My WiFi Won't Reach!

A number of folks have said to me that they can’t get a WiFi signal in some places in their house or even out in the barn. Today we’ll discuss one way to hopefully remedy that situation - with a “mesh” network. There are other ways but we’ll restrict our discussion to mesh.

What is a mesh network? It consists of a main or primary unit that plugs in to your ISP’s (Internet Service Provider - Comcast, Verizon, Spectrum, etc) modem. Then there are any number of units - satellites - that provide WiFi around where they are located and send and receive data to and from the main unit. The only thing the satellites need is power. You can roam from one unit, satellite or main unit, to another without regard to which you’re using. That’s another feature of a mesh network - your device can be handed off from one unit to another with no interruption to your service. All units, main and satellite, use the same WiFi identifier or SSID.

Dead zones

Why not just get a more powerful main unit? Often it’s not the strength of your WiFi router that’s the issue. WiFi routers tend to not broadcast a signal below where they’re located so if your router is on the second floor or if you have a basement, you won’t get a signal below the router or you will only get a signal in certain areas. If you live in a place that has metal in the walls or has, for instance, aluminum backed insulation you could lose the signal in less distance than you might expect. These could all lead to what are called dead spots or zones - areas where you have no or a very weak WiFi signal. You address these issues by judiciously locating one or more satellites to eliminate the dead zones. Where do you locate the satellites? I cover that later in this article.

Different manufacturers have different ways of packaging their main units and satellites. Some have one unit that is designated the main unit but most manufacturers nowadays don’t differentiate - any of the units can act as the main unit and the remaining units are satellites. Some manufacturers make fairly low power units that don’t broadcast their signal very far. Why would they do this? If you live in a densely populated area a higher powered WiFi satellite could make it possible for a neighbor to use your WiFi (assuming, of course, they figure out your WiFi password).

All those WiFi versions!

What about all these WiFi versions - 5, 6, 6e, 7 - and which do you need? Seven is the newest and therefore the most expensive so I wouldn’t bother with it. 6e is a little older and a little less expensive but I would recommend going with that instead of a router that supports 6 or 5. Why? 6 offers better performance than WiFi 5 offers and can function better in congested areas like apartments or offices. WiFi 5 and 6 offer the standard 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. 6e offers a new 6GHz band and if you have a newer device it might be able to take advantage of that band which can easily improve performance because it provides for faster speeds than the 5gHz band and also could be less congested because there are fewer devices using 6e. But that’s not why I suggest you look into a 6e router.

Backhaul

All the satellites must take the data they get from the devices that are using them (your phone or tablet, smart devices like cameras or light switches, etc) and send it back to the main unit so it can then be sent out over the Internet. When data is returned that’s destined for the original device, the main unit has to send it to a satellite which then sends it to the originating device. This traffic is using some of the available bandwidth that the satellites and the main unit all share. Many WiFi 6e routers let you dedicate that 6GHz band to handle just the traffic between the main unit and the satellites making the other bands available for your traffic. By the way the traffic between the main router and the satellite is called “backhaul’ in case you see a reference to it. Backhaul can also be done over an Ethernet cable if your main and satellite units support it. This approach wouldn’t use any WiFi bandwidth so if you have that option it would be a better way to go but many of us, myself included, don’t have Ethernet connections available throughout my premises.

Where do I place my satellites?

Where do you place a satellite? It must be able to receive the signal from the main unit or another satellite - YES, you can often string together satellites. This is called “dynamic backhaul” and many of the more recent mesh routers support this function. You might need this function if your dead zone is too far from your main router to receive a signal. In fact it might be too far away to receive a signal from a single satellite. In that case you would need to string multiple satellites together to reach your dead zone - one to get you part way to the dead zone and the other to get the signal to the dead zone. If you find you need it then look for routers that explicitly state they support satellite-to-satellite communication.

That’s all for this time

I hope I have explained mesh networks and why you might want to use them. Don't hesitate to write to me if you have questions!

As always, my intent is to help you understand the basics and equip you to search for more detailed information.

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