Anyone using?

If so, what brand?

Pros/Cons

Thanks in advance for any information.

I don't have a WiFi mesh setup but I do have a couple extenders to help with the signal strength to the opposite end and all corners of my apartment. The apartment complex is a converted old mill with 3 thick foot red brick exterior (and some interior walls) with steel stud/drywall interior walls.

The router/modem is kind of centrally located but it's about 60-70 ft away from the extreme back end of the apartment. The signal it has to pass through a few steel stud/drywall walls to reach the far end. The extenders work fine for my needs. Both are TP-Link. One is an older one with just 2.4 GHz, the other is dual band 5 and 2.4 GHz.

Pros: They are inexpensive and work for my needs.
Cons: The extenders overlap and sometimes my devices will drop connection from one extender and hop on the signal of the other so I lose internet for about like 15 seconds while it flips to the other

I've got a cheap one from amazon. Mesh Force I think is the name. Purpose was to get more consistent signal from 2nd floor through basement. Thought about extenders but this ended up being less money

Pros: Appears to be successful in purpose
Cons: Alexa Dot stopped being able to be a recognized device. No other equipment had issues. Also, really was a cheaper option so I'm waiting for critical failure out of the blue any day now

My brother uses the Google mesh and loves it. I setup a more professional mesh network at my pops place using Ubiquiti Networks UniFi access points and it works great as well but Google is a lot easier setup.

Google nest mesh system is what we use. It's great. We love it and use it for all of our smart devices. What questions do you have about them.

Someone explain how this all works. I’m a robot when it comes to tech.

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TP-Link extender so I can be on the wifi when smoking cigars and drinking wine in the background.

A WiFi extender just grabs the WiFi signal from the source (your main router/WiFi) and gives it a little kick to boost the signal to areas that need a little bump. It creates an additional network connection linked to the main one. Think of a daisy chain type of thing.

Pros: Cheaper hardware investment. .
Cons: You lose network speed for each link in the chain that the extender must hop to get to the the main router.

A WiFi mesh is more like satellite type of system. They are branches of the same network working alone or in tandem - each node is a part of the same network running the same speed.

Pros: Same speed on each node of the network.
Cons: More expensive in hardware.

Simple overview

NINE!

thinking about getting one of them newfangled phones that don't plug in...any suggestions?

Fisher Price. Lasts forever

Ubiquiti here. I don't recommend unless you have a decent IT background or know someone who does who owes you favors. Having said that, once it's running it's absolutely rock solid. Like never a single hiccup. Ever.

^this is true 😁

I'm trying to determine if the mesh is an improvement over standard extenders. We are on our 3rd extender in the past five years. The extenders help when new but with age they seem or are less reliable. Our layout is much like discribed in #2.
Router is in one end of the house and our greatest need for connectivety is in the other end.








I have the help desk on speed dial, does that count.

it does not. Sorry.

The Ubiquiti stuff is just a whole other animal. Dont get me started on trying to get it to host a VPN.