What is a Wireless Mesh WiFi Network?

Often referred to as simply a Mesh Network and more frequently in the consumer market as Home Mesh WiFi (or Whole Home WiFi) – this is a system of two or more router-type devices that work together in order to expand WiFi coverage within your home or business. Yet again, we make a comparison to the more commonly used (but massively outperformed and terribly outdated) WiFi extenders and repeaters, as essentially the Mesh WiFi Network will also eliminate WiFi dead spots within their install location and broadcast range.

Mesh Networks and Home Mesh WiFi Systems offer convenience, plug and play setup, and a certain touch of style often featured in Mesh WiFi products aimed at the home market. Not only do you get something that is fairly inconspicuous, yet aesthetically pleasing, you also get a system of devices that are incredibly functional and easy to control and manage. Superior monitoring and control options are normally provided by the manufacturer’s own user-friendly App, eliminating the need to log into your router’s not-very-user-friendly admin panel online.

One of the main differences between WiFi extenders and Mesh WiFi is that Mesh Systems (with their own Mesh Router) would normally replace your existing router, rather than working alongside it, like more traditional WiFi repeaters. A Mesh WiFi setup will create a whole new wireless network to use (in addition to your current router’s WiFi coverage), whereas extenders merely attempt to boost the existing WiFi signal your router already broadcasts (see our previous post on WiFi Extenders compared to Wireless Access Points).

Another great benefit of having a Mesh Network in your home or business is its flexibility to expand the coverage and add more Mesh Points, unlike extenders and repeaters, which cannot communicate with each other and will further degrade your WiFi signal the more units you add, Mesh Points can be seamlessly added to your new Mesh Network, all communicate with one another and all offer the control and monitoring functionality available via the controller software App, something not possible with a repeater or extender.

For any customers interested in dipping their toes into the very user-friendly and intuitive world of Home Mesh WiFi, we highly recommend the Ubiquiti AmpliFi Home Mesh WiFi Kit – this is a sleekly designed, easy-to-use Mesh WiFi System for your home, which offers brilliant performance and extended WiFi coverage in every room of your house. This kit comes with everything you need to get started, a Mesh Router and two Mesh Points to place in different areas in your home (additional Mesh Points can be purchased to further extend your home WiFi coverage).