Mesh network versus a simple Wi-Fi extender


In anyone’s experience, does implementing a pricier Mesh network yield any sonic advantages to just using a good Wi-Fi extender and running a good Ethernet cable from that?  From people who have very good streamer setups it seems like using a simple but good Wi-Fi extender from TP-Link etc. is more than fine.  Thoughts?

soix

Showing 1 response by karlr63

Having been in the IT infrastructure industry for far too many decades, I'll drop a nugget of data. WiFi is wonderful and solves many problems. However, be it commercial or residential, WiFi has limitations. Mesh vs Extenders have pros and cons, but will have similar limitations. The more wifi devices connected to your network the greater the challenge. So if you have wifi devices like lights, speakers, TVs, appliances, etc. connected, they are all competing for bandwidth. Add to the mix laptops, phones, etc, which can have multiple connections, your bandwidth can quickly degrade to say 3 Mb per device. This all flows into your ISP gateway router which in most places will be sufficient. There will always be a bottleneck there but not a huge factor for WiFi. The more wifi devices the greater collisions of packets and reduced bandwidth. You will see drops, latency, interruptions of data. I run copper connections to the devices I demand the highest quality of. If you opt for Mesh, as long as you have copper connecting it to the gateway, you will see less issues. Similar to an access point connected to an AP controller and then the core network devices in a commercial space.

In short, if you want to avoid music drops completely, and you have lots of WiFi devices in your home, go with a copper connection. If you don't want or can not pull cable, Go with Mesh. If you have a small number of WiFi devices, say less than 25 devices, that are not big uses of bandwidth (say gaming consoles, TVs, etc.) Mesh or extenders are going to provide adequate bandwidth.