how does mesh wifi work and how is it different from old school extenders?
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All the other answers on this post so far are wrong. The following is less wrong.
There is nothing fundamentally different between a range extender and mesh network. The difference is in the software used to manage them and support for 802.12s.
Range extenders typically integrate with any WiFi network. It is just another client in the network that broadcasts a signal. To use a range extender you have to go set it up with your network using its own interface, and you will manage it separate from your main AP. They typically don’t support 802.11s.
Mesh networks are sold as entire systems. You buy as many points as you want and use a single interface to configure them. They also by definition support 802.11s, which provides rules for routing traffic and such. There’s not a major effect of that on the end user, but it probably improves performance a bit. They *may* support some extended features such as Ethernet backhaul, 3D client localization, etc
From a user perspective: the difference is just in user interface.
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