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You may never have heard of Vilo before, but barring major issues, I think it’s a name you will be familiar with in the future. The company just announced a new mesh Wi-Fi system – a boring topic except one detail: the Vilo Mesh Wi-Fi system only costs $ 20 per node (plus shipping) and $ 60 for a three-pack. . It might not support the very latest Wi-Fi specs, but it is a crazy the price.
Vilo’s Mesh Wi-Fi System is not Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 6, just Wi-Fi 5 / ac, and it is not the fastest router you can get, but it offers decent specs for the price. Each node is designed to cover up to 1,500 square feet, supporting wireless speeds of up to 867 Mbps over 5 GHz and 300 Mbps over 2.4 GHz. These are theoretical highs, so the actual numbers with a bunch of devices on the network will definitely be lower, but most of us aren’t trying to saturate a single-point gigabit connection – and, again, it’s just $ 20 per node. For comparison, the much-loved eero 6 is rated up to 500Mbps, and that’s $ 200 for a three-pack, not $ 60, although this model does support Wi-Fi 6, which features d ‘other advantages.
Vilo’s software is a bit more limited if you’re coming from something super powerful like DD-WRT, but that’s about equal over most user-friendly mesh systems. You can configure things like PPoE and static IP, and application-based management makes it easy to see which devices are connected, set parental controls or a guest network, or keep things up to date.
Another big advantage of the Vilo system is the configuration process, which is mostly automated. With many (if not most) mesh systems, you have to connect and pair each node so that they all talk together, somewhat painfully connecting to different temporary access points, but they don’t. for the Vilo. Once the primary is online, you just plug in the satellite units and they see it and configure themselves. Granted, it’s something you should only have to do once, but it’s the fastest setup process I’ve personally seen in a mesh system.
The physical design is not too ostentatious, although it is taller and taller than some mesh Wi-Fi systems. This makes it a bit harder to hide in plain sight (as you should for best performance – no cabinets or shelves). It also uses a barrel connector, not a Type-C port like some recent mesh systems do.
The port selection is pretty good: each satellite has three Gigabit Ethernet ports, so you can connect a few devices to it, although I’m not sure if all three work as outputs or if one is a dedicated input, we will have to do additional tests.
On that note, we’re actually reviewing the Vilo, so keep an eye out for our more detailed review, but I have no problem offering my preliminary thoughts. While we had some issues with the first pre-release firmware, the company has fixed all of the issues I have encountered with subsequent updates, and performance has been quite good in our limited testing so far. .
Sales are now open on the Vilo site and shipping costs vary, but it starts out quite expensive: $ 8 for one unit, or $ 10 for the three-pack. Between the aggressive initial price and the higher than expected shipping cost, we get some Wyze vibes. Keep an eye out for our next review to see how they play out.
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