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The spider look comes from multiple antennas. Multiple antennas are needed for beamforming [1]; they represent a minimal phased array. [1]: https://www.network

• cduzz 3mo ago
  It is probably a combination of hitting a (low) cost and mimo; cisco makes pretty reasonable looking APs with lots of radios and decent coverage and they look like UFOs not alien spiders. But it's probably easier / cheaper to get maximum coverage at larger distances from a single AP using a big array of sticking out antennae, and that's what a normal home user is going to want.
  • d3Xt3r 3mo ago
    > and they look like UFOs not alien spiders. I feel like there's an untapped market here. I want them to go with the alien spaceship concept all the way thru; I wanna see mini Death Star mesh nodes, X Wing routers and Millennium Falcon access points, dammit. Or hell, cross the multiverse and give me Borg Cube mesh nodes, complete with green shiny LEDs that actually indiacte network/hardware status.
    • ButlerianJihad 3mo ago
      It is rather disturbing to me that WiFi routers already look too much like the Replicators from Stargate SG-1.
    • nine_k 3mo ago
      Ah, these so-called SciFi routers.