Hardware Discussion

I took the recommendation from someone here a couple years ago on the eero and it has been fantastic. I am on a 3 level home with one eero on each floor and we have full coverage at full speed everywhere. I am on Verizon Fios 2gb.

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You really should start by figuring out exactly what coverage your single router is giving you. If your impression that “it’s good everywhere” is accurate, then additional AP(s) might not buy you much. Find an app that will let you read out received signal strength (RSSI) in dBm, and walk around the house, poking into corners and such, to see what it is everywhere. If it’s no worse than -65dBm anywhere, and significantly better than that (say, -55 or better) at the spots where you want top wifi performance, then a mesh setup likely won’t get you much. As for what to use to test — mine is an Apple household, so I can only tell you that a Mac will tell you RSSI if you just option-click the menu-bar wifi icon, while on an iPhone you need a scanner app, but Apple’s free Airport Utility will do as a bare-bones scanner. (You must enable its scanner functionality in Settings after installing it.) Maybe somebody here has recommendations for Windows and/or Android scanning.

The fly in the ointment is that if you want single-device wifi performance better than 500Mbps you are going to need to go into the 6GHz band (wifi 6E or wifi 7), and that does not penetrate walls/floors as well as 5GHz, so even if coverage looks fine in 5GHz it might be less great for 6GHz. Do you have or are you thinking of getting 6GHz-capable client devices? Or are you just looking at that fiber connection as “a pipe fat enough for several people to share”? (Some clarity of thought about what you hope to get out of this would be a good thing anyway.)

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The 6GHz thing is a tough one for me because I think the only devices I have that can use it are my (and my wife’s) phone. So everything else would be on 2.4 and 5. But I don’t hate the idea of future-proofing.

I had my eyes on the TP-Link BE550 and it has the EasyMesh infrastructure so I could always turn it into a mesh system in the future if I want better coverage.

I had the Eero for several generations and was happy with the mesh network. A regular router just wasn’t cutting it in my 2100 sq ft split level; I’m assuming because of where the fiber came into the house, the router wasn’t positioned well.

The Eero’s frustrated me about a year or so ago; something about them refused to play nicely with the HomePods, which would randomly refuse to connect to the network and require a full reset either by plugging into my MacBook or, for the full size HomePods, standing on one leg whilst holding a hanger in one hand and tapping out a random Morse code on top of it with the other.

I wanted to stay with a mesh system and read good things about the Linksys Velop, especially their app. I remember having a Linksys a million years ago and it being trouble free; the Velops were not. Devices wouldn’t connect, mesh slaves would randomly drop off line, etc. Thank heavens for Bezos and his lenient return policies.

I next tried the Orbis, which worked well and had fantastic speed and coverage. Alas, she who must be obeyed hated how they looked.

I swapped out for the Asus ET12s, which are 1000% overkill but have been nothing but reliable. Surprisingly my wife hasn’t hated the looks, which are a fully industrial gameresque wet dream. The app is solid and offers way more functionality than I need or want; they have a built in vpn for when you’re out and about; and, they play nicely with my Apple ecosystem.

TL, dr, I’ve been a big fan of mesh for the ten years or so we’ve been in this house.

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Anyone score a Switch 2 preorder? I tried but not too hard, didn’t get one. My irl buddy who’s a huge fan stayed up till 1 spamming refresh on Best Buy and got one

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I didn’t even try. I’m sure I will want one eventually but the release games don’t excite me at all so I’m not going to put much effort into getting one. Once they start releasing some big games that excite me I will care more. The last two Nintendo consoles I went all in on for pre-orders or line-sitting were the Wii and the Switch and they both had Zelda games as launch titles.

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Same. I want it for Hades 2 and Diablo 4, neither of which are available yet

Exactly the same for me. Show me a new Fire Emblem game for Switch2, and I’m there.

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My brother emailed me saying he managed to get two preorders, and offering me one. I told him the launch lineup didn’t do anything for me or my kids, so no, thanks. My only fear is that our switch will die around then, and I’ll wish I could upgrade.

But, yeah, the main series I know would sell us on a new Nintendo console are Zelda and Smash Bros. I’m sure we’ll get one of those eventually, or something else that looks good enough to attract our attention, but until then, there’s just no hurry. We’re still going on Baldur’s Gate, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, and Beat Saber at the moment.

