Any insight on consumer products that use 802.11s (mesh networking) to make adding a connection more easily? I thought this standard (finalized more than 2 years ago) would have been immediately added to products by the likes of linksys and netgear, but i can't seem to find any consumer routers/bridges/APs/repeaters that use it.
I've never actually heard about 802.11s. I know that SONOS uses a mesh network that is really solid.
Funny you ask, because I am planning on writing an article about extending wireless range.
I was essentially going to suggest the following:
Option A-
1) Buy multiple identical routers
2) setup main router in centralized location - this handles DHCP
3) Connect the other routers via Ethernet cable or a powerline kit and place them far enough away from the main unit so they overlap some, but also provide a good amount of additional coverage.
4) Set the secondary routers to the same SSID, encryption, channel width and password as the main router. disable DHCP. set wireless channel to something different than the main router.
Option B - use an apple airport extreme w/ apple airport expresses to extended the range. This is much easier as it is all designed to work together and everything can be wireless (no cables connecting the routers), but also more expensive.
Option C - use a generic router, and buy generic wireless range extenders. Again, everything is wireless and it's cheaper than the apple option. But I generally find this to be the least reliable and sometimes people end up with multiple networks. ex) Wireless_network and Wireless_network_Extended.
What do you guys think? Any feedback? That's just info off the top of my head, from how I have been trained in the past.