Best Mesh WiFi Extender
Do you have trouble maintaining a continuous connection to your WiFi network across your home? When attempting to connect to the internet, your home may sometimes work against you, and you may find yourself caught battling buffering when viewing Netflix or Disney+ on your television. What is the solution? To ensure a more consistent connection, consider investing in a mesh network.
It works in conjunction with your central hub to enhance the range of a wifi network by adding one or more access points to the network, effectively increasing the distance over which your wifi can connect to your devices.
These access points, also known as nodes, maybe strategically positioned throughout your home (for example, in your study, kitchen, or second bedroom) in order to create numerous “bubbles” of internet surrounding your primary router.
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Having many floors or rooms with strange layouts makes it difficult for numerous individuals to log on at the same time, therefore these systems are ideal for larger, older homes with multiple levels or rooms with unusual layouts.
They are particularly handy for individuals who work from home on a regular basis and those who have teens who spend their after-school hours gaming or streaming, which consumes a lot of bandwidth. They may help you stay online longer and with fewer dropouts.
It may also be a wonderful method to keep everything linked at the same time if you’re constructing a smart home with various speakers, smart alarms, and security cameras, for example.
But you should be aware that you will not really experience better internet speeds as a result of this. In other words, if your internet service provider (ISP) has given you a specific speed – say 30MBps– you’ll still get that speed, but it will be more evenly dispersed around your home thanks to the use of a mesh wifi network.
Best Mesh WiFi Extender
1. Netgear Orbi RBK752
According to our testing, this is the best mesh wifi system that supports WiFi 6. In just two days, it completed the installation of a 350Mbps internet service across the whole 2,700 square foot home, including the garden. Except for the room that was the furthest distance from either access point, the connection was only 10 percent slower than the speed claimed by the ISP in all other rooms in the home.
The speed was 50 percent lower in the garden (the ISP’s router couldn’t even get this far away). Simple to set up, it has a sleek appearance and is very easy to use. However, while it does provide network management features, it does not currently provide any parental controls for users (although Netgear says it plans to add these in the future).
2. ASUS ZenWiFi XT8 Whole Home WiFi System
If your budget allows it, the Asus XT8 series of routers provide fast connections, a plethora of control choices (including parental controls), and a straightforward set-up to keep you connected at all times. Even though the most recent model is expensive (about $400 for two units), it combines wifi 6 and tri-band technology to keep you connected, and it has a reasonable range if your home is rather large.
It’s possible to sign up for a lifetime membership, which grants you access to an extensive set of management features, including the ability to protect your network, customize settings for children’s usage, and keep track of how much data you’re consuming. It has the ability to identify when your network is being attacked and will prevent attempts to obtain your passwords or harmful websites from occurring.
3. Linksys WHW0303 Velop
It is the Linksys Velop that you should use if you wish to expand your wifi network across an extensive region without the requirement for a voice assistant on your phone. According to our testing, it performed on a par with the Netgear Orbi Voice in terms of increasing the range of wifi. The three-unit arrangement also ensured that we experienced a dip in temperature of less than 10% across the board in all of our rooms. The garden speed, on the other hand, was around half of the speed reached by the Netgear Orbi Voice (above).
The setup is straightforward, and we really like the convenient clip on each access point, which keeps the power cord neatly secured.
4. AMAZON Eero 6 Mesh Whole Home WiFi System
Are you looking for a more cheap wifi solution to help you expand your connectivity? With a price tag of less than $100, Amazon’s Eero 6 is a worthwhile consideration. It allows you to connect up to 75 devices at the same time (though we doubt you’ll need that many) and enjoy fast, consistent internet across your house.
With only one more unit, it won’t be able to cover much of an area, thus this is best suited to bargain seekers who require improved coverage in one or two additional rooms or at the bottom of a garden rather than a larger area.
Because it is built by Amazon, it is compatible with Alexa voice control. Alternatively, you may explore the controls and configure parameters like switching off times or dedicated passwords using the Eero application.
5. Netgear Orbi RBK852
Though not inexpensive, we believe that this is the greatest mesh wifi network you can buy for a large household. It is compatible with WiFi 6 and, in our tests, provided a 350Mbps internet connection throughout a 2,700 square foot building. It even made it all the way to the bottom of a 50-foot-long garden. As a matter of fact, it has the broadest coverage of any mesh wifi system we’ve tested so far.
In terms of speed, we saw a fall of less than 10% in all rooms that were in line with the main unit or the satellite, with the exception of the garden, which had a decrease of around 50% in speed. We discovered that the two-unit system was as straightforward to set up.
It is possible to use basic parental controls for free, but more powerful controls, such as the ability to prevent certain devices from accessing the internet at specific times, need a monthly fee.
6. Google Nest Wi-Fi
In case you’re a fan of Google Assistant, the Google Nest Wifi is an excellent mesh wifi network to consider purchasing. The second access point in this two-unit setup also functions as a smart speaker, but it is equipped with Google Assistant rather than Amazon’s Alexa as a voice assistant. Even though it has the same sound quality as a Google Nest Mini 2nd generation, it isn’t capable of filling a room with your favorite tunes.
The device we tested was capable of extending our internet connection to the bottom of a 50-foot garden in a 2,700 square foot home, but the speed was less than 10Mbps, making it more suitable for smaller homes.