This is why I selected an Eero mesh over a standalone router

One of many greatest choices you may make when establishing a house community is selecting whether or not to go the mesh route or with a standalone Wi-Fi router. I think lots of people have at the very least a imprecise sense of why they’d need a mesh system, however then see the costs on the market and keep away from trying into issues additional. Why purchase a two- or three-pack of routers when one could be costly sufficient? And naturally, we have all been conditioned to suppose the next Wi-Fi spec is routinely an important factor. Whenever you’re on the retailer, selecting up a single Wi-Fi 7 router might appear to be the wisest transfer.

I have been firmly within the mesh camp for a number of years, although, first with the Google Nest Wifi, and now the Eero Pro 6E. I am not making an attempt to endorse Amazon or Eero as a model, or the Professional 6E as a mannequin — I simply thought it might be price speaking about why I might purchase the identical system right this moment, even with some high-quality standalone Wi-Fi 7 routers hitting cabinets.

How I turned a mesh Wi-Fi die-hard

Dealing with the realities of a full-sized dwelling

After I was an Austin apartment-dweller, Wi-Fi protection was a non-issue. I am positive some rooms had higher reception than others, however no system ever struggled a lot, at the same time as I added units like sensible TVs into the combination, and my now-wife moved in. If something, I used to be extra involved about web suppliers — there was extra influence in switching from Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum) to Grande Communications than anything I used to be doing on my community. I caught with standalone routers for some time.

The turning level got here when my spouse and I purchased our first home. Concurrently, I began testing sensible dwelling equipment, and a few of these simply didn’t behave as anticipated. The problematic ones had weak efficiency, or acquired kicked off Wi-Fi fully occasionally. It was driving me up the wall. It is one factor in case your telephone briefly loses Wi-Fi, since it might probably all the time connect with mobile. In case your doorbell goes down, you may miss an vital package deal — or robbers.

That is after I realized our dwelling doubtless had useless zones, or at the very least areas that may as effectively be useless. Enter the Nest Wifi, which ensured that each flooring of our home had respectable sign. As a bonus, the system’s satellite tv for pc router doubled as a Google Assistant speaker. Our son completely beloved messing with this as soon as he turned sufficiently old to know “OK Google” instructions (and stopped saying “Gooble”).

It is arduous to overstate how vital mesh tech could be in a multi-floor home. There’s simply no getting across the sign drop altering flooring appears to trigger. Some units might proceed to work fantastic, in fact, however something that is bandwidth-hungry or on the perimeter might be going to undergo. Actually, I would not wish to strive 4K streaming or on-line motion video games if a standalone router was each a ground down and on the other facet of my home — Wi-Fi wasn’t all the time good on my gaming PC, even when it was a number of toes away.

The Nest Wifi did not sort things utterly. As I found, as a result of the product was primarily based on Wi-Fi 5, it was periodically kicking units offline anyway to create space for brand spanking new connections. The one answer was to improve to one thing with Wi-Fi 6 or 6E, which may tolerate much more simultaneous visitors.

After I purchased the Eero Professional 6E in 2022, it was ludicrously costly. It nonetheless is, actually — a two-pack is $400, and a three-pack is $550. However now my dwelling is totally lined, and the one sensible dwelling points I’ve are associated to particular units and platforms. Apple HomeKit particularly appears to determine at a whim which units it’s going to see and when, even supposing my spouse and I’ve gathered a number of House Hubs within the type of HomePods and Apple TV 4Ks. Amazon Alexa and Google House do exactly fantastic, as do apps like LIFX and Philips Hue.

I purchased the Professional 6E with the concept of constructing my dwelling as bulletproof as attainable, and certainly, I can not see myself upgrading to a brand new system for a couple of extra years. Every router even acts as a Matter controller and a Thread border system, so there should not be any concern with increasing my sensible dwelling equipment, other than HomeKit help.

Are there any downsides to mesh methods versus standalone routers?

It is not simply the worth tag

I’ve already addressed the problem of price, however an adjunct to that’s that when you do not want the additional protection mesh methods present, it’s possible you’ll be unnecessarily sacrificing efficiency to search out an reasonably priced bundle. The very best standalone routers max out a Wi-Fi spec’s bandwidth, and provide a wholesome number of ports, together with 4 or extra Ethernet jacks for wired web entry. Every of my Eero routers is proscribed to a single USB-C port for energy, and two Ethernet jacks, solely one in all which is rated at 2.5Gbps as an alternative of 1Gbps. That is fantastic for me — however you is likely to be disenchanted when you had been trying to make use of USB drives or printers, or keep away from shopping for a change to deal with a number of units in the identical room.

Mesh routers additionally are likely to merge all of their wi-fi bands (2.4GHz, 5GHz, and/or 6GHz) underneath a single SSID (community ID). That is preferable in most eventualities, because it permits units to float seamlessly from router to router. “Most conditions” is the operative time period, although — 2.4GHz-only units can typically get misplaced within the shuffle, particularly older sensible dwelling equipment. Standalone routers provide the selection of separate SSIDs for various bands, and also you may get a extra dependable setup when you can drive your whole units onto the bands they’re most suited to. I ought to word that hassle is not assured, it is simply one thing to be ready for.

Finally, then, how have you learnt which path to take? I might recommend residence dwellers routinely go the standalone route. Past that, a mesh system ought to at the very least be in your shortlist, since even a bungalow might profit if its ground plan is large sufficient. I additionally discover that apart from excessive eventualities like downloading a 50GB PC recreation, I do not want the height bandwidth fashionable routers have to supply — it is extra vital to have a persistently current connection. So far as ports are involved, Ethernet switches are grime low cost nowadays.