A history of upgrading my home network

Back in 2018, not along after working from home permanently, I realised that the single router that I was using was not enough. It was in my home office, so all worked great there – but even the kitchen was a dead-spot. I’d recently added some external cameras to my house and the rear one was constantly dropping out, particularly.

So it was time to look for an alternative.

At this point in time, mesh routers were the new thing. Multiple devices that connect to each other in a way that a simple extender didn’t (I’d tried Wi-Fi extenders and always experienced issues with them). I ended up buying a few different ones – TP-Link, BT, etc. – but they all were pretty flaky. I ended up buying the Google versions. These dinky devices just worked, albeit they weren’t the quickest around or have the largest range. I ended up 4 of them in the end to fully extend across the 3 storeys of my house.

But by 2021, they weren’t enough any more. My broadband speed had increased and the speed of these devices (which used Wi-Fi 5) was lagging behind. I put my hand in my pocket and paid a lot of money for 3 TP-Link Orbis.

They used Wi-Fi 6 and had much better range and speed (but were much, much bigger in size). The other thing they had, that Google didn’t, was a backhaul channel – this are important, as it means that the satellite devices can quickly communicate back to the primary router.

At first they seemed fine, so they quickly got past the period where I could return them, but after a while become a major PITA. They were constantly rebooting themselves, and the dreaded drop-out on the rear camera was occurring again.

But fate was the fix.

My broadband ISP had an issue which caused my internet to go down. Except the status colour on the router didn’t match anything in the manual (it turns out a purple/pink colour is what they mean by red), so I thought I had some weird error. I ended up factory resetting them, just as the ISP issue was resolved. Problem solved but after that reset, the routers just worked. Solidly.

And so it’s been since. The Orbis are still quick enough and just get on with their work.

Except.

For all the money spent on them, they have a major downside. They will only connect up to 40 devices. In a modern, connected house, that gets eaten up quickly (e.g. when my oldest daughter and husband come to visit, they’ll each bring their phone, laptop, Nintendo Switch and iPad. They now have a Steam Deck too. That’s 9 online devices).

And, a few weeks ago, I started seeing things randomly disconnecting from the Wi-Fi. I’d hit that 40 limit and it was throwing devices off to accommodate anything new (from what I can, whatever had been connected the longest, so this was often security cameras).

Sorry, Netgear, but this limit sucks.

Having read good things about the TP-Link XE75, I thought I’d give them a go. Rocking Wi-Fi 6E (which introduces a new 6 Ghz channel as well as much better latency), they had greater range and speed than the Orbi. I decided to buy 2 as well, instead of 3 as the range of 2 were nearly the same as 3 Orbis.

A week ago I connected them up. The set-up was smooth and, since then, everything has been 100% solidly connected. And, most importantly, they have a 200 device limit.

Unlike the Netgear devices, there’s no concept of one being a router and the others being satellites – both XE75s are exactly the same. Yes, one is seem by the system as the primary one, but in terms of device build, they’re identical. One downside, though, is that the primary Orbi had 4 Ethernet ports, whereas the XE75s have 3. In my office this was a problem, so I had to move something downstairs to connect to the second router.

Right now, you can the XE75s for just £259.99 from Amazon, which is a bargain for a modern mesh system.

How I just need to sell my Netgear routers.

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