Long story short, please eli5 what is the differnece or the benefits of wifi mesh system & multiple AP with the same ssid & password to cover a large area
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Thank you guys for this simple clarification
In: 3
Co-ordination.
Your wifi points are all people at a party trying to talk to the other people (wireless clients) across a crowded room.
When they can’t hear each other, they shout louder to be heard over the others, but there’s a limit to how much you can shout (transmission power limits).
Adding more points blindly just adds EVEN MORE people to room, all trying to shout over the others, making it noisier and slower to communicate for everyone involved.
However, if the APs support meshing, they are able to tell each other to STFU, take turns to talk and even say “Hey, can you hear that guy in the green? Right, well, I can’t hear him very well… he’s your responsibility now” to each other. By doing this, the communication works better for everyone overall, and it’s not just a hundred clients and APs yelling at each other at the top of their voice trying to be “the loudest”.
The coordination needs mesh protocol compliance, and often the APs need to be the same brand, part of the same management network (e.g. wireless controllers are devices that exist for this reason) or you’ll have people still “yelling” rather than stopping and taking the time to talk to each other.
Generally speaking, managed wifi with only managed wifi access points nearby gets far, far better overall performance for everyone involved. Otherwise it just becomes a screaming match where every AP is trying to “be the best” because they want their brand to look good.
Like when you’re listening for a victim buried under a collapsed building, sometimes the best way to establish communication is to briefly tell everyone to STFU.
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