NETGEAR highlights solutions designed to improve WiFi performance for remote and hybrid workers.
Long commutes into the office could soon be a thing of the past for many employees, as the work-from-home trend looks set to continue. Twitter recently announced that staff can work from home indefinitely, and both Google and Facebook are allowing remote working at least until the end of 2020. Facebook also aims to transition to 50% of its employees working remotely by 2030. Many other businesses are set to follow suit. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52628119]
Investing in home-office WiFi
However, for many people, this shift will require investing in their home-office infrastructure, particularly their WiFi performance. With this in mind, NETGEAR offers advice on the best ways to achieve faster and more far-reaching WiFi at home, using mesh technology.
Home ISP connections typically enter the house in the living room, which might be located a significant distance from the home office, resulting in a weak signal and slow performance. Combined with other demands on the home ISP connection from family members, this can make remote working a challenge.
Mesh technology is an ideal solution to this challenge. By extending the WiFi signal to hard-to-reach parts of the home, without loss of performance, mesh technology can transform the home-working experience.
Upgrade your WiFi with a mesh extender
For those with reasonably modern routers, a mesh extender is a viable solution. Devices, such as the NETGEAR EX7700 and EX8000 feature a dedicated data backhaul network, eliminating the common problem of inferior extenders, whereby bandwidth is halved. By retaining the same network SSID, home workers are free to roam around the house, without needing to switch networks.
Those with the latest WiFi 6 technology built into their router can opt for the NETGEAR EAX80, which extends WiFi 6 range with full AX6000 performance.
All NETGEAR mesh extenders are designed to work with existing routers from any brand, although the best performance is achieved with a NETGEAR router.
Get Your Kit On
The weakest link in most home WiFi setups is the poor-quality ISP-supplied router. While a mesh extender will help, in many cases a full mesh WiFi kit is often the best solution. By replacing the existing router with a pre-paired router and satellite combo, a mesh kit is the simplest way to radically transform home office WiFi.
For those with smaller homes, kits such as the Nighthawk MK62 provide the benefits of WiFi 6 technology at an affordable price. While for those with fast ISP connections and high internet and home network usage, Orbi WiFi 6 provides AX6000 performance for an area of up to 4000 sq.ft.
NETGEAR Mesh WiFi Kits and Mesh Extenders
|
WiFi Standard |
Coverage |
Single network name (SSID)? |
Works with existing router? |
Performance |
|
| EXTENDER | |||||
| EX8000 |
WiFi 5 |
Adds up to 2500 sq. ft. |
y |
y |
AC3000 |
| EX7700 |
WiFi 5 |
Adds up to 2000 sq. ft. |
y |
y |
AC2200 |
| EAX80 |
WiFi 6 |
Adds up to 2500 sq. ft. |
y |
y |
AX6000 |
| MESH | |||||
| Orbi RBK50 |
WiFi 5 |
4000 sq. ft. |
y |
n/a |
AC3000 |
| Nighthawk MK62 |
WiFi 6 |
2000 sq. ft. |
y |
n/a |
AX1800 |
| Orbi WiFi 6 (RBK852) |
WiFi 6 |
4000 sq. ft. |
y |
n/a |
AX6000 |
For more information about NETGEAR mesh extenders and mesh WiFi kits, please visit: www.netear.co.uk
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