So many of us have suffered - and are still suffering - from poor coverage of home wireless networks as well as internet transmission due to the inability of the router to cover all parts of the house. Some have found the coverage does not go beyond a few metres, so that they need a “wireless repeater”, which too has proved to be useless and made matters worse.
The current method is to rely on the use of a single device to cover the home. And because this is not possible at all, some users resort to installing several devices in the form of access points. This method works for many as one of the solutions, but it has many shortcomings, the biggest of which is that you need to name each device separately if it is not designed to complete one integrated network.
Unfortunately, most, if not all, home access point devices work in that way, so you find that there is a different name and perhaps a different password in every corner of the house. In addition to switching between them, one needs to re-enter the network name (SSID) that you want to connect to and this is annoying. Worst of all, when you switch between these devices, the “handshake” does not go smoothly on portable devices such as phones and laptops.
But then came the breakthrough
This was the emergence of the mesh network in 2016 when Google entered the market with one of the best devices ever and changed many concepts, including great support for managing devices via cloud management. It can manage these devices from anywhere in the world as well as enabling useful options such as allocating connection time and usage for devices connected to the network.
This enables you to limit the time children use the internet and other features that other companies have included on their devices, such as parental control to prevent the use of certain applications such as YouTube, Facebook, and others.
Secret combination
For users, it meant the comfort of having two or three devices that communicate with each other intelligently and smoothly. These devices distribute over the network, and cover a range of up to 12 devices for transmission, so whatever the size of a house, the coverage will be excellent or at least quite good.
Each one of these pieces is formed as if it were a part of one coherent puzzle, so it must be placed within the range of its counterpart, and so on. Of course, it is preferable to use network cables to connect between them. If these are not available, know that the network is workable, but it will be much slower than if connected through cables, and you also may need more pieces.
Laying it out
Suppose that the size of the house is 3,500 square feet, you’ll probably need to buy one box with three pieces. Suppose we are talking about one of the best devices, for example, the TP-Link Deco M9. Plus, we will also need to buy a set of network cables of no less than seven from the cat6 or cat7 category with a length of half-a-metre to one metre according to the need.
We will also need a gigabit network switch from any company, let’s assume from TP-Link itself. You can use any of the three pieces in the box to be the main router, which must be connected to the service provider’s cable.
Then, through the device’s phone application, you can add the first piece and enter the data of the service provider. One of them never requires data and the other requires choosing PPPoE Protocol (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) and then enter the password you receive from the service provider.
Some service providers provide you with devices managed by them, so you need to contact them for the elimination of the PNP service to be able to use your own devices. Then, you have to distribute the devices in the house so that each device can connect to the other within the distance specified for you by the application.
You may need more pieces, so it is preferable to buy a full box once to save money. I found that online store prices are much cheaper than at retail shops.
The process is easy and does not require any experience - anyone can do it with ease. You have thus been able to distribute the network and the internet to all parts of the house.
- Ahmed Zarouni is a Dubai-based tech writer.
