Linksys Velop WHW0303B Tri-Band Whole Home Mesh WiFi 5
Linksys Velop WHW0303B Tri-Band Whole Home Mesh WiFi 5 System (AC2200) – WiFi Router Extender & Booster up to 6000 sq ft for 60+ Devices – Supports MU-MIMO & Parental Control – 3 Pack, Black
From the brand
Create a seamless in-home WiFi network by combining nodes and routers for more speed, coverage and capacity.
How we get our start?
Founded in 1988, Linksys has since established itself as a premier networking brand. Today, Linksys hardware products, software, and services are sold in over 64 countries.
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We love knowing the solutions we offer enable people to work, relax, catch-up with friends & family, and so much more.
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Developed by an experienced product team and rigorously tested by engineers, our solutions are trusted by Internet Services Providers worldwide, which means they are reliable.
| Weight: | 1 kg |
| Dimensions: | 40.03 x 25.55 x 11.47 cm; 1 Kilograms |
| Brand: | Linksys |
| Model: | WHW0303B-UK |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Linksys |
| Dimensions: | 40.03 x 25.55 x 11.47 cm; 1 Kilograms |
The Velop is easy to install and administer though the app. once up an running, you can just leave it alone and forget about it.
Due to the set up I have, and two different WiFi networks in my home, I needed to speak with Linksys support. They were brilliant and quickly talked me through how to achieve my objective.
All in all, fantastic performance and good coverage.
my wifi range was poor and after installing these I don’t have a dead spot in the house infact it’s full signal Evey where and they are easy to set up using the app .. some them up in one word BRILLIANT
I have been using this for the past one year at home where I run at least 40 connected smart home devices. Very happy with the performance. The only glitch I experienced so far is after a year of use when one of the node was intermittently disconnecting resulting in wifi drop. The issue was quickly resolved by resetting the nodes which is a fairly straightforward process. The amazon support team was prompt in addressing the issue. Thank you amazon!
These are truly incredible. It’s like having a wired LAN connection at all times. They were so easy to install and set up using the app. Highly, highly recommend.
Virgin router was giving 10-20mb of speed throughout the house. With these my 110mb speed has shot through the roof to 130mb, 20mb over what I’m paying for.
We had some real issues with weak WiFi signal throughout the house, extenders didn’t work that well and also have the issue if you walk around the house you need to log onto different WiFi signals due to the way extenders work. Received the LinkSys MESH and within half an hour had the system up and running. We now have excellent WiFi throughout the house. The house itself is an old property with solid brick internal walls, some of the walls are double brick on two extensions that we’ve built at opposite ends of the property. I would consider the product fantastic value for money.
I am happy with its performance, but there are somethings that you will need to be aware:
1. The distance between nodes will need to be closer than suggested. If you have thick walls or you need wifi behind your fireplace, then the distance between nodes will be much shorter. You might like to experiment with the height when placing the nodes (which makes a difference). I placed the node on the ground, but it could not communicate with each other. I did not want it high as I as did not want it to be visible. My nodes are placed about waist high.
2. The initial setup can be a bit troublesome. You will need to find a sweet spot for the nodes to connect and to ensure its stability. For me, the distance between nodes is about 2-3 meters (ignoring the walls). Once setup was done, with the nodes at its maximum range, I was not able to move it even 10-20cm or I will lose the signal.
3. I recently swapped my 3rd node with my 1st node (as I don’t use my 3rd node as much as the first two). In doing so, I had to reset the nodes and go through the setup process again as the nodes did not recognise each other.
4. There are two frequency 2.4hz and 5hz, the device will automatically go to 2.4hz if the signal is weak.
5. There is a feature to prioritise 3 devices, once the 3 devices have been selected these devices will have priority for 5hz.
Once the setup is done and the signal stable, I am able to turn the power on or off and it will connect automatically – What I need is fast and stable signal. The app is easy to use, but I hardly use it, unless I want to remove a device or setup guest network.
I was concerned at first, I bought these to replace an old BT system that had four discs. With just three I didn’t think I would get the coverage, I needn’t have worried, we have coverage throughout the whole house. We live in an old Victorian three bedroom house, which not only has solid walls, it is very long and narrow as opposed to modern houses.
