The internet in my house stinks. Well – correction. It stinks unless you happen to be in the west corner of our first-floor living room. The signal is excellent there because that’s where our router is located. Move to the east side of the first floor or (heaven forbid) try to head up to my home office on the second floor to work and you’ll be cursed with web pages that load so slowly you’ll bang your head on the desk. Most days, I end up giving up and doing my work on the living room couch with my laptop balanced on my lap.
WiFi Extenders Versus Mesh Systems
This is why I finally gave in and decided to try out a device to extend our WiFi signal. My choices were a WiFi extender or a WiFi mesh system. Upon doing a bit of research, I decided to opt for the latter. Why? I quickly learned that while using a WiFi extender will (as the name implies) extend the range of your WiFi router signal, it also cuts your internet speed by nearly half. Ugh. Which puts me in the same banging-head-on-desk position I’m in right now.
Meanwhile, mesh WiFi systems extend your signal and send it all over your home at speeds that are full speed or very close to it. That sounded like a winner to me, so I ordered a AmpliFi Mesh Wi-Fi System to try it out. The thing I liked most about the AmpliFi is that unlike many other mesh systems, I could still use my regular router instead of getting rid of it and installing an entirely new system.
First Impressions
The first thing I noticed is how unobtrusive this system is. That’s a huge plus, because my wife hates nothing more than big, black, clunky boxes with wires and antennas perched all around our home. The AmpliFi mesh router is a sleek, small device with a digital screen that communicates with your smartphone through the AmpliFi app. The meshpoint antennas plug directly into any standard electrical outlet; they kind of remind me of longer, oversized versions of a futuristic air freshener. Not exactly tiny, but not unattractive, either.
Does the Function Fit the Hype?
As promised, setup was simple. After plugging a meshpoint into an outlet in my home office, I installed the AmpliFi app onto my phone and used it to connect the meshpoint into our home’s normal WiFi network. It only took a few minutes and I was good to go.
Not only did the AmpliFi Mesh WiFi System extend my signal – it made my internet speed blazing fast. Now, I’m able to download, surf the internet, upload documents, and send items to my printer – all while sitting at my comfortable desk in the quiet of my home office instead of perched on the living room couch with the TV blaring.
If you’ve been hesitating on getting a WiFi extender, this is a good thing because you shouldn’t get an extender. Instead, get a meshpoint system and install it as soon as possible. You’ll never look back!
