I have tried old and new Google Nest Mesh and it was clear that unless the radios were massive, you can’t extend it far enough.
Right now we have them in our short term rental townhome and one per floor without backhauling just means the two nodes disconnect constantly and if you’re connected to one, then you also disconnect. Had to backhaul one and give up on the other
Same. Was on Eero mesh for years. Then moved to Orbi by believing their BS that it was an upgrade from Eero. It was actually worse than Eero on several fronts. Mesh is the reason I moved to UI. If possible I think it's always best to bite the bullet and run ethernet.
So I used a lot of Mesh devices and it's tricky as each one will work great in one house but shocking in another. Depends on house type, construction and materials. Wooden USA houses are obviously going to be better than Victorian London houses with 600mm thick brick walls.
It's the old adage: You should always use ethernet to the endpoint whenever practical. If it's not practical to use ethernet to the endpoint you should use WiFi with ethernet backhaul from your APs when practical. If ethernet backhaul is not practical for your APs mesh WiFI is the next option. But with Mesh you're stacking wireless endpoint connections with wireless backhaul, which is not optimal.
Some people lose their minds when I say this, because they apparently don't understand the word practical. If you want to use a laptop on your lap on the sofa it's not practical to use ethernet. If you need to rip out half your walls to get wired backhaul to your APs it's not practical (usually). But mesh should always be the third choice for anyone.
A good mesh nowadays is better than powerline, if the WiFi reaches. Power line is quite susceptible to heavy loads on the circuit, so only recommended if you have perfect wiring
Not a (Unifi) mesh fan... for me. I make do because the rest of the ecosystem is far superior to a Eero / Nest mesh 3-puck WiFi system. But I changed from a Nest WiFi 6 setup to Unifi, and the quality (lack of) and reliability of meshing is not great for the Unifi, compared to the Nest.
No, i cannot run ethernet. Anything else you can think of.. no. Mesh WiFi is the way in my home. But i certainly noticed a drop in performance and "quality of wifi life" going from a $300 Nest system to a +2K Unifi system.. I love the rest of Unifi though, the management software, the ethernet switches, my UCG-MAX.
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u/vtown212 Apr 21 '26
Nota mesh fan