Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Linksys Latest Company To Unveil a Wi-Fi Mesh System (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the mesh-networking dept.

From an Engadget report: Mesh networking has become trendy for folks looking to fill every nook and cranny of their homes with Wi-Fi. So it should be no surprise that the makers of the most iconic router ever is unveiling its own system. The Linksys tri-band Velop setup is a modular system that the company says is made to expand as your needs do. Each Velop Tri-Band 2x2 802.11ac Wave 2 MU-MIMO node pulls quadruple duty as a router, range extender, access point and bridge. According to Linksys, each Velop is capable of a combined speed of 2,200 Mbps. It's like having a bunch of little routers in your home all working together to make sure you can stream The OA regardless of which room you're in.Linksys' Velop will set you back by at least $200 for an individual modular, with the pack of two and three priced at $350 and $500, respectively. This makes it costlier than Google's Wi-Fi router, which starts at $129.

18 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Google is in the game by WarJolt · · Score: 2

    Game over guys

  2. Just. Run. The. Damn. Wire. by skids · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Seriously, one afternoon, a power drill and a crimp tool. How hard can it be?

    --
    Someone had to do it.
    1. Re:Just. Run. The. Damn. Wire. by SQLGuru · · Score: 2

      I wired my previous house, but it was a one-story and I could route the wires up the wall to the attic and back down to the router......but I don't have any clue how to do the same in my 2-story house. Otherwise, I'd wire it.

    2. Re:Just. Run. The. Damn. Wire. by dgatwood · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How hard can it be?

      Before or after you suddenly get packet loss eight years later because one of the punch-downs didn't hold the wire quite well enough inside the wall, and suddenly you're having to take a panel off the wall behind a bunch of equipment? :-)

      But seriously, yes, wires are good, and for the most part, fairly easy to set up and maintain. With that said, what the heck are people building their walls and floors out of that they need a mesh network in a house!?!

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    3. Re: Just. Run. The. Damn. Wire. by Highdude702 · · Score: 2

      Very good, i live in las vegas. So we dont have cellars/basements but when people ask i tell them in that exact order with exterior walls last cause its the most damage also im a Electrician/Low Voltage tech. So i get asked alot. and in a 2 story house you can almost guarantee holes in drywall. Thats not hard to fix though. we just did my brothers house which is 2 story his wife hated walking into her house for the second time ever and having holes everywhere. but with a little skill of a mud knife. i made the holes disappear. Works way better if you have textured walls and ceiling. other than that its not hard at all. hardest part is getting good crimps/punches if you dont do it for a living or often.

    4. Re:Just. Run. The. Damn. Wire. by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2

      I'm not finding the RJ45 on my phone.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    5. Re:Just. Run. The. Damn. Wire. by Luthair · · Score: 2

      If your basement is finished I'm not sure I would bother as you'd need to do a lot of fishing (or installing access ports.

      Firstly, don't retrofit it in the external walls. If you go into the attic make sure once you run the cable use a can of spray foam to fill in the gaps. You don't want to allow outside air into your walls, it will cause heat loss / gain.

      Otherwise you buy flexible drill bits that are ~4 feet long, this lets you hit the right angle to drill between floors, if you don't hit the right angle you will need patch drywall. Obviously don't be a dumbass, you need to know exactly where wiring, and gas lines are before you do any of this. Then its basically the same as with one floor, cut a hole in the drywall and install one of the low voltage boxes.

      You can buy cabling rated for air ducts, I'm not sure what the limitations are (return only?)

    6. Re:Just. Run. The. Damn. Wire. by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 2

      Another good option is to re-use the existing wires in the wall to carry data. Ethernet-over-power-lines is cheap and works well (as long as your two endpoints are on the same circuit, and your appliances aren't too electrically noisy)...

      I'm just afraid my appliances will know the network is talking about them...

