Google Wi-Fi 3 pack is selling $399 at officework now, and harveynorman is selling it for original price $499 they can price match and it will bring down to $388, if you have already registered AmEx Statement Credits: Harvey Norman - Spend $400 Get $100, you can get it with a $5 item to get $100 credit from Amex. (Amex Statement Credits for Harvey Norman is fully booked), this deal is only for people who has already registered.
Edward Snowden made ZERO impact. We are mindless zombies.
Thank god someone said something these amex deals of price matching are getting old.!!
I missed out on AMEX. :(
I don't get it … why are people paying so much for these?
Do you also struggle to understand why people buy Apple products?
this is Mesh Routers system, if you have a big house, this is it
big house + NBN + heavy internet user = pricy router
This is 3 access points.
People without basic networking knowledge or experience. Cheaper than paying someone to set one up and/or working it out yourself.
I believe they're AC1200 routers, so assuming ~$100 each you're paying around $100 for a simplistic app to assist in setup. If it works well, $100 isn't a bad price for something setup right… But it can still be done cheaper.
For reference, AFAIK these are quite standard for mesh networks:
Similar 3 pack (though long range variant) https://www.pccasegear.com/products/34389/ubiquiti-unifi-ap-…
Similar single pack:
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/34473/ubiquiti-unifi-ap-…
Having APs that do handoff between them and just having 3 APs running the same SSID are worlds apart. Ive run both setups and having proper handoff is 1000x better.
Which are you referring to here?
Both have their own system of dealing with handoff (google advertises "automatically selecting fastest AP", unifi has Fast Roam)
Your first sentence should be: "I have zero idea about mesh networking, so ignore everything after this point, it's utterly wrong."
Mesh network was the wrong terminology, I meant they all have their own little ways of managing handoff. My apologies.
Next time feel free to correct that on my behalf, rather than comment pointing out something is wrong without actually having any useful input to the discussion! :)
Well, instead of paying for this: https://www.dicksmith.com.au/da/buy/linksys-ea9500-max-strea…, spending time to configure it (assume you got some network knowledge) and still having some signal issue if you got a big house, you could get this Google pack and setting them up is very easy. Down the road you can add one more in and it will just work.
I got it for $300 from HN with the Amex price beat. It's been awesome. Here are the neatest features
1. Cover the whole house (required for upstair and narrow houses)
2. Group devices with tags (e.g Kids) and set up a schedule (e.g. Pause internet from 8pm to 7am)
3. Wife can pause internet for TV and Kids by using the app
4. View bandwidth usage by device (realtime, historical)
5. Knock off Wi-Fi for the home family (eg. Dinner time)
6. IFTT automation when devices connect or disconnect from home WiFi
7. Uses Google's SafeSearch block list to automatically block off all bad sites for kids
8. All of the above config can be set up in less than 15 mins
9. All of the config is done through a simple, easy to use app
good to hear. neat for you, hell for kids. xD
Power over ethernet or plug?
Neither, uses another wifi band. One needs to be connected to your router, all the others simply need power.
They meant to power it, POE provides power through the ehernet cable.
didi quick search, no PoE.
it use USB-C to power.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/googlewifi/VbTNfOywhT8;context-place=topicsearchin/googlewifi/category$3AWifi
many request for PoE tho. i would love to have that as well.
Sorry. Meant to say it is not PoE. Just a power plug.
What about wired devices? I presume they bypass all of this which would make it a flawed solution. The functionality should be in the router, not the wifi.
Ubiquiti Amplifi or Eero are also good alternative mesh systems.
I'm running Unifi at home with HFC NBN.
Yeah I have a couple of Ubiquiti APs and they are awesome.
Small word of warning that running them on either ends of EoP devices causes the EoP devices to freeze, has happened with an old 500Mbps set and my new 2Gbps sets (which were also an OzB deal). Running them over wifi link now which works fine.
I run ubiquiti at home but all access points wired. Functionality isn't quite as friendly as Google wifi but probably a better wifi solution
Harvey's rarely price matches
Have the Netgear Orbi and very happy with it's performance thought I don't think it has all those features listed by Merill above.
I have four hamsters, I got them with the NBN.
How many were alive?
NBN? I should be so lucky…..
I had my Google Wi-Fi delivered today (Sunday?!) and I set it up a few minutes ago. I’ve done quite a bit of research on mesh systems… Netgear Orbi is the best (RBK50) in terms of performance but the device is very expensive. Ubiquiti is great value for the price. I went with google because of price and aesthetics, not outright performance.