Would I recommend? Yes I would
I’ve got Virgin Media M200 package, so I would like to share my thoughts about it. First of all when VM router left alone, speeds were not fantastic! With this Lynksys mesh I’ve got what I am paying for. Bedroom upstairs 212 Mbit, small bedroom 185Mbit, loo 155Mbit, kitchen 185Mbit, garden 120Mbit, garage 20 m away 85Mbit. Really very happy, all setup took around 25 minutes with Lynksys App. Really I wasn’t expecting such a great result, but achieved it. Unexpected, because I had many WiFi extenders in the past. I can recommend this item. Very pleased.
After ongoing dropping out issues with my Talk Talk router I began looking into a home mesh system. The Talk Talk full fibre that we enjoy in York is fantastic and the standard hi speed router is probably ok for up to 3 bedrooms but we live in a 4 bed, 3 storey property and it regularly gives up the ghost! So, after much reading/research, I opted for the Linksys Velop whole home wifi. It had very good reviews and one of the selling points for me is that it comes in a black 3 node pack which fits in better with our other electrical equipment (tv etc). In addition to the reviews, the price was very competitive for a 3 channel system and seemed like a good option to me.
Amazon delivered next day and I connected to my Talktalk router with a LAN cable and followed the instructions. The setup was simple and worked first time. To set up all 3 nodes (units) including a firmware upgrade took about an hour. Changing all my ‘stuff’ to the new wifi mesh took a bit longer but that’s nothing to do with the system.
The ‘mesh’ shows as another wifi system alongside my Talk Talk one but, once I have confidence in the new system I will disable the TakTalk wifi signal. For now it’s there as a back-up.
So far the speed tests have exceeded my Talk Talk router all over the house so I am very pleased. The app is user friendly and guided installation at every step. It confirms correct placing which can be verified with the. in-built speed tester.
The nodes look good and blend into the background where as some of the white alternatives might be ‘in your face’.
At this moment in time I can highly recommend this system but we’ll see if it gives as good as it promises long term.
I had a Mesh WiFi from a different supplier which was fine although it needed a reset every now and then and then just failed permanently. This Lynksys is super-easy to set up and has just run and run and run since I switched it on. I live in an old house over 3 floors and coverage is bang-on. Basically, faultless. Cannot tell you about tech support because I have never used it, which is as it should be.
Arrived with a link to the (easy to use) app for my phone. Plugged it into my virgin hub and followed the instructions, put the 2nd in my kitchen and the xbox in a room at the other side of the house went from not being able to connect to 100mbps connection. Popped the last one upstairs and boosted the ps download from 17 to 100 as well. All 3 kids able to stream as well as me. Been on for over a week and no issues, even works with the virgin hub in modem mode. Put each device on the app individually (ended up being around 40 devices) named them as put them on and set time limits on all the kids access. Can not recommend this highly enough
A perfect wall-mount for my Linksys Velop node.
I bought it to site my router/master node high up on a room wall, where I brought the power and cat5 cabling down through the floor above .. and so it’s way above eye-line and unobtrusive . for a remote node, you’ll just need to think about “hiding” the power cable (unless you’re hard-wiring your mesh together).
I bought this mesh system having seen it work in a friend’s house. I had a black spot in one particular room where I suffered buffering if I tried to run a laptop and iPad simultaneously. The iPad to stream and the laptop to work on. Since installing buffering has completely disappeared in the room where it previously occurred. Generally it has improved coverage all over the house.
Expensive but is doing a great job and have a great signal all over the house now. Was able to finally use my TV through wi-fi meaning I can save loads of money by getting rid of Virgin Media as my supplier. I also put an aerial on my roof and use a streaming service for the rest . So whilst it was quite expensive it definitely pays back within quite a short time span . It also looks really cool unlike some other suppliers mesh products …. Recommended
I have a Virgin hub3. Initially I set my Virgin router to modem mode and proceeded to set up the system as directed by the app. The velop system wouldn’t find the internet and wouldn’t set up correctly. After several attempts and variations I reset everything and started again. With the Virgin router back to hub mode. The velop system then set up really easily. I called the system the exact same as my Virgin router with the same password. I then switched my Virgin router into modem mode. Again everything went down and wasn’t working. I was very deflated by this time and decided to have a cup of tea. However during the tea making time the velop system reconnected to the modem and the system is now working flawlessly. I have about 50 Alexa related gadgets and 90% of them connected automatically. A few needed turning on and off and a couple needed totally reset and connecting back to the WiFi system. This is the reason I gave the system the same name as my Virgin router. The WiFi throughout the whole house is now much faster and stable in every room. I have one node as a parent node in the living room. 1 node on the next level up in a opposite corner of the house and another node in the loft space. Even with all the doors closed it works perfectly. This is all wireless. I am about to hard wire them all together and I am expecting even better results.
