Tech View: Try a mesh Wi-Fi system to achieve better coverage

With many of us still working from home for the foreseeable future, now might be a good time to adapt or upgrade your technology to improve the remote work experience. Chief among things to consider is your wireless network.

If you’re chained to your desk because it’s the only area in your home with good Wi-Fi, an upgrade could be in store. After all, you’re certainly entitled to take a call on the patio or from the couch from time to time, right?

The answer is a mesh Wi-Fi system. Mesh Wi-Fi systems came out a few years ago and as such are a proven technology. Mesh networks allow you to place Wi-Fi access points in several locations around your property. Access points need only to talk to one another to provide robust Wi-Fi service.

How does this differ from a Wi-Fi extender of old? The biggest drawback to these older devices is that they typically have a different SSID name and are treated as separate networks.

So if you are on a Zoom call in one room and decide to take your Wi-Fi-­connected device to the next room, there’s a chance that the call could drop or, at best, be a bit garbled for a minute.

With a mesh network, the SSID (Service Set IDentifier) and all access points are on the same network. This greatly improves the reliability of the Wi-Fi connection.

Another advantage of mesh-based systems is that each access point only has to talk to the nearest access point. The access points do not need to connect back to the main router, greatly increasing the amount of coverage.

What about speed? Granted, mesh Wi-Fi access points are not any faster than their nonmesh peers, with Wi-Fi 6 models available from both, but the overall improvement in the design of the mesh network contributes to greater overall performance.

As far as manufacturers go, the leaders in this space include equipment from eero and Google as well as Netgear’s Orbi. But due to the maturity of the technology, darn near every networking vendor has Wi-Fi mesh products. Users of smart home systems, such as Alexa or Nest, will want to get something compatible with their system. As alluded to above, products conforming to Wi-Fi 6 specification are the latest standard.

Most mesh Wi-Fi systems come with a smartphone- based app for system setup and configuration. Information technology professionals bemoan that advanced configuration can be challenging with just the app, and often there’s no other way to make detailed setting changes. But setup for the average person is typically done quite easily via the app.

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John Agsalud is an IT expert with more than 25 years of information technology experience in Hawaii and around the world. He can be reached at jagsalud@live.com.