I did the same research and came to the exact same conclusions. The easy-to-use app and Google SafeSearch built in were the kickers for me.
I just hope the whole system gets a long life of support from Google. These days, that can be an issue.
Do they bounce wifi between them or can you plug Ethernet into multiple as access points?
They bounce wifi between them. Only one of them needs to be connected to the router. Their recommendation is to leave a gap of one room between two.
What are the suggestion for $5 item? I'm guessing there won't be exact $5 item to buy in store.
I price matched with OW so it came down to $399 they had a $2 photo book on clearance for $1 in store which did the trick.
Whilst its useful for the other features such as automation and as previously mentioned by users, kids and device isolation, can't you simply create a makeshift mesh network using old wireless routers?
I tried this a few times with some decent hardware (expensive routers and ethernet over powerline) and I can say that, in my case, it wasn't even close. The Google Home Wifi setup beat all my other setups in terms of quality of the wireless signal AND ease of setup/use.
But what if you have a central hub with LAN ports throughout the house? Cause that's what I have in my house at the moment. Also, I can't seem to configure my 3rd Router, it keeps giving Android devices the "No Internet Connection" but Windows based laptops are able to use internet no worries.
I just found that devices varied wildly in house well they handle either jumping onto the strongest wifi signal (I tried a setup with a single shared wifi ssid or different ones).
Some devices just wouldn't let go of a signal even when it was clearly not the strongest anymore.
Perhaps I'm not doing something right but in the end the whole process was just too fiddly.
Is this suitable for extending wifi coverage to a granny flat which is a separate building?
Llike all wireless, it depends on the distance and (probably more importantly) how many walls or other obstructions sit between the two wifi points.
In my case, the router will have to go through a brick wall, some 8-10 metres distance between the two buildings and then a weatherboard wall.
Or is it just as well I use a wifi extender? I'm a novice at this.
It also depends on whether it's important to you that the wifi you access when in the granny flat is the same network as the main house. Using a wifi extender essentially creates a new network that your devices will connect to when in the granny flat (and generally at a lower speed).
Using the Google WiFi means that (if placed correctly) the wifi accessed in the granny flat will be the same network as in the main house.
This may be important for accessing this over the network that require you to be on the same network connection e.g. NAS/servers/IoT, etc.
I'm also a novice at networking and I just want my wifi to work and accessible all around my large house. My Orbi worked out of the box. From the other comments the Google is the same.
The Google 3 pack and my Orbi RBK50 (the top model) both claim wifi coverage of up to 4,000 sq ft which is 370sqm. Are these marketing claims true? For the Orbi, absolutely yes. I'm on 100/40 and my nbn box is at the front of the house in the garage and that is where my Orbi router sits. My orbi satellite sits in the middle of the house and I can get 60-80mbps standing at my back fence. My block is 16mx35m.
I sit and surf the net on my deck near the back fence. Would I notice whether my wifi speed was 20mbps or 60mbps? Absolutely not. So if money is tight I would suggest the Google Wifi. You would put one of the units in the granny flat.
BTW I bought my orbi locally for $440 from one of the ebay 20% promotions about 4 months ago.
I have never bought a wifi extender only because I have only read of conflicting reviews, some good, some not so good and I'm not interested in configuring/tweaking/rebooting wifi equipment. I just want to install and forget.
Much better to run a cable to the granny flat and another access point. You can use a second hand access point of some sort or a cheap access point like Netgear.
@BellaWii: you might notice the difference if you were trying to stream 4K Netflix which officially requires a minimum of 25mbps.
I actually paid $395 for price beat from Harvey Norman
Can these also do the backhaul via ethernet? I have CAT6 points all over the house, I might as well use those cables for a stable backhaul to the router.
Yes, you can do backhaul via Ethernet but note that each unit only has 2 Ethernet ports
Not with the Netgear Orbi which I have. Yes if you buy the Eero. Not sure about Google or Amplifi.
I have a 4/5 bedroom, 2 storey townhouse (with wooden floors), and my current router – Nighthawk D7000 – doesn't quite reach everywhere, including the backyard.
Would a Google Wifi 3-pack suffice in terms of range? For example, plug one in at the front of the house (where the modem is), plug one in towards the back of the house, and another in my bedroom, as my room is directly above where the modem is and also as three of the four bedrooms are upstairs?
This is timely … was looking for a good mesh wifi system. Found this article useful in terms of identifying other mesh capable devices. The Google one doesn't support MU-MIMO (if that's important to you), but apart from that it looks like quite a contender.
Price matching is not a deal.