TP-Link - Deco BE63

Just got the TPLink deco BE10000. Currently in the process of setting it up

I suggest starting by wiring the XE75s together. This should dramatically improve the situation. If, after doing that, you still require an additional Deco, BE63 is a good choice. If you run the Deco mesh in Router mode, one port of the main Deco must be dedicated to the connection with Internet, the satellite Deco cannot be reachable via that port. If you have a separate ISP box acting as a router, you might consider running the mesh in Acces Point mode.

I have had lots of issues with my Deco units. (2x Be10000s and 1 be33000) Some improvement after switching to access point mode instead of router mode. I sent an email asking if they were ever going to upgrade their firmware. They asked what my specific issue was. Too many to list. Days later a firmware push was sent out as if I just reminded someone they needed to release it as the date on the firmware was months old. Wired back haul is sadly unreliable. If I try rebooting the network, invariably one or two of the units do not come back online. The troubleshooting says to move them closer together, not helpful, and I shouldn't need to if they are using wired backhaul correctly. I don't really want to spend more money and time on another half-baked mesh system but maybe the overpriced Orbi will work more reliably than this. Am I crazy to expect these devices to have monthly security patches like phones? Maybe this is why they are being investigated. Regular updates may not fix everything but they would at least give some sign that they are working on it. I've never spent more money on nor as much time beating my head against the wall on wifi that was advertised as seamless and carefree, as I have on these Deco units. Really pathetic.

Has Ubiquiti solved their supply issues finally? Anyways, I've found the tplink mesh gear to be functional, affordable, and easy to setup/maintain. You're talking about SOHO vs professional grade comparing the two

if anyone is wondering i picked up a be10000 and works great so far. be11000 single unit was not avaialble

The BE63 is a nice upgrade as your main, then you can use wired backhaul to the other satellites via your new cables and its 3 other 2.5 ports. If your ISP can provide faster than 1gig service, then all the better.

BE63 here. Been great for now 2 months. Zero issues, lightning fast.

I have an XE5300 with my BE63 system and it doesn’t slow anything down the only difference I have is the XE5300 has 1 gig ports instead of the 2.5 ports but for where I have it located it’s not a problem

They have good signal just terrible firmware I have the BE63 which is pretty much the same thing. But since wifi 7 is still so new once they get the firmware situated it will be solid

Update on the BE63 and BE65 and BE11000 new firmware release has rectified tons of issues and now they support selecting your own wifi channels which is something everyone has wanted from tp link for years I did the upgrade on my BE63 system and now it’s a ton more stable being able to select the wifi channels I prefer and not done automatically is a game changer

Depends on the size of the space you’re trying to cover and your internet speeds. Deco XE75 WiFi 6E system strong reliable good for gig or less isp speeds. If you have higher than a gig for speed then Go XE75 pro Deco AXE4900 pro good all around system for speeds of 2.5 gig or less. Solid performance just a tad slower WiFi speeds compared to the XE75 pro which is an AXE5400 Deco. BE63 WiFi 7 means your future proofing yourself good for internet speeds of up to 2.5 gig solid system Deco BE65 another WiFi 7 model pretty much the same as the BE63 but a little more speed or the BE65 pro good for speeds of up to 5 gig

You could do a few different models my suggestions would be Deco XE75 Deco XE75 Pro Deco AXE4900 Pro Those 3 are WiFi 6E tri band Systems If you want something WiFi 7 that would future proof you then something like a BE63 or BE11000 would be a safe choice. If you go with the BE63 make sure to grab Hardware Version 2.6 as 1.6 hardware has a lot of issues and is being phased out but there are still some out there. So just watch for that. If you want a basic WiFi 6 system then something like an X55 or X55 pro would also work fairly well

I had a similar dilemma but went with the BE63 (U.S. version of BE65) more because of Ethernet port limitations on the XE75 & XE75 Pro than Wi-Fi devices (PC with Wi-Fi 7 limited by Win11 support + smartphone with Wi-Fi 6E). My current 1 gig Internet connection is slightly overprovisioned (1.09 Gbps down / 1.02 up), and my ONT has a 2.5GbE port; I also foresee Internet speeds of as high as 2 gig over the life of my system. The regular XE75 has only gigabit Ethernet ports, which are inherently limited to 940 Mbps by overhead; the XE75 Pro upgrades one port to 2.5GbE, but it can't be shared between WAN & wired backhaul at the main Deco. If the XE75 Pro had two 2.5GbE ports I might have gone with that, but instead I chose the BE63 with 2.5GbE on all four ports (same as the regular BE65; the BE65 Pro has two 5GbE + one 2.5GbE). Still, if you're more concerned about cost than future proofing, the XE75 & XE75 Pro are great choices.

