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
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.
I have 6 M5s and M9s around my house and I love them! There aren’t any dead spots anymore, and the WiFi is super fast and affordable! Highly recommend.
This is probably one of the best, most thought out thorough reviews of a mesh wireless network system I've seen on RU-vid. Rock On! I've been debating on upgrading my Wifi system and with Amazon's Prime Day discount on this system your review gave me the information I needed. I work in IT and really appreciated your thought process in putting the video together and going through the advance features was spot on. Great review, keep up the good work!
Thanks for the video. Like most Mesh systems, this one functions best when you use the nodes in AP mode, assuming you have wired Ethernet available in the preferred locations. I appreciate you setting them up in a real-world scenario. I haven't tried this particular system but with every other one I did try, the nodes had trouble seeing each other on different floor of my home of a little over 5000 Sq ft. I suspect mesh is viable in certain environments but not so much for larger, multi-level homes.
just my two cents... I would limit the wifi signal to a zone within my house instead of extending it too far out. this is a very bad idea in terms of securing your network as it will be exposed. I would suggest reducing the power to limit the coverage outside the house or to move the node to reduce the signal too outside. just a suggestion. :)
One of the best review videos I have ever watched. Very thorough. Great job, my friend; I will subscribe and buy the device. I am glad it is on sale now on Amazon for $139.99. Since Xfinity cut my MoCa system off, my first level has had issues with WiFi. I hope this works!
The 2 ports on the unit are not an "ethernet input and ethernet output port" they are just ethernet ports that function as input/output in this configuration because they detect that the one port is from a modem and the other port is connected to downstream devices. In your configuration that's a very nice large Tp switch (good choice, lol). All of the other Mesh nodes see only Non-modem direct connected devices. There is no input/output involved.
The only things that are still need to do some work on, it's the ability to manually choose the satellite connections (this is done by software, can't select) meaning that you can have lower Wifi connection because the satellites are trying to connect to the main router instead to the closest satellite unit. The second thing, it's the ability of your item to select to what satellite to connect (same issue). I had to do a lot of arrangements and connect them with ethernet.
I went from the original 2*orbi to 3*deco m5, 932mbit down, 520 mbit up from the app ( speedtest on main deco ). Ethernet backhaul 340/300 on WiFi ( not WiFi 6 ) The website on the main deco will show cpu usage, so I used the ISP router to reduce CPU load on the mesh. It went crazy when I knocked the power on the main off, after restart one client m5 went green/red badly, speed through the floor. full reboot to fix, my point being it's hard to diagnose issues, so full reboot if there are. But the flexibility to mix different decos unlike orbi makes it a great alternative, along with no hardware differences main/client.
This video helped me device on getting these devices. Also appreciate @26:41 when you pop out from behind the plant and continue casually discussing the set up. I will steal the idea of hiding the device in the bamboo planter as it looks great.
I have this mesh WiFi system and initially had some issues with my mesh points disconnecting but after the firmware update everything was great. I bought it for coverage since my home is three levels and 3600 sq ft. I actually bought two sets of two so I have four mesh points. I can cross the street and still get a great signal on my neighbors porch and my entire backyard where I work sometimes in the summer.
Honestly, that's the best review of a wifi mesh setup that I've seen. And I've been watching them non stop for weeks. I'm not sure if I'll get this setup, but great review 👍 Got a new subscriber
Search " describe the "backhaul" concept in Mesh router networks". You will find "..Backhaul is a technical term used mostly in telecommunications. It is a synonym for "backbone". Therefore, when someone says WiFi backhaul when referring to a mesh WiFi system, it means that the backbone of the network is made of direct wireless connections between the nodes of the mesh system .." What you are calling "backhaul is actually "direct connect" not the backhaul that is providing the return channel in your Mesh nodes.
I have the A3 I believe it's called and looks like the interface is the exact same. I really like the Deco Mesh system and I have zero dead spot I have two devices and my phone seamlessly connects to whichever deco it's near.
I’m surprised your backhaul Ethernet setup only yielded 300+ on the Pixelbook and 700+ on the MacBook. Shouldn’t it be full speed as it’s essentially wired back to source? Great video by the way, very thorough.. appreciate the effort you’ve gone to demonstrating all configurations
I watched a lot of videos regarding TP-LINK in general and this video is by far the best and gives the most information of the features and setup possibilities. Great Job
Great job, Brett! Loving our 2 pack Deco X20. You're right, great value for wifi 6 and very easy to use (10 minute setup). Still have to explore the app more - thanks for the pointers. I did notice basement signal is sometimes a tad unstable, but we haven't used ethernet backhaul, so that could help. Also, our ISP plan 150 down / 15 up, so we often get 200-350 down / 15 up on WiFi. The ethernet cable that comes with the box - not sure if it's the fastest - so could try other cat 5e/6 cables to be sure. And for better coverage or more consistent gigabit speeds, they do have the Deco X60.
