Mesh Network

I would avoid Powelines if at all possible.  Anything over 600 is unusable in my experience and the whole experience was truly frustrating.  Worked ok for periods but would fail at any SonosUpdate. 

Can you not just run Cat 6 armored cable between the mesh units rather thanm powerlines?  I just covered mine in gravel/mud and it’s worked for years.  

Not really - I have a block paved driveway between the house and the garage (not digging that up!), and the route directly to the gym is not conducive to running cables

I don’t need to worry about updates, as the machine is a gen1 and running on S1

Maybe look into the Ubiquity Long Range line of Access Points?

They offer WiFi 6, 6e and 7 versions. Also building bridges but you likely won’t need that.

https://store.ui.com/us/en?category=all-wifi

Thanks - Looks promising as there are a number of different options there

Had a look and I’ll admit I’m getting out of my knowledge sphere here.

The specificsations mention Power over Ethernet, switches and gateway consoles.  So simple question

- How do I connect them up to my current router?

“PoE” or “Power over Ethernet” simply means that one end of an Ethernet connection powers electronics at the other end of the connection. This can reduce the gaggle of power supplies in an installation or the need for the services of a licensed electrician.

Some more terms: A “modem” connects to a wire or fiber in the street or a satellite feed and provides a single network connection. A single network connection is not very useful in a modern context. A “router” acts as an organizer to facilitate multiple computers to communicate with each other and the modem without stumbling over each other. Finally, an “Access Point” offers a wireless data path to clients. A “Gateway” packs all three functions into a single box that, unfortunately, we often refer to as the “router”.

A “switch” is similar to a multiple output power strip that allows multiple clients to use the same network wire. The switch is much more complicated than a simple power strip. For a power strip all outlets are equal. On the network each client must be able to send unique messages to specific clients.

A router is a take charge sort of device. Only one router can be active on a home network. As a convenience most home mesh systems contain a router. Simply connecting one of these devices to a Gateway, results in two routers competing for the same clients. Neither router wins, the owner loses. You must actively prevent this war. Usually, the best approach is to disable one router, but each situation  tends to be unique.

Thanks @buzz 

I have read that is best to disable the existing router.

I does seem that the POE units have a range of 100m, which would be more than sufficient for my needs - I need about 20-25m

So, is this the solution?

Connect a base POE unit to my router via a POE injector?

Then disable my existing home network and use the new mesh network?

Thanks

I don’t get why you are looking at POE.  Your Play:5 can’t take power through the ethernet port, so it’s of no use to you.  A mesh network that can cover that 25 m distance is all you need.

I was looking at PoE because of the recommendations on Ubiquity. They are all PoE units so I thought I might need one in the house to create a stong enough signal to span to the 25m to the gym and therefore just use wifi for the Play:5

I’m trying, without success to find out if the mesh networks will reach up to 25m from the base unit.  The only stats they mention are sq ft.  I just want to know the distance, not area!

The limit for any network wire is 100m. As far as the data is concerned there is no difference between PoE and regular. A PoE power injector is used when the network device requires PoE, but PoE power is not available on the connection. Switches that offer PoE are very convenient.

Typically, the gateway router is disabled, but this is not always possible because some cable TV services need the cable company’s Gateway router function. More and more companies are adopting RMR (Recurring Monthly Revenue) tactics and their equipment will have limited function unless the customer establishes an account. I’ll not mention any names, but one very capable mesh system insists on RMR or the units will stop updating and you cannot add to the system after one year. 

I will be running all SONOS units on Wifi (my SONOS Net is not good enough).  Obviously the simplest option is to go for a standard MESH network, something like ASUS ZenWiFi XD4 Plus, or XT9, as long as the base is powerful enough to reach.

I don’t want to buy them and find out it’s not strong enough

Because they generally cover an area, they are not liner.  However, if you assume it’s effectively an circular area of coverage, they you can find the radius given the area of the circle.  A router/satellite with 2,000 sqft coverage is a radius of about 25 feet (~8.3 m).

There are lots of 3 piece mesh wifi packages that can cover that distance, but you might have trouble with that first 13m gap.

Thanks

Yes, that first 13m could be the problem,  I would probably need to put one in the garage to act as the bridge.  My current BT disks work OK with that distance

The ASUS ZenWiFi XD4 Plus can be extended from 2 to 3 easily. 

It says it has a coverage of 2200 sq ft for one, 3300 sq ft for 2 and 4800 for 3

the XT9 covers  2850 sq ft for 1 and 5500 sq ft for 2 -

Answering this one first, then I’ll get to the other posts.

Setup:

Plug an Ethernet cable into one of your router’s LAN ports.

Plug that Ethernet into the PoE injector’s input.

Connect another Ethernet from the PoE injector’s output to the AP.

I do that here and find it quite nice to have the AP’s power supply by my router and on my UPS rather than having a power brick behind something inconvenient to move.

If you have a WiFi / router combination you can either set the AP to a different SSID and channel and leave the old WiFi actove or what I prefer is to disable the old WiFi and set the new AP to the same channel, SSID and password.

Seeing some confusion above, the Access Points are just that, no routing involved so they are connected to an existing router. Ubiquity also makes routers.

The APs are powered using Power Over Ethernet so you need to provide that to them, the power is not sent to any other devices on your network, just the connected AP.

Thanks @Stanley_4 - That helps explain things

I have seen it recommended to disable the old wifi

Thanks for the advice, I have a few (hopefully) final questions

1. Based on the recommendations I am planning to disable the BT SSID. Does that mean that I still have to connect the MESH unit to the BT Router. Or can I connect the Red ended WAN cable from the wall directly to the MESH unit?
2. I have a NAS drive currently connected to an ethernet port on the BT Router.  Do I need to change that to connect to the MESH unit if I diasble the BT Router SSID

Thanks

Disabling the SSID makes no other changes to the router so all wired functions will continue as before.

The NAS should be happy where it is.