Issues with connectivity throughout house with 3x new MR33 APs

[The_Machine]

HI Team, 

before I open a case I thought I would post this query here and see what other people's experiences are or if anyone for some suggestions that could help with my issue.

We got a relatively large house that splits over 3 levels - the levels are not exactly on top of each other. If you imagine a steep piece of land where the house is built on poles on rocks, etc. and each level is half over the level underneath but set 50% back further towards the hill - kind of a terrace home I guess. So we also got quite a few stairs in the house and a few corners in each stairway.

Prior to purchasing the Meraki MR33s, I had 1x Apple Airport Extreme AP on every level and I generally never had any issues with them. Recently the one on Level3 died so I thought I would buy a more high end solution and decided for the Meraki APs.

As with the Apple, originally I installed one MR33 on each level. The main AP and gateway to the Internet is in my office on Level 1. But soon I found out that they have frequent, intermittent communication issues with the gateway AP. Dropouts are anywhere for 1-3 minutes. Needless to say this results in a bad wireless and Internet connectivity experience.

I have tried to re-adjust the positioning of the APs and this has helped somewhat but right now it is basically impossible to have a stable connection between L3 and L1 Gateway (I don't quite understand why the L3 AP doesn't attach to the L2 AP instead since it is closer?). So I removed the L3 AP all together. Now with L2 connectivity back to the gateway on L1 it seems to be very sensitive - if I move either AP in a slightly different position, I get the random connection issues again (L2 AP says 'Communication to Gateway failed'). 

What I find really dissapointing is that I really thought this is a top quality product, yet so many issues with getting a stable connectivity. The L2 and L1 AP are only about 7m from each other up the stairs (no clear line of sight but nevertheless not a long distance from each other.

I even have some devices on L3 associating with the AP on L1, so I don't understand why the AP on L2 that is much closer can have communication dropouts to L1?

Never had any issues with the Apple Airports and I am sure the Meraki is a better product or?

Does anyone know whether this is really just a matter of positioning them properly or can there be other issues and possible solutions?

Thanks

Thomas

[PhilipDAth]

I generally try and use MESH as a last resort.

I tend to use the D-Link Ethernet powerline extenders in residential situations.  They let you run Ethernet over the power lines.  You then plug the APs into the powerline adaptors.

Note that you get about 1/10 of the performance as what is advertised.  So if you use a 1Gb/s powerline adaptor you more typically get 100Mb/s.

I'm surprised you are finding it so touchy.  Are the APs in similar places to where the Apple units where?

[The_Machine]

Hi Philip, 

thanks a lot for the speedy reply! The tip with the powerlines extenders was a life saver. I remembered then that I even had a brand new pair of those in the garage. Installed them and not the APs are on L1 and L3 - much better coverage and no communication issues. Thanks for the tip, really great!

Still wondering why the repeater solution doesn't work properly despite the close proximity - that part is disappointing with the product but at least my wifi works now via another means.

Cheers
Thomas