It wasn’t as easy to set up as we hoped but we are on TalkTalk UFO which made it more complicated . We rang Linskeys for advice & they talked us through the setup . It’s a lot faster than the old TalkTalk modem & extender they fitted .
The wall mounts are supplied with two inserts, one for the dual band version and the other for the tri band version. I have the tri band version so I selected that version and clipped it firmly into the wall mount; they do supply a fixing screw but it’s not really necessary. I’ve mounted the nodes high on the wall and, because the cable with the Linksys power supply was too short to reach from the mains socket to the node, I’ve put another mains socket next to the node, the spare cable from the power supply is then coiled into the bottom section of the wall bracket. It’s a pity Linksys have put the cable entry hole in the bottom of the wall bracket so it is visible when you look up. The only other issue is that the nodes have a blue light on the top which illuminates the ceiling, a stick-on rubber foot over the LED solves that. The wall mounts put the nodes out of the way, they’re well made, easy to install and match the nodes perfectly.
I know nothing about networking but just followed the instructions on the phone app, setting up 3 nodes in the house and one in a garage workshop 20 metres from the house ( this was the main reason for getting Velop). Initially the WiFi signal was only two bars, but overnight has increased to 4, with download speeds of 70 Mbps and fairly good coverage in the garden, where there was none before.
I am very impressed. Not cheap but solved all of my WiFi problems.
This is mostly brilliant. The network was very, very easy to set up which was a big relief after reading some of the reviews as I am not a tech expert and was worried I might have problems. The signal quality is great and has transformed wi-fi in parts of the house where previously we just couldn’t get a signal. It’s an old property with thick walls and 3 nodes just about stretches across the house. We may need a 4th but we’ll give it a while and see. The only (very slight) niggle is that one of the modes had lost connection a couple of times this weekend. It’s been very easy to sort and is working fine atm but if it does become a problem I’ll update this review.
This review is for the Linksys WHW030x system of mesh wifi products (insert 1,2 or 3 for the ‘x’ depending which set you buy.
There are interestingly varied reviews for this system but my experience is very positive. I bought a 3-set to add to my ISP-provided single WHW0301. I now have 4 nodes covering a large modern 4-storey house. The 4 node set up has been in use for over a month, during which time it has been rock solid in its connections, one of which is Ethernet backhauled. I have had no need to reset any of the nodes which were all set up originally in the same room as the router node (away from their final positions) and then moved to position once fully updated and configured with the Linksys app. This was a problem-free and fairly rapid exercise. Speed testing shows the worst download speed in the whole house to be about one-third of the paid-for ISP speed. Once set-up with the app, further configuration can be done via a browser page if you know the IP address of your device.
I bought this as my old power line adaptors give up the ghost and I needed a reliable system with great WiFi coverage and the ability to connect via cat5/6. The Velop system achieves all this and is so very easy to set up, I was up and running within five minutes of opening the box! All the setup is done via the links sys app and was incredibly easy to do. The WiFi coverage is excellent with no blank spots in my large 4 bedroom brick built house, I even get a signal at the bottom of my garden (around 15 metres from the house). Doing a speed test on the main computer (linked directly via cat 5 cable to the modem), I am getting 60mbs which is what I pay for. With a laptop connected to the WiFi anywhere in the house I still get 59-60mbs even with a video playing on the main tv and on a tablet elsewhere in the house. Very impressive! I haven’t used the guest network system yet so can’t comment on that but the main network is great with no drop off of speed or signal throughout the house. I’ve had the system (3 nodes) installed for 5 months now and not had a single issue. Highly recommended
Good kit and a doddle to set up. Solved a range a stability issues from the ISP provided router and has the added bonus of a 2nd 5Ghz channel that essentially enables ethernet jumping from the node into any device. ie Sky Q box with direct connection into node which spoofs sky into thinking it has ethernet connection thus avoiding the regular network SSID and password drops when on wifi.
