D-Link Covr Mesh Routers Review

Looking for a solution for wifi coverage problem ? D-Link Covr Mesh Network Solution. could be the price-performance answer you were looking for!

Mesh Networks ?

Traditional Wifi and or routers as most of us know it, is that little black or white box in the corner of the house that somehow gives all with the password internet access. Sit too far away from the magic box and your YouTube videos starts to buffer and stutter.

Enter mesh networks.

They are the natural evolution of those dreaded “Wifi-Extenders” that usually are a hit or a miss. I myself have two of those extenders that I use for doorstops.

Think of them as three separate routers that can be spread out on your property, but with the promise of better performance and little to no setup headaches.

This general solution of mesh networks works so well that even Google got into this, and they have their own Google Wifi Mesh Network solution for about double the price.

Big House Or Property

We at Fibre Tiger have been asked numerous times by our clients, what can we do or recommend for clients that have a big house with WiFi dead spots or with a granny flat on the property? Usually we would recommend WiFi extenders with a lot of caution and disclaimers of "it might work".

After playing around with the D-Link Covr solution we feel confident in recommending it to anyone suffering from a poor wifi signal, or dead-spots within the premises. Not to be confused with poor LTE signal !

Packaging And Manufacturing

The moment you see and open the box, you know you bought something nice.. My girlfriend’s first response was "ohhh that's pretty" even before I told her what it was.

The setup comes with 3 “orbs” or “stations” if you will, and their colors can be customized. All units come with 2 Gigabit ports and their own power supplies.

Dual Band

The units are all capable of operating in either the 2.4Ghz and/ or 5Ghz band with the highest wireless specification being 1200 AC. This really has become the norm for routers and if your next router is not dual band you should look elsewhere.

Setup

There is a main unit clearly marked as A, and the setup is no more complicated than a normal router. You connect your fibre line to unit A and it will show up on your local network which you can access at http://covr.local/ The instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

Once you have your main unit setup and connected to the internet, it's time to cover your house with wifi coverage from top to bottom.

To setup and link a second unit you simply follow these steps:

• Connect the 2nd unit to the 1st unit via a supplied cable
• Plug in the 2nd unit to its own power supply
• Wait for the LEDS to go white.
• Remove the cable and place the device anywhere in your house. Within distance of device one.

That's it ! As simple as that ! We were holding off on doing this test, as we thought back to when we had to setup “wi-fi extenders” and the dread and pain it usually goes with it, but this was stupidly easy.

Placement

The trick is not to place the unit directly in the no-coverage spot, but somewhere in between good reception and the no-coverage spot. This way it can pick up the internet and wifi and give out extra coverage into the dark spots. One nice feature is that the orbs will themselves light up red if they can’t get a connection or are not in the coverage zone.

Wired Placement

Another nice feature is that, if you have the time and opportunity you can also connect the orbs with a network cable and extend your coverage even more ! This will most likely be the case if you need to give the granny flat in the corner of your yard great coverage.

Coverage Test

Using again our phone with the SpeedChecker App, we wanted to see how much of an improvement we could get by adding an extra unit to our network versus having just one.

The results were quite impressive !

Test With Only ONE Unit Active

Test With TWO Units Active

Pricing And Alternatives

Right now it seems you can have the D-Link Covr with 3 units for as little as R2622 from some online retailers like PC Link Computers. A similar package for the Google Wifi also with 3 units will cost you just under R6000.

Conclusion

Having dead spots or an extra tenant on your property, the D-Link Covr will solve your problem in a cost effective way. The only real critique we can add is that it can take up to two minutes for a unit to come live and connected.

Read More At D-Link
https://www.dlink.com/en/covr