If you want your mesh system to deliver even faster speeds, try this router upgrade.

Once you've switched to mesh Wi-Fi, it's tough to go back. Standalone routers can get the job done and may actually be superior in some circumstances, namely if you want to shove all your smart home accessories over to the slower but far-reaching 2.4GHz band. A mesh system eliminates dead zones, however, and keeps speeds more consistent, which is often more important on a daily basis. A state-of-the-art smart home doesn't count for much if your phone or laptop can't get a decent signal in the basement.

To get the most out of mesh technology, you do have to learn certain principles. Chief among these is router placement — you want to maximize coverage without accidentally slowing things down or breaking the mesh entirely. If you stash a router in a closet or behind some other barrier hampering signals, you're sabotaging performance.

The best possible mesh experience requires integrating Ethernet. It's easy to understand why, although whether or not that's practical in your home may be another issue. Most people will, understandably, have to sacrifice maximum performance.

All mesh systems require what's called a backhaul connection. This is the pipeline that shuffles data between routers, rather than directly to your devices. You don't have to do anything to set one up — by default, mesh products automatically establish a wireless backhaul.

There are a couple of potential problems with this, the first being an echo of what you'd deal with in a standalone router: diminished speed over distance.

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