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.
I am confused why you are not getting 800-900 Mbps upload and download on the backhauled ethernet wifi units? Shouldn't you be getting your Gigabit speeds if you have a wired connection? Why would you not be getting full speeds to the other router units?
Good setup video and works fine, BUT, you have several errors in the tutorial oration. 1st. near minute 2 & 3, the 2 ports are not an "ethernet input and ethernet output port" nor a "connection to the backhaul port" the 2 ports are just ethernet ports to add switches/devices to. Comprising your INTRAnet connectivety. The "backhaul" is an internal implementation of an "additional" channel of wifi connectivity so the MESH can be "duplex" in nature allowing simultaneous traffic to do "transmit and receive" traffic simultaneously in lieu of reading waiting on writing (so to speak)..
I love your channel, and I always look forward to your reviews, however as someone who works in I.T. and smart homes I feel that I need to say that just because WiFi 6 exists doesn’t mean everyone needs to rip out their perfectly fine mesh network and run out to buy a router that supports it. The vast majority of people aren’t gonna be saturating their gigabit or multi gigabit internet connection and in day to day use won’t know the difference outside of speed tests. The speed test differences you’ve noted could very well have been found with adding more points or better relocation of them.
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.
I just upgrade my modem. I had an old one lying around and decided I should install that to see if it worked, and it did so now I don’t have to pay for the rental each month. Every time I feel like I’m done with upgrading stuff I watch one of your vids and i realize I’ve done nothing 🤣 now I wanna get this mesh system lol
Where did you buy your X20 system? Amazon sells it, but I want to compare prices. (Best Buy doesn't carry it.I) Also, what's the difference between the x20, x40, x60 models? And, how did you decide on the TP Link X20 instead of comparable ASUS routers?
Their is no x40, is x20, x60 and x90. The x20 is sold only on Amazon, the x60 is sold at Costco and the x90 is sold at Best Buy. The x20 and x60 is dual band and the difference is bray the x60 has better coverage and can potentially provide higher speeds. The x90 is a tri band mesh and it can handle more devices that are using the same band at the same time.
👍👍👍👍very good review of all the functions inside the Deco app. 。 I have TP Link X60/AX5400 wifi 6 with 3-mesh set system installed in my house recently. I am very satisfied with it ! 👍
My internet connection is DSL and it is limited to 3 mbps (rural US) but I do use my local network a lot to stream from a local server. Thinking about getting this to bounce the signal out to my barn. I wonder if they have a compatible outdoor mesh point? Currently I use two access points placed on opposite sides of the house and it works well but it'd be nice to get some more outdoor wifi. Great review!
Excellent video. I have a Google Wi-Fi mesh system with three access points. It automatically selects 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz, depending on the device. I pay for 500 Mbps download speed from my ISP. I do get 400+ Mbps near the main router, which is next to the modem. The other two access points are connected wirelessly. I only get 90 Mbps download speed at the third access point, which is on the opposite side of the house of the router. Is it normal to have speeds reduced that significant at the third node? My house is not wired for ethernet. I prefer not to wire the nodes to each other. Trying to figure out if I need to purchase a better quality mesh system or if diminished speeds at each node is typical for the majority of mesh systems?
Lol Mrs TechwithBrett keeping it real " I don't notice anything different than the last internet we had" LOL...can SO identify with this, was like when i was blown away with my LG 55" OLED, dolby vision the lot. I said to my wife, so much better than the HD tv we had before isn't it, " I cant really tell the difference" haha! I am still rockin the orginal Google Wifi, it's a dam solid connection, and i am reluctant to upgrade. Interesting point, about naming the Wifi network with same name and password, would that mean they would all stay auto connected if you use the same name and password, or would you have to re enter the password on every device? Great vid as per mate, keep the content coming!
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.
First of all thanks for the video, Brett. I find your solution very interesting. I just wonder about your router/modem. Is it firewalled? If it is could it interference with the Deco’s firewall?
@@arkbonjangles9984 I started with the Google WiFi years ago, and added 2 Google Nest Wifi to achieve stronger overlapping coverage. The Google Nest is backwards compatible with the earlier Google WiFi.
Question I'm looking at the Orbi satellite, mesh wifi dual band 5g 90.00 Vs. the Google Mesh AC1200 Whole-Home WiFi System 3-Pack 125.00 which overall do you think would work better in a old double wide mobile home with 3 bedrooms looking for your reply, thanks for the great video as well,Kraig Also I can get the TP-link Deco S-4 3-pack for 114.00 on amazon to throw that into the mix as well.
With the back hall does it make the signal “equal” between all sections? I’m currently in the planning stage of turning our house into a smart home? Thanks for all your great videos. They have all helped so much
I use 3-set Deco M5 and 1 Deco E4R in a similar home topology as yours. The experience was great. Eventho it's one of the cheapest mesh system around, the performance was very good with 0% Bufferbloat with very little config to do (previous router i use reach around 5-10% bufferbloat). The AV is also apparently useful in blocking spam for my mom, and its now no longer limited to 3 years. I only hope that it allows a little bit more degree in configuration, for example to select custom WiFi channel.
@@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 review, I just purchased the Eero 6 only to find out it didn't support PPPOE and having to use CenturyLink's router kind of killed my desire to keep it. From what I'm reading this does support PPPOE?
I have ( Tp-Link x60 ) and im very happy , better range and connectivity then Netgear and Asus. not to mention it comes with a bunch of extra controls and device integration glad i switch to tp-link. im getting 855 mbps down and 39.8 up
Excellent video!!! At the moment I am using the router that came with my ISP. Each desktop computer on my Ethernet LAN has an assigned IP address that I set up in the router. Can I do the same thing with this mesh system?
the tp-link deco x20/x50/x60 does have guest wifi issues, you can only isolate the other network if you put the TP-link deco line in router mode, otherwise you can still ping/reach other devices outside of the guest wifi, my advice dont buy these!
Great video. Thank you. I have Alexa connected I to the 2.4 band. I manually had to separate the 5.0 and 2.4 bands from my router. Do you recommend that I merge them back and have the tc link manage how the devices connect to the bands?
great video, did you have to make additional changes when connecting to dasan ONT? meaning any vlan changes or setting up PPPoE in your deco x20 router
What can I say? Absolutely beautiful video very informative. Could you please explain what all this connections. For instance IOT- device and non-835 I got few of them and I can change your name but I don’t know what they are to change their name. And then it says high priority and if I click on it, he’s asking me for a total bandwidth before using high priority. I don’t understand what it means. Maybe you should make a video and something like this but overall I really like your video. Thank you.
I am waiting for delivery of my Mesh kit thanks to you. Can I ask - In UK the ISP supply a Router and not Modem. They also stop you from turning Router into a Modem only mode. Should I therefore turn off the SSID broadcast on the ISP router and then turn DHCP assignments through the MESH (if that's even possible) or do I just turn off ISP SSID broadcast and just connect the main Mesh node via CAT 5 and no config required?
Thanks for the great video! One questions: If I connect every point with a cable using a switch (the same way you did), why does it cancel the mesh? What’s the point of buying a mesh system if it doesn’t act as a mesh?
It cancels the mesh and becomes wheel and spoke which is better in this case because it provides faster, more reliable inter node communication. It's still well worth buying because it creates a single network that allows you to roam between nodes, the same as it would with a mesh topology.
It does still act in the same way as a mesh network only the nodes are communicating with each other via ethernet cables rather than Wifi. I set one of these up in that way just over a week ago and it made a massive difference to my Wifi speed and reliability
so with all done and said I have a barn next door about175 ft away will this connect to the barn or can I take one in place in the barn and then will it allow the Barn computers to connect or if we just cad e56 cable to the barn wit it connect Thanks so much and we have learned from your video,s Ed Fugate
We purchased a 3 pack a few months ago and love it! If we want to add on additional units, do we need to purchase x20 again or do x60 work as well? Are we able to integrate the two since they’re both wifi6? Thanks for your help!
Quick question: What kind of hassle, if any, can be anticipated when you buy a new cellphone or lose your old one. Is it as simple as downloading the app on a new phone, entering a password and all the configuration of the system is still in place and visible on the new phone? No additional reconfiguration required?
Great video! I was going to purchase the x60, but I show Deco released a new x68 model. Just curious if you know much about the difference between the two other than the price?
Nice tutorial for Deco WiFi mesh system. But I have a question how did you manage to include speedtest on Google home hub - on start video? Do you have this using with Google Nest wifi or Deco? I took a quick look at whether you turned off wi-fi on the existing main router or left it switched on for the same name ssid?
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/
I'm surprised at how slow these speeds are. I have Zyxel Multy X mesh at my house - which is WiFi 5. I get around 600 down and 400 up consistently. Sure they're a little more expensive.. but still.
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.
Sorry for the double post (other one being as an answer to Brett's comment) but the reply comment won't delete for some reason beyond my understanding.
Excellent I am looking for a mesh network and was considering Nest, I am also looking for something that not only shows devices that are connected but also logs records of device connected with date/time in/out or notifies us when a new device connects Is there such a feature like that out there? My son is swapping phones with various friends to beat parental controls at bedtime but my current router will only show a list of what is currently connected.. I want to be able to know a new device has signed in and when so I can add it to the same bedtime! :)