The ax86u can work with two wan connections so this might help and have only two wireless systems ..... which might be easier to manage.

is it possible to wire into the walls or not ?

In reply to a post by GreenLantern22:

ncy.Some systems like Amazon eero or Google Wifi would want to take over the router function as well not just wifi. I prefer the ones that don't work as a router like Ubiquiti Unifi, TP-Link or Lynksys.

This is really what I need to clarify: which BT and Ubiquiti systems (“discs”) do I need if I want them to operate as simple Wi-Fi boosters and not routers? In other words, which can be just used by disabling the routers’ Wi-Fi function and plugging these into the router via Ethernet?

In reply to a post by kam67:

This is really what I need to clarify: which BT and Ubiquiti systems (“discs”) do I need if I want them to operate as simple Wi-Fi boosters and not routers? In other words, which can be just used by disabling the routers’ Wi-Fi function and plugging these into the router via Ethernet?

The BT Whole Home systems do not act as routers, they are all designed to plug into an existing ISP supplied box with an ethernet cable. (The BT ones look like discs, other makes look like square boxes or smart speakers)

The Eero, Google Home, and other brands are originally from the USA where you gained a simple modem from your internet provider, so plugging into the modem was easy, and the Eero, Google Home etc, did the routing and WiFi with controls from a mobile app.

The likes of Ubiquiti are differnet as they sell all sorts of products that can be linked together. Its really a small to mid sized business set of products, and takes longer to learn and deploy, but the payback for investing time in learning can be significant.

a) What network switch would you recommend and how to connect that to the isp routers?

Any network switch will be fine. Which one will depend on your requirements. Do you want gigabit or 10 gigabit? Do you want plain RJ45 ports or do you plan to use fibre SFP/SPF+? I would go for either Netgear or Ubiquiti switches if you want better quality. I would stick with "unmanaged" switches which means they are basically plug and play and there is no configuration needed to be done. If you want to do more complex networking stuff like VLANs and QoS traffic you may want to go for managed switches. Connect each switch (if you need more than one around the house) to a single port on the ISP router using a CAT6 cable patch cord. Your switch becomes an automatic extension of your ISP router switch allowing to connect more wired devices to your local network.

b) How do I connect the Mesh Access Points to the above switch?

Assuming the mesh access points (AP) use internet backhaul each AP will need to be connected to your switch or to your router using a CAT6 cable patch cord. The non-wired mesh systems will typically have a "master" access point wired to your network and the remaining APs will only need power as they will communicate with the "master" access point using wifi.

c) And also could you please provide me with brief instructions with regards to assigning the Mesh Access Points IP addresses?

This is a very common task done on consumer routers. Instructions will vary depending on each router so check your ISP's router documentation. But in a nutshell when you connect a new device to your network, be it wired or wireless, the device will get an automatic dynamic IP from your DHCP server (usually your ISP's router). You can then use this IP to configure the device and move it to a static IP so you know for sure the IP of the device will never change. You will need to check your ISP's router configuration to determine the range of IPs that are used for dymanic allocation and the ones you can assign statically (which should be out the dynamic DHCP range). Then allocate the IP manually on the router or the device itself or in both to be sure.

Edit: would this entail choosing only one ISP connection to be the foundation of my Wi-Fi network (and restricting all the others to wired/ethernet usage)?

You are confusing two things here. Your wifi network is an extension of your wired network and as such it has nothing to do with your internet connection. As a matter of fact most basic consumer internet installations include a device (ISP's wifi router) that does 4 roles in one device:
1) Connects to the internet (aka old school modem). Sometimes this is a separate device, aka ONT on FTTP
2) Acts as a router
3) Acts as a wifi access point
4) Acts as a small (typically) 4 port switch
If you disable the wifi access point capability from your ISP's router to run your own custom wifi mesh you are only replacing 1 of these roles, not the others. Therefore this doesn't really restrict which ISP you can use per se. You could have all 3 ISP routers connected to the same wired network if you set them up with different subnet networks. However there are certain functions you can only have a single router perform like DHCP server.

