Our home networking needs change constantly, whether that's from adding more devices to our home or wanting newer wireless protocols. But if you've got a Wi-Fi router that you're mostly happy with, and only wish you could use Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 instead of the existing version, what can you do?

Without replacing your existing router, you could wire some mesh nodes or several access points (APs) to your router and turn off its internal Wi-Fi radios. That would still enable you to use the existing router's firewall rules and DHCP routing, but the APs and/or mesh nodes would handle the wireless connectivity. It's the same system that enterprise networks use, and by decoupling Wi-Fi from your router, you gain some impressive benefits.

6 More consistent Wi-Fi coverage

More APs mean more wireless connectivity throughout your home

It might be a simple fact that the single Wi-Fi router you've been using isn't enough for your home to provide consistent wireless coverage in every area. Think of the signal coming from your router at a theoretically perfect dBi of 0 as a sphere with the router in the center. Now, nothing is ever perfect, and that sphere is more likely a squished orb or egg shape because the Wi-Fi signal is affected by the coverage, signal strength, and ensuring compatibility.

But the signal inside that sphere is affected by pipes and other metal objects in the walls, furniture, the materials of the walls themselves, appliances, and anything else in the signal path. This leads to inconsistent coverage, either where the signal is affected heavily or near the surface of the sphere.

If that's your home situation, adding a couple of APs or mesh nodes to handle wireless connectivity at a decent spacing will ensure consistent wireless connectivity. Now, you've got two overlapping spheres of Wi-Fi for devices to use. Just don't put them too close together, or you'll end up with interference issues.

5 To get a newer Wi-Fi version

You can get improved wireless versions while sticking with the router you know

One thing about Wi-Fi routers is that they come as a package deal, with the routing attached to the wireless broadcasting chips. That means you can't upgrade one without upgrading the other, which gives you a difficult decision when a new Wi-Fi version comes out. Do you avoid upgrading or swap your entire router to get the updated specs?

Whether you really want Wi-Fi 7 or have an old Wi-Fi router that's still functioning fine but is stuck on the 2.4GHz band, you don't have to replace the entire router to broadcast a new Wi-Fi spec.

Adding an AP or mesh node and turning off the wireless on the existing router would give you the updated Wi-Fi spec, and probably some other benefits you might not have thought of. The only thing to take into account is that Wi-Fi 7 wants at least a 2.5GbE wired port to make the most of it, while Wi-Fi 6 or 6E can be fine on a gigabit port.

4 To support more devices

Each AP or mesh node adds more capacity to your network

New devices tend to have wireless connectivity, whether they're game consoles, smart TVs, smartphones, appliances, or almost anything electronic. That's a problem for Wi-Fi on older routers, as the maximum number of devices it can support is often fairly low.

But every AP you add can support a certain number of wirelessly connected devices, as can mesh nodes. By adding them to your existing router, you fulfill the connectivity needs of your household devices while increasing the capacity of your home network for new devices to be added.

3 Fix tricky Wi-Fi dead zones

Sometimes, you have to bring Wi-Fi to the mountain

We already discussed the consistency of the wireless signal around your home, but what about spots that are essentially dead zones where no devices connect? These areas of your home are unlikely to improve with a single Wi-Fi router, no matter how much you try to centralize your router placement or move devices around.

The 2.4GHz band is the oldest but longest-range band in your Wi-Fi router, while the 5GHz and 6GHz bands are faster and have higher bandwidth to play with, but they have shorter range as a trade-off. You can't make any of these bands transmit further than the real-world limitations of physics, and that means you run into situations where wireless doesn't reach everywhere in your home.

Instead, adding APs or mesh nodes to your network gives you more broadcast stations to move around and find the best places so that those dead zones are minimized or removed entirely. It's much easier to reposition these broadcast devices than it is a router, which is often constrained by where the line from your ISP is installed.

2 Easier installation

Mesh nodes are usually app-controlled, while APs have web-based configurators

I don't know when you last used a modern mesh network or even a recent enterprise AP. If your only memories of setting up a router include web-based confusing UI pages, I can understand why you might be hesitant to upgrade and go through that annoyance again.

But modern networking gear often comes with app-based management tools, designed to guide you through the process from start to finish, making adding new Wi-Fi access points easy. For enterprise devices that might not have a mobile app, there's usually a Windows-based app that will do the same process for you.

1 They're scalable to your needs

When your Wi-Fi needs change, so can your network

Wi-Fi is a ubiquitous resource these days. We expect access in businesses, restaurants, hotels, and pretty much anywhere we go. The same standard should apply to your home network, and a single Wi-Fi router is often not enough for modern needs.

Using wireless access points or mesh nodes means that your home Wi-Fi network is now scalable to your needs and can be expanded or shrunk as you add or remove devices or change the layout of your home. That's not possible with a single router, but even one AP or mesh node gives you the option to scale things as needed.

Adding APs or mesh nodes to your existing router makes sense for some users

Wi-Fi routers aren't designed to be upgraded, but that doesn't mean you can't wire in a newer AP or mesh node to handle the wireless connectivity part of the deal and gain an upgraded version of the Wi-Fi spec. Decoupling wireless broadcasting from the main router could also reduce the load on the router, making it snappier for routing and other tasks. As always with networking, it's not the only option, and it really depends on your home's layout and what you want to do with your network.