Better Wi-Fi — Find the Right Wi-Fi Solution For Your Home

Wi-Fi is absolutely central to our lives, but at the same time something many of us know very little about. That is OK as the terms router and repeater definitely are not exactly friendly and fun. But it is also a pity as this lack of knowledge means we are missing a great opportunity to improve Wi-Fi performance in our homes.

In this article we are going to explain what routers, range extenders, and the new category whole home Wi-Fi systems are. Let you know the different ways they help boost your Wi-Fi signal. And, hopefully enable you to make the right choice to improve your home Wi-Fi.

Firstly, let’s look at the router. A router creates a local network for all your devices to connect to, either by cable or wirelessly over Wi-Fi. When a device requests something from the Internet your router works with the modem to get the data and then makes sure it is sent to the right device. The router is fundamental. If you have Internet at home then you have a router, often bundled from your ISP. But not all routers are created equal and we will get to that later.

The other two devices — range extender and Whole Home Wi-Fi System — exist to solve the problem of providing Wi-Fi where the signal of your main router can’t reach.
The range extender or repeater captures the wireless signal from your main router and rebroadcasts it further. The home Wi-Fi system, a new approach in consumer routers, uses mesh technology. With mesh, the devices are designed to work together as a team. Each one is able to make decisions about how data flows between your devices and the Internet.

So, how to choose one over the other?

To help answer this you need to understand the causes of poor Wi-Fi reception. W-Fi signal is not like some movie ghost or pixel created simulation able to go through anything at instant speed. Wi-Fi signal is affected by: distance from the router, how busy airwaves are, objects in its path and also the materials in those objects — For example, walls and chicken wire.

As a quick aside — We are assuming here that your problem is not Internet speed from your ISP. If you have an internet connection of at least 10mbps, this bandwidth is sufficient to serve streaming video to four or five different devices.

So how can getting a new router improve the situation? Routers are categorized by speed and standards, for example, AC 1700. AC is the latest standard which enables much faster speeds, and works on the 5GHz band compared to N which works primarily on 2.4 GHz. Now 5GHz cannot travel further, in fact 2.4 GHz allows data to travel further. The advantage of the 5GHz band is that it is able to transmit more megabits per second and it is less congested — Microwave ovens, Bluetooth and a host of other radio waves use 2.4GHz. This means that at a given distance from the router, say 10 meters, signal will be stronger than with the previous standard ’n’. In other words, go check your router. If your present router is an older N or G router then a new AC one will definitely improve signal strength.

But, unfortunately, a new router may not solve all your problems. The reason is that while AC routers improve the reception at a certain distance, they don’t spread the signal significantly further and they don’t have any special technology to get signal through walls. If you have a very big house or particularly thick walls the signal will continue to be weak.

That is where range extenders and home Wi-Fi systems come in. They have similarities in which they approach solving the problem. They act as a relay for the signal from your main router and, avoid the walls by being placed strategically around the house with a clear line of sight to the areas where coverage is bad. But they use different technology to do so each with its advantages and disadvantages.

Communication for improved Signal Strength — Range extenders are an effective solution but they are only able to capture signal and rebroadcast it, not communicate with the main router. Why is this a problem? Internet data is sent through the air on channels or bands, but the number of these channels is limited and so is capacity. All the time different devices and Wi-Fi networks are competing for that limited space making it very crowded. If we compare to driving in a busy city, good traffic information can help us get on less crowded roads, while if we don’t have that information we are stuck in a jam. With range extenders your data has no eye in the sky to help. Whole Home Wi-Fi devices, as they use mesh and are designed out of the box to work together, can communicate about the amount of data on various channels and can make decisions on the best channel or band to send it on. They are also able to learn over time about traffic patterns, why traffic may have slowed down and optimize for the future.

Set up — As Whole Home Wi-Fi devices are designed to recognize each other it makes set up quicker and smoother with no need to input setting. They can be added to the existing network with little setup and all use the same network (SSID) rather than creating an additional network in your home like range extenders do.

Ease of management — Mesh devices are all on the same network so if you need to update network name, password, encryption or channel, it need only be done on the primary device and will automatically be synced to the others. For range extenders if you change the password on your router you will need to set up again.

Parental controls — Before children accessed the Internet from the family PC, but the modern home is a mix of tablets, smartphones and notebooks all connected to the net. This new setup makes it more difficult to keep track of your children’s surfing habits. Mesh solves this by enabling you to install once on the network to cover all your devices. With range extenders you would have to install on each one.

In conclusion, if you have a small house or apartment a router upgrade might be the best option for you. But if you need to extend your Wi-Fi with additional devices, then a mesh, whole home wi-fi system, is the most powerful solution. Whole Home Wi-Fi systems are easier to set up, provide better coverage, and can be expanded to suit increasing demands — Remember you can just buy one Whole Home Wi-Fi device to start as your main router and add more devices later.

But there are still reasons you may want to go with one of the other options. For example, do you already have a newer AC router? Are you reasonably happy with your signal strength and just need to boost in one area of your house? Are you more technically minded and happy to spend time on setup? In which case, a range extender or access point might be for you.

The good news is that Wi-Fi doesn’t have to be mysterious, the preserve of techies, or, most importantly, bad anymore. There is a solution that can end the buffering you have suffered in silence with up to now. For more information and to ask specific questions about the right solution for you. Email us at or write your comments below.

Originally published at Securifi Blog.