[DaveG]

My wifi dual-band router died this weekend. I decided to try the Google mesh wifi system to see if that would improve coverage. I have a Zwift setup in the basement. With the stock wifi on my Alienware Alpha I was seeing speeds of 6-12Mbps. I was worried that with so many users now on Zwift that wouldn't cut it. With the Google Nest on the second floor, and one Point on the first floor, this took me to 40-50Mbps. I was not expecting that much improvement. The Google system is a more expensive but it's worth it if you have dead spots

 

[VaughnA]

I switched to a mesh system from my apple airport setup with 3 nodes. I went from about 40 to around 70Mbps. The old system would need a reset every month or so. I've had it about 3 months without a problem. And the range is extended by a large amount. I went with the D-Link system and it was well worth the money.

 

[tlg]

With the stock wifi on my Alienware Alpha I was seeing speeds of 6-12Mbps. I was worried that with so many users now on Zwift that wouldn't cut it.

Speed really isn't an issue. Zwift only requires 3Mbps. On average, Zwift only transfers about 55 MB/hour.
But if you were only seeing 6-12Mbps, your signal was probably really weak and you'd get dropouts and latency. Those are the real killers.

With the Google Nest on the second floor, and one Point on the first floor, this took me to 40-50Mbps. I was not expecting that much improvement. The Google system is a more expensive but it's worth it if you have dead spots

Mesh routers are great. One issue though is they can introduce more latency. The more connections you have, the slower response you have. With a small mesh with a couple nodes, likely not a big deal.
N-R-N : If your router and nodes are like this, not a big deal.
R-N-N-N-N : If you have a large mesh and your node is at the end of the line you could see significant response delays.


Zwift recommend bandwidth is 3Mbps or higher, with a ping of under 50ms.
To test your speed, we recommend doing a speed test using a site like speedtest.net/ against a server on the US west coast (where our servers are located) to get an idea of what you can expect.

 

[DaveG]

Speed really isn't an issue. Zwift only requires 3Mbps. On average, Zwift only transfers about 55 MB/hour.

I wonder about that now. Back a few years ago Zwift said 3Mbps. but that was when there were 1000 riders on at most. Its now common to see 20K riders at a time. I assume each of those riders has to to updated every second or two with current position, power, speed, etc. But I agree with numbers that low it means a weak signal and possible errors and retransmissions which could impact the game

 

[tlg]

I wonder about that now. Back a few years ago Zwift said 3Mbps. but that was when there were 1000 riders on at most. Its now common to see 20K riders at a time. I assume each of those riders has to to updated every second or two with current position, power, speed, etc.

Yes, but that information is miniscule. It's just text data, like a gpx from a Garmin.
An entire 30mi ride with all that info in gpx format is only ~500KB. Works out to about 1,400kb/s for 20k riders.

 

[ljvb]

Mesh wifi is kind of a gimick.. It's an attempt to provide seamless handoff between access points at significantly cheaper cost point to proper access points. It also sacrifices a lot of features, like vlans which are important for me.

I went with Ubiquiti Access points.. 3 of them around the house, 1 uses wireless backhaul. I have multiple wireless vlans, and use active directory for authentication to the wireless networks. You do have to use their controller software initially to configure the network, but once that is done you don't need to keep it running unless you use some of the more advanced features.

 

[QuiQuaeQuod]

I was worried that with so many users now on Zwift that wouldn't cut it.

The physical world analogy is that no matter how fast you fill out your forms, that won't change the time you have to stand in line.

Nothing you do on your end will affect problems at the server end. Number of users is a server end issue. That's a general principle, I'm not saying that is an issue in this case.

 

[nOOky]

We went with the Google Nest around Christmas also. I bought a couple Ring cameras, and our existing wifi was from a Centurylink DSL modem. I wanted wifi in the garage, which is detached and about 50 feet away and there is a camera facing down the driveway. I got the 2 pack with one router and one point, and later added a router to the garage. The router has a bit better range than the point, so if I did it again I would buy all routers, as you can also run a cable backhaul. However the camera seems to function well, when I run the mesh test I get great reception always, and it's been working down to 10F so far.