MSI networking buying guide: solving dead zones with Wi-Fi 7 MLO technology

Today's Wi-Fi systems are capable of very fast speeds, but they don't always deliver it consistently. That's because in many buildings, signal strength can vary dramatically – so much so that some places have "dead zones" where your fast Wi-Fi is slow for specific devices or places. The good news is that there's a way to solve that and get the speed you need where you need it.

The solution? Wi-Fi 7, MLO and mesh networking in a router such as the MSI Roamii BE Pro. It destroys dead zones and uses mesh technology to deliver fast, reliable internet to all of your devices, delivering 8K video streaming, immersive gaming and AI apps everywhere at speeds of up to 11Gbps.

What causes dead zones?

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Dead zones are areas where your Wi-Fi router struggles to deliver a strong, reliable signal to wireless devices such as laptops, phones, tablets or smart TVs.

Dead zones can be caused by multiple things. Signal strength drops over long distances, and it can also suffer from electronic interference from other and older devices. And some homes just aren't Wi-Fi friendly because of their size, the way they're laid out, the thickness of their walls or whether there are lots of signal-blocking items such as metal radiators or file cabinets.

That's not the only issue. Wi-Fi devices use specific radio frequencies, and some of those frequencies can get very congested: for example in blocks of flats or apartments you might be surrounded by dozens of other people's devices, all of them chattering on the same frequency bands.

There are several ways to solve that. You can mount your router high on a wall so it can deliver a stronger signal upstairs. You can upgrade to a more advanced router that uses a wider range of frequencies and delivers data more efficiently with better range. And you can create a mesh network, where two or more routers combine to offer massively increased coverage across your home no matter how many devices you need to connect. The MSI Roamii BE Pro enables you to do all three with ease.

Defeat the dead zones

The Roamii BE Pro's companion app comes with a feature that's designed to defeat dead zones. It's called Find WiFi Spot, and to use it you walk around your home while it scans the Wi-Fi frequency bands. That enables it to create a detailed map of how the wireless signals are beamed around your home. It then shows you the perfect place to position your Roamii to deliver the fastest possible speeds across your entire home.

Find WiFi Spot works brilliantly, but it can't change the laws of physics: if your home is simply too large, too complicated or too full of furniture for a single Wi-Fi router to cover every inch, you can add a second Roamii to create a mesh network.

A mesh network is when two or more Wi-Fi routers are linked together wirelessly and act as one. For example you might have one Roamii downstairs and one upstairs to get the fastest possible speeds in every corner of your home; your devices will connect to whichever Roamii has the strongest signal. With just two Roamii BE Pros you can cover areas of up to 6,500 square feet and connect up to 200 devices – and because both Roamiis will have the same network SSID your devices automatically switch between them as you move around your home.

Fast connections without congestion

Wi-Fi 7 is also more efficient at transferring data. The MSI Roamii BE Pro packs more data into each transmission than Wi-Fi 6 can manage: 20% more, for even faster performance.

The MSI Roamii BE Pro has another very clever feature: MLO. MLO is short for multi-link operation: instead of transmitting and receiving data on a single solitary frequency band, the Roamii uses three different bands simultaneously. Where older Wi-Fi devices may use just the 2.4GHz or 5GHz bands, the Roamii uses both and adds 6GHz to the mix too, delivering double the transmission rate on the 6GHz band.

If you imagine the frequency bands as lanes on a highway or motorway, your data is travelling on three lanes at once – so if one lane gets congested or slows, your data keeps moving at full speed in the other lanes. Wi-Fi 7 can also identify the "clean" parts of a frequency band even when it's congested, so data keeps moving instead of slowing or stopping even when a band gets busy.

That gives you three things: fast data speeds, more reliable connections, and low latency. Latency is the gap between requesting data and receiving it and vice-versa, and it's particularly important for gaming, video calls and high quality streaming. With MLO that gap is microscopic, and you can reduce it to zero for serious gaming such as esports by connecting to one of its four 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports.

Safe as houses

The more digital devices we use in our homes, the more important it is to keep them secure. MSI's solution is called FortiSecu. It provides multiple layers of protection to connected devices – computers, TVs, game consoles and other hardware – and provides parental controls that you can use to keep inappropriate content away from children. You can also use it to set up different wireless networks for different things, for example so your children or house guests have safer online access or so only you can control your smart home hardware.

If you're looking for the fastest, most reliable, safest Wi-Fi throughout your home, the MSI Roamii BE Pro really delivers: it's easy to set up and manage, delivers rock-solid security and defeats dead zones throughout your home. It's also very affordable. Click here to discover the ultimate upgrade for all of your devices.