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[MilaLH]

I’m finally getting serious about setting up a proper home network, but I’m hitting a wall trying to decide on the best approach. My house is a two-story, about 2200 square feet, with the modem and primary router stuck in a far corner of the basement office due to where the cable line comes in. I’ve been relying on a single, fairly powerful Wi-Fi router, but the signal upstairs in the master bedroom is terrible, and my smart TV in the living room buffers constantly. I’ve researched mesh systems, powerline adapters, and even running Ethernet through the walls, but each has major trade-offs. A mesh system seems like the easiest fix, but I’m worried about losing too much speed on the satellite nodes, and the cost for a good tri-band system is significant. Running Ethernet would be ideal for performance, but it’s invasive and I’m not sure I’m handy enough to do it cleanly myself. I’m looking for the best **home network** setup that balances strong, reliable coverage everywhere with good speed for streaming and some light gaming, without breaking the bank or turning into a major construction project. What has worked for others in a similar layout?

[JerryLC]

From a similar two-story 2000+ sq ft home, a wired backbone plus well-placed APs won me the most reliable coverage: pull Ethernet (or MoCA) to an AP on the living room wall and one upstairs, then keep the main router in the basement. If wiring is a nonstarter, a quality tri-band mesh with wired backhaul still beats extenders and is more forgiving than powerline.