Getting better Wi-Fi has been a constant struggle.
As I’ve added more and more Wi-Fi devices to my home over the years, the network can get
more crowded. Plus you can have dead zones or issues with speed, sometimes WiFi can just be a
huge hassle. So I'm going to walk you through what I did to get better Wi-Fi performance.
I'll take you through some of the latest tech in Wi-Fi that you can put in your home today,
and I'll explain why I let NETGEAR sponsor this video. Now, the first approach I took several
years ago to get better Wi-Fi performance in my home was by going with a mesh Wi-Fi networking
solution. In the early days of Wi-Fi, most of us just bought a single Wi-Fi router, which
connected to a modem. The closer you are to the router, the better your speeds and connection, and
this approach can often leave parts of your home either with weak signal or no Wi-Fi signal at all.
And this is where mesh Wi-Fi networks come into play. And this is my first recommendation
when trying to solve Wi-Fi coverage issues. Mesh Networks are made up of multiple router devices,
typically you have a main router that plugs into modem and then additional WiFi Points otherwise
known as satellite routers, that will connect to the main main router, and create a seamless,
single Wi-Fi network for your entire home and avoid
many of the disadvantages of Wi-Fi extenders, like separate network names, decreased speeds,
issues with Wi-Fi network compatibility, and issues with configuration and management.
Sometimes the hardware for the main router and then the satellites or Wi-Fi points is
actually slightly different. like with my current Orbi WiFi 6E Mesh System,
or there’s no difference in hardware between which device you designate as the main router
and satellites, like with the Google WiFi or Eero systems. Typically, the larger your home is, the
more additional WiFi points you’ll need. Most of the time the routers and WiFi points will be rated
for a certain amount of coverage, which will help you figure out how many you’ll need in your setup.
And because you can add multiple Wi-Fi points to your home, this is often going to help you
eliminate dead zones in Wi-Fi coverage. And by going with a mesh networking solution,
you will often also find that you'll get more consistent speeds throughout your home.
There are several popular models out there on the market today, like the NETGEAR Orbi WiFi 6 or 6E
Mesh System, I’m using the 6E system currently but previously used the 6 version previously, the
Google Wifi routers, Nest Wifi routers, Eero mesh routers, T-P Link Deco, and others.
And to see our long-term reviews of these and upcoming Wi-Fi routers,
make sure you're subscribed to the channel. Now lately there have been a few advancements in Wi-Fi
technology you may have heard of like Tri-band technology, Wi-Fi 6, and Wi-Fi 6E. Tri-band
technology is a development specifically for mesh Wi-Fi networks to help improve
their stability and speed. Routers use frequency bands for your devices to connect to them. Now,
on most routers in existence today, there are two frequency bands that you'll see. 2.4 gigahertz and
5 gigahertz. Now there is now a third band and we'll talk about that in just a second, but those
two bands explain why sometimes when you're on your phone and you bring up a Wi-Fi network list,
you'll see a Wi-Fi network listed twice, only one of the names will be like Wi-Fi network name, and
then like 5G. That's why you're seeing that. And in general, if you care about Wi-Fi speeds, you
should always connect to the 5 gigahertz network, unless the signal strength is just really poor.
5Ghz is typically faster but has a shorter range where the 2.4 Ghz network band has a longer range.
Now how is triband different? Well as the name suggests,
each router actually has 3 bands, a 5 Ghz band, a 2.4 Ghz band, and then an additional
5Ghz band that is dedicated for moving internet traffic back and forth between your main router
and WiFi points, which makes speeds more consistent and reliable around your home.
Now the next Wi-Fi technology that can make a huge difference in your home
is Wi-Fi 6. It's one of the latest Wi-Fi standards and is otherwise known as the IEE
802.11AX standard. Rolls right off the tongue doesn't it?
Now like previous Wi-Fi standards, Wi-Fi 6 also includes the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz bands.
So then what exactly is the difference with Wi-Fi 6 you may ask, three things. The first
big difference with Wi-Fi 6 is it can handle many more Wi-Fi devices on the network simultaneously
versus previous standards. So if you're like me and you have a ton of Wi-Fi enabled devices,
especially for things like smart home products, this feature is very beneficial. The second
advantage of Wi-Fi 6 is it can actually help improve the battery life of your devices.
The Wi-Fi 6 standard allows devices to plan out communications with your router ahead of time,
which reduces the time your devices need to keep their antennas powered on to transmit
and search for signals, thus reducing their power consumption and improving battery life. And if you
want to learn more about this standard, The Verge has great guide to Wi-Fi 6 that I’ll link below.
