TaoTronics Mesh WiFi Router Review
Ryan
$199.99
$239.99
Amazon.com
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Design
The TaoTronics mesh router is actually aesthetically pleasing. The clean, white design and faux chrome legs are a nice change from traditional routers that resemble robotic spiders. The outer plastic shell has a matte finish that resists fingerprints.
An LED light on the top helps to communicate any issues. Normally, a solid blue light indicates that the router is working normally; any other color likely means your attention is needed.
Setup
The setup process is completely controlled by the “TT Router” app, which actually does a good job of walking you through the setup process by utilizing Bluetooth to communicate with the not-yet-configured routers and establish your WiFi name and password.
When setting up the second mesh router, the app helpfully shows if you are too far away from the first router so you can find the ideal placement.
Performance
I setup this router for a family member as their cable/router combo unit is located in the basement and the WiFi doesn’t quite reach all of the living areas upstairs.
I wasn’t able to configure their cable company’s combo unit in bridge mode, so I ended up configuring the TaoTronics mesh router as a secondary WiFi network. Even though this is a “Double NAT” configuration, it didn’t seem to cause any issues.
The TaoTronics mesh router did indeed improve the network connectivity in their home by placing one router downstairs and the other router upstairs. They have gigabit service and we were able to reach around 800Mbps in the far corner of the house that would constantly drop signal.
Features
- Ethernet ports: Each node has 4 Ethernet ports (the first node uses one of the ports for a connection to your modem). This is nice for “hard wiring” devices directly to the node to help eliminate WiFi interference. By comparison, the Linksys Velop system only has two ethernet ports per node.
- File Server: You can attach a flash drive to the USB port of the first node to use it as a file server for your local network.
- Parental Controls: You can adjust website access and time limits for certain devices.
- 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks: Newer devices can utilize the less-crowded 5 GHz range for faster performance and lower interference, with 2.4 GHz still available for older devices.