But rather than drilling into weird configuration options the issue here is that is not clear at all what are you trying to achieve by having 3 different ISPs. Once we can understand your requirements better we may be able to suggest a better approach.

But in general you will want a single router to route traffic for a single wifi mesh. Any additional wifi devices will only increase wifi collisions and degrade the overall wifi speed of all wifi networks.

Edited by GreenLantern22 (Sun 19-Feb-23 22:11:39)

I think that's much more complex; depending on the needs and experience of the OP, there may be no need to have wired backhaul for the WiFi, with the cabling complexities... only one of the connections is ultra fast?? I went for the path of easy (RJ45 plug) moving between ISP routers if one link failed.

If the OP wants top speeds (e.g FTTP 900 Mbps) then its going to be a) Expensive needing WiFi 6 hardware, and b) more complicated.

So by the sounds of it - the BT discs are the most appropriate for my needs. Would any of the three supplied discs do? Would I need to do anything else apart from disabling my isp router’s Wi-Fi function?

In reply to a post by kam67:

So by the sounds of it - the BT discs are the most appropriate for my needs. Would any of the three supplied discs do? Would I need to do anything else apart from disabling my isp router’s Wi-Fi function?

There may be others that can do the same, I'm not an expert, perhaps search through the likes of PCPro magazine reviews on mesh. But the BT discs worked in three scenarios I have used.

If you need is for Gigabit FTTP over WiFi then you will need the most expensive WiFi 6 versions, but as only one of your ISPs is this speed, I suspect you may not need this speed everywhere. Most laptops, phones, tablets that you'd use with WiFi would need to be very new to support this.

The "Whole Home WiFi" at £129 for 3 discs has only two radios (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz); as the other poster suggests if you want the fastest speeds linking each of the discs to an Ethernet connection back to a central router will give better performance.

The "Premium Whole Home WiFi" at £179.98 for 3 discs has three radios, so the discs can communicate with each other without using the capacity for your devices.

The "Premium WiFi 6" units are £500 and only needed if you need the utter fastest speed everywhere (and only if your 900 Mbps FTTP is your main internet).

Depending on the size of your home you can buy additional discs, some 2 bed flats only need two discs for full coverage.

The advantage of this system is you can unplug the Ethernet cable from one ISP router and plug it into the other without having to change any settings on the discs. The WiFi name (SSID) and WPA2 password stays the same.

All the other ideas from other posters are how to get higher speeds, and possibly how to connect all the ISPs to one switch and share the connections together. It may not be what you want from your original post.

You have had some interesting answers

You could use 3 devices in each room to repeat the 3 Wi-Fi signals, but you may have issues with Wi-Fi interference plus the price of 3 sets of hardware.

Hence, the reason I suggested setting up a managed network, maybe worth talking to a local IT professional or locating your local computer club/hacker/maker space. Alternatively, you teach yourself networking there are loads of videos on YouTube.

You could look at TPlink Omada, Netgear with Unifi APs or Aruba instant on.

Hope it helps...

Thanks copex - I think I will definitely seek further assistance. I would however very much like to know which Mesh systems (apart from the Bt discs already mentioned) work as simple Wi-Fi devices and do not replicate the function of a router (and can thus be simply added on to an isp router). So if anyone can advise, I would be most grateful 😊.

The Unifi ‘disc’ APs are just that only. They are around £100 each and fairly simple to setup even if that involves following a YT video. You do need to run the Unifi management software for configuration purposes and it is not required other than that. It does run on pretty much anything though.

You can run multiple SSIDs on Unifi e.g. one SSID per VLAN/internet connection quite easily.

These are PoE devices so a suitable managed switch is a good option and adds another £60ish to the cost if one is needed e.g. TP-Link.
They can also work in a mesh mode.

Edited by smouty (Sun 19-Feb-23 22:18:17)