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I know I am very much in the minority, here, and I also recognize that this is probably the symptom of some personality quirks, but I just wanted to say that I’m one of the few who is happy that the Switch 2 isn’t including achievements/trophies.

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That reminds me…I got every Nintendo Console/Handheld since the GBA when a new Fire Emblem released…no Switch 2 Fire Emblem yet, buuuuuuuut…

They released FE8 Sacred Stones (Second localized GBA FE) on the NSO this week, and the Gamecube FE (Path of Radiance) will be part of the NSO Expansion pack (Switch 2 exclusive)…so should I start my FE-Fomo engine?

Hopefully not, I haven’t caved for a PS5 Pro and a new iPad (8 year old model atm) and/or iPhone (13 year old model atm)…also no Swith OLED or Steackdeck OLED FOMO-purchase (have both in their 1.0 reincarnation)…but despite all the current whirlwind around it the Switch 2 seems to be a mighty fine machine IMHO…

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Similar situation. I don’t have a Steamdeck, so I will be determining at some point down the road whether a Switch 2 or a Steamdeck (or a new ipad, I suppose) is the right machine for me…

No steam deck here either. I really wish Xbox remote play was more reliable, as I’d be content with that.

We have a Switch that we got at the begining of the Pandemic and was great as my daughter was 8 at the time and it really helped with the year long isolation. Animal Crossing especially helped get her through that period, and she and I played a lot of Mario Karts.

I have never played the Switch out of the deck, it is just a console for us.

I had per-ordered the Steam Deck and because I travel for work, I had thought it would be great for bringing my Steam library with me. I did it a couple times, but then it just takes up more room in my backpack that I want to deal with, and with my iPad pro taking up almost no space - I end up leaving the Steam Deck at home and just play on my iPad when traveling.

As much as I love the Steam Deck in theory - I just don’t really need it.

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Funny, I can count the times on one hand I’ve used the switch docked. I don’t even know why I want the S2 so much, considering the only person who really uses it is my 9 year old daughter. It does do my heart good to see one of my kids enjoying gaming though.

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Because my boys and I are bad at sharing and only used the Switch as a handheld for a while, we own three—two regular Switches and a Switch Lite. Mine is now hooked up to our TV for occasional Mario Kart games, but that’s the only time it gets used. I would guess one of the boys will ask for a Switch 2 when the next Zelda game comes along, but it wouldn’t be worth the money now.

I love my Steam Deck and play the heck out of it because I love handheld gaming. I also haven’t bought a decent gaming PC since I got a job that supplied me with a work laptop, so the Deck is the most powerful computer I own. BG3 hasn’t melted it … yet.

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We are a 3 switch household, too, mainly because I can’t share with my grubby-fingered kids. I tend to use the Switch for RPGs while they use it for Minecraft, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, etc.

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I thought about selling / trading in the Switch 1 when I finally get MY grubby paws on the 2, but ultimately figured I’ll keep it for the kids so they leave mine alone. Especially with the end of this masters degree in sight, I’ll have more time for gaming I hope.

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We are a 4 switch house - I expect we will slowly migrate to switch 2’s over the next 5 years :slight_smile:

My 11 yo son has already saved up a stack for the switxhb2….

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Managed to snag a Switch 2 from Costco.com on release day, without hassle mind you, cause I’m old and not waiting on a godforsaken line much less at midnight. Came UPS on the 6th to my doorstep as it should in a civilized world.

Happy with the purchase. It’s more of the same - if you liked Switch 1 and Nintendo games, you’ll like this. If you didn’t, I’d say go Steam thingy or the new Xbox one they just announced.

It’s gotten me back into Breath of the Wild, which admittedly I did not give the time it deserved. Not a huge fan of open world mindless exploration - who has time for that? - but with the new Nintendo Notes app it makes navigation easier. Between BotW and Tears of the Kingdom I’ll get my money’s worth, not to mention Hades 2 and Diablo 4 when they drop.

System came with the new Mario Kart, which I haven’t even loaded cause see above about being old, and I purchased Civ 7, cause why not have an unfinished mediocre game that will hopefully one day get better like all Civs do on ANOTHER platform. That’s what I needed.

Only complaint is that the battery life is utter, complete, and total trash. Talking like maybe 2h of BotW unplugged. To be expected I suppose, and tbh I’m never not playing it within five feet of an outlet anyway.

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