30+ network devices now running smoothly and solid signal strength without the need for extenders. Mobile app is good too and the web login allows more advanced settings if required.
In summary, highly recommended and a true 5 star rating
This genuine Linksys wall bracket may appear costly but when you have invested in an expensive Velop mesh wifi system, I did not want the worry of poor fit or quality letting the installation down. I am very happy with both wall mounts I bought, they securely hold each node in place and look very elegant. Not only does the colour match (with the noise) but it fits like a glove with no unsightly overhangs or poor fitting. You just can’t beat genuine accessories – very highly recommended!
I bought these to give a strong reliable signal to our outbuildings ( the garage and the shed ) about 50ft from the house . We have tried different ways to get a signal to the buildings but they were slow and unstable. We now have a strong reliable signal to watch films and use our ipads ,phones and computers with no drop outs. The linksys was is a best buy from Which ,i chose the three option just to make sure of coverage to all points. Not cheap but it works.
Bought this as part of a work from home package. We have used Virgin Media and their Hub3 around the property but there were area’s it did not reach. The Linksys system has changed that. Signal strength is now superb around every corner of the property and creates enough flexibility and bandwidth to enable a the 12+ devices to stream HD conferences with no issues.
The app that comes with it that controls the access and identifies which devices are on the system at any one time has proved invaluable.
A great piece of kit and well worth the outlay.
Great router – now getting 120mb in the corner of the house which once only received 2.5mb.
Only 2 small quirks were – 1. You can’t turn off the blue ‘ok’ status light which is annoying in a bedroom (black tape is invisible and if careful doesn’t interfere with the cooling vents). 2. The furthest node would sometimes connect directly to the router node rather than daisy chain to the middle node. Have no fear this automatic re-linking can be turned off via the router’s web settings page (not the android app – need to use a web browser to access this setting). Overall these three units are fantastic! BTW virging media home hub was rubbish in our large bungalow – hence the upgrade
I read up on a number of Wifi mesh products before buying this one. It is probably more than I needed but I tend to go one up from whatever the recommendation is with everything I buy. Better having too much than not enough.
Easy to set up despite what some people have said. Just work with the app and set up one node at a time. Mine set up and was fully operational first time in no time.
Very impressed with the totally stable Wifi mesh coverage. Even in what were the weekest areas of my home, I now have a full signal and faster connection. Apple Wifi calling on the mobile is excellent too.
Been operational for a month now with no problems.
Well worth the investment.
Compared with the Virgin hub this thing is amazing. I initially plug a simple unit in and to be honest it would have kept the family happy. With the edition of the other two units it covers the whole house and I can sit in the garden with a good internet connection.
My neighbour, in a detached house could also pick it up in their living room. I don’t use the virgin hub in modem mode, I simply have two seperate wifi’s available. Occasionally one of the units shows an orange light but is still a great connection. This resolves itself.
Highly recommend it.
We have Virgin and at the start of lockdown the internet was a bit flakey.
Got these as they were on a sale and got three hubs – one for the dining room, one for the kitchen covering the back of the house and one upstairs.
You download an App and this then covers the setup and monitoring of the nodes.
Glad to say that have stopped noticing how often either the lights or the PC or something else was dropping off the network.
I can now look forward to working without worry that someone else in the house will use up all the bandwidth and I can watch the Fire 4K stick upstairs where before it would be buffering endlessly sometimes.
We got this up and running in about a day and a half! Not too bad for a couple of non tech savvy mid seventy year olds. The problem we had was when set it all up we couldn’t get it to bridge to use the router’s existing device settings. What we know now, and would have been a good instruction, is that in order to bridge, you have to set up the mother node, then bridge, then set up the children nodes. We bought this system because the internet in our area is 7 mbs and when using zoom etc the wifi signal used to drop out in parts of our house away from the router. The difference it has made is worthwhile. We would definitely recommend this product.
Only had this a week, but so far I am very happy.
