Give Mesh a Chance

fabric, background texture. White silver mesh fabric, with a woven metallic thread. Silver fashion mesh! Flickering beads add texture and shine to the piece.

What is Mesh Wireless?

Shelter In Place has led many folks to need consistent access to the Internet in more rooms of their homes so everyone can reliably get online with their various devices and have the privacy they desire. But privacy may include closing doors, which adds interference against poor signals.

While conventional wireless routers may be sufficient in small homes with few people and minimal interference, larger families and homes with more complex layouts benefit from welcoming the new kid on the block: Mesh.

You’re probably familiar with that holey fabric that manages to carry a bundle while using less material. Mesh wireless systems similarly share the load among multiple nodes to carry networking signals to devices with ease.

One of the top benefits of many mesh systems is an easy setup process. Most use a mobile app to manage the process of connecting nodes to each other, creating one or more networks, sharing access, and monitoring the whole system.

Do I Need It?

The best place to start the conversation is an analysis of your home. How many floors, walls, doors, and large appliances could be obstacles for a wireless signal to get from an access point to a computer? Each of these potential barriers is a source of interference.

Once you have a sense of the layout, you can test the strength of a wireless connection in various places. If you’re using a single primary router, placing it high and central is often a best practice as wireless signals rain down like the spine of an umbrella.

I like the app Wi-Fi Sweetspots for testing wireless signal strength just by standing still or walking around, and I use SpeedSmart as a general purpose speed testing app.

Additionally, on a Mac, you can hold the Option key, click the Wi-Fi status menu, and read the RSSI value. The Received Signal Strength Indicator generally ranges from 0 to –100 decibels, where –30 is excellent, –67 is the minimum for streaming video and video conferencing, and anything less than –70 is bordering on useless.

If you discover dead zones where signal strength is poor or worse, or if it’s not feasible to run Ethernet cable from the router to other locations, mesh may be a good choice. Mesh networking can more reliably cut through the dead zones to provide consistent access throughout a complex space.

How Do I Choose?

Do you think mesh might be right for you? There have become a slew of brands but each brand has built its own flavor of hardware and software and none are currently interoperable. Popular names include eero, Netgear Orbi, Linksys Velop, D-Link COVR, TP-Link Deco, and Ubiquiti AmpliFi.

This Wirecutter article offers a taste of some of the choices and Tom’s Guide shares a slightly wider swath, but this is still a fraction of the choices. Head to your favorite search engine for even more. Also, read a multitude of posts and discussions at The Mac Observer, including several by Dave Hamilton and John F. Braun who discuss the topic regularly on the Mac Geek Gab.

Personally, I’ve so far only interacted with Netgear Orbi and eero mesh products. While I found Orbi worked well once set up, this process was tedious. Additionally, the devices’ feedback using colored lights seems poorly designed, shining too many different colors and patterns that their meaning is difficult to decipher.

eero, a prosumer choice with slightly higher price points, has consistently been easy to set up and provided good service as long as an eero Pro router is the first in the chain. I find eero’s newest node is less capable than its big brother and I only recommend it as a secondary access point.