In multiple access point setups I would highly recommend always be able to hardwire each access point. It will save a ton of headaches on the mesh side. Unless the brand has a dedicated 5 Ghz bandwidth for mesh traffic, each hop slows down the traffic. In low cost consumer mesh devices, it can be up to 50% speed reduction per hop. I know that can be difficult in some parts of the world based on housing construction, including in the UK with a lot of brick homes, but it is a better to hard wire each unit.
Orbi has been reported with network issues / Control4. It does have some challenges with SDDP, STP, Airplay, Bonjour and multicast traffic. Netgear has two articles about it. This was identified late last year. Orbi may have resoled it, but wouldn't recommend it. I know other companies have had some challenges with Orbi in multi access point setups, there was no Control4 product. They had to get a hold of Orbi Tech support. Orbi tech support was able to resolve the issues, but it took a couple of days to get everything sorted out. I was trying to find a list to confirm the official stance but can't recall it's URL.
We've used Ruckus Wireless Access Points for almost a decade with great success. In almost 10 years of use and hundreds of clients, I only had to remotely VPN into two different sites and power cycle the units. Not bad for a run time of almost 6 years!
It does come with a price tag, but it will outlast any consumer grade wifi/access point, has really nice features and has never let us down.
Flight reacted to Jeff W in House WiFi