I read a number of reviews about difficulty in setting up but I had no such issues. It took a few minutes but the app says it will. Plug each node in as instructed and that is it.
I have a four story house and now have full cover even outside.
So far it has not dropped and my connection follows me from node to node.
Previous kit has included BT600 and PT-Connect. All required multiple resets and eventualy failed completely. I hope this kit lasts longer, we shall see.
Additional. Started off well enough but has had numerous technical issues. I am tech savvy but struggling to resolve. For 300 quid it’s a lemon.
Power line adaptors from virgin were almost useless too because my wiring is on different fuse boards due to the extensions introducing interference. So we had very slow and at times totally absent WiFi in much of the house.
So I bought this mesh system fully expecting I may need to buy another set to fully cover my large house.
I started off by switching my virgin router to modem mode (it’s worth also logging in online to opt out of the shared public WiFi hotspot in the profile to have one less WiFi network in your house to compete for channels)
Then I followed the instructions on the phone app with all three of the nodes in the same room and it was as easy as anything.
The only challenging thing was figuring out where exactly to place them around the house for the best overall signal. It took some fiddling around but is worth the investment of time.
Once you find the best positioning you will probably get another boost by asking the system under advanced WiFi settings to scan the channels to find the best ones to use (this is taking into account the interference caused by neighbours).
Fascinatingly this seemed to vary on the location ie when I moved a node it would be slower till I got them to do the channel scan again.
I found that the signal is not surprisingly still quite effected by solid walls so I tried to daisy chain them to reach the far end of my house. Ie the idea was the network would pass from the first to the second to the third in a chain going through a wall each time in a kind of dog leg formation.
But in so doing I discovered that the beam forming system of these routers must be very good as subtly changing the positions of them to minimise the number of walls the signal had to pass through actually meant I could get a great signal To the back of my house using just one jump even tho it was a long way. I imagined a lazar beam and tried to endure that it passed through an archway rather than what was once my thick outer wall.
Somewhat oddly putting a node in between these Two nodes to try and boost it actually made it worse (I think due to the fact that where I’d positioned the middle rooter meant the signal had to bounce through more wall than it did direct (and the chimney may well have been causing some issues).
So I’ve now got them in a kind of triangle formation where each of the two extension nodes are in an almost unhindered straight line from the first. Crucially I’ve made sure the chimney was not in between any of the routers that need to talk to each other. If I would add nodes I’d add them in between to form a circle around my house with each node in an adjacent room tho possibly with some upstairs.
And as a result even with just three nodes I’ve now got speedy WiFi of well over 100MBS in almost every nook and cranny of my entire house. I may buy some more routers at some point to enhance the speed even further but initial testing seems to find that I don’t really have any true black spots just a few areas that drop slightly compared to the best.
I can see that if I bought another three I could probably get close to my actual maximum speed everywhere. But your house will almost certainly be fine with three and I am not in any rush to get more.
The nodes make full use of three channels (5GHz x2 and the 2.4 Hz). If for example my son and three of his friends were all in same room playing on the PC with their mobiles in their pockets some of them were connected to 2.4ghz in a more distant node and others to the 5 of the closest. (You can see which nodes are connected to each other and to what devices via the app and this helps you plan where to put the nodes).
Presumably this use of all available channels maximises speed to all of the devices.
You can even select three devices to prioritise data to and this made a little bit of difference but it seems fine to leave that switched off and let the network divide up the available bandwidth more equally. This is one reason having more nodes would probably even further speed up the network as one node wouldn’t have to serve as many devices.
In order not to clog up the WiFi system my TV, Apple TV and x box are all connected via a simple WiFi switch to one of the nodes and they are all much happier as a result with no buffering etc. This is the item I use: TP-Link TL-SG1005D 5-Port Desktop… https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ZOOJXEG?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
One technique for thinking about placing the nodes (which I wish I’d thought of earlier as it would Have saved some time!) is to test the speed of your initial node (or the second one if you are wanting to daisy chain) in the place where you are thinking of placing the second one before switching it on. Ie you are checking signal strength from that parent node at that point in the house.
You need it to already be quite fast there actually in order for the mesh not to lose a bit of speed (the second node can’t be any faster than your phone is with only the first node switched on at the point you site the node).
