I currently have an AirPort Extreme that is in the living room where the cable Internet comes in the house. Its a small house so we do get good wifi coverage - no complaints there.
I’m looking to get a Synology for backup and media sharing etc. however I was planning to put it in my home office and there’s no network point. I’ve thought about replacing with mesh wifi - probably ORBI because Eero aren’t sold in Australia, but $500+ is a lot of money.
What other options do I have? I’m thinking about an extender to run in my office with ethernet for the Synology. I do have an AirPort Express in another room for a printer and it has Ethernet - would that do the job?
If your main need is to have a wired connection to plug into a Synology NAS then take a look at power line Ethernet. Here is an example device from TP-Link. I’m not sure what models might be available in your locale. They’re generall the cheapest and easiest way to get an Ethernet connection.
At least here, most electricians can run Ethernet. A single pull may not be too bad, and would be faster and more reliable than power line stuff, especially for big transfers.
Wi-Fi 6 is the upcoming new version just ratified. Also known as 802.11ax, it is scheduled for general release in products starting later in 2019, so you probably want to wait for mesh systems to support it if you want hardware with a good shelf-life.
Joining the chorus singing “ethernet cable.” And if you decide to pull, make the run at least Cat 6 so that you’re ready when 10GbE doesn’t seem as exotic as it does now.
Whille at it run more then one, cable is relativley cheap. This picture is during the perparation the final installation was with the wires mounted to the ceiling of the crawlspace off the ground. Don’t kink or sharply bend the wire during installation!
