Three Reasons to Upgrade Your Mesh Wi-Fi System to Wi-Fi 6

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Installing Mesh Wi-Fi in my home was a game changer. I no longer had to work through my router or worry about Wi-Fi calls being dropped in the kitchen. My house, built on the same principle as a Faraday cage , a house that defied every technology the cable company sent me, had finally been conquered. It went so well that I convinced everyone I knew that mesh would solve their home roofing problems – and I was usually right. Mesh Wi-Fi points have become cheaper, so I bought a few more to strengthen the signal. Until Google’s shiny new mesh routers came out, I didn’t think there was better Wi-Fi out there. As usual, I was wrong.

What is mesh Wi-Fi?

First, let me explain what mesh Wi-Fi is, for the uninitiated. Wi-Fi usually comes into your home via a modem. In all likelihood, there is a cable somewhere that comes from outside and ends up dead-end at your modem, which you either own or rent from your ISP. You can connect your computer to a modem using a Cat5 cable and get the same internet speed as the modem, and it should be the speed you pay for from your ISP since nothing reduces that signal yet.

These days, modems are also usually routers, although you may have a separate device, and the router is what makes Wi-Fi possible. The router receives this signal from the modem and sends it horizontally as Wi-Fi. Each router has a different range, but they are hindered by obstacles such as appliances or other giant pieces of metal. So devices like repeaters and extenders were invented that could be placed elsewhere in the house and they would pick up that signal and expand it, but they would reduce the signal. So you had “less” Wi-Fi, but over a larger area.

Mesh is a different idea – it’s a series of points, one of which is connected to your modem and redistributes Wi-Fi to where it’s needed most at any time. These points create a network, so you get a larger coverage area. There is some debate about what these devices are called. Technically they’re called routers, but once you have them in your home, you can think of them as Wi-Fi “spots.”

With the new system you won’t need as many points.

I switched to newer Google Nest Wi-Fi routers ( Nest WiFi Pro , $319.99 for a set of three) and instantly went from a five to a three. In reality, I probably don’t need all three. The coverage is fantastic (2,200 square feet vs. 1,500 square feet for the original Google Wi-Fi routers I was replacing), and it reaches every possible space without regard for obstructions.

In addition to new internal hardware that will cover a larger area, the new routers use the new Wi-Fi 6 standard (802.11ax). If your routers are more than three years old, they likely only support Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). Wi-Fi 6 has much faster data transfer speeds, so it can transfer data much more efficiently. This can help deal with network congestion and even reduce power consumption, which is a real plus. Wi-Fi 6 does this using a method not unlike a mesh: it looks at what your family is trying to do with Wi-Fi and then assigns channels to each device, directing Wi-Fi power to where it’s needed and extracting it from channels that don’t. .

There’s also increased throughput not only on the 6GHz frequency, but also on the 2.4GHz RF frequency, which is the frequency that services most of your smart home devices. Additionally, Wi-Fi 6 can use predictive technology to determine when you’re most likely to need Wi-Fi and the appropriate battery for it, overall saving battery power on devices that need it. This should result in longer battery life for video doorbells, cameras, and all other battery-powered wireless equipment.

New cellular devices are safer

Wi-Fi 6 devices support WPA3 encryption (the latest data security standard) and much stronger password protection. Wi-Fi signals are not broadcast over a wide range and are sent directly to clients, eliminating huge risks, and 256-bit encryption algorithms make it difficult to hack.

Mesh networks usually update themselves, which means you also get cybersecurity updates. To provide even greater security, mesh systems make it easy to deploy a guest network (sometimes more than one) and change passwords or issue temporary passwords. This will protect your home network from guests accessing devices on your home network and messing around with it.

Switching is not a painful process

As excited as I was about the Wi-Fi improvement, I was reluctant to make the switch. Even though I live alone, I have millions of smart home devices, four hubs, and a coffee maker connected to my current system, and the idea of ​​connecting them all again gave me palpitations.

I’m happy to report that the process went surprisingly smoothly. I stayed in the same ecosystem (Google) and decided to save my SSID and see if that helps. Installing new routers took longer than re-pairing all my devices. All mesh systems will now have an associated app that will allow you to manage Wi-Fi, and that app will help you set up your new system. It won’t be any different than setting up a new smart home device.

As soon as my Wi-Fi reconnected to the new modems, I started receiving notifications about various hubs and devices, and in each case I simply had to go in and re-authorize the connection. If the SSID or password changed, I would have to change the settings. As much as I hate to admit it, overall it was a good experience; it forced me to declutter my house and remove devices that had been offline for a long time or had been removed from my home.

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Ultimately, the switch was a good thing. Remember how I explained above that your signal going to your modem is the strongest it can be because there is nothing yet that can reduce it? The signal decreases as it’s broadcast over Wi-Fi depending on where you are, but there are speed tests you can access to see how your Wi-Fi speed compares to what you’re paying for. The cable company can’t control it when it leaves your modem—that’s just for you. I was very pleased with how the speed not only jumped up when downloading, but also when downloading. New devices simply transmitted the signal from the modem better.

In the weeks since switching, I’ve noticed fewer pauses in my streaming, fewer crashes on my smart home devices, and Zoom hasn’t disconnected once.

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