site visit.
Why the Network Matters for a Smart Home
The network is not separate from a smart home installation — it is the infrastructure on which every other system depends. Crestron controllers, Lutron lighting systems, multi-room audio, IP cameras, cinema control, gate and access control, climate systems and every streaming service in the property all rely on it performing consistently. A poorly designed network is the single most common cause of smart home unreliability, and one of the elements most often overlooked when networking is treated as an afterthought.
When we are responsible for both the smart home system and the network, they are designed together from the outset, so the network is sized, segmented and engineered for the actual demands of the installation — the bandwidth the cinema distribution needs, the latency the control system expects and the number of concurrent audio streams. For properties with demanding connectivity requirements or unreliable broadband, we also design multi-WAN architectures that combine broadband, leased line, 4G/5G and satellite connections, load-balanced in normal use with automatic failover if any one connection drops.
Summary
There has never been a better time to be wire free! The technology exists to make every home fully connected with a reliable and fast WiFi signal. Some clients will be happy to roll their sleeves up and install something like Google WiFi whereas others will engage someone like us to design and install something bespoke. Either approach is good but do not settle for a poor connection!
Frequently Asked Questions — Wired WiFi vs Mesh WiFi
Why does the WiFi from my internet provider’s router struggle in a large house?
ISP-supplied routers are generally built to very tight budgets and give a strong signal only in the room where the router sits. Thick walls, multiple floors and the distances involved in a large property weaken the signal as you move around the home, and a few family members streaming at once can make it unusable.
Is wired WiFi genuinely better than mesh WiFi?
Yes. A wired backbone gives each access point a dedicated gigabit connection with less shared infrastructure on the way to the internet, outperforming even modern mesh systems for speed and reliability.
Can wired and mesh WiFi be combined in the same property?
Yes. A hybrid approach uses wired access points wherever possible, with mesh extending coverage to areas where cabling isn’t practical — minimising mesh’s downsides since the signal often needs only one hop to reach a wired access point.
Can WiFi be extended reliably to a garden room or office?
Yes, ideally with a Cat5e or Cat6 cable run to the room, allowing a dedicated access point to emit the same network as the main house for seamless roaming. A wireless link between house and garden room is possible but less reliable and more expensive.
Can children’s WiFi be restricted or switched off at bedtime?
Yes. Our networks can restrict access to certain sites and put children’s devices on a time schedule, so their WiFi switches off at a time the parents choose. Guest networks sit alongside the family network and give visitors internet access without access to your local devices.
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