The third advantage of Wi-Fi 6 is something called WPA3 Security. And what this security standard
does is it makes it harder for hackers to crack passwords by just constantly guessing them. So
that's everything that Wi-Fi 6 brought to the Wi-Fi standard. So then what exactly
is Wi-Fi 6E? And this leads me to Netgear and their new Orbi Wi-Fi 6E Mesh System.
Now I let Netgear sponsor this video because out of all of the routers I have personally tested,
their Orbi Wi-Fi 6 Mesh System has been the best I have tested. I've used that system now for
six months plus, and it's been the best in terms of its overall range, its ability to handle a ton
of devices on the network simultaneously, and just gives me the most consistent speeds out
of any Wi-Fi networking system I have used thus far. So, when I saw Netgear was the first company
to put out a Wi-Fi, 6E enabled router, and soon after they released an Orbi Wi-Fi 6E Mesh System,
I asked Netgear to send me one and if they wanted to sponsor this video, which they agreed.
Since I thought their new mesh system would be the perfect system to use to
help illustrate the difference Wi-Fi 6E can make. The new Orbi Wi-Fi 6E
Mesh System has a new 6GHz WiFi band which is reserved exclusively for 6E devices.
This is the main difference with Wi-Fi 6E. For devices that support connecting through the 6
Ghz band, you're potentially going to see much faster Wi-Fi speeds. YYou can stream
at speeds up to 10.8 Gbps and have up to 200 concurrent devices on the network at one time,
and it’s been designed to be able to handle up to 16 simultaneous Wi-Fi video streams in your home,
so you shouldn’t run into any issues streaming video with this Wi-Fi router.
The 6Ghz band also helps increase network capacity because the newer devices that you add to your
network will move to the 6Ghz band while your legacy devices will stay on 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands.
By going with this router system over the Wi-Fi 6 version, you're basically just future proofing
your setup. Now, another interesting thing that Netgear did with their Orbi Wi-Fi 6E Mesh System
is they used quad-band technology. So your devices can access a 2.4, 5, and 6 Ghz band,
while the routers reserve a dedicated additional 5 Ghz backhaul connection for passing data between
the router and satellites wirelessly, like the Orbi WiFi 6E Mesh System does.
The NETGEAR Orbi Wifi 6E Mesh System delivers up to 9,000 sq feet of coverage with just 1 router
and two satellites, which is kind of instase, and each additional
satellite you add to your setup will get you an additional 3,000 square feet of coverage.
So, if you want to learn more about the latest Orbi Wi-Fi 6E mesh system,
click the link in the description below. So that's everything with Wi-Fi 6E. But there
are a few more tips I want to cover before we wrap this video on how to overall improve
your Wi-Fi performance at home. And some of these don't even involve buying anything new.
The first is placement of your routers. Whether you have existing mesh routers or are planning
to buy new ones, you’ll want to make sure you space them out correctly as this can impact
the performance of your system. Most of these routers nowadays come with apps that include
a Network signal strength tool, that can help tell you if your router placement is correct or not.
Another thing that’ll help with your overall WiFi network performance is to make sure your
Wifi points are within line of sight of each other if possible. Hiding Wi-Fi routers in cabinets, or
behind pieces of furniture or behind a TV, those situations can all limit your Wi-Fi performance,
which is why most modern Wi-Fi routers are designed with a better aesthetic to help them
more easily blend in with your home decor. Now, another thing I recommend to get better
Wi-Fi performance in your home is to of course buy your own Wi-Fi router or mesh networking system.
And not just use the one that your ISP, which stands for internet service provider,
don't just use the one that they gave you. Now sometimes your internet service provider will give
you a combination Wi-Fi router and modem device and if they don't charge you a monthly rental fear
or anything for it, it's okay to keep that device acting like a modem, but I would still personally
buy my own Wi-Fi router, especially a mesh system, because you're just gonna get better performance
and likely a router that supports the latest Wi-Fi standards compared to what your ISP gave you.
And if you buy your own mesh system, make sure if you have a modem that is a combination modem
and router from your internet service provider, you figure out a way to disable the Wi-Fi radios
on that device. Otherwise the Wi-Fi that's outputting from the device
your ISP gave you will likely interfere with the router that you just bought.
So if you're looking to future-proof your setup a bit, take a look at Netgear's new
Orbi Wi-Fi 6E mesh system by clicking on the link in the description below and
make sure you're subscribed to the channel to see our six months later review of this new system.
I hope you found this video helpful and if you have any further questions about how to
get better Wi-Fi performance, leave them in a comment below, and I'll answer them there. And
while you're down there, make sure you hit that thumbs up button if you found this video helpful,
and subscribe to the channel for more reviews on Wi-Fi routers and Wi-Fi mesh networking systems.
And if you're looking for what to watch next,
check out some of our long-term reviews of Wi-Fi routers, which you can get to
by clicking on the playlist to the right. For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.