cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Replies are disabled for this topic. Start a new one or visit our Help Center.

Google Mesh

PeterBQH
Community Member

I have mesh of 3 units in my house; the primary unit is hardwired to my Broadband router, all is fine.  I wanted to extend the network to an outbuilding so I bought an extra Mesh unit. I have set it up OK and it works fine in the house, but not outside even though I can see the network there on my phone. Do I have to be directly connected to the primary mesh unit always, or can my new unit connect  to a nearby secondary unit?

Thanks

2 Recommended AnswerS

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Just a couple thoughts on this, though as @olavrb says, it's been discussed in some depth elsewhere. But, in short, a couple points. First, the path selection through the mesh prefers fewer hops. So, if a node can get through to the primary unit directly, it will – even if that connection is weak/slow and even if there's another mesh point in between. If the distant mesh node can't get through directly at all, then it will go through another intermediate secondary. However, the conditions under which this happen are not going to result in acceptable performance for most people, since there's only one 5GHz channel, and each extra hop requires retransmitting the same data over that channel multiple times. So, yes, they will "daisy chain" wirelessly, but no, you probably don't actually want them to do do that. Hence the advice to use an Ethernet cable to connect your outbuilding back to the primary node's LAN Ethernet port (directly or via one or more unmanaged Ethernet switches).

Second, if you wire up one secondary, it has to essentially ignore the wireless mesh (in favor of the Ethernet connection). The implication here is that a wired secondary cannot act as an intermediary for more distant wireless secondary mesh nodes.

Thirdly, as @olavrb suggested, if you really can't run an Ethernet cable to the outbuilding, a pair of wireless/Ethernet bridges can create a virtual "wired" connection that you can then connect a wired secondary Google WiFi unit to in the outbuilding. It sounds like you already have something like that in place, but you aren't happy with the performance. If that's the case, then I can almost guarantee trying to make Google WiFi do this with it's 5GHz omnidirectional antennas isn't going to perform nearly as well.

View Recommended Answer in original post

PeterBQH
Community Member

Hi Edward,

Thanks for following up.  I have abandoned trying to daisy chain the Mesh units, based on the advice, and instead I have redistributed the 3 old and 1 new Mesh units around the house to give slightly better coverage outside, and I'll see how it goes. I'm still using the Ubiquiti P2P wifi pair to span the long hauls.

Thanks to all for the help anyway.

Cheers

Peter

View Recommended Answer in original post

10 REPLIES 10

olavrb
Platinum Product Expert
Platinum Product Expert

The wireless backhaul for mesh is using 5ghz Wi-Fi, which has worse reach than 2.4ghz Wi-Fi, which is probably what your phone sees but the 3rd point don't.

A workaround could be to use wired backhaul out to the outbilding.

Either using an ethernet cable, or adapters for ethernet over power line, or ethernet over coax (MoCA). There are also specific wireless options for this, directional outdoor Wi-Fi, like Ubiquiti UniFi "building-to-building bridge".

Your scenario has been discussed several times in the past, you might get more info and ideas by looking back in time. 🙂


I don't work for Google.

PeterBQH
Community Member

Hi Olav, and many thanks for the prompt and helpful reply. 

Thanks for the explanation about the 2 frequencies used - that does explain a few things.

 A wired connection to the outbuilding is not a practical option, though it is only a few metres from the house, so in fact I currently have a Ubiquiti wifi pair which does work pretty well, then a router in the outbuilding for wifi coverage there.  I guess I could replace that router and plug the Mesh unit into the UB pair instead, but the UB pair is a slight bottleneck.

My main question is simply:

can I daisychain a mesh unit off another (non-primary) mesh unit?

I think the snswer is yes (from reading the links you highlighted), but they all use wired connections, and my wish is to do it all wirelessly if possible, since the distances are no more than 10 metres.

Thanks

Peter

 

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Just a couple thoughts on this, though as @olavrb says, it's been discussed in some depth elsewhere. But, in short, a couple points. First, the path selection through the mesh prefers fewer hops. So, if a node can get through to the primary unit directly, it will – even if that connection is weak/slow and even if there's another mesh point in between. If the distant mesh node can't get through directly at all, then it will go through another intermediate secondary. However, the conditions under which this happen are not going to result in acceptable performance for most people, since there's only one 5GHz channel, and each extra hop requires retransmitting the same data over that channel multiple times. So, yes, they will "daisy chain" wirelessly, but no, you probably don't actually want them to do do that. Hence the advice to use an Ethernet cable to connect your outbuilding back to the primary node's LAN Ethernet port (directly or via one or more unmanaged Ethernet switches).

Second, if you wire up one secondary, it has to essentially ignore the wireless mesh (in favor of the Ethernet connection). The implication here is that a wired secondary cannot act as an intermediary for more distant wireless secondary mesh nodes.

Thirdly, as @olavrb suggested, if you really can't run an Ethernet cable to the outbuilding, a pair of wireless/Ethernet bridges can create a virtual "wired" connection that you can then connect a wired secondary Google WiFi unit to in the outbuilding. It sounds like you already have something like that in place, but you aren't happy with the performance. If that's the case, then I can almost guarantee trying to make Google WiFi do this with it's 5GHz omnidirectional antennas isn't going to perform nearly as well.

PeterBQH
Community Member

Thanks Michael (and Olav) that's very helpful indeed.

Back to the drawing board.

Cheers

Peter

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,

 

@olavrb and MichaelP, thanks for the help as always!

 

@PeterBQH, how's it going with your Google Wifi? Still need our help?

 

Thanks,

Edward

PeterBQH
Community Member

Hi Edward,

Thanks for following up.  I have abandoned trying to daisy chain the Mesh units, based on the advice, and instead I have redistributed the 3 old and 1 new Mesh units around the house to give slightly better coverage outside, and I'll see how it goes. I'm still using the Ubiquiti P2P wifi pair to span the long hauls.

Thanks to all for the help anyway.

Cheers

Peter

EdwardT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi PeterBQH,

 

Thanks for the update. I'm glad that it has better coverage now. Please observe it for now and let us know if anything comes up.

 

Thanks,

Edward

Jeff
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey PeterBQH,

 

I just wanted to check in to see if things were still running well for you with this newer arrangement. If everything looks good, we can go ahead and mark this as resolved, but I would like to be sure things are working well for you first.

 

Thanks,

Jeff

PeterBQH
Community Member

Working OK thanks.

Jeff
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Sounds great, PeterBQH. I'll go ahead and mark this one as resolved. Thanks for the patience in getting this sorted out and to MichaelP for his input here.

 

Thanks,

Jeff