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Vilo Mesh Router Review: Cheap and reliable dirt

If you enter the weed of its specifications for one minute, the Vilo routers support IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac. There is no support for the latter ax standard, also known as Wi-Fi 6. That’s not a huge problem considering that you need to upgrade all devices to enable Wi-Fi 6, but it would be a nice addition for future testing. In terms of security, he doesn’t use the latter WPA3 protocol, but instead of WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2). Like Wi-Fi 6, WPA3 is still relatively new, so it’s no surprise. But passwords get harder and connections to devices without screens are easier and more secure, so it’s the newer version you want.

Each router has four antennas and supports multi-user, multi-input and multi-output (MU-MIMO), which allows better handling of multiple devices connected to the router. There is also a beam formation to route the wireless signal to the devices.

The Vilo system has bandwidth enabled by default, which selects the band that you think is appropriate for each device (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz), but both appear with the same network name. This can cause problems when setting up smart home devices. My Nanoleaf light panelsFor example, they only connect to 2.4 GHz but also need the phone that configures them to connect to the same band. Luckily, Vilo allows you to turn off bandwidth management so you can split bands to set up some temporary devices before I can turn them back on.

Your mileage will vary depending on your configuration. For me the limit is the speed of internet access to my home, but the Vilo system does a great job of expanding the available bandwidth, and I haven’t had a random disconnect in three weeks of testing. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have a problem.

Catching

The app is strict, but uploading or updating after making changes can be slow. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to update on the current status. Even after something has changed well, it may take some time to appear well.

In the setup, to prevent many smart home devices from reconnecting, I thought I’d give the Vilo system the same Wi-Fi network names and passwords as before. Unfortunately, it refused to accept the password and did not work. The good news is that the company quickly fixed the bug through a firmware update.

There is also no way to force a connection to a specific router. This isn’t usually a problem because the devices connect to the best possible speed to connect to the nearest option, but I continue to connect my desktop computers to a router farther in the 2.4 GHz band instead of the nearest 5 GHz band like me. would expect. The firmware update has also improved this, although it occasionally connects to the top router.

Since the company is so new, it’s normal to see some tricks like this, but it’s nice to see Vilo active in directing quickly. Fortunately, this continues throughout the life of the router.


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