TaoTronics Tri-Band AC3000 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi Router System

Mesh is by far the easiest way of setting up a large network throughout your home. Especially, if you have a lot of square footage to cover. Normal routers are limited to the single bubble they produce, and then you have to buy into extenders to increase their range. Of course, doing this can sometimes cause channel or SSID conflicts depending on how you rolled everything out. This is where mesh steps in to make everything more fluid. One network, with multiple satellites and no SSID or channel conflicts to get in the way. The TaoTronics Tri-Band AC3000 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi Router System is one of these options.

It offers a strong network that can cover up to 6,000 square feet, depending on which kit you get. You can go with two units or three and each unit adds up to 2,000 square feet of coverage depending on the construction of your home, the number of walls between each unit, and other materials in the house (ie, large metal or dense items/appliances, etc). Perfect for both large homes or small businesses.

Design/Box Contents

The kit we have been testing is the three-pack. Each unit working together to get that “up to 6,000 square feet” of coverage. These units look similar to options like Netgear’s Orbi in ways while taking things a little further by adding a touch of decor to them by simply adding little silver legs at the bottom.

This design is minimalistic and simple, allowing them to blend in with virtually any home layout. The top side features an LED ring that runs around the rim to let the user know of its current condition or any troubles that might have come about (which can be disabled via the app if the user finds it distracting).

Each unit is exactly the same when it comes to connectivity. You get 3 LAN ports on each for all of your wired devices (a total of 9 between all units). Each unit also has its own USB 3.0 port, allowing you to attach an external storage device (hard drive). Each also has its own WAN port as any of them can be used as the main unit or used as a satellite.

You get a power cord for each unit and a single Ethernet cable, which is to be used with the WAN port of the unit you decide to be your main unit (connected to your modem). Outside of a very informative instruction manual, there is nothing else you need since this is a focus on wireless connectivity.

Installation/Setup

The process is pretty simple. You start by downloading the “TT Router” app, available for both Android and iOS devices. It will walk you through a quick process of plugging it in and tieing it in with your modem (source of your internet).

It then scans around looking for the unit that you plugged in. Once it finds it, it will then walk you through setting up your network with an SSID (network ID) and password. Once you have accomplished this, you land on the option of either moving on to the app’s interface or adding a new unit.

Clearly, you are going to want to add the other two units before you do anything else. So you plug those units in and get them added as well. The app will walk you through making sure that each unit is located within a prime location (distance from the other unit). You don’t want to place one of the units too far as it may go outside the reach of the other, which would cause it to lose connection.

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Once you have all of the units connected to each other, all spread evenly throughout your home, you can browse around the app to discover the many sections of settings it has to offer.

Performance

Settings are where we get a big grin on our faces, as the app is littered with wonderful options to poke around in. This is something that can make or break a mesh network as some of the systems lack some of your more advanced options, like IP assignments (dedicated IPs), VPN features, DMZ, and so forth.

However, nothing is perfect as it is missing one of the most common options you seem to miss with some of these mesh systems, and that is the ability to port forward. So if your network depends on using port forwarding, you may want to wait it out to see if the firmware updates allow for this eventually, or consider going with another system.

If port forwarding isn’t an option you require, then this makes for a wonderful mesh system filled with features. You get parental controls, full naming of both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz network (5 shares with 5.8), all of your favorite AI options (QoS, bandwidth, channel selection, etc), IP reservation (dedicated IP assignments), firewall settings, VPN settings, DMZ, virtual server, file server (Samba via the USB 3.0 port of each unit), DDNS, whitelist/blacklist (devices on Wi-Fi), stats, speed tests, and firmware updates (to name most of them). You can see some of your other options in the screenshots of the app above.

You can truly set up a strong network using this system and it is all user-friendly, for the most part. Clearly, if you aren’t tech-savvy at all, then you may want someone else to help you set everything up. Maybe call the Geek Squad or one of your friends. If you are tech-savvy, then the app is going to unfold itself in your hands without a single need of looking through the instructions.

The only other issue (besides port forwarding) that we could find in the app was with the email you use when initially setting everything up. You’ll want to make sure you use an email you plan to hold onto as you can’t simply “update” your email in your profile. You have to “transfer” ownership of the network to a new email using the permissions section within the settings. Of course, this isn’t much different. It may just be confusing to users who aren’t so tech-savvy. The process is quick simple at least and doesn’t require much effort on your part.

When it comes to wireless performance, this system absolutely rocks. Everything connects together so quickly and then all of your devices can jump right on. Network speed is right where you’d want it to be and so is the overall coverage. The distance you can get out of everything is perfect for just about every average home out there, and then some.

Our Conclusion

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Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.

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