WiFi that is "All about the Mesh" and includes extensive coverage!!
So I thought I would bring you the review of the Ubiquiti Amplifi HD Mesh WiFi Router. And to start I am really pumped about reviewing this WiFi router.
It is so exciting to see mesh WiFi technology to finally make it into the affordable consumer market. For awhile now, in the commercial network hardware sector there have been mesh WiFi devices around for several years. And now we are really beginning to see mesh WiFi become mainstream for the consumer market.
As for story time, I used to be a network engineer, architect, and administrator. I started where back in the day you had multiple access points controlled by a central firewall or controller. However, it didn't come around until a few years later that the WiFi networks became what is now called "Mesh". Mesh WiFi essentially brings the access points into the same network name and an added behind the scenes protocol for the access points on that network to talk to each other. This provided things like variation of power for each access point in order to not cause interference with each other. Also safe hand off of wireless clients. This lead to less wireless packet and connection drops overall.
Not only was this really great for a frustrated network administrator but also for the frustrated home users. Which lead a lot of homes to not trust WiFi or simply be cussed at by the homeowner. Another thing for homeowners is understanding coverage across the entire house no matter how big, how many walls, or floors. You typically would get weak spots in the house leading to lackluster results. Most certainly only increasing the frustration levels of the home network administrator. Yes extenders can be purchased in order to remedy the problem but in the end was a bit of an administration nightmare for the mobile devices in the house.
To solve this in the consumer market "Mesh" WiFi has helped by offering, just like its commercial counterparts. By extending the network into weaker signal areas of the house as well as the network having a bit of intelligence on coverage and knowledge of each access point. This increases speeds seen on average across the devices but also made setup and administration a cake walk.
As sweet as that sounds, mesh WiFi is honestly in my opinion the best thing to come into the home as we migrate forward into the smart home and smart phone age. The number of devices have increased tremendously over the past several years. And "Mesh" WiFi is the answer to everyone wishes.
Check this out for yourself here: https://www.amplifi.com/ And a huge thank you to Ubiquiti Networks for sending this over for review!
