Maybe my house is just built weird—old plaster walls and who knows what inside them.
Plaster walls are the worst for this stuff. I swear, my 1950s place eats wireless signals for breakfast. I added a Zigbee plug in the kitchen and it helped, but then the signal tanked every time someone microwaved popcorn. Mesh networks sound great on paper, but in real life? It’s like playing hide and seek with your WiFi. Sometimes just moving the hub a foot or two makes a bigger difference than adding more repeaters.
Honestly, I get where you’re coming from, but I’ve actually had better luck with mesh than I expected—even in these old houses with unpredictable walls. Plaster can be a nightmare, but sometimes it’s more about placement and what’s *in* the walls than the material itself. I’ve run into houses where the real killer was the old metal lath behind the plaster, not just the plaster itself. That stuff’s practically a Faraday cage.
Microwaves definitely mess with 2.4GHz signals, but moving the hub away from heavy appliances helped a ton for me. I do think folks sometimes overdo the repeaters—too many and you just get interference or weird handoff issues. One solidly placed node on each floor has been more reliable than a bunch of little ones scattered everywhere.
It’s always a bit of trial and error, though. Every old house has its own quirks... sometimes you just have to experiment until something sticks.
Funny you mention the metal lath—ran into that exact thing when I was trying to get decent WiFi in my 1920s place. It’s wild how much that hidden stuff can mess with signals. I totally agree, sometimes it’s less about the material and more about what’s lurking behind the walls. I spent way too long blaming the plaster before realizing it was basically chicken wire everywhere.
And yeah, placement really is everything. I used to think more nodes meant better coverage, but after a while it just made things worse—devices kept jumping between them and dropping connections. One solid node per floor, like you said, ended up being the sweet spot for me too.
It’s kind of like working on these old houses in general... nothing is ever straightforward, but that’s half the fun, right? Every room has its own personality. Makes it feel like a puzzle you get to solve. Ever tried running ethernet through those old walls? That’s a whole other adventure...
It’s kind of like working on these old houses in general... nothing is ever straightforward, but that’s half the fun, right? Every room has its own personality. Makes it feel like a puzzle you get to solve.
- Totally get what you mean about the “puzzle” aspect—sometimes it feels like these houses are actively resisting any tech upgrades.
- Smart bulbs are a nice touch, but honestly, I’m still skeptical about how well they’ll hold up long-term with all the quirks behind the walls.
- Running ethernet? Tried it once. Ended up with more holes than I care to admit. Worth it for stability, but not exactly a “luxury” experience.
- Still, you’re right—figuring it out is weirdly satisfying. Makes the end result feel earned.
sometimes it feels like these houses are actively resisting any tech upgrades.
That’s exactly how it felt when I tried to swap out the old switches for smart ones. The wiring was a total mystery—nothing matched the diagrams, and I swear the previous owners just made things up as they went. I get the skepticism about smart bulbs too. They’re cool, but I’m not convinced they’ll survive the next power surge or weird flicker from ancient wiring. Still, there’s something satisfying about finally getting it to work, even if it takes three trips to the hardware store.