If you have solid brick or stone walls the ideal seems to be that there should be no more than one brick wall between each node or between the node and the items you want to connect to it.
Think of either a star shape or a daisy chain shape when you think about placement. Unlike many so called mesh systems this really will work as a daisy chain with no drop off in speed providing the units are placed close enough together (rather than each node having to be directly connecting by WiFi to the first). This makes this system a great choice.
Each node will link to one other node at any time. They can have several jumps (just remember to add a node to your existing network if you buy more rather than setting it up as a new item). And if a node goes down for whatever reason any nodes it connects to will find another route back to the first one (which connects to your modem by an Ethernet cable). If you have power line devices get rid of them they will most likely slow things down not speed it up.
I wish I could replace the rubbish virgin router altogether but it seems to work reasonably well just passing the internet passively to one of my nodes.
So far I’m very happy and as I say since my whole house is now bathed in sufficient internet to easily play Netflix (yes even in the toilet!) so it’s very possible even my strange and somewhat large house will do just fine with three even long term
I realise something though. I’ve been upgrading my virgin media broadband when what I really needed to do was spread it round the house better. I am confident that with enough of these nodes one could downgrade the speed of the internet coming into the house significantly. You only need about 25MBS to stream even 4K. So even if you have multiple devices you shouldn’t need huge input. The trouble is many routers are not very good at sharing the speed out. This setup clearly is (I often have up to twenty devices at any one time if kids bring friends into the house!)
The issue is if your power lines can only deliver less than 10% of what is coming into the house then of course you won’t be able to watch Netflix except next to your supply. With enough of these I’m sure you can get close to 100% of your speed throughout your house. And see the network speed shared around more fairly.
Perhaps spending a bit of money on a real mesh system like this may help me downgrade and spend less money with Virgin each month.
Can’t see the point in getting a WiFi 6.0 Mesh device since I’m sure three (or certainly six) of these will cover even a mansion with very fast WiFi (and cost less than some of the 6.0 systems cost for just two nodes!).
One final point is that I’ve noticed that when lots of people are using the internet on lots of devices the speed test readings on individual devices do drop a bit, presumably as the node devices are sharing the bandwidth between the various devices in use. Crucially however it seems that many people can be watching online videos all over the house At the same time and not notice any buffering issues. Fascinatingly if you repeat a speed test in such situations regularly you may well see the speed on an individual device fluctuate. But if it is varying from say 50 to close to 200 and the reason this is happening is because the devices are making the best use of all available WiFi bandwidth and channels and constantly altering how much data to beam towards which device thus is fine. It’s kinda what you want for your internet to actually work so well on ALL your deficits that you don’t need to keep testing the speed!
I mean for example I was a bit concerned at first about the fact that some of my newer devices were sometimes connecting to 2G. But if that’s the most efficient way to serve fast internet to all the devices including those temporarily on the “slower” network then actually that is intelligent use of all the radio waves you have available. And like I say suddenly I’m not getting those “dad the internet is broken again! ” or “why’s our internet so rubbish?” Calls. People are just using the internet the way it should have always been. A true MESH network like this seems to be the way forward. And even if I do eventually end up buying three more it will be cheaper than buying just two of some WiFi 6.0 systems some of which may possibly not actually daisy chain at all.
To close I have attached a speed test obtained from the very back of my house In the extension and as far away from the parent node as it’s possible to be! Have to say I’m delighted at the moment. And if anything as the system is getting used to how we use the internet it seems to be getting faster and faster and so far I’ve never had to reboot it yet.
So far so good. Easy to setup & well packaged. Well made and nice looking units and power plugs. The supporting iOS app works very well although slightly annoying that it is portrait only on iPad.
So far, the connection speeds are excellent and making the most of my Virgin Media cable connection. Stability has been excellent and the house is now bathed in wireless coverage in a way that has just not been possible with WiFi extenders only.
Highly recommended and no regrets – money well spent. (I will come back and update this review periodically to reflect my long term experience of the product.
