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Mesh WiFi for a long ranch house
Updated
In a long ranch house, the problem is distance, not floors. Put the nodes in a line down the length of the house, no more than 50 feet apart when they link over the air. Most ranch homes of 2,000 to 3,000 sq ft need 2 or 3 nodes.
Two checks, use the bigger one
Area check. Use the node calculator with one floor. It plans about 1,200 sq ft per node with drywall.
Length check. eero's support page says nodes should be no more than 50 feet from another node when wireless, and TP-Link gives the same 50 foot figure for Deco. If each node covers about 25 feet either side, one node covers about 50 feet of house length. So divide the length by 50 and round up.
| House | Area | Area check (calculator) | Length check | Gap between nodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90 by 30 ft | 2,700 sq ft | 3 | 2 | About 30 ft |
| 120 by 22 ft | 2,640 sq ft | 3 | 3 | About 40 ft |
| 150 by 20 ft | 3,000 sq ft | 3 | 3 | About 50 ft |
For these shapes the two checks agree or the calculator is higher. If your length check ever comes out higher, the house is long enough that the far rooms need that extra node or a cable. The gap column is length divided by nodes. eero suggests 20 to 30 feet between nodes as the comfortable range, so the shorter the gap, the better.
Where to put them
- Start with the main node near the modem. If the modem sits at one end of the house, that end node has only half its circle inside the house. Move the modem to the middle if your provider's line allows it.
- Put each extra node about halfway toward the far rooms, not in them. eero's placement page calls this a relay chain, with each node a link toward the dead spot.
- Keep a clear hallway path where you can. eero notes that doors help, since wood is easier for signal to pass than dense walls.
- If the kitchen sits in the middle of the house, keep the node away from the fridge and microwave. Both appear on eero's interference list.
Wire one link if you can
Both eero and TP-Link say spacing gets more flexible when nodes are wired together with Ethernet. In a ranch house an attic or crawl space can make that easier than in a two story home. Running cable inside walls can fall under local building codes, so hire a licensed installer if you are unsure.
Kits that fit
- TP-Link Deco X55 3-pack: three nodes is the right count for most long ranch homes, and wired backhaul is supported. Caveat: Gigabit ports cap it at plans of 1 Gbps or less.
- Amazon eero 7 3-pack: simple app placement help and 2.5 GbE ports for faster plans. Caveat: only two ports per node, and no 6 GHz band.
More options are in the full list.