How extendable routers can improve your WiFi coverage
How ASUS can help you kill WiFi deadzones
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Having a fast and reliable WiFi signal is vital in the modern world, allowing people to communicate, work, and contact their friends and family easily. Unfortunately, the parochial single router sitting in the corner next to the access point is often insufficient, which is exactly where the ASUS range of extendable routers, featuring AiMesh technology, can help.
Extendable routers allow you to expand your network to provide wider coverage, giving you faster WiFi speeds in every corner of your home. Luckily, ASUS makes some of the best extendable routers out there, benefitting from their advanced Ai
We’re going to take a look at what an extendable router is, how they work, and why ASUS is the best choice for your home network in 2024.
What is an extendable router?
Extendable routers are just like regular routers, but with the ability to team up with other routers to create a larger network, providing stronger and more reliable WiFi over a greater area.
This is particularly important as WiFi signal strength can be affected by a multitude of factors, including router position, room layout, and even the materials used to construct your house.
This is made worse by the fact that people don’t generally have a choice of where their router is located so you inevitably end up purchasing a WiFi extender to serve as another access point. However, if you’ve used one before, you quickly realise poorer WiFi speeds and an intermittent connection. That’s because these WiFi repeaters don’t communicate as a whole with your WiFi network. They often compete to connect to your device.
In practice it means that you can be within a short distance from your main router but still be connected to your WiFi repeater.
So, yes, Extendable routers can work together to form a stronger and more reliable WiFi network for your home, but how? Well, we’re going to explain, with a little bit of help from ASUS AiMesh, an innovative technology from Asus that smoothly combines multiple routers together – even if they’re different models or different WiFi generations. Meaning you can upgrade your network with ASUS extendable routers with the latest, fastest WiFi 7 down the line.
How do extendable routers work?
Extendable routers combine together like the Megazord to create a broader seamless extended signal. This means that you don’t have to worry about which one you’re connected to, as the individual routers will work out which node is ideal and offers the best signal to your device
In practice, this means that you won’t notice anything. You don’t need to interact or change any settings, you’ll simply be provided with the strongest signal, wherever you are and fastest speeds possible thanks to robust backhaul technology. ASUS routers are able to broadcast multiple bands – one for your device and one dedicated for wireless backhaul that doesn’t interfere or compete with the signal to your device.
We mentioned the ASUS AiMesh technology earlier, and here’s where it comes into play, and it really is a game changer for those looking to improve their home network.
ASUS AiMesh allows most routers from ASUS huge range to extend your network, creating a ‘mesh’ of multiple routers throughout your home and the best part is that you can extend any router.
That’s right, folks, with AiMesh, you can continue to use whichever router you like, and bolster it with one or more ASUS extendable routers, making it a cinch to build a more robust network of extendable routers throughout your home. The specific way it works is interesting too:
Essentially the primary router (which in most cases will usually be the crappy one from your ISP) will act as the modem which defines all the settings and features of your internet connection.
Then, just like any other WiFi setup you connect your base ASUS router and connect it up using the ASUS Router App. Simply add more extendable routers to your network with the app which is done in a couple of taps and they will all start broadcasting your WiFi across your home.
Imagine you’ve moved into an area with really poor broadband coverage but you already have WiFi setup made up of ASUS routers. You might need to use a 4G sim router. Well ASUS has one of those for you that’s extendable. So you can continue to use all your WiFi routers in the new house but have the base as the 4G router. No changing passwords or reconfiguring devices. Although it’s quite specific the extendability offers flexbility in a wide range of scenarios – from moving homes or changing your space to simply moving around your routers for convenience sake.
Extendable router vs WiFi Extender
At this point, you might be thinking that all this talk of extendable routers just sounds like the cheap wifi extenders you can by from Amazon. This is understandable as they are easily confused. However, It’s important to note here that extendable routers are different things from WiFi extenders. Though easy to confuse, the way they work is fundamentally different and produces very disparate results.
WiFi extenders simply capture the signal from the router, copy it, then rebroadcast it. This effectively increases the range of the signal, but the extenders act as individual access points, meaning that you have to connect your phone or laptop to the closest one in order to get the best signal.
This works ok for immobile things like gaming PCs and smart fridges, but you tend to run into problems with phones, tablets, and pretty much anything mobile. This is because the device can’t just decide which extender to connect to, meaning that it will stay with the same one, even if it’s further away than another. This can cause latency and slow connection speeds as the drive in question hopelessly clings to the access point instead of reaching out for a closer one.
Extendable routers, by comparison, form a network that acts as one, and dynamically and constantly adjust the connection, making sure that your device is connected to the best router at all times.
ASUS Extendable router mobile app
If this all sounds a bit complex, don’t worry, as ASUS has provided a convenient app that helps you set up, maintain, and troubleshoot your new network. This makes it super easy to get started with a single extendable router, then continue to build your network.
The app allows you to view your network topology in real-time, so you can see dead zones and figure out exactly where each router should go.
Additionally, you can manage the settings of each individual node in your network all from a single app, from anywhere you want, keeping control at your fingertips. And don’t forget the ASUS vpn feature which we haven’t touched on. It’s called instant guard and keeps you protected using your home network even when out and about connecting to those dubious open coffee shop WiFis. Pretty interesting technology
Why you should buy an extendable router
The handy thing about extendable routers is that they can be constantly re-jigged to provide optimal coverage for your household, so buying one is a solid investment that you can always add to later down the line.
So, if you rearrange your home or even move, you can simply add more extendable routers to the mesh, meaning that buying an extendable router is the start of reliable network future-proofing.
So don’t wait, start improving your WiFi range and future-proofing your network today with an ASUS extendable router.
We’re leaving a few of our favourite options from ASUS below too, so you’re not all that knowledgeable about routers, the items below are a great place to start.
Best ASUS extendable routers
These routers are all compatible with the ASUS AiMesh technology, meaning that any of them will help to improve your home network and eliminate dead zones, check them out below:
