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What can you do to massively improve Wi-Fi throughout your home or business?

Well, arguably one of the best ways is to get a Mesh Wi-Fi, otherwise known as a Whole Home Wi-Fi system.

We’ll explain today what that is and why this is a great way to improve Wi-Fi range, reliability, speed, security and ease of use.

And we’ll show you one of the better products to make this happen: the COVR-2202 from D-Link.

First up: What is a Mesh System?

It’s basically a main router that connects directly to your modem and 1 or more satellite nodes, points or modules, which will give your large house full Wi-Fi coverage. This creates a single wireless network with the same SSID and password and allows you to seamlessly connect to the various satellite boxes throughout your house, having the same strong Wi-Fi signal.

Gone are the Wi-Fi dead zones and if you need to extend your coverage (with two units you can already blanket an area of around 550sqm) to an even larger area you can add more nodes.

Mesh systems also do a much better job of carrying a strong signal to the furthest corners than Wi-Fi extenders.

There are other benefits too but let’s have a look at one of D-Link’s flagship products: the COVR-2202 and its main features.

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COVR-2202 Unboxing and Main Features

The Covr Points are one of the best looking Wi-Fi units I’ve ever seen: gleaming white with rose gold accent, the COVR Logo lights up to tell the status and: NO external antennas! There are however 3 antennas inside every Covr Point…

The system is very clever in that it automatically uses the faster 5 GHz for devices that need this and the slower 2.4 band for other devices. Smart Steering they call that…

Smart Roaming seamlessly connects you to the strongest signal as you move from room to room without dropping a beat (or byte).

And if you want to know why it is so consistently fast – the Tri-Band refers to the fact that the Covr Points have a dedicated 5GHz backhaul channel to communicate between the units. So this doesn’t cut down on overall speed.

Setup is the easiest I’ve ever seen in a router, courtesy of the D-Link Wi-Fi app.

Great to see that the vulnerability to hacking of all Wi-Fi systems has been drastically minimised with the inclusion of D-Link Defend (powered by McAfee).

And for the bits and bytes folks:

The COVR systems feature a Tri-band AC2200 Wi-Fi with dedicated 5 GHz backhaul plus Wi-Fi MU-MIMO technology. There are also 2 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports per unit to give you high-speed wired connectivity

Full Parental controls and Scheduling are a godsend for many folks with kids and I just love being able to switch off all the Wi-Fi when we’re asleep (or SHOULD be asleep!)

And for more ease of use the COVR plays nice with Google and Alexa voice commands.

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Our Experiences

As you may know from some of our previous reviews we’ve had some issues with getting a good mobile signal on our property in rural WA. And Wi-Fi signal in our large home likewise was hard to get in all the places where we need it.

The D-Link COVR-2202 is a brilliant piece of kit that truly covers our whole place plus a fair chunk of our outdoor areas with Wi-Fi signals. This Mesh system promises a lot in the way of range, reliability, speed, security and ease of use and delivers on all of these in spades.

At what cost you may ask?

Having played around with many cheaper “solutions” I was willing to dig deep for what I needed. The official price is just a fraction below the $500 mark which is very reasonable for what it is capable of. And if you scout around you could even save another 100 bucks on that which makes it affordable for many.

We give the D-Link COVR-2202 our highest rating for excellence in design, innovation and value for money –

our Editor’s Choice Award!

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Check out here for more info and helpful schematics.