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  3. Mesh Solves Little by Luthair · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Lets be honest here, the problem most people have is radio congestion in dense areas and the problem everyone else has is that consumer routers are buggy pieces of shit.

    • Back-channel between routers -> more congestion
    • More complicated system -> more bugs

    I can see how this solves our problems.

    1. Re:Mesh Solves Little by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      I live in a 300-unit apartment complex. Just about every one has a wireless router for cable or DSL service. Congestion during the day when everyone is at work isn't an issue. Between 7PM to 2AM, it's really bad.

    2. Re:Mesh Solves Little by known_coward_69 · · Score: 2

      5GHz barely penetrates paper

  4. Obligatory off-topic snark by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's like having a bunch of little routers in your home all working together to make sure you can stream The OA regardless of which room you're in.

    This is a good reason not to upgrade. The OA is neither as entertaining nor as plausible as the "buffering, please wait" progress bar it would supersede.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  5. Why? by darkain · · Score: 4, Informative

    Seriously, why? For a single home? I just picked up a bunch of 802.11n wireless routers for $10/ea brand new off of Amazon Prime. Disabled DHCP and all other routing services on each, so they all act as just access points and nothing more. *BAM*, great wireless coverage all throughout the house now, and was super freaggin cheap, too.

    1. Re:Why? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why? Because these have the potential to be infinitely better. I'm not going to detail my geek cred, but suffice it to say for these purposes that I usually build my own Linux-based routers. I'm not allergic to solder or compiling kernels. But I bought a 3-unit eero system over Thanksgiving and it's been a godsend.

      These networks aren't so much hubs as layer 2 switches. Know how your phone jumps from one station to another as you move through the house? How it's automatic and quick, but sometimes totally breaks the connect and makes Netflix stutter or VOIP calls drop? eero at least totally ends that. Connections are rock solid even as they bounce from one router to another. And they do bounce. If my kid and I are sitting on the couch using our phones, and both of us start streaming videos, eero is smart enough to push one of us off onto a different router so we're not interfering with each other's connection.

      I would not willingly go back to a handbuilt network now. I've only had a mesh network for a month and a half, but it's so much better than anything I'd pieced together myself that I'm retiring from the practice. Laugh if you want to or dismiss it as "I could do that myself for a fourth the price!", but keep an open mind. I think this is the way of the future.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
    2. Re:Why? by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 2

      I can do lots of stuff myself. I can hunt for my food, or plant it. I can build furniture. I could make papyrus if I had to. And I don't do any of that because there are other things I'd rather be doing with my time. Networking was fun for the first 15 years or so, and I still enjoy it but it's no longer on the short list of my favorite hobbies. It's been demoted to something I have to get done so I can get started with my more favorite stuff.

      Yeah, I like eero. I read up on it, I bought it, and I'm glad I did. There are alternatives from Google and Netgear that I also considered and I probably would have also liked quite a bit, but I can't give you a firsthand account of them because I don't have one. Why don't you give them a shot and report back?

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  6. Mine is G by AndyKron · · Score: 2

    My router is G. My router is old. My router works just fine everywhere in my house.

    1. Re:Mine is G by Rufty · · Score: 2

      My router was G. My router was old. My router worked fine just everywhere in my house. And garage. And shed.
      Then there was a thunderstorm and the the ADSL port went deaf.
      So I go a new, high power N router.
      Now I can get a great, full bars signal from anywhere in the house, but can no longer transfer any data
      at all from three rooms away, never mind the garage, even though I've got a full bars signal. WTF?
      Netgear POS.

      --
      Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
  7. Re:They keep saying "Tri-Band" by DavidLevin · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Linksys Tri-Band is made of up 3 radios, 1 using the 2.5 band, 1 using the lower half of the 5 band, then 1 using the upper half of the 5 band. How 1 + 1/2 + 1/2 = 3 is "marketing". What you really get is two radio with half the band funtionality disabled. Not something I would ever consider buying.