What’s the difference between a WiFi Extender and V-Smart WiFi?

Let’s start with WiFi extenders.

WiFi extenders are devices that help your WiFi signal reach farther. They do this by picking up the WiFi signal from your router, then that signal gets re-broadcast. Often used when your WiFi signal can’t reach to the other end of house from your router, for example.

A WiFi extender takes the signal from your router and "extends" its reach to cover a larger area.

Some of the drawbacks to this solution are as follows:

• Often using the same frequency as other household devices, this can cause interference
• Due to the nature of the set up, needing the signal to travel from the router, to the extender and broadcast to your device, this can cause latency which makes your internet speed slower
• Often using a 2nd wireless network to communicate with the router, this means more than one WiFi network is essentially being created with a separate password. Devices switch between extenders/routers depending on your distance from each device. This leaves you with buffering or dropping out and re-connecting

Now onto V-Smart WiFi

Orbits work together to create a single seamless WiFi network. You replace your router with a V-Smart WiFi router and adopt Orbits as the units to place strategically around your home. Orbits then communicate with each other and share the same WiFi network name.

As you’re on a unified network, Orbits don’t impact your speed. The speeds you get from your router can be consistently carried across your V-Smart WiFi system between your Orbits.

The single network you have created provides a seamless roaming experiencing allowing you to stay connected to your network no matter where you go in your home. The automatic switch from one Orbit to another is so smooth that it’s unnoticeable even when you’re streaming.

Orbits are easy to scale, if you find you need more to increase your coverage, it is simple to incorporate more into your existing set up.

What does the system look like?

Not unlike the traditional WiFi Extenders that you might be familiar with, you require a router (one that supports our Orbits) and then the Orbits themselves to put around your home. They wirelessly connect back to your router. The Orbits are small white cubes, relatively inconspicuous but not so much that you might misplace them! Simply place them in convenient spots, on top of furniture is useful, ideally not behind or underneath anything.

How many Orbits do I need?

This depends on your individual circumstance. If you have a particularly large property you could benefit from four or more Orbits, smaller properties, like a one-bedroom bungalow might find one Orbit offers all the coverage you need. Our technical team can offer some helpful advice based on your properties size and layout, but you can play around with positioning once you have Orbits in your home and it is very simple to adopt more into your existing network if required.