5 Mesh Wifi Myths and Misconceptions

Are mesh wifi networks mostly for tech nerds in large villas? Surely you can get everything you need with a wifi repeater?

1. “Mesh wifi is only for big houses”

Most large homes definitely benefit from mesh networking. But they’re not alone!

Many medium-sized and smaller homes have coverage and capacity issues that can be addressed with mesh wifi. This is often related to the home’s construction materials and layout, as well as the usage patterns and needs of the people who live there.

It doesn’t take many reinforced brick walls or multitasking streamers and gamers before a single router starts to struggle.

A 3-room apartment with weak coverage and/or dead zones will receive significantly better coverage and capacity for concurrent users with a mesh network consisting of two to three devices.

Read more: What is mesh wifi?

2. “Mesh is mostly for nerds, it’s too complicated for regular users”

Nah. Most mesh systems for home use today are more or less plug-and-play!

That said, good node placement is very important for the result. Often, the supplier will have an app that can help you with quality assurance — and we have a guide that can help you with the planning.

Read more: How to place mesh nodes for optimal wifi

3. “Mesh is expensive, a wifi repeater is just as good and cheaper”

A good mesh network will often (but not always) cost more than a repeater, but cheap solutions that don’t work and then have to be replaced are costly blunders!

We generally advise against using repeaters because they usually provide a poor user experience and can actually make your wifi performance worse.

Read more: Five good reasons to avoid wifi repeaters

4. “You put nodes where you have poor coverage, and it will be fine”

No way!

Mesh nodes need to have a strong signal between them to function optimally. Placing a node where the signal is weak will result in slow transmissions, unreliable connectivity, and poor roaming between nodes.

Further reading:

Avoid this mistake with mesh wifi

How To Place Mesh Nodes For Optimal Wifi

5. “A cable is always better than wifi – mesh is redundant”

We love wifi, but yes, it’s true that cable (Ethernet) is always more reliable. However, installing wired network outlets for everything and everyone is not a realistic option in most homes. Moreover, Ethernet and mesh wifi are an excellent combination!

If you have multiple network outlets, use them to wire as many mesh nodes as you can. The more of the communication between the nodes (“backhaul”) that can go over Ethernet, the better.

• This is especially useful if you want to include a garage, garden shed, or similar in the network, because a wired mesh device does not need wireless coverage from another node.
• Add wireless nodes as needed for full coverage. This gives you flexibility and eliminates the need to drill into walls and run new cables.

You can also connect stationary wifi clients, such as game consoles, smart TVs, and smart speakers, directly to mesh devices with a network cable. This reduces the competition for wireless capacity.