Products we love—Google Nest Wifi

This year, working from home has become the norm, which means that we rely on video calls for meetings, chat software for communicating, and cloud services for collaborating. All of this is dependent on one very central thing—a solid internet connection.

Why consider Google Nest?

A large portion of your internet quality depends on your ISP (internet service provider), which in turn depends on where you live. In some areas, you have plenty of options. In others, very few. But even the best provider can’t help if you have a terrible router

For years, my wife and I ran into connection drops and speed throttles, often eeking out less than 1 Mbps when we were promised over 100. The router we had was highly rated and relatively cheap, but with our livelihoods depending on it, we couldn’t afford to save money on our internet setup. So we cashed in on one of the all-stars of home networking: the Google Nest Wifi.

How does Google Nest work?

Google’s home wifi system isn’t a budget option but, from what we’ve seen, it’s been worth the extra investment.

Google Nest Wifi is a mesh wifi network that comes with some extra smart home capabilities. If you’re wondering what a mesh network is, you’re not the only one. Mesh wifi is kind of a new approach to home networking. It starts with a basic router like you would expect with any setup, but then comes with these little satellite hubs that you can put all around the home that will extend your connectivity to pretty much anywhere. The nice thing is, pretty much no matter how large your home is, you won’t have to worry about any dead spots. And how is this different than a router with some range extenders? Well, range extenders don’t extend coverage so much as “stretch” it (meaning they take bandwidth away from your existing network). Google’s Mesh Wifi system effectively adds on to your existing network, giving it more reach without leaching from your main router.

Google Nest Hubs

Each hub also acts as a Google Assistant, allowing you to connect it to your overall smart home network. So if you’re investing in making your house and it’s devices interconnected, this will fit right into your setup. You can connect it to your home security, smart thermostat, smart lighting, etc. This means you are getting a bundle with your purchase, rather than just a powerful wifi network.

Final Thoughts

When we decided to purchase our Google Nest Wifi system, we were very aware that we had two weeks to back out of the investment and return it if it didn’t do the trick… but it did. Before the purchase, we experienced extreme drops daily while paying for over 100 mbps. Now drops and network slow-down are a rarity. The network can even heal disruptions much more easily than a standard network. On top of that, managing your network traffic and settings is as easy as opening the Google Home app on your phone.

So, if you are looking to boost your home network so you can do the work you need to get done, I can’t recommend the Google Nest Wifi system enough.