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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.

7 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. 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?

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    Someone had to do it.
    1. 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!?!

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  2. 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.

  3. 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.

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    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  4. 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.

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  5. 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.