TELUS Boost or Google Wifi

[airwick604]

Hello,

I currently have TELUS Gigabit Internet, Optik TV and TELUS Home Security. Our home is a 3 floor townhouse, ActionTec T3200M is currently in the living room closet where the patch panel is.

Need better wifi for the third floor, can barely connect to 2.4GHz band, 5GHz can't even be seen by devices. 

Considering either TELUS Boost or Google Wifi.

TELUS Boost I read has some performance issues but really easy to set up, and can maintain security devices on the existing wireless network

Google also is east to set up, has brackets available to plug directly into the outlet and is highly rated.

My question is: if I go with Google, can both wifi networks operate well at the same time? Or should I disable the ActionTec wifi?

My plan would be to only use the ActionTec to connect my wired devices and only use wireless for the Home Security stuff. Mobile phones, tablets etc. would be moved to Google.

Is this a good practice?

Thanks, 

[giantbrownguy]

I've had Boost for a couple of years and it's been fine, but not spectacular. It was significantly cheaper than the other options. It's starting to have some issues as I move to different areas in my house, but I think that's generally common for Mesh systems. Honestly, I'd look at the return policy, try which ever one is cheaper and see how you're feeling. I have a friend with Google Wifi and he's been happy with it. 

[abwayne]

I have a T3200 with LAN-port 1 bridged to an Asus ac86U router.  They sit right beside each other with no interference issues that I've noticed. The T3200 has great performance but most of my wireless clients are on the Asus. (phones, lights, switches etc.) I leave the 'Smart Steering' (Asus calls it Smart Connect) on with no issues for 21 clients. The routers are at ground level in a 1300 sq ft house with good coverage throughout the entire property. (2.4g)

Wayne.

[kesen]

I would honestly go with neither of those options. A because Telus and the router itself has proved itself lacking So I wouldn't further invest in their ecosystem. I also would not go with any Google products in my house. Take a look at Eero. Even the 5 instead of the new one that supports Wifi 6. I put my router in bridge mode and use the Eero now and it's almost 3 times what I was getting with the T3200M. I feel bad for people living in a full sized house with Telus routers. I live in a micro suite downtown and the internet from the modem they provided is still horrible. What are your speeds in the vicinity of the router? Just playing repeaters is not going to improve speed that much. 

[joewilliamsca · Accepted solution]

Hi Airwick

I took a different approach here.     I have been a TELUS customer for quite a while,  but making a couple changes with my home network over a year ago  has vastly improved my wifi performance.    This is what I did.

I have tried several different third party solutions  (linksys,  netgear etc,  with use of repeaters)  and really trying to move data wirelessly through the house,  and there was never a good solution that I could get to work  (wasted hours,  wasted weekends tweaking networks,  and wasted money)

What I did was have a TELUS installer come back into the house,  and we ended up installing a moca adapter where each of my five TV's  are  (since there was a coax port where the TV was),  which then connected to an Optik TV portal  and a TELUS Boost with an ethernet switch.   I also plugged a moca adapter into my office and have a switch in that room for all my wired devices in my office.

I also turned off all wifi settings on my ActionNet router,  so all the wifi is handled via the TELUS Boost nodes across the house,  and I have 5 of them  (which appears to be the max amount of boosts you can use)    

When running tests via fast.com,  my wired devices show a speed rate of 1Gb,  and my Apple mobile devices typically show a speed of at least 500mb from anywhere in the house.

TELUS wont give out those moca adaptors for free, and I find installers will not offer them as an alternative since they can be pricy.  It had a cost of about $75 per drop in my house for each of the moca adapters,  and the ActionNet router has the coax adapter right on the back of the modem.      In total,   it was well over $700  (adapters and boosts) to get myself set up with the extra hardware from TELUS,  and the beauty of it is....

1)  Optik TV has never worked better across the house (since it's all wired,  not wireless) since I do have 5 TV's

2)  I never hear complaints about the internet in the house

3)  TELUS supports all the networking hardware,  and they can troubleshoot all this remotely.   If there is a problem with it,  they will fix it 🙂

4)  I get some of my life back,  since Im not spending hours of time trying to troubleshoot a third party wireless system that just wont perform the way I want it.

Just some thoughts, 

-Joe

[airwick604]

Thanks all for your comments and recommednations. I think I'll go with the Eero 6 Mesh WiFi setup

[bobgillvan]

My approach has been to reuse my cable wall wiring with MOCA adapters. I have a MOCA adapter with an ethernet connection into a booster on each of our 3 floors. The booster can then use the MOCA wire connection for the backhaul to the router. With this configuration, I'm getting 100% of my bandwidth everywhere in my home.