How Mesh Wi-Fi Systems Fix Wi-Fi Dead Zones

Do you have a room in your house that just never seems to get good wifi reception? Or a room on the other side of a stone wall where the reception is garbage? Maybe there is a far flung building on your property, too far from your router, that is just in a total wifi dead zone?

Well good news, your wifi coverage could be massively improved simply by upgrading to a mesh wifi system. Some of the most popular ones out there are Google Nest, Orbi and Eero. If you are considering purchasing one of these systems, here is a great comparison article.

Mesh systems are great because no matter where you roam in the house or property, each individual node seamlessly passes off your device from one access point to another, providing uninterrupted connectivity. If you really want to get fancy and maximize your connection speeds in far flung areas, you can run ethernet cable to the mesh access points. This creates what is called a wired backhaul and allows those distant wired access points to have the same connection speed as the access point which is closest to your internet modem.

I have done this in a number of different installations when we need to cover large distances or have a significant radio wave blocker in the way, like stone, concrete or brick, and it can be extremely effective. Here's an interesting article on how much different building materials block wifi signals.

If you want to test to see the difference in internet speeds throughout varying parts of your home go to speedtest.net and try running speed tests in different locations. This will help you determine which places that are the most in need of better coverage.

For me the Orbi system, made by Netgear has come out as my favorite system. It's affordable, expandable, easy to set up and manage, supports wired backhaul, and simply works fantastically. I've installed Orbi with wired backhauls in multiple homes over the past few years and those folks have totally raved about the difference in performance that they've experienced.

Give me a shout if you want help strategizing a mesh system for your home or business.