I'm getting fiber installed in my house and have a few questions on a mesh network. The fiber will be through Mid-South Fiber (also my electric provider) who uses a Gigaspire router for $10/mo rental. I have read through some other threads, and like another poster, I want to stay away from Google, Netgear and Chinese companies. So I guess the TP-Link Deco is out, according to that thread. I have a Nighthawk R7000 router right now and it frequently goes offline and requires restarting, which is why I want to try a different brand. The router is currently in the attic due to my fixed wireless setup, so I guess the heat could be a factor in that, but it also goes offline in cool and mild temperatures as well. Maybe that shouldn't 100% dissuade me from using Orbi.

The house was originally built with an ethernet run from the outside to the main network box. According to the contractors that just laid the fiber to the house, the next contractor will run the fiber all the way into the house and the main box and possibly remove the ethernet cable. Should I try to have them terminate it outside and just tie-in to the already run ethernet cabling? Seems like this would be easier for them, and I'm not sure how they will go about getting the fiber to my inside room. Based on where my fixed wireless tower was installed, this setup is not even being used currently.

1. What are some systems that would be good? I will only be using the 100 Mbps service to start, but they currently have 1 Gbps available in the event I want to upgrade in the future. House is a little under 2,600 sq ft down and then one upstairs bonus room close to where the main router will be.

2. When setting up the satellites, they don't need to be hard-wired to the main router do they? They're meant to be wireless, correct?

3. To avoid the $10/mo rental, I have already declined their equipment. I don't need a standard modem/router to plug the main mesh network router into, do I? If I do need a separate modem/router, is there a specific kind that would be necessary to work with Mid-South, if anybody happens to use their service?

4. Saw one thread mention wired backhaul. What is that and how is it useful? Any way to know that it is not a feature on a mesh router/satellite just by looking at a picture?

5. I will possibly have a workshop built in the future. It will be about 60-65' from the garage as shown in the picture. Would mesh node signal be strong enough to reach the building? The main router will be installed where the circled x is in my picture, underneath the stairs.

6. If the signal won't be strong enough, what would be the best way to get internet to the building? Could one of the two current ethernet cables that currently go to the main box inside be used to splice additional cabling all the way to the building?

Thanks for any help. Trying to get main equipment necessary before they install next Monday.

Here is a picture of house and possible future building layout.

My guess is your provider uses a fiber modem that also includes a wireless router.

I would use the existing ethernet cabling in the house. You can pick a mesh system and then have them run the fiber into the house and plug into their modem. Next setup your Router where you will plug into the modem and then add other mesh components as AP(access point) and then do ethernet backhaul. What that means is the at the AP all traffic goes to the main router via ethernet much faster!!! I'm not familiar with your provider

1. I just put in an Netgear ORbi RB850 and it works great. mine works great and I believe it will go to 3GB/s

2. You will need to setup them up close the the main router. Then move them to where you want them and plug them into the ethernet port. Just follow the instructions that come with the mesh network you buy it is pretty easy to be honest

3. I would use there modem since they will exchange it out if there is a problem. If you buy your own you have to have them put it the technical details into their system.

4. Wired backhaul will send all wireless traffic over the the ethernet cables. It will be faster and you will have better coverage. When you do a search on Mesh routers make sure you say ethernet backhaul. Or go to Best Buy or something like and ask that specific question. If you know what you want to buy let me know and I'll try and validate.

5. I will possibly have a workshop built in the future. It will be about 60-65' from the garage as shown in the picture. Would mesh node signal be strong enough to reach the building? The main router will be installed where the circled x is in my picture, underneath the stairs.

It might work depends on what is in the walls any metal between the house and your workshop.


6. If you want to you could pull an ethernet cable form the workshop to the house and plug it into one of the satellites or run it all other way to the router.


Net is you want to run ethernet backhaul since it will keep your speed up and more reliable. If the modem drops the connection you might have to reboot your router that happens to me about once a quarter.

Hopefully this helps.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I may bite the bullet and go with TP-Link Decos. I know they were caught sending browsing data back to China, but I guess I'll chance nothing happening to my data. One of the reasons is they have an outdoor satellite that would be better suited to put in the garage, or even outside, to have the signal reach the building in the future.

I talked to MidSouth some today and they were a little help, but I still have some things to figure out. I don't know if they will install an outside ONT. The current hardware has the ONT/modem built into the router, but when they first started installing a couple of years ago, they used a separate ONT/modem. I may be able to use that as I think they still have them available, or I plan to purchase the Ubiquiti UISP Fiber Loco. I don't completely understand the requirements for PoE, but that may work for me to install it in Ubiquiti's weatherproof box outside and not have to worry about AC power for it if they will allow it.

Our house only has a couple of ethernet drops and wired backhaul won't really be helpful based on where they are unless I have new drops added to rooms that don't tie into the original networking. I will likely only add new drops if they refuse to allow an outside ONT. But the mesh I am looking at has the backhaul feature.

I learned a lot more last night and today at lunch, but I really wish they would have had somebody come look at the house configuration to give suggestions on what is possible with the setup instead of assuming everybody is okay with how the installers decide to run things with no regard to how the house is already configured.

Ubiquity or GTFO