Mesh Wi-Fi or Wired Access Points? Whole Home Wi-Fi for London Homes

Mesh Wi-Fi is a sensible fix for a small or medium London home where running cable is not possible, but wired access points give faster, steadier Wi-Fi in every room. If the walls are open or a cable route exists, wire it; if not, a well planned mesh system is far better than a single router.

Almost every week someone asks us whether they should buy a mesh kit or have access points installed. The honest answer depends on the house. A two bedroom flat with one thick wall is a different problem from a five storey townhouse with a basement cinema and an office at the end of the garden. This guide explains how the two approaches work, where each one does well in London homes, and how to decide before you spend money on either.

How mesh Wi-Fi works

A mesh system is a set of matching units, usually two or three, that work together as one network. One unit connects to your broadband router and the others are placed around the house. They talk to each other by radio, pass your data along, and present a single network name, so your phone moves between them without you choosing.

The Wi-Fi Alliance describes Wi-Fi EasyMesh as a standards based approach to networks that use several access points, which work together to form a unified network and can guide devices to the best access point. The point of the standard is that units from different makers can join the same mesh. In practice, most homes still use one brand's kit throughout, and that is usually the simplest route.

The catch is the link between the units. Unless a unit has a cable back to the router, it uses part of its radio time to carry traffic to and from the next unit. Every extra wireless hop costs speed and adds delay, which is why the room furthest from the router is often the one that disappoints.

How wired access points work

An access point does the same job as a mesh unit, but every one has its own network cable back to a switch near the router. The cable carries the data and, with Power over Ethernet, the power too, so a ceiling access point needs no socket. Because no radio time is spent relaying traffic between units, each access point gives its full speed to the devices in its own area.

A wired system is managed as one network from a single controller. We can see which devices are struggling, move channels away from a neighbour's busy network and roll out updates without visiting. It is the approach we use in most of the homes we look after, and it sits quietly on the ceiling rather than on a shelf.

Mesh Wi-Fi or wired access points: a side by side view

Why London houses are hard on Wi-Fi

London homes are rarely open boxes. A Victorian or Georgian terrace has solid brick party and spine walls, the rooms stack up over four or five floors, and the kitchen is often in a rear extension with a steel beam overhead. Basement conversions sit below ground and lose signal from the floors above. Mansion flats have long corridors and heavy internal walls. Garden offices are separate buildings altogether.

All of these get in the way of the radio link between mesh units. A mesh kit placed in the hall and the top bedroom may show full bars to each other on paper and still deliver a slow, patchy connection in the basement. That is the most common call we get about mesh: it worked in the shop, and it does not work on the third floor.

When mesh Wi-Fi is the right answer

• A rented flat or a home where you cannot lift floors or chase walls.
• A one or two floor home where the units can see each other through an open stair or doorway.
• A stop gap while you plan a renovation, so the units can move to the new house or be replaced later.
• A mesh system that supports wired backhaul, where you can run even one cable to the far unit. Many mesh kits allow it, and it removes most of the speed loss.

When to run cable instead

• The house is over three floors, has a basement, or has rooms behind solid masonry walls.
• The walls and ceilings are already open for a renovation or a rewire.
• You work from home, take video calls or stream in 4K in rooms away from the router.
• There is a garden office, studio or gym in a separate building.
• You have a smart home system, cameras or a home cinema that depend on the network every day.

Planning whole home Wi-Fi in a London renovation

If you are renovating, cabling for access points costs little compared with the rest of the work, and it is the one thing that is hard to add later. We usually plan one ceiling access point per floor in a typical terrace, more in larger houses, plus wired data points behind the TVs, in the office and wherever a smart home controller or camera will sit. Everything runs back to one tidy cabinet with the router, the switch and the rest of the equipment. Our guide to smart home wiring for a London renovation covers what else to run while the walls are open.

For how many access points each kind of London home needs, read Wi-Fi access points for London homes, which sets out the numbers by type of house. This post is about which kind of system to choose; that one is about how many units to fit.

Getting a garden office online

A garden office needs its own access point. The best link is a data cable in a duct, laid with the power supply. Where that is not possible, a point to point wireless bridge between the house and the office can work well, and it is still part of the same network.

What we install

On our Wi-Fi installation in London work we survey the house, find where the signal drops and why, then design a network of professional access points with one network name for the whole property. We wire data points for TVs, offices and smart home equipment, set up the network properly, and document it so nobody has to guess later. You can see the brands and the good, better and best options we offer on our Wi-Fi and networks page, and the same service is available in Surrey and the counties around London.

Afterwards, 1Install Care can keep the network updated and monitored, and most problems can be fixed remotely. If the Wi-Fi is part of a wider project, our home automation in London page explains how it fits with lighting, audio and control, and our process shows how a project runs from survey to handover.

Questions we are often asked

Is mesh Wi-Fi bad?

No. A good mesh system is a big improvement on a single router. It simply gives up some speed on each wireless link, so it suits smaller homes better than large or multi storey ones.

Can I add a cable to my existing mesh system?

Often, yes. Many mesh kits accept a wired link between units, and connecting the furthest unit by cable usually brings a clear improvement in speed.

Do wired access points need a socket in the ceiling?

No. Professional access points are powered through the data cable from the switch, so one cable is all each one needs.

Will access points work with my broadband provider's router?

Yes. We connect the access points and switch to your existing broadband, and turn off the router's own Wi-Fi so there is one network rather than two competing ones.

Can you improve the Wi-Fi in a listed building?

Yes. We plan cable routes with care in listed and period homes, and where cabling is not allowed we use wireless links placed where they do the least harm.

If your London home has rooms the Wi-Fi never quite reaches, we will survey it and tell you plainly whether mesh Wi-Fi, wired access points or a mix of the two is the right answer.

Book a consultation or call our head office on 01344 937999 (London office 0208 064 0196).