Mesh Router vs Wireless Router: Which is Best for Your Home?

what's up guys and gals on today's video we're going to break down mesh routers versus traditional wireless routers and we'll talk about the differences between the two systems and we're going to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each system and we're also going to talk about the price difference and then lastly we'll tell you which one you should have for your exact home I'm Michael Scott and this is the ultimate techup so let's start with traditional wireless routers these are the most popular systems and most people will have these in their homes the router sends a Wi-Fi signal from one Central Point in your home for instance like a device in your living room and this signal should spread throughout your entire house and this system works well if you live in a small or medium-sized home like an apartment or condominium however in large single story homes you may end up with dead zones where the signal is weak unreliable or no signal at all however if you have a higher-end router you may not encounter these dead zones so it's very important to first read the specs on the box to see the coverage area size which is in square feet and second you also need to know the size of your home to compare to the router's coverage area and you'll find apps and websites that will help determine your home size accurately in the best case scenario you want your router to cover a little bit more than the size of your home but not too much because you'll be wasting your signal and third placement of the router is very important it must be in the central part of your home a dead center location would be perfect but somewhere Central in your house will work fine by doing this you have the best chance to cover your entire home with a strong and reliable Wi-Fi signal however if you place your router at one end of the house then half of the Wi-Fi signal will go to your neighbor's home or into the street which means half of your home will have weak Wi-Fi or no Wi-Fi at all and this Wi-Fi issue can be prevented by putting the router in the center of the home now if your modem is not in a central location it's very easy to install an ethernet cable from the modem to the router's location which is in the center of your home you can run your ethernet through a small hole in the wall or through the attic or along the baseboards just get creative and sometimes isps will do this for you and it can't hurt to ask just give them a call so now we're going to talk about mesh router systems and these systems are not as popular as traditional routers so here's how it works instead of one device it uses multiple smaller devices called nodes these nodes work together to spread Wi-Fi evenly throughout your home it's like having multiple small routers working as a team giving you strong and reliable coverage everywhere even in hard to- reach places once again it's super important to read the specs on the box for the maximum coverage area also you'll need to figure out if you're going to use a wireless back haul or a wired back haul and don't worry if you're confused let me explain a wireless back haul is the most popular and easiest to set up in most mesh routers by default are configured as a wireless back haul and this makes the mesh system a simple plug-and playay which is great for for those who have very little networking knowledge so what this all means is that the nodes will connect to each other and the main router through the wireless signal on the 2.4 and or the 5 GHz band and even possibly the 6 GHz band if you have Wi-Fi 6C or Wi-Fi 7 mesh this Wireless back haul carries the signal seamlessly from one node to the other with no interruptions and yes this uses one SS ID that your device connects to you automatically no matter where you are in your home and requires no additional configurations super easy high five now a wire back hul is achieved by connecting the nose to the router via an ethernet cable from one land port to another this is by far the best scenario because wired is always faster more reliable and more secure than Wireless however it's also the hardest one to set up since you'll have to run very long Eastern cables throughout your home to reach all the nodes and just a heads up you may need to change these router back hall settings so check the user manual whether you choose a wireless back call or a wi back call placement of these nodes is imperative you want optimal coverage of these nodes with overlapping of the Wi-Fi signals but keep in mind you want overlapping but not too much because in reality this will waste the Wi-Fi signal so just a little bit overlapping and once again read the specs on the box and in the manual which will indicate how much area each node covers which is in square ft now with a wireless back haul all you need is a power outlet to get these nodes up and running no other cables are required and with a wireback haul you'll need a power outlet as well as an ethernet cable running from the router to the node which makes it more difficult and just ah heads up some of these mesh systems will have additional land ports on the back of these nodes which is fantastic this means you can plug your TV gaming console or PC into the back of the node and once again check the specs on the back of the box before you buy and remember more land ports is more better so what are the advantages and disadvantages of both systems well traditional wireless routers have the advantage of Simplicity one device to control your entire network and no additional setup just plug in your router and configure the wireless network and you're pretty much done the disadvantage is that it may not cover your entire house with a strong and reliable signal and you may even have those dreaded dead zones however if you do your research and buy the correct router for your size home then this shouldn't be an issue but keep in mind if you have a two-story home or three-story home or home with a basement then the traditional wireless router will probably not cover the upstairs or the basement and I've had this issue before in my previous home where the upstairs had weak signal or no signal at all when it comes to speed traditional routers are faster than mesh routers and this is because traditional routers tend to offer higher speeds and contain more advanced Hardware than mesh routers if you do a lot of 4K streaming or gaming then a traditional router is the way to go however if you need range over speed then go mesh so what are the advantages and disadvantages of a mesh system well mesh systems have the advantage of a super wide coverage area which means large one-story homes or twostory homes or three-story homes or even homes with basements can have a strong signal through all areas of the house and that's fantastic and you can also add additional nodes to these systems so you can basically increase the Wi-Fi signal to an unlimited area and once again that's pretty awesome now the disadvantage of the mesh system is that it's more difficult to set up because you'll need additional power outlets and maybe even ethernet cable if you're going to do a wired back haul and many of these mesh routers have limited features like no USB ports or no dedicated gaming ports or very few land ports or no land ports at all or no directional antennas however if you do your research you can find mesh systems with all those features except for a directional antennas mesh routers do not have directional antennas but there is a price to be paid for these features and that brings us to the price differences between these two systems for the most part mesh RS will cost more money if you choose a three node system with Wi-Fi 6C or Wi-Fi 7 specs and if they have USB ports and 10 gig Lan or W ports then it will get very expensive however you can buy mesh systems on a budget but with limited features and no 6 GHz band and definitely no 10 gig ports or USB ports but most consumers don't need these features as far as traditional routers go they are cheaper than three node mesh systems but not always traditional routers can get very expensive especially when you're talking about Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 however there are a plethora of traditional routers on the market below $300 or even $200 and these routers can cover up to $2,000 s ft which is pretty solid also most new traditional routers have the ability to add a second router in mesh mode wait a minute a traditional router that's also a mesh router that's right but it will cost you some money and buying two routers to work in mesh mode is far more expensive than buying a mesh system and the big Advantage is if you love that router that you currently have then all you have to do is buy a compatible router and run it in mesh mode and typically each brand has a list of compatible routers that you can run in mesh mode but once again you're buying two routers and that can be very expensive so lastly which one should you choose for your home network traditional or mesh well here's the answer if you have a smaller space like an apartment a condo or a small one-story home then go with a traditional router but with very large one-story homes or twostory homes or three story homes or even homes with basement then go with a mesh wi-fi system this prevents dead zones and provides a strong and reliable signal everywhere so that's the basic differences between mesh and traditional routers and make sure to check out our recommended routers in the links below and if you're in the market for a mesh wi-fi system check out this video right here or if you're in the market for a traditional wireless router check out this video right here and I'll see you in the next video real soon high five peace