If you have good reason to believe you will need mesh nodes to cover the whole house with Wi-Fi, get the BE63 (I did). If you know you can get by with a single Wi-Fi AP, get the BE550 for its more robust configuration options (web interface isn't mostly read-only like on Decos). Decos (Deco Mesh) and Archers (EasyMesh or for older models OneMesh) won't mesh together, EasyMesh isn't as robust a mesh protocol as Deco Mesh, and OneMesh is even weaker than EasyMesh. Generally, if you get a BE550 & find you need a second Wi-Fi 7 AP, right now your only option is another BE550 or higher (otherwise your other AP will be Wi-Fi 6E or less), and your mesh configuration probably won't be as robust as with a set of BE63's.

More robust as in general functionality. For example, most standalone routers have a built-in "caching" DNS server that intercepts DNS requests from the clients, returns results from the cache instead of querying an authoritative server every time, and acts as an internal DNS server for the home network. My BE63, and AFAIK most Decos, don't have that; it only broadcasts authoritative server addresses from the ISP or its internal setup to clients, which query them directly. If you need a local DNS server you'll need to set up one yourself, usually with a wired device like a mini PC or a Raspberry Pi running Pi-hole. Also, most standalone routers allow you to manually select a Wi-Fi channel, and also set its channel width (20 MHz is usually the max at 2.4 GHz to minimize interference with neighbors); Decos will only do those automatically (my BE63 is locked to a 40 MHz channel at 2.4 GHz & can't be overruled).

i'm using 2 BE10000 (Deco BE63) that i got a little over a month ago. obviously not the same model, but i'd expect the end result to be similar. my experience: network wise, it's been great. fast, stable, and a huge upgrade over my old 802.11n netgear router (which was running dd-wrt). nothing but good things to say about it on the technical merit. UI wise? the thing sucks. there's just so many basic things you can't do. for starters, all the administration has to be done from a mobile app. the web based "admin" page just has some basic diagnostics and no ability to configure anything. my biggest grip is that when setting DHCP reservations, you **can't** give the devices a name. it forces whatever the device reports as a name to be the name the reservation uses. this means my firestick is just "android", all my mysa thermostats have the same name (as do my august doorbell bridges). from time to time i see my august bridges disconnect/reconnect from the wifi, but i think that's those units more than the router (this used to happen randomly with my older router too)

I have the be63 system! I have 3 “nodes” with 1 acting as my main router. I still get firmware updates with new features/bug fixes. The mesh works perfectly fine even with older 2.4ghz only devices like switches and stuff. Range is also very good. I have 1,250mbps internet service and I get around 800-1000 when connected to the 5ghz band (since 2.4 is almost always slower) but if I connect to the MLO network (WiFi 7) I get nearly max speeds my isp offers. The system also picks the best node to connect to and best band. It does a decent job at that. My only “compliant” atm is that they take a bit to introduce features that are requested. Like it took them a HOT ass minute to implement manual WiFi channel selections. If you got questions if it has specific features lmk :)

Issue with that claim is that the security threats hackers used to infiltrate customers who used TP link were users with default passwords, or extremely outdated hardware. Asus, netgear, etc have all had similar problems. Currently, there is 0 evidence of TP-Link sharing customer data, spying, or making backdoors for the Chinese government. Hence why it isn’t banned yet and current and previous administration is still just “investigating”

don’t buy the be11000. so many bugs with the device. buy a mesh system and honestly if you want a decent coverage best mesh system is orbi hands down idc what anybody says. and then best bang for your buck is tp link. get the be10000 as they have been around longer and have been getting more frequent updates and it’s cheaper! and if you want a full gig wirelessly then either look for 6ghz routers (half of your devices probably don’t even use wifi 6e but your phone) but mostly find a router with wifi 6 and a 160mhz channel for the 5ghz connection. that will provide the full gig wirelessly. you can definitely get away with wifi 6. i can tell you right now that there’s very FEW stand alone routers that can give what you’d be asking especially if you were in that one corner that it couldn’t reach.

https://a.co/d/4op1MEb two pack is 5,800 square feet so literally perfect and it’s 299$ is def buy there security package. i’m assuming and this is a big assumption but with everything going on with tp link i think there either gonna just not sell anymore or get next level security features for there routers. 🤷‍♂️

Or, logically, return the AXE75 and get a Deco XE75 Pro, XE70 Pro, or the BE63 3 piece kit and be done. For slightly more than the single router, you have a true mesh system and can use the wired ports on the units for back-haul between them and/or to connect other devices that you don't want on wireless to gigabit (or on some of the models, 2.5 gigabit). It's a lot easier and cheaper than the AXE75 and then EasyMesh Extenders that don't really do the job you're looking for.

