Node to joy...

SAY GOODBYE TO WEAK WIFI AND INTERNET BLACK SPOTS WITH LINKSYS’ MESH SYSTEM

THERE’S no doubt about it – setting up and sorting out your home wifi network is a frustrating pain in the neck.

There are so many points of potential failure that when something goes wrong it can seem impossible to figure out how to fix it.

But solid reliable wifi is becoming more important in our everyday lives – whether for staying in touch with friends and family, allowing smart home automation, or working from home.

That’s why you have to come to the conclusion that there must be a better way.

I’ve been testing a mesh wifi system from Linksys that seems to me to go a long way to easing some of the wifi woes we all suffer – it’s a way to ensure the most robust coverage at high-speeds, bringing signal to every corner of your home, and with a simple a pain-free set up system.

Sounds too good to be true, I know.

The Atlas 6 system from Linksys I tried features three identical ‘nodes’, one of which you connect to the router you already have via an ethernet cable.

The ‘nodes’ are wifi transmitters that also feature an incoming ethernet port, and three outgoing ones you can connect devices to with wires… but it’s likely you won’t need to.

They work a bit like the ‘extenders’ your internet service provider might have given you if you have dead zones around the house… only on steroids, creating a larger and more powerful network for a significantly faster and more solid connection.

Once you’ve got your ‘parent’ node set up and connected to the internet, the other ‘nodes’ can be distributed around the house to extend the wifi network with a faster and more reliable connection.

The setup of the system was pretty seamless. It’s all done via an app on your phone, which guides you through the process.

All you have to do is find a good spot for the modes, as evenly distributed around the house as possible.

Once all the ‘nodes’ are awake and connected, you can name your wifi network and give it a password, then begin to add devices.

Testing speeds around the house there was no difference whether I was standing right next to the main router, or on the top floor of the house – we hit 70Mbps everywhere.

And as I sat at my desk, I came to forget just how often my connection used to drop and how I had to switch my laptop’s wifi off and back on again to reconnect – that didn’t happen once over three days of testing.

The Atlas 6 is a relatively simple and cheap way of getting mesh networking – and there are more powerful and more versatile systems out there.

But if you find yourself frustrated by inexplicable drop-outs in signal and feel the need to level up, the Atlas 6 is a good place to start.

The Linksys Atlas 6 system starts at £179.99 for a pack of two nodes and is available from Amazon. Find out more information at linksys.com

Most homes have many devices to connect to the internet these days, so – reliable and robust wifi is a must

Linksys Atlas 6 mesh wifi node

The nodes are easy to set up