Gary SteelLooking to finally banish those internet black-spots in your home? Who isn’t? D-Link comes to the rescue with a new Mesh package.
Having a stand-alone router bunged in the home office suddenly seems so last century. Your router might be manfully struggling to send its internet goodness out to the farthest corners of your abode, but the keyword there is ‘struggle’.
Despite most Kiwi homes now having access to superfast fibre internet speed, expecting that one gadget to beam its Wi-Fi successfully through walls and downstairs in large homes is way too much to ask. In fact, it’s a bit like expecting your kids to be able to hear your remonstrations to tidy there rooms when they’re down in the basement listening to loud music.
D-Link has already set the standard with its new technology EasyMesh system, and now the most trusted Wi-Fi experts have added a new three-pack and a single add-on unit to its COVR system.
The AC1200 Mesh Wi-Fi system promises to blanket any home with stable, consistent and seamless Wi-Fi, saturating through to every corner and killing off those black spots for good.
An extension of the groundbreaking D-Link COVR AC1200 system is the new three-unit pack (COVR-1103), while also available is a single add-on unit (COVR-1100). These two options give users the flexibility to cover any home (or home office) with D-Link’s unique COVR mesh Wi-Fi solution, which includes high-speed AC1200 Dual-Band Wi-Fi and 11ac Wave 2 with MU-MIMO.
If that’s just too much gadget lingo for a sunny winter day, let’s just say that they’re fast enough to support multiple devices undertaking everyday data-intensive tasks like HD streaming and video chats simultaneously.
While the COVR-1100 is perfect if you’re just starting out in whole home networking, or have a smaller space, the COVR-1102 two-pack gives more reach and coverage up to 325 square metres, and the COVR-1103 three-pack truly blankets any home with up to 464 square metres of seamless Wi-Fi.
The COVR industry-standard mesh networking technology allows for device flexibility and ease of use, as users can now easily expand any existing COVR mesh Wi-Fi network by adding additional single unit COVR-1100 points as required.
That said, if you have a larger space or perhaps a townhouse over multiple levels then the COVR-1103’s three COVR points and optional wired Ethernet backhaul is the system for you.
All three COVR systems work with the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa and all have profile-based Parental Controls for setting boundaries online. They are super simple to set-up with the
D-Link Wi-Fi App and Quick VPN capabilities allows you to securely connect to a remote network.
COVR-1100, COVR-1102 and COVR-1103 all also support WPA3, which brings the latest standard for wireless encryption to individual users.
COVR’s Quality of Service (QoS) prioritises network traffic to minimise the impact of limited bandwidth and its Triple Play VLAN support allows ISPs to provide multiple services with just one router.
Features of the COVR-1100, COVR-1102 and COVR-1103:
- One Seamless Network: one wireless network name and password for the entire home
- Smart Steering: automatically directs your device to the optimum wireless band, reducing buffering and lag
- Smart Roaming: automatically connects to the COVR Point with the strongest signal so that users can move freely throughout the house
- Voice Assistant Compatibility: Control the Router’s functionality by using voice commands with Alexa or the Google Assistant
The COVR-1100 retails for $199.99; the COVR-1102 is $329.99 and the COVR-1103 for $429.99 and they’re available now from www.dlink.co.nz and from all authorised D-Link partners.
* Check out Pat Pilcher’s Mesh Networking Guide here, and Witchdoctor’s review of D-Link’s COVR 2022 here.
