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Comment by drcross | Hacker News Reader

Google wifi is a solid product, but needs a completely separate backhaul network for client mesh handover. Once set up properly it's unbelievably good in a larger house.

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I have Google Wifi at home and a unifi mesh at my office. Unless you are covering a massive area or have more than 25 clients, I’d have a real hard time recommending unifi. It requires much more configuration and maintenance. Google WiFi you really just forget about it - handles patches automatically, finds you the best channel automatically, tests your uplink daily and logs results.

Unifi’s software is much better than any other enterprise solution, but it still has a lot of rough edges and bugs if you’re doing anything non-standard.

Case in point: bonding non-contiguous ports in Unifi is not possible (though it's possible on the Edge products). I think there's also a 4 port maximum.

Funny you should mention this, because I put a Unifi system in at home and just checked -- haven't been in it in 6 months.

Have you looked at their home wifi Amplfi line? https://www.amplifi.com/

It's supposed to be plug-and-play.

I'd probably buy one, but I'm pretty happy with my 2 year old Unifi AC router, after initial setup, I haven't done anything to it - I have it set to update firmware automatically.

I just pulled out a Google Wifi setup because I found it was would drop clients if we were streaming any video content. I thought that maybe the dropped clients were connected to the mesh APs (which weren't hard–connected to the LAN) but no, they were connected to the main AP. Replaced with a three node eero system in exactly the same locations/topology (one primary, two connected via eero's mesh) and …no dropped clients, no problems whatsoever.

Really wanted to like Google Wifi but it was just too flaky too quickly to put up with.

Agreed. I replaced mine when I found out it couldn't be put behind a router fronting 2 pppoe connections. Somehow it broke pmtu-d trying to send data to Google (config backup? Who knows), and caused meltdowns constantly because of it.

Any chance you could elaborate on this or point to some helpful docs? I'm just kicking off refactoring the house wifi and some instruction here would be amazing, especially in the context of the Google mesh product.

If you haven't made a hardware decision I'd also take a hard look at Ubiquiti's Unifi line. They take a little more setup but offer a lot more functionality and future expansion.

I have unifi but it isn’t very user friendly.

Well they take a bit more setup but honestly if you've bought your own router before it shouldn't be unfamiliar.

I personally found the interface a step up from Asus/Netgear/etc.

I love my unifi setup at home. Yes some more configuration for sure, but once it's up, it's so rock solid. Compared to the Asus router I had before the wifi reliability is fantastic

One nice thing the Asus firmware has is nice grouping of devices for family members which can show monitoring, overall usage and even quick shutoff controls if necessary. Does the Unifi stuff have the equivalent, even if a huge pain to set up?

You have to run a unifi server or get a cloud key. That enables advanced guest access, deep packet inspection, and other stuff. There's nothing as simple as what you describe per se. It's basically enterprise class networking. I originally got it because I thought I would use the mesh networking.. but the standard AP has been way more sufficient in coverage that I don't need to mesh. I like the form factor too, I have ethernet in my house and I was able to use one of the small PoE in wall APs.

The best mesh network though would be through a smoke alarm setup. Then you could do backhaul over the power line and then you'd have WiFi everywhere. It would work really well for newer construction where hard wired smoke alarms are mandatory.

> backhaul over the power line

Argh, please don't proliferate ethernet over power lines. They cause horrible RFI by turning every unshielded power line into a broadband antenna[1].

[1] https://www.rtl-sdr.com/showing-the-hf-interference-problem-...

OK, I was hoping others had perhaps found something I'd not, even though I'd tried to read whatever documentation I could. Thanks, though.

FWIW, I use Google Wifi, having bought a 3-pack on sale around the holidays. I did not setup any sort of "completely separate backhaul network for client mesh handover". This may be an implementation detail of some sort. The setup experience is pretty much plug-and-play.

I'd buy them again in a heartbeat, and I'm normally quite hesitant to buy Google products.

Agree, The setup was easy, and I then just transitioned devices to the new network after it was setup. It solved my connection issues in certain parts of the house, and has been trouble free for over 6 months now.

If you have Ethernet or coax or even power line you can backhaul the mesh network. This means that the meshed WiFi boxes don’t need to coordinate over WiFi so you get better throughout. The mesh part is important if you want multiple base stations with the same ssid.

I don't think we are advocating that Google smart home products are not quality products. We are just saying that they are very slow to move, and at this pace Amazon is going to crush them. This also goes for Apple.

As slow as Apple was moving, they flat out gave up a few years ago when they stopped making AirPorts.

Apple should have bought eero.

Apple is still trying with HomePod. It is a nice product, but the price point is crazy stupid. This is coming from an Apple shareholder who loves their premium prices. I don't know anybody who bought HomePod.

I've been waiting for Apple to make a big acquisition for years. Beats!!! Really?

Networking equipment was what I was referring to in my comment. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

I see the parent I replied to mentioned smart home, which I must have missed.

I really believe the story that the HomePod was never meant to be smart home equipment, that that role was saddled on it before release.

The price does hurt... I have a HomePod and we use it often, but I'd like to have 3 or 4 of them.

What's the benefit though? You could get a mid-grade soundbar with a dedicated subwoofer for around $150 (Vizio) and a Echo Dot or Google Home Mini and get better sound quality.

My wife and I use it like this:

"Hey Siri, play some music." (and it's _my_ iCloud library)

"Hey Siri, never play that song again."

"Hey Siri, skip."

I think it sounds great, and I also like that either of us can seamlessly set our iPhones to output from them. I'd like a second one in the living room to expand the sound in that area, and two more for two different "zones" where it would be useful. Siri gives us a laugh every now and then, too.

Arguable that it will have better sound quality.

HomePod has exceptional audio positioning and audiophiles have benchmarked it against high end speakers like Klipsch and it's held up very well.

And the benefit for me is Siri. I ask her everyday to read out the BBC News, set timers in the kitchen, set reminders and most importantly play the huge array of content from Apple Music.

I love my HomePods, I got 2 of them paired for stereo sound. I use them from an AppleTV for room-filling sound, as well as sometimes from my iPhone. The sound quality is really awesome.

I bought two...and then returned them both. Turns out you can only use them as a stereo pair from an iOS device, or within the iTunes application on Mac. Want to watch Netflix with your HomePods? Only possible from an iOS device. Ditto for YouTube, Amazon prime, and pretty much anything else.

HomePod's price point is fine if you think of it as a decent speaker. Which it is.

And the Beats deal was an incredibly good purchase. It gave them audio engineering skills which you have seen popup in AirPods, MacBooks, HomePod etc. It gave them the Beats streaming platform which now forms the basis for Apple Music. It gave them a youthful, iconic brand which helps with initiatives like Beats1. And their hardware business was extremely profitable. Not to mention having execs like Iovine and Dre involved.

You make good arguments for the Beats acquisition, perhaps I am being a bit short sighted. Just does not seem as transformative as some of Amazon's big acquisitions (Ring, PillPack, Whole Foods, Twitch).

This review placed the Homepod ahead of the KEF X300A, an $1k set of speakers: https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7wwtqy/apple_ho...

What is Google Wifi? I've never heard of it until this comment...

It's literally the first match if you Google "Google Wifi"

(it's also the first match on Bing and DuckDuckGo)

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