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Mesh wifi Booster

Looking to increase the power of your current wireless connection? Learn the difference between a Wi-Fi extender and a mesh system to make a better decision.?

Mesh network systems are a great way to fix dead spots in your home, but how are they different from range extenders, and are they worth the extra cost?

First: Optimize Your Current Wi-Fi Network

A lot of people come to me asking how they can solve their slow internet—can a mesh Wi-Fi system do the job, even in a small Manhattan apartment? It's important to note that range extenders and mesh systems aren’t magic bullets that improve speeds in every situation. If your problem is caused by congestion from your neighbours, a poorly placed router, or a cheap internet package with slow speeds, a mesh system isn’t going to solve your problem.

“Mesh systems and extenders are primarily designed to solve one problem: bad signal strength,” says Joel Crane, a Certified Wireless Network Expert and Wi-Fi Engineer at Juniper Networks. “Before making an investment in a mesh Wi-Fi system, check to see if you have any signal strength issues in the places where you need to use Wi-Fi.”

He recommends using a free tool like InSSIDer Lite to map your home’s signal strength—as you walk around the house with the tool running, make note of any spots that have poor signal. “Any signal strength between -67 and -30 dBm is good,” he says. “Once you dip below -67 or -70 dBm, performance will that have a poor signal low -80 dBm, things probably won't work reliably at all.” (Remember, those are negative numbers, SBM, the performance will start to degraded don’t have any dead spots, then the problem is with your internet package, rather than your Wi-Fi network. If you do find dead spots, make sure your router is optimally placed out in the open, in a central location. If it’s stuffed inside a closet on one end of the house, you might be able to solve your problem by moving the router instead of buying new hardware. Check out our top 10 ways to boost your Wi-Fi signal for more tips before resorting to extra devices.

Wi-Fi Range Extenders Merely Repeat a Signal

Wi-Fi Range Extender

If you do need some help extending your Wi-Fi, you’ll have to choose between a range extender and a mesh system. “Wi-Fi extenders typically connect to your existing wireless network, broadcast a new network name, and blindly relay traffic back to your wireless router,” explains Crane. “This usually means that you'll see two network names: one network offered by your wireless router, and another network offered by the extender.”

You’ve probably seen this before, where a home’s network has a "SmithHouse" for upstairs and "SmithHouse_EXT" for downstairs. Your devices will often stay on one until it's completely out of range. This means you'll still have slow Wi-Fi at multiple points in your house unless you manually switch back and forth between networks as you move around, which is a huge hassle.

Repeating the entire Wi-Fi signal is also inefficient—that extender merely listens to every packet and rebroadcasts it. There's no internal logic that sends packets to the right path. More importantly, though, range extenders can often slow things down. Wireless is “half-duplex,” which means a wireless device can't send and receive information at the same time—every device on the same channel has to take turns talking, including devices on your neighbour’s Wi-Fi networks. Range extenders exacerbate this inefficiency, says Crane, since they have to repeat every single thing they “hear”—like someone following you around all day, repeating everything you say before someone else can talk.

Finally, managing these extenders is often a pain. Many routers require you to go to a web page to alter settings or download updates, and if your extender is from a different brand, you'll be dealing with two sets of software. In a lot of cases, that software can feel a bit complex and archaic, too.

There are exceptions to all of these points, of course. Some range extenders have more modern software and can overcome some of the bandwidth issues when paired with routers from the same manufacturers that are designed to be used together. But there's no guarantee you'll be able to do it with your existing router, and at that point, the line between the extender and mesh system gets a bit blurry.

If you do opt for a range extender, PCMag's top picks are the Amped Wireless Athena-EX High Power AC2600, the Netgear Nighthawk X4 AC2200, and the TP-Link AC1750. Mesh Network Systems Are More Seamless, Efficient, and Quick to Update Amazon Eero Pro 6 mesh network three pack product shot

Unlike an extender, which you can add to an existing Wi-Fi network, mesh systems are typically complete replacements for your home Wi-Fi. You can use them in tandem with your current router, but there's usually little reason to (unless your ISP requires it like AT&T U-Verse does). They're designed to replace your complicated router-and-extender setup with multiple identical units placed around your house that are used together.

While replacing your current router might scare some folks off, remember that this is currently a much more attractive option than in previous years since routers supporting the new Wi-Fi 6 standard are becoming more common. Wi-Fi 6 offers significant improvements in both bandwidth and security, so replacing your older router with either a Wi-Fi 6 router or a compatible mesh system makes sense now that prices are coming down.

Even without Wi-Fi 6, however, mesh systems have several advantages over traditional extenders. “Home mesh systems like eero, Google Nest WiFi, and Linksys Velop use mesh ‘access points,’ which are all aware of each other, and can wirelessly forward traffic around the network as needed,” says Crane. “They all broadcast the same network name, which enables your Wi-Fi devices like phones and laptops to roam between mesh access points as they choose.” That makes the handoff much more seamless than extenders. 

Furthermore, because mesh units are all running the same software, they're able to relay traffic much more intelligently. That means if you're connected to the second node on the far end of your house, it's only going to rebroadcast packets if the client in question is actually connected to it.

In addition, mesh to the far end of your house the speed problems that extenders have by using multiple radios to send and receive information simultaneously. “They can use a 2.4GHz channel to communicate with the client and then use their 5GHz channel to relay data to the other mesh access points on the network,” says Crane.

Some mesh systems may even have three radios. One radio dedicated to that backhaul communication to the router, and two radios for communication with laptops, phones, and other client devices. This is particularly useful when you have a lot of devices on the network.

If you can buy a tri-band model, I’d recommend doing so. It’s still not perfect—ideally, you’d connect your mesh access points to each other with Ethernet for the best speeds—but if you don’t have Ethernet wiring in your home, it’s a step up over dual-band mesh systems and traditional range extenders. One of the latest such offerings is the Amazon Eero Pro 6, shipping in November of 2020, which is not only a tri-band mesh system, it also supports Wi-Fi 6 and even has a Zigbee smart home hub built into the core router. On top of that, it also overcomes one of the mesh's most common shortcomings: price. The Eero Pro 6 and its lower-end sibling the new Eero 6 both come in at between $100 and $200 less than much of their mesh competition.

Finally, setting up and managing your network is much easier with modern mesh systems. Instead of dealing with multiple configuration pages, you can manage the entire network from one user-friendly smartphone app. Many mesh systems also automatically update their firmware, which is a huge step up over most routers, requiring you to check the manufacturer's web page for updates, download a file, and manually send it to your router. Most users don't even go through this arduous process, leaving them vulnerable to security threats.

With an all-in-one mesh system, you're more likely to get regular updates, which improves usability and security. That's huge.

Mesh networks are becoming more common—and affordable. At PCMag, our top picks are the TP-Link Deco M9 Plus, the Netgear Nighthawk XRM570, and the Amped Wireless Ally Plus.