Traditional Single router come with a limited range. While adding a range extender/booster can help with this issue, but range extenders/Boosters/Bridge router/AC+AP sacrifice speed for connectivity. Mesh WiFi gives you the best of both worlds – so you can experience both powerful speeds and long-range connectivity.
Mesh WiFi devices comes with roaming protocols (to keep you on the same network) and mesh technologies such as self-healing and adaptive routing to keep your network stable.
Range extenders/Boosters/Bridge router/AC+AP require you to sign on to a new network manually in order to maintain a strong connection once you’re far enough away from your router.
Most range extenders/Boosters/Bridge router/AC+AP are set up under different networks; but with mesh networks there are no other networks to worry about. While each mesh node essentially functions as its own router, range extenders are merely duplicating the routers original signal.
Mesh WiFi is faster and more efficient at delivering a WiFi signal than a range extender.
If you do need some help extending your Wi-Fi, you’ll have to choose between a range extender and a mesh system. “Wi-Fi extenders typically connect to your existing wireless network, broadcast a new network name, and blindly relay traffic back to your wireless router,” “This usually means that you’ll see two network names: one network offered by your wireless router, and another network offered by the extender.”
You’ve probably seen this before, where a home’s network has a “SmithHouse” for upstairs and “SmithHouse_EXT” for downstairs. Your devices will often stay on one until it’s completely out of range. This means you’ll still have slow Wi-Fi at multiple points in your house unless you manually switch back and forth between networks as you move around, which is a huge hassle.
Repeating the entire Wi-Fi signal is also inefficient—that extender merely listens to every packet and rebroadcasts it. There’s no internal logic that sends packets to the right path.
More importantly, though, range extenders can often slow things down. Wireless is “half duplex,” which means a wireless device can’t send and receive information at the same time—every device on the same channel has to take turns talking, including devices on your neighbor’s Wi-Fi networks. Range extenders exacerbate this inefficiency, since they have to repeat every single thing they “hear”—like someone following you around all day, repeating everything you say before someone else can talk.
Finally, managing these extenders is often a pain. Many routers require you to go to a web page to alter settings or download updates, and if your extender is from a different brand, you’ll be dealing with two sets of software. In a lot of cases, that software can feel a bit complex and archaic, too.
There are exceptions to all of these points, of course. Some range extenders have more modern software and can overcome some of the bandwidth issues when paired with routers from the same manufacturers that are designed to be used together. But there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to do it with your existing router, and at that point, the line between extender and mesh system gets a bit blurry.