I highly recommend the [TP-Link Wi-Fi 7 Tri-Band Mesh System](https://www.reddit.com/user/unwelcome_frown15/comments/1jxaza0/mesh_wifi_system_recommendations/). It offers blazing fast speeds, low latency, and rock-solid coverage, great for large homes or demanding smart setups. Future-proof too with Wi-Fi 7 support.

I have the tp link WiFi 7 mesh and it's been nothing but issues with their app and connectivity. I'm bailing and looking at orbi

for that amount of money you get 2 tp-link mesh wifi 7, that's better than 1, besides netgear is too overkill for ordinary users

just fyi - I tried new Deco wifi 7, HP Instant On and then Firewalla AP7. Very Happy with the AP7 from Firewalla and got full coverage with 3 units (needed 4 or 5 for the others as I couldn't put them on ceiling).

Eero hasn’t deployed MLO yet, refuse to publicly state if their Max 7 will ever support it. TP-Link and Asus WiFi 7 routers have MLO deployed and being used by Samsung’s latest phones and latest Pixels too.

First question that should be asked, which speed are you subscribed to? Also when did you switch? If you're on the Gig you should be running wifi-7 and that router is free. If you're on 500mbps you should have the newer wifi-6e router and modem. With my ISP (not spectrum) I'm running the deco home mesh system which is wifi-7 because my ISP equipment is 3 generations behind. You can get them from Walmart, best buy, or amazon

They are incredible and simple. I’ve had a setup with the WiFi 6e ones, and now have one with WiFi 7 ones. Literally stellar performance. Do you have first hand experience?

+1 for TP Link Deco Tri Band - had it for over a year and has been great so far

Yep all absolutely true. I ended up trying to downsize and optimize picks but the lag and need for content reboots remained. Switched over to Decos and never looked back. Incredibly fast solid coverage throughout and no downtime. Light years better.

I was hoping to use Deco with Ethernet backhaul in my house wired with 5E, but the two satellites have that fun red blinking light – I may have run into the issue with the IEEE spec they seem to require. I'm using Netgear gigabit switches, and the idea of dropping a few hundred on switches blessed by TP-Link seems… annoying at best.

Works fine. Not a single issue

We have a two year old tp-link deco mesh system (can’t remember exactly what model) but it’s been great. Stays updated, app is simple and easy to use, pretty solid coverage for a 3 story town house. I’d definitely recommend any of their stuff. Like other people have said upgrading to the higher model wouldn’t be a bad idea. It never hurts to future proof yourself for a bit with routers.

It’s a good system…..until your modem looses internet and the whole LAN side of your network stops functioning. It’s a known issue with many still waiting on a fix. For whatever reason, TP Link decided not to designate one of the Ethernet ports as “WAN” and instead relies on auto sensing. When the internet goes down, Deco gets confused and the general response is that the LAN also goes down until internet is restored. I ended up just running these as APs and put in a different router.

Deco system would be your best choice. It does support mesh as well as wired back-haul if you wanna go for an access point route. Either way, you'll only be having a single SSID

I have one of their combined routers and modems. I still run 3 decos across the house broadcasting is own signal. No issues.

I did. I have one house with 3 decos and spectrum and another house with 5 decos on optimum and no issues on either. I named both ssids on the decos the same so every device connects in both houses.

It works pretty well. I think bridge or pass through mode is a better way. But if you can’t change the settings, then this way works

Exact same setup and results (TP-Link Deco). We couldn't be happier - including multiple family member Internet power users. Life is good.

More customization helps though. My TP-Link Deco units don't allow you to change the network channel, instead they have an "algorithm" that always picks the most congested channels.

Using some Decos in mesh mode, works perfectly, although you can't use their traffic prioritization features, I wasn't interested in that anyway. Setup is dead simple, DHCP is handled in my pihole and vlans and routing managed in firewalla.

Deco is horrible for not moving to a channel that’s free and instead layering with other wifi signals around. There’s no advanced control what so ever and I can have my scanner going and I can see where they over lap. I can restart devices and still they don’t change channels. TP-Link has a bad track record of lying to end users about fixing this on their support pages. At first it was acknowledged as an issue and was going to be fixed then it turned into “it’s working as expected and it’s smart to change channels when needed”.

I have a similar set up with TP Decos - one on each floor of my house all in access point mode. Works great and never have issues with devices switching

\+1 for deco, I have 3 of them at home (one on each floor) and it works great!

Initially, I had an issue where DNS resolution was failing on only some web sites, so they were just not loading and if TM reset things on their end, it seemed to work for a day or two but problem returned. Long story, short… factory reset on their end Deco fixed the problem. I think the AI didn’t like me changing to TM. No problems since.

