The Fastest Most Affordable Mesh Wifi System 

Ham

I started having issues with my internet provider router which also is used for wifi when I connected too many devices to it, it would just cut out the whole internet, then i got the deco m4 and all been good so far

Uploads are very expensive where I am, I get 1000 down but only 50 up. To get it up to 100 up I have to pay $50pm more for a 250/100 plan.

We just downgraded our cable package, and along with it lost our gigabit internet service. So the problem (at least for me...wife doesn't notice any difference lol) is the speed decrease & lag. Mind you, I'm not expecting gigabit speeds after getting this, but even 400mbit would be a big improvement.

Looks great, I have a TP-Link RE650 which is enough for the size of my Parisian flat but struggles a bit with French building standards: steel rebar reinforced concrete. The other problem being: in France they are already extremely equipped with 1Gbps and 10Gbps FTTH (80% of the country covered by 2024, for prices as low as 20€/month) with triple and quadruple play set-top boxes from the 4 main national providers containing NAS's and routers. Using a different router can degrade the provider's experience (especially NAS and security systems) and I still haven't been able to find an affordable WiFi solution that can match up with a 10Gbps fiber (the box integrated WiFi is not up to par with the connection). I'm currently getting a steady 800+Mbps in bedroom and living room with the RE650 but a spotty connection, sometimes 300Mbps sometimes giving errors in the bathroom which is behind a corner and an F shaped set of reinforced concrete walls. One other problem in very densely populated cities like Paris is interference, I had problems with my neighbors using a previous access point set that scrambled their connections. I messed up the connection of my neighbors on the 6 sides of my flat and had a lot of complaints but my connection wasn't spotty anymore in the bathroom. So I had to revert back to the RE650 and I'm waiting for a new affordable solution to use the full potential of my fiber line without starting a neighbor's war.

Glad you enjoyed it! I try to cover everything I can, but I only know so much, lol.

I'm glad it was helpful!

So it is possible to integrate different model hubs from TP-Link?

@@sooty_uk That’s what I’ve done. They should all be compatible with each other.

That's great! Looks like PG is getting fiber soon. Hopefully you have something good out there.

I considered reviewing that one but the X20 seems to do a pretty good job. I am about to go with Cat 6 everywhere so I am curious what speeds that will give me.

@@TechWithBrett yes, X20 does a great job and is likely the better buy for most people. Oh, that'll be interesting with all Cat 6 cables.

Thanks for the review and that great to hear it has been working well after the update.

Glad I could help!

I just started using more of the smart switches and the work great.

How do you test Buffer bloat? Yeah the channel selection would be nice.

@@TechWithBrett there’s many script/tool to do network quality testing that I’ve used. For quick quality testing I just use the speed test provided by DSL Reports. It provides bufferbloat testing as well as outright speed and latency. Server selection is a little bit lacking in SEA region so I still use it combined with Ookla’s Speedtest for the download/upload speed. Side tips: The Deco app also have built-in speed test tool that run from the gateway Deco itself. I think it also run on Ookla’s service too so great server selections. It was useful when diagnosing and pinpointing connection issue (it was mostly because my ISP modem/service, but one time the ethernet cable connecting the Deco and switch was broken)

Regarding channel selection, there’s some feature request ticket in their support website, however it perhaps lacking vote. Might be worthwhile to check it once in a while. It was basic option that’s already possible to do in some of their competitions’s system. I know Ubiquiti’s mesh has one. And also a newer password encryption system would be better.

Great point. As with any product, if it working right there is nothing to change. I think at this point many some of the 1st gen routers that were out might be going bad, and if you are going to upgrade then it is best to sort of future proof a bit with Wifi 6.

The devices will connect to any WiFi access point with the same SSID and password, so long as they support the band (2.4 GHz, 5GHz etc). For example, if you take your Chromecast with you somewhere, you can make a hotspot on your phone with the same SSID/Password as your home and it will connect.

Haha, that is the case with most things. Yep! Everything automatically connected back to the new Wifi. I didn't have to reconnect any device.

Uh just a heads up u forgot to blur the IP at 8:11 🙈

Thank you!

yes especially with Ethernet backhaul.

Yeah, you can integrate any of the TP Link decos together, even the WiFi 5 ones :)

And also to be a good neighbor.

This only works with the Google Nest Wifi system. I did just find out you can link the X20 to the Google Assistant, but it doesn't offer the speed test. Here are supported commands. www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/2891/

That was in the 5Ghz. The Chromebook didn't support wifi 6.

There could be a lot of factors. My hub, or the internal Ethernet cards, maybe I should have done a reboot. They did have some pretty odd results.