I am looking for a wifi mesh system to improve the coverage in my home. I looked around and found a cheap solution with decent reviews, the Halo 50G by Mercusys (TP Link). I am not a fan of super cheap, super easy to use “magical” solutions, and within minutes of connecting just the access point I was seeing calls to the likes of google, facebook, amazon, etc in my network coming from the device. Not ideal.
I also found that Ubiquiti and Netgear may be the best options out there, but the prices I found are north of 600€ and I can not afford to pay that much right now.
So, my question is: Is there any wifi mesh system that is not using my network against me and does not empty my wallet? I am based in Europe and would like something under 200€ if possible, and ready to buy from the shelf.
Thank you for reading and for any recommendation.
If you are willing to do your homework:
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/mesh/start
This is what I did. Flashed OpenWRT on all devices and enabled the 802.11r stuff. My “mesh” is just multiple APs connected by ethernet and fast BSSID handover.
802.11s is a mesh where it’s all done over Wifi. 802.11r uses ethernet for comms between APs.
I considered OpenWRT at first, but right now I do not have the time, or the will, to start learning about the project. It sure looks like something I will probably do in the future, but as of now I just need a commercially available solution.
GL. Inet is a commercial product running OpenWRT in the background
FWIW you can buy OpenWRT based hardware, no tinkering, e.g. https://www.turris.com/en/products/omnia/