Both should work, no issues at all. Etisalat tech lied to you. All their hardware is bargain bin stuff. You can get Deco or get multiple tp link routers with Easy mesh ethernet backhaul - the latter is cheaper and what I'm using these days.

I don't think it would honestly. The XE70 pro is a freaking beast still, you will not be disappointed. Just make sure to get a solid modem. I recommend the Netgear CM2000, or CM3000 if you want to future proof for multi gig plans down the road. I tried a combination of arris modems, top recommended routers with Merlin firmware... so much trial and error. The CM3000 and deco mesh just worked right off the bat - blazing speeds and zero issues. I 100% recommend deco

Deco works really well with extending range. Actually better than a range extender, as Mesh systems are designed from the ground up to work with each other in the system. I had a Ge800 tied to a be550 and a WiFi 7 range extender. Super good stuff right? But it's half ass "patched up" jerky jerky mesh was no match to a Deco. Deco was snappier, more reliable, and longer range.

Can confirm. Have Deco. Am miserable.

To echo what plenty of others are saying, but also provide links to specific items to Do-It-Yourself and save money but still get good finished product. Assuming you have roof/attic access above the rooms and can run power to the attic: * buy bulk CAT6 cable, shielded twisted pair, not CCA (CCA stands for copper coated aluminum). [Get good shielded copper wire, like this](https://a.co/d/ijNWYa0). * buy a [crimper toolkit like this](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7GRX9DW) * watch a few youtubes on terminating Cat6 cable. * buy a mesh wifi system like Amazon Eero, tp-Link Deco, Asus Zen Wi-Fi, etc. [Here's a good article / review of mesh systems and what to look for](https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/best-mesh-wifi-routers/) **NOTE:** mesh wifi is the consumer grade solution. If you can afford it, you're better off getting Wifi Access Points (APs) - the business grade solution - Ubiquiti is the best known of the AP options. Connection works similarly, with one key difference -- APs require power over ethernet (POE) instead of an electrical outlet / power supply. There are pros and cons of installing either Mesh or APs. * buy at least one [Unmanaged Ethernet Switch like this](https://a.co/d/88WLwNn) - this one is 8 port (1 connection in, 7 out). * You'll run an ethernet cable from your Comcast box to your wifi mesh router. Then you'll run a **long** ethernet cable down toward your L-corner dead zone. You'll plug that long ethernet cable to the Unmanaged Ethernet Switch. Then you'll run another ethernet cable from the Unmanaged Ethernet Switch to one of your mesh wifi satellites. BAM! Good internet within reach of that mesh satellite. You'll need to estimate/experiment with how many satellites the system needs (get multiple people to watch netflix on iPads, and spread them along rooms close to the mesh satellite -- see how many people / how many rooms you can cover before you need to add another mesh wifi satellite). I did a low-key simplified version of this at my house. Reply here if you have questions / need help. # You can do this yourself.

I have TP-Link Decos. You can setup an “IOT” network on one band, a main network on another band. That’s how I achieve this

Not sure what prev post is about but I am using the deco app with extensive parental controls and have never been asked to subscribe to anything. We have 6 nodes set up around the house and have not had any issues at all. Don’t even need the 6 nodes but upgraded to get higher bandwidth and just left the prev nodes in place - was super easy to add new nodes to existing network as well as convert the primary node from old device to new one. Will never go back to non-mesh network

Wow, not good at all. I just double checked my app and confirmed all options available and nothing locked behind subscription that I could find. Running app version 3.7.65 if that helps. Yours looks a bit diff than what I’m running so likely due to age of your network devices and its related app software.

on TpLink Mesh Deco App, you can set the preference GHz for each device in the app. it appears as a single SSID, the switching is handled by the Mesh. lets say my phone is connected to the Mesh. if i leave the apartment, it would switch to 2.4GHz by itself to ensure my phone is connected when i stand outside.

For the less network savvy, it's worth mentioning that many of the fancy features the deco router offers through the app will not work in AP mode. I consider that a good thing, but YMMV. I 'upgraded' to a deco system months ago, unaware that this is meant for the average user and advanced features are crippled, e.g. browser config is minimal as they want you to use the app. No luck querying the DHCP reservations from a script. I'm now moving to a separate OpenWRT wired router behind my cable modem and switching the deco to AP mode. This gives a lot more control. Another upside is that upgrading the WiFi system is then possible without losing all the painstakingly configured DHCP reservations and port forwarding rules.

Tp link deco. Just a no fuss system. Plug in, download the app, set ssid and don't worry about it anymore for years. Mine has been stable and working for years. There are better systems out there for sure, but at the price point, it's good value

Naka deco mesh ako spread across a 200sqm home with thick walls/floors 3 pack mesh solid na for your setup.

Strange, I use vlan tagging on my deco system. It has allowed me to replace my ISP modem.

Yes, supports Ethernet backhaul with mesh within the same network.

My TP-Link Deco (with all nodes connected via Ethernet backhaul) has been superb for me, easy to setup, zero black spots, seamless transition between nodes, decent and pretty consistent speeds throughout the house.

I recently bought a Netgear WiFi 6 router from Costco. Used it for like a week, and returned it for a TP-Link Deco solution. Deco isn’t perfect either, but that Nighthawk was a true piece of garbage. I know this is a newer model, and I don’t want to compare apples and oranges. But I would not buy another Netgear device.

I am pretty happy with my Deco system. All these systems are typically discounted on prime day if you have surrendered your soul to Darth Bezos and if you can wait until then. I know the standard advice on this sub is to do hardwired APs. But without enterprise grade system with controller, devices (I am looking at you fruit-phone) tend to cling to APs. I think the mesh systems are somewhat better at making the devices hop since the stations can “talk” to each other. Read about 802.11 k/v/r if interested. Also, most mesh systems offer wired backhaul that will always make things better.

I do this as well. It works wonderfully.

Don't they are an Archer You want a Deco Mesh System EasyMesh, OneMesh and Deco Mesh are not compatible with each other [https://www.tp-link.com/au/home-networking/deco/](https://www.tp-link.com/au/home-networking/deco/) Choose carefully and use 'Ethernet Backhaul' where you can to improve communication between Deco's I have 4 Deco's for a large apartment and I have strong signal everywhere. You may need more Deco's but start with 4 Also take note you do not need to buy Wi-Fi7 right now. Most of your devices can't use it fully, and, they may be more unstable using BE & MLO I would suggest Wi-Fi 6E tbh, cheaper and much more reliable (without upgrading every single piece of technology in your house)

Yeah I have a Deco and only one of the are hardwire to the internet and I never really had a problem with it.

I've got two deco units due to my previous apartment having solid brick walls. They've been amazing for my use case. Easy setup with advanced options for what I needed. Works with TPG and now Aussie broadband. Only issue I had while with TPG and the dexo unit was not having a setting to change the packet size. With my works VPN on Microsoft teams would have a packet size just slightly over what TPG's system accepted so my teams would just stop working. Switching to Aussie fixed the issue as it was too hard to explain to IT that they need to change some backend operating system settings.

Don't do this if you have a home network and semi-regular internet outages. I just discovered that Decos and TP-Link's gaming routers require a modem connection to route traffic for physically connected devices. This is probably no big deal for a lot of folks, but for those of us with a NAS, or PCs that require a physical connection, it's obnoxious. The Deco unit ports are WAN/LAN ports, and they default to WAN until a modem is detected (same for their gaming routers). During an internet outage, most modern modems go into a reboot cycle, and every time they do a full power cycle, the Deco no longer detects them, and flips all of its ports back to WAN. This results in your physically connected devices getting disconnected from your network every 15 minutes or so while the modem reboots, effectively rendering your home network useless.

For the price that’s good, I like the mobile app and the setup is pretty easy. I installed this one at my parents house and am able to reset their router remotely from my phone or show them the password I run a nighthawk setup at my apartment and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them if I wasn’t the person that set them up

im a fan of tplink deco. for the best speeds get wifi 6/7 capable, and buy a few nodes to increase their range.

> The Decos do not daisy chain—they all connect to their main router directly connected to the modem at the far end of the house if each deco ap is connected back to the main router ie back hauling, does this include the one near the office also? how far is the AP to the office? maybe a map/floor plan could be helpful and distance.

best solution is to use ethernet cable, or coax with moca adapters and backhaul the AP. next best is wifi mesh.. eg tplink deco

I just set up a new deco connected to my ISP-supplied router (I did not put it in bridge or IP passthrough mode). The Deco set up did not prompt me with anything like the choice to put the Deco in "Access Point" mode, and prompted me to add a network name. Does this mean it's in router mode?

Thank you. I did later find the setting and switched the Deco to access point mode. I found it confusing because, starting the setup assuming the Deco is in router mode means that I specified an SSID name (I used the same name as I used for the wifi from the ISP's router) and later when I switched the Deco to access point mode, that 2nd duplicated SSID hung around for a bit looking like another wifi network with the same name.

Now I understand that both the router and the Deco access point have their own SSID. I have now turned off the wifi coming out of the ISP's modem+router, while leaving the main Deco in access mode.

Totalky agree, Orbs is garbage. I switched to Deco and I've never looked back.

I’d stay away from the nest pros. I “upgraded” from these and have Ethernet backhaul and was having issues all the time with drops and lagging. Since I got them from Costco was able to return them (after over a year) and switched to the deco system. With the way these systems are setup now it seems you need points in every room because signal can drop so much with the environment. Example- my kid had a Stanley water battle near the point on their desk and the cut down the signal strength by half while only standing 2 feet away.

Was happy I remembered I bought my set from Costco and returned them after about 15 months for a refund. Had the same issue and ran through so many hoops trying to get them to work properly even on wired backhul. Switched to decos and seem to be working well but may need to add a few more WiFi points.

I have this setup,no issues whatsoever.

A mesh probably wouldn’t help with interference much. The only benefit they have is an ‘optimise’ feature where they move to different channels based on which has the lowest interference. I would keep your existing router in place, but disable wireless and operate it in modem mode. Mesh devices aren’t great running as a router. This also means you keep Ethernet ports and reduce the need for a switch. If you have an existing wired connecting from your router to your office you can use it as a wired backhaul from mesh to mesh. I’ve used the TP-Link deco system, it works fine and was significantly better than my ISP router alone, but I’m now looking at installing wired access points around my house and moving away from a mesh.

No, it will be fine. I like the tplink Deco range

I recommend TP-Link Deco or Omada systems.

I’ve got arlo cameras on my deco mesh setup. Never a problem. And my network has a lot going on all the time.

As a part-time streamer myself, how I had my Converge set-up in my old apartment (before it got flooded) was that I used a TP-Link Deco setup that is connected to the main router, with three of those Decos spread between three floors. For the first floor where I used to reside, it was connected to the second floor Deco (which was connected to the router) via ethernet backhaul. Basically, to improve ping times on mesh, you really have to connect it via ethernet cable. WiFi is too unreliable for anything related to livestreaming or online gaming (unless you spend harder on better WiFi gear). If you're missing out on LAN ports, TP-Link says that you can buy a separate switch and connect that to the Deco. For your use case, I would recommend something similar. Get a three-pack of Decos and put them in the first three floors; the attic doesn't need one. Don't worry, mesh WiFi, especially the Decos, are just as easy to set up as normal routers. (Unless you're dealing with Ubiquiti, but that's mainly for the IT/corporate crowd lmao.) You need a mesh on the first floor too because the thick flooring could hamper streaming media over WiFi. Then connect the third floor Deco to the second floor Deco via ethernet backhaul. The first floor Deco doesn't need to be connected via ethernet, that's personal preference for you now. (Edit: Looking at your stats again, you may not need a Deco on the first floor, as the Deco on the second floor may be good enough to get to the first floor. In my experience, it's better to be safe than sorry, but if you really can't afford a three-pack, a two-pack will do for now and then you can just get an extra one if you want to in the future.) As for turning off the WiFi on the Converge router, we didn't end up doing that and it didn't affect the performance in the second floor that much; we keep it on as a backup to connect to in case the Deco fails for some reason or if we really only want to test the WiFi coming raw from the router and from Converge. But if you want to turn it off, as far as I know you can do that yourself from the router admin panel. The problem with routers is that they don't really play nicely with each other when you have multiples of them spread to each floor and you get a bad WiFi signal because your phone just happened to connect to the wrong router with the same SSID. And if you change the SSIDs to a unique one per router, that's just pure inconvenience. A mesh is well-suited for multi-floor or large environments, like a really wide house, and can get your devices to connect better to the nearest access points. If you're a pro gamer who wants those pro gaming routers, I've never tested them nor do I know if they work well in a multi-floor setup. Makes more sense to me to just get a mesh system. Gaming routers make more sense when requiring low ping on phones, not so much on PCs IMHO. Note: When buying mesh WiFi, doublecheck the max speed of the ethernet ports. The cheapest of the Decos, the E4, can only handle a max of 100Mbps for ethernet, so get something like an S4. The benefit of Decos is that all the models work with each other, so you can get cheaper models like the E4 for areas that don't need gigabit/200Mbps. Hope this helps!

I have a TP link Deco with all nodes hardwired it works brilliantly. Anything wireless is not going to perform it’s best especially as most people put mesh nodes in the wrong place

I’ve had good luck with TP-Link Deco. I have a combined 5ghz and 2.4ghz main network, but I also have a separate IoT network that is 2.4ghz only. It’s worked well for a SwitchBot Hub Mini and a Lifx bulb. Another thing to consider is not using WiFi devices. Devices that use Thread or their own hubs are going to be more reliable. Zigbee devices are rock solid.

Deco was OK until they started putting features behind a paywall. Things like "screen time" etc were all moved to be on their subscription service.

I tried this on our living room. The main deco's range is really small. The ISP's router reaches farther like up to our neighbor next door. Should I wall mount the main deco to increase its range? It is just set on the center table. This is why I didn't turn off the WiFi from the ISP's router. My other decos are in the 2nd floor and the 3rd floor. 3rd floor has really good range since there are lesser walls. 

Works great.  Been using it a year now. Everything connected seamlessly 

The main network is T-Mobile, my decos are connected to that,but the,decos are named a separate network. I can connect to the T-Mobile main or my deco All decos are one network name. I don’t know how to describe it but it works and I have signal all over the house.

Any tutorials out there to show how to do this? I just picked up a tp link deco mesh

Love my TP-Link Deco mesh setup. We have 8 satellites spread throughout the house (long ranch) and two outdoor buildings. Some are wired backhaul and others are wireless. Works great.

TP-Link Déco is cheap and simple to install. Other brands got more features, I don't need.

I don’t know if it would suit your needs, it’s kinda barebones, but I’m using TPlink Deco line for this. I have one of their outdoor units outside in Minnesota, and it sees up to 100 F in the summer and -20 F as extremes. It’s lasted fine for two years now. I have it attached PoE outdoor Ethernet I ran along my fence.

Deco is the best mesh I have had experience with but I still wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is tech savvy and has the ability to wire up APs. The wired back haul is a great solution, I have the ability to do that so I could get mesh to work really well if my APs were not already working perfectly for a fraction of the cost.

Mesh systems are great but you still aren’t going to get your full internet speeds via WiFi unless you only subscribe to sub 500mb service. Maybe if you’re standing in the exact right spot compared to the wireless routers. Depends on the capabilities of the d vices you’re connecting to WiFi as well as distance, height and interference. I run tp-link after finally ditching my slow ass eero mesh setup but WiFi is WiFi and it’s never as good as connecting directly to an Ethernet port.

I would get a deco mesh WiFi system and use a switch off of the main router for all of your wired needs(gaming, large file transfers internally, etc). The deco routers each have two Ethernet ports. The one that you designate as the main router will have both used(1 incoming from your cable or fiber modem/terminal and the other one out to a switch to feed Ethernet devices. You can run Ethernet from your switch to each of the other mesh devices as a faster backhaul or connect them wirelessly if there’s a strong signal. You will get some speed loss here, no doubt, but without a lot of interference or great distance the speed loss won’t be terrible. If you do run Ethernet to each one as a backhaul then you can use the other port on those mesh devices to connect a device via Ethernet as well. I have one sitting in my living room anyway that’s connected to the others via WiFi with a strong signal but my tv has a crappy WiFi card in it so it doesn’t always have the best connection so I just plugged the Ethernet port on my tv into my mesh device and it works like a champ. You may not even need to use a switch very much if you strategically place your mesh devices and backhaul then with Ethernet. You can attach two Ethernet devices to each one (other than the main one) if they’re open because you didn’t use any for backhaul if and chose WiFi as your backhaul instead

Another vote for deco, just works.

I would get one that does absolutely then. I've had good luck with the TP-Link Deco systems

I concur that you need a mesh Network. There's a lot of options out there and for your building you could probably do it for under $1,000 easily. I myself have a deco and we have four modules through a long rambly ranch house and we have nearly 300 MB per second everywhere because we have about 1 GB per second fiber to the house.

Definitely get a mesh Network and you can actually make it use 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz and you can't tell the difference. I have The Deco and it works super well in this old thick plastered house

I moved recently, and in my current situation, my PS5 is nowhere near my router and there is no way to plug an ethernet into it. This made it impossible for me to use my portal via the PS5 (it would not even connect), it would only work via streaming. Of course, this frustrated me a lot. This prompted me to go on a journey to upgrade my home network. I previously never even thought about improving my network setup, I just always used whatever router the internet company provided or a cheap / normal one. The first thing I tried was using powerline adapters. I read that this is hit or miss depending on your electrical wiring. It sucked a lot for me, so I returned them. The next step I took, and what worked for me, was buying a high end modem and building a mesh network using tp-link deco. I was expecting the wifi coverage at my home to improve, after all that is the goal of the mesh network. What I was not expecting and am blown away by is just how much faster my internet is overall. Probably because I’m using a good modem and good router vs what I had before. I just never knew the impact would be so high. I use two decos, a main and a satelite, and my PS5 is connected via the ethernet on the satelite. My Portal now connects and works amazing. Fast connection, zero lag. Just wanted to share this because I know a lot of people have connection issues - when connecting directly to your main router isn’t an option, a mesh might be just as good.

I like TP-Link for both consumer (Deco) and commercial (Omada, though I lean toward UniFi), but it's good to be aware of the differences between the lines. (As for this question, both make it pretty easy to do a 2.4ghz only network)

You can also not use VLANs and use OPNSense as it was meant to be used, as a router, and route traffic at the IP layer. You'd be able to use your existing Deco WiFi in its own separate network. In fact, this is what I do. with my Deco.

While Wi-Fi 7 Devices are limited in availability, I think you may be surprised at the devices that can support Wi-Fi 6E. For the most part, 6e functionality has been limited to phones and tablets, as computers and laptops only received compatibility in a recent Windows update. At this point, most devices will support the 6GHz network and we will begin to see more Wi-Fi 7 devices released over the next year. For Decos, there is another reason to choose Wi-Fi 7 nodes, and that is the fact that the wireless backhaul of your network will take advantage of Wi-Fi 7 when communicating between nodes. This means that your entire network, without even considering your devices, will become more efficient, will support a higher bandwidth, and will use the new features such as MLO and 4K-QAM.

Same. Plus all Decos are compatible with all other Decos, which makes upgrades easy.

Tp-Link all he way. Either Deco (if you want ease of installation) or Omada (if you want configurability). You can run the Omada Controller locally as a HA Add-On and also there is an Omada Integration giving you control over all your Omada gear, including control over PoE management on switches.

I use the hub 3 in modem mode with a netgear router, it works good but the range isn't the greatest, just about gets around my small house. In hindsight i would use a mesh system, I use one at my workplace that's bigger than my house and it works great, just 3 deco's around the building and is much easier to setup

Take the Spectrum modem, get a TP-Link Deco Mesh system (don't listen to the nonsense about them being banned in the US). My house is about 2500 sq ft, I have over 60 devices connected to it, and have ZERO issues.

I do not have much experience with the powerline kits so won't comment on them other than to say you would need to know how your circuits are laid out since they use the electrical cable to carry the signal. The mesh route using 3 devices should work and I believe a good cost effective solution would be the TP-Link Deco range. They do sell them in 3-packs.

Hit or miss. Get deco

After having the same issues I ended up doing the same. 0 issue since using my old Asus router with the Decos as APs.

I upgraded to TP link deco this year and everything about it has been miles better. I get faster speeds and the app is so much better. On my Google WiFi I never got the upload speeds I was supposed to get from my IP. On top of this, I had devices connecting to pucks that were further away in the house. It never made any sense. It makes me realise how Google really doesn't care about maintaining their products after the sales volume dies down a bit.

Decos work

What kind of walls? I helped a friend recently and their old home had concrete walls, Google did the best of the three Mesh systems I tested, Deco next, I ended up adding more points for better line of sight, but got her up to 400MBPS where she couldn't hit 50 before. I have a much smaller home, 3000SQFT and my Deco Mesh works great, but I have it backhauled with just the main router and one other MESH point. Used Nighthawk router with 2 AP's before, my current setup increased my speeds everywhere and eliminated those outside dead zones where I have cameras. Good luck.

I used orbi for several years. Never had problem. Switch to Deco for several months. The speed is good but there is one problem. It took about 5 minutes for my TVs to connect to the wifi every time I turned on the TVs. Didnt have this problem with Orbi before.

I’ve got the same setup. Works great, just make sure you set it up in access point mode instead of router mode, or you’ll get double NAT.

I've had my hands on a fist full of different mesh solutions. Cost to performance the Decos are winning for now. However given the issues your describing, I don't think a mesh solution is right for you. Look into a more traditional wireless access point solution. Downside is you need to run CAT5e or CAT6 from your router to the APs. My go to right now is the TP-Link EAP670 or the Mikrotik cAP ax. You can use the supplied POE bricks and just hook them directly to your ISPs router. (there are better ways to do this, but its the simplest/cheapest)

Depends on construction materials but assuming wood and drywall your issue won’t be area per floor it’s getting the signal between floors. Wired data to Wi-Fi per floor is best but if that’s not available a tp-link deco mesh system on floors 1-3 ought to do you may need a 4th node on the fourth floor it’s just hard to say. It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to set up. TP Link is getting a lot of news right now so you’ll see some opinions on it. All I can tell you is that if you’re looking for ease of set up and solid operation at a good price its a good fit.

The cheapest will be TP-Link but everyone will tell you to stay away from them because they're under fire by the US Government right now and might be banned from being sold in the US. I'm personally riding my Deco system out until that time comes though.

This works on Deco in AP mode.

if you want speed, you definitely need deco in each room. if you just want coverage, whatever I guess. get the one you can afford, just make sure that the deco your buying is gigabit capable, at least the main deco that is going to connect to your ISP provided CPE ONT, tapos you can go cheap with the satelite/slave devices to widen the coverage.