As someone who lives in a 400 year old stone cottage with some walls that are 2 feet thick, achieving an acceptable Wi-Fi signal throughout the house has always been somewhat “challenging”. Over the years, our home network had evolved into a bit of a Frankenstein hybrid of wireless router, power line Wi-Fi extenders and power line hard wired connections. On a good day, our FTC broadband connection coming in at 73M was translating into an average Wi-Fi speed of around 40M with the powerline network delivering a hard wired connection of around 60M.
Problems with the router and glitches on the powerline network led me to investigate other alternatives. I like the idea of mesh networks in that our house is an odd L shape with the broadband modem at one end. I initially looked at the Netgear Orbi system which whilst claiming to be a mesh network is apparently a star topology system in that the main router node needs to be in the middle of the area to be covered which is impractical in our installation. The Linksys Velop seemed to fit the bill as it is a true mesh network system (so the main router can be anywhere within range of another node) so I bit the bullet and bought the triband three node system.
The system is very easy to set up with good guidance from the downloadable app. We had a slight problem with the supplied network cable To our modem which was severely limiting tHe whole network speed (!!!!) but since replacing that with a spare cable the system has performed impeccably.
We can now get 73M Wi-Fi connections anywhere in the house. I have removed the old powerline network and extenders and our three macs and assorted iPhones and iPads are now working perfectly on Wi-Fi with no need for any wired connections. The units themselves are small and unobtrusive; we went for the black finish so they are hardly noticeable. Note that each node can also provide up to 2 wired connections if necessary.
You can probably tell that I am very impressed with this system but my view is that if we can get excellent network coverage in our very much less than ideal situation, then I can’t imagine anyone with a more modern house having a less than excellent outcome.
I realise that for some power users, the lack of some advanced features such as being able to being able to specify whether a device connects at 5G or 2.4G may be a limitation but for the rest of us who just want a fast, powerful and reliable Wi-Fi system, I would strongly recommend the Linksys Velop network.
I ordered this Linksys Velop mesh system from Amazon because my virgin media superhub wasn’t providing a great Wi-Fi coverage around the home so, I was doing some investigating how to cover my whole living space with a Wi-Fi coverage that has The ability to connect it to the nearest source point of Wi-Fi point insuring that I get a full Wi-Fi network and speed. I decided to order this particular brand because I’ve had it in the past and it gave great results, and as an extra bonus Amazon had the particular colour I wanted on a special daily deal. To complete the whole Velop System, I ordered the Linksys MR8300 Tri band router as well. the Velop nodes which I have placed around my typical terrace home. Starting from the front bedroom I placed the main MR8300 router and then the first node I placed in the back bedroom and followed up with the second node placed in the summer house at the bottom of the garden, which is approximately 70 feet away. The third node I placed downstairs in the living room. Now it doesn’t matter wherever I am in the house or in the garden or in the summer house I have full Wi-Fi coverage. Setting up of these devices was very easy you don’t have to be a computer expert it is all done from a app on your smart device, The only problem that I had in my specific case which will not affect the majority of people is that I am visually impaired and my speaking software would not allow me to select the specific buttons, but someone help me set the app up with my input. The application tells you all the information you need to know from how many devices you have got connected to speeds and if your system is running okay, and the opportunity to select a guest network and share the password. I am well happy with this mesh system it now gives me the speeds all over the network that I am happy with. Just to give you some examples I am with virgin media 500 meg broadband package, in the house and in the garden my max download speed I have received is 470 Mb down and 37 Mb up. In the summer house which is approximately 70 feet away my max speed has been 200 Mb down and 36.4 up, I am well happy with these speed considering this is all connected wirelessly. If you want a system that you can walk room to room or go outside the garden and connect seamlessly this is a good system. The network speed around the home and Wi-Fi has increased by at least 90% considering that the superhub from virgin doesn’t have that great Wi-Fi
The system has provided complete cover over my single storey barn conversion, but due to the thickness of the stone walls the speed drops off quite quickly as the units move away from the modem. Having said that, our slowest download is around 48 Mbps (from 300Mbps at source) and far greater than is necessary for my usage.
Only had these a couple of months, but they really seem excellent. Added extra nodes and no problems connecting them at all. We have so many devices connected now and very rarely any problems. Occasionally Amzon Prime TV is a little slow to load up, but that’s about it! Coverage is excellent..and with two teenagers in the house, the parental controls are just FABULOUS!