On 10/2/19 3:34 AM, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
On Tue, 2019-10-01 at 16:04 -0700, Samuel Sieb wrote:
>> Powerline Ethernet (usually called Homeplug -
>>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HomePlug) is my standard answer for
>> people who want to extend their home network. Very easy to install and
>> much cheaper than the alternatives (not counting wireless "extenders"
>> which are basically a kludge). The downside is that unlike mesh systems
>> they don't tend to merge everything into one network, relying on your
>> WiFi device to hop from one to another.
>
> If you have your access points all configured with the same SSID and
> password, there is no difference with a mesh system other than better
> speed.
I know that's true in theory, but in practice I've had problems with
it. I assume this is one difference between consumer-grade APs and
"managed" devices intended for corporate networks.
In practice, I haven't had any issues with it. :-)
I have setup wifi in a school with currently around 15 access points and
there is no problem roaming around. They are all consumer routers
reflashed with openwrt. They used to be all TP-Link, but now I'm
starting to switch to Ubiquiti. The whole school has both 2.4 and 5GHz
available on the same SSID and different SSIDs for different groups.