Smart home networking: mesh vs extenders

On our latest IoT Podcast episode, we take a question that Robert left on our IoT Voicemail Hotline. Robert has nearly 70 smart home devices and he’s currently using an Eero mesh router plus a non-Eero 2.4 GHz network extender in his house. He’s heard us recently discuss the security benefits of network segmentation and wonders if his network setup should change.

The short answer is yes if Robert wants to beef up the network security in his smart homes. Although the’s using a network extender that supports his 2.4 GHz home devices, every Wi-Fi device in the house is still on the same network.

Why? Because it’s possible that some of those 2.4 GHz devices are connecting to his Eero. And if the extender uses the same network name, or SSID, as the Eero router, everything is all on one contiguous network, regardless of the radio frequency.

For this reason, we generally prefer adding a mesh access point to a mesh router as opposed to a network extender. You get the benefits of the newer mesh wireless technology that has more capabilities and is easier to manage. Yes, a mesh access point will likely cost more than a simple extender, but if you can afford it, we recommend it.

Since all of Robert’s smart home devices are effectively on the same network, we’d consider using the Eero’s Guest network solely with IoT devices.

By segmenting off IoT device access to a single Guest network, any device intrusions are limited to the device network. All other connected computers, phones, tablets, etc… won’t be impacted. The same applies to the reverse case. If some malware gets through to a computer or phone, for example, it won’t have access to infect the smart home devices on the separate network.

To hear Robert’s question in full, as well as our discussion on the topic, tune in to the IoT Podcast below: