Conclusion:

The Amped Wireless ALLY Plus Whole Home Smart Wi-Fi System is an impressive approach to setting up a Wi-Fi network that makes it easy to cover your entire house in reliable, high speed access. Setup is easy, and even though my home is much smaller, I am prone to agree that it could cover up to 15,000 square feet. The coverage in the yard was strong and far reaching, which might not be a plus for those in densely packed neighborhoods, but for me it is ideal. Excellent Wi-Fi in the house, plus very strong signal out by the pool, at the basketball hoop, even out by the chicken coop. If those birds wind up getting online, I could use the ALLY to make sure they stay safe on their cyber adventures!

In addition to the impressive coverage and performance, the ALLY Plus is very impressive because of all the extra features built in. As the father of three ranging in age from 7-15, I do worry about keeping their exposure to the Web as safe and as appropriate as possible. The ALLY's ability to block apps and websites, set curfews, and log activity are all pluses in my book. On top of that, all users could benefit from the extra protection provided by having AVG built in.

One positive thing I discovered about the ALLY not mentioned yet is that it is very easily added to an existing network as an access point. I have a home built router that runs pfSense that I am very fond of as it is quite powerful and handles plenty of special rules. While the testing of the ALLY was completed with the pfSense router removed from service, I later tried connecting the ALLY to the pfSense router by running a CAT6 cable from the WAN port on the ALLY to a LAN port on the pfSsense's switch. It worked without any configuration... Anything connected to the pfSense box directly functioned with an IP in the 192.168.1.x subnet, while all devices connected through the ALLY had an IP with a 192.168.3.x subnet... And all devices had their full transfer rates!



One wishlist item would be to see the transfer rates bumped up to compete with some of the top routers on the market... Even going from AC1900 to AC3150 would be a big deal to me. Coverage for 15,000 square feet implies to me that there could be quite a few people in the covered area, and more bandwidth would definitely be better!

The Amped Wireless ALLY Plus Whole Home Smart Wi-Fi System isn't available from all of the places I usually shop for tech gadgets, but when you do find it the sale price is typically $299.99. The ALLY (non-Plus which does not include the extender) sells for $179.99. While just about $300 may seem like a good deal of money for a Wi-Fi network, I would have to say that the convenience, performance, and added features might just be well worth the price. Considering the time, money, and effort I have spent previously to try to cover my home and property with reliable, usable Wi-Fi, the ALLY Plus is quite the bargain and quite the time saver.

Considering the convenience, performance, and the multitude of extra features that it adds to your Wi-Fi environment, the Amped Wireless ALLY Plus Whole Home Smart Wi-Fi System earns the Bigbruin.com "Great Idea" and "Highly Recommended" awards.



Pros:

» Very good wireless speeds, that are consistent throughout the house and near parts of the yard
» Extremely easy to setup
» Plenty of family friendly controls to give you peace of mind
   » Ability to block apps for individual users/devices
   » Web activity logs
   » Online time scheduling / curfew controls
» Two devices seamlessly covered my home and backyard
   » No more issues with dropped coverage as I transition between my previous router and access point
» Can be used as an access point by connecting the ALLY WAN port to a LAN port on existing network

Cons:

» Hopefully next generation pushes the throughput even higher... Maybe AC3150 instead of AC1900?!?
» $300 price tag is inline with similar systems, but may make you consider the cobbled-together approach

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