I have a wifi extender'
can someone explain the difference to me?
It has to do primarily with how the system self-manages. a mesh is a bit smarter, and sees the whole system, where the extender/repeater simply forwards a connected devices requests back to the main router.
In a mesh system, all of the mesh access points communicate and hand off traffic between each other - moving attached devices to the best signal.
An extender or repeater is simply just that - if you had a week signal in one part of your house, you put an extender between it and your router and it rebroadcasts communication back to the router.
A good example where a mesh makes a better difference - if you are equidistant to two of the access points, but one is being heavily used, it would move you to the other point, to give you better performance.
I personally have the Google setup. I think my house could get away with just two APs, but I use 3. First, it was literally 5-10x faster than both my Telco router, and my previous extender network. (I have a computer that was previously connecting via an extender. It's speedtest was about 3-5mbps. Now I am consistently getting 30mpbs).
Other things I like:
- I can selectively turn off or pause the access of given devices
- Setup wi-fi bedtimes for my kids (i.e. their Wi-Fi access shuts off at bedtime)
- It has a self-test tool that can help you better place your access points