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I wanted a new mesh Wi-Fi system badly a few years ago, but simply couldn't afford one. Instead of spending money I didn't have on Wi-Fi networking gear that I didn't really need, I repurposed my old router and it gave me almost everything I was looking for without costing me a dime.
My Wi-Fi coverage was spotty
And buying a new mesh system wasn't in my future
Many years ago, I had an eero Pro mesh Wi-Fi system and enjoyed it. I had three nodes and it provided whole-home coverage no problem. The issues started to come up when I upgraded to a gigabit internet plan on AT&T Fiber. My old eero system couldn't do more than 250Mb/s wirelessly, and AT&T provided a free Wi-Fi 6 router that beat eero handily.
So, I went with that single node setup for a while. Eventually, I did some bartering and traded for an AmpliFi Alien router, which provided faster networking and more capabilities than my AT&T router, but still didn't give me the same whole-home coverage that I wanted.
The problem was, it wasn't my whole house that had spotty coverage. Really, it was the primary bedroom and the garage that things were a bit slow in. In the bedroom, I could just turn Wi-Fi off for the little that I needed to use a phone in there, but the garage was a bigger deal. I have multiple Wi-Fi-connected tools in the shop, like lasers and 3D printers, so that's a big deal for me.
I wanted to get a nicer mesh system, but it just wasn't something that my wife and I could afford at the time. So, I started trying to figure out what other options existed, and that's when I remembered that I had an old Wi-Fi 6 router sitting in a closet from an old networking install I had.
An old router actually works well as a pseudo-mesh system
Though it works best if it has a different Wi-Fi SSID
After grabbing that Wi-Fi router out of the closet, I got it set up in my kitchen on top of the cabinets. I already had Ethernet over in that area of my house for my TV in the living room, so it was easy to redirect one of the cables to the router.
I started out with having the new router with the same SSID (Wi-Fi name) as my other Wi-Fi router so that way my devices could simply roam between the two nodes like a normal mesh system.
That didn't work as well as I hoped it would have. The problem with a non-mesh setup trying to act like mesh nodes is there's no real handoff between the two systems. I didn't know this at the time (though I do now), but there are actually specific technologies that allow your devices to roam between mesh Wi-Fi nodes.
So, while the centralized node did help fix some of my Wi-Fi issues, it also created new ones, as my phone wouldn't release from it when it should have. So, I eventually configured the second node in the middle of the house with a separate SSID that I would use specifically for the garage. This actually helped free up some capacity on my main Wi-Fi router that the primary bedroom saw improved speed.
This setup actually helped keep me from purchasing a new mesh Wi-Fi system for a few years. I would just connect my phone to the kitchen Wi-Fi node whenever I was in the garage, and the main Wi-Fi network when I was in the house. The kitchen node was purely a wireless access point, too, which gave me full access to the rest of my local network from it.
Mesh networks are still the best option
But they're not always worth the extra money
At the end of the day, I did eventually move to a proper mesh Wi-Fi system with UniFi, but not because my wireless network was suffering. Really, I was using the two unmatched Wi-Fi node setup up until I got my Dream Router 7.
The reason I got the Dream Router 7 is because I wanted to try out managed networking, VLANs, and more advanced networking features that I simply didn't have on my old setup—it had nothing to do with poor Wi-Fi performance.
In fact, I now have three Wi-Fi nodes in my home to give me the same coverage I used to have with two. But, UniFi's networking setup (and most proper mesh networks) actually utilize the 802.11k, 802.11v, and 802.11r technologies that let devices roam between nodes depending on where they are in the house.
So, I now have one Wi-Fi network name for the whole house again, and it's really nice. I do actually still have a separate SSID for the garage, but only because I have that SSID set up to broadcast only on the node that is closest to the garage, so my lasers don't try to roam to other nodes in the house.
A new Wi-Fi network isn't always the right choice
I'm very glad that I didn't spend money on a mesh network back when I thought I needed one, and I just made do with what I had at home already. The pseudo-mesh network I built worked quite well and allowed me to save up for the networking setup that I really wanted—UniFi.
If you have poor Wi-Fi coverage in an area of your home, I definitely recommend trying out just putting a standard Wi-Fi router in that area in access point mode so that way it can broadcast your local network. It won't work quite as well as a proper mesh system, but it's far cheaper than upgrading your entire setup.
