Review on 📶 AmpliFi Alien WiFi 6 Seamless Whole Home Coverage System with Touchscreen Display, Gigabit Ethernet Ports, MeshPoint, and Ethernet Cable by Tanner Miller

This replaced the old Apple AirPort Extreme with 3 bridged Express units for longer range. Wow! What a difference in Wi-Fi speed and capacity compared to a 10 year old system. Incredibly easy to set up. I used the same name for my SSID and password so I didn't have to change 30 (yes, 30 Wi-Fi connected) devices. I didn't realize I had that many, but when you have multiple PCs, phones, tablets, Wi-Fi enabled lights, cameras, Revain Echos, Apple TVs, etc., it adds up very quickly. There are some great unboxing and setup videos online. (Google Amplifi Alien), so I won't go into detail. I'm going to talk about the app (mostly great but could use some improvements) and an issue I had twice that got resolved. The application is great. As I said earlier, I was told I have 30 devices in an organized, easy-to-search descriptive list. It shows the instantaneous data rates for each device. This also includes router to internet performance tests (similar to Sppedtest.net) which you can run from the app and even directly from the touchscreen on the router itself (the touchscreen on the router is super cool btw. much more useful than a flashing light!) The Functions in the app are mostly self-explanatory. You can pause Internet access for individual devices, groups of devices (they call it a profile), or all devices. You can toggle guest access on and off and even disable the master WiFi password for 2 minutes if you have a group of people who need access to your WiFi and don't want to share the password. The main interface of the application shows the router and meshpoint and the connection status between the two devices. Touching the router image opens a menu for changing router settings. The same applies to the grid point. When in the Edit Grid Point menu, it shows the signal strength between the grid point and the router (mine is connected to Wi-Fi) and tells you if the router and grid point are too close or too far apart. This is a great feature. At the top of the app's home screen it says "Everything is great" (which means everything is working). But it still said "everything is fine" even though I lost the connection between the router and the meshpoint a few times (we'll discuss this shortly). So the "everything ok" message should point out the problem (I hope they add this feature) and send a notification to my phone that everything is not so good. The app also allows you to chat with the support team. The app can also send a support log to the support team reporting on the activities just before you encountered the issue. I had to do this twice when my meshpoint stopped communicating with the router. When you launch the support messaging feature in the app, an automated bot called "Bobby" will ask you a few questions. Bobby has to work harder to be useful. I just asked Bobby to contact someone and it put me in the support queue. I think the problems with my mesh point were related to where I placed it. The first time was on TV. When I moved it away from behind the TV and turned off the power, it reconnected. The second time he was lying on the floor next to the same TV. It worked for a day without any problems, but then switched off. During the second disconnect I unplugged it, waited about a minute and plugged it back in, but it didn't connect. The support rep suggested I move the device closer to the router and try again. I did this and it immediately reconnected. Bobby should recommend this measure of moving the mesh point closer to the router, rather than just repeating the same questions when you tell him you have a problem with the mesh point. Those are the only issues I had and using the support messaging app worked fine. Response took less than 1 hour and you can reopen the conversation if you have the same problem. One more note about the mesh point. It only has backlight. There is no touch screen. If you disabled the LED using the settings in the app, it's just a dark cylinder (whether it's working or not). When the grid dot is down or disabled, you can easily see the status on the app's main screen. Disabling the LED was a little confusing as to what happens when I try to toggle the grid point on and off. You can set the grid dot to night mode, which turns off the LED at a specified time if the grid dot light disturbs you at night. Another recommendation would be to change the color of the LED at the grid point to red when not interacting with the base. In terms of Wi-Fi signal range and Wi-Fi performance, both are way better than my old Apple Airport (the difference is amazing). BTW, I could rent Wi-Fi equipment from my ISP and buy Wi-Fi extenders. I find that having your own Wi-Fi router provides better privacy. Time will tell if the hardware is reliable, but apart from two issues (which could be self-inflicted) everything works now. I had the device for about 1 week. Based on my experience, I would definitely buy it again and recommend it to friends.