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Whenever I test a mesh router, I position the main router in that front living room, then add one of the satellite extenders in the back half of the house, in the master bedroom. It's not the largest space, but the floorplan is long and narrow, and with a router located in my living room at the front of my house, I'll often struggle to maintain a connection in the back of the house, where a back bathroom sits.

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My home is a single-story, 1,300 square foot shotgun-style house in Louisville, Kentucky, where I have a fiber internet plan with max upload and download speeds of 300Mbps. To see if Vilo meets that bar, let's dig into the data a little deeper - and let me start by describing my testing setup. At this price, Vilo doesn't need to be the speed king - it just needs to be competent, and better than a cheap single-point router at providing a usable connection throughout the majority of your home. I wasn't expecting Vilo to be a top finisher in my speed tests by any stretch - and I wasn't terribly surprised when it ended up finishing those tests in last place behind every other mesh router I've ever tested at my home. Let's be clear: The bar for performance from a mesh router you only spent $40 or $60 on is about as low as it gets.

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When I tried using an all-lower case password that was identical to the network name (don't try this at home), the app still listed my password security as 'strong.'ДЄfter running hundreds of wireless speed tests in several spots throughout my home, Vilo's average upload and download speeds were lower than any other mesh router I've put through the same battery of tests. There's even an indicator for the strength of your password, but I don't know how much stock I'd put into it. Still, the app does offer a sense of how your network performance looks, with indicators for things like interference and signal strength that might help you figure out if you need to move one of the extenders a little closer to the router. If you want to make use of things like advanced troubleshooting diagnostics or full-featured device prioritization, then Vilo probably isn't the pick for you. Just don't expect anything too advanced in that department - you can quickly change your network name and password, create a guest network, or turn bandsteering on and off, but that's really about it.

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Once your system is up and running, you'll see a System Dashboard that offers a quick glimpse at the devices connected to your network plus easy access to features and settings. Speaking of the Vilo app, it's nothing too fancy, but it is simple, clean-looking and easy to use, which goes a long way if you're someone who finds routers intimidating. The Vilo app's dashboard offers a quick glance at the devices connected to your network, plus easy access to settings and indicators for things like network interference and signal strength. In other words, it's no dead dove in a bag, and it's better than you might expect at this price - just don't expect more than what you're paying for. That said, Vilo was extremely easy to set up and use, and it did successfully spread a usable signal to all corners of my home, including a dead zone that most single-point routers fail to penetrate at all. I also noticed some drops and other mesh networking hiccups as I moved about my home running speed tests, so don't expect it to be a FaceTime champion if you prefer to walk-and-talk, either.ДЄll of that keeps Vilo off of my list of the best mesh routers (and if you're looking for a mesh router bargain pick, I think the AC1200 version of Netgear Orbi, currently available in a three-pack for about $130, is a lot closer to the sweet spot). That means that you can go ahead and rule it out as a worthy pick for anyone with a gigabit internet connection, and you really shouldn't expect it to make the most of your connection if your home's top speeds are anything much higher than 100Mbps. In fact, Vilo's average speeds finished in last place behind every other mesh router I've tested.

No device prioritization, gaming modes or other advanced featuresДЄ dual-band, AC1200 router, Vilo doesn't support Wi-Fi 6, and it doesn't promise top speeds any faster than 867 megabits per second in the most ideal of circumstances.

Occasional drops and other networking hiccups.

Average speeds were slower than any other mesh router I've ever tested.

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