Totally agree that mesh is the way to go. One thing to keep in mind with the brick veneer mentioned earlier: if Node 1 is in the garage, the signal has to punch through an external brick wall just to get to the rest of the house.
In that specific layout, the extra cash for WiFi 7 (like the Deco BE85 or BE65) actually makes sense. It uses MLO (Multi-Link Operation), which lets the nodes talk to each other across multiple bands at the same time. It’s way better at 'punching' through that first brick wall and the floor to reach the upstairs node without the speeds dropping off a cliff. WiFi 6E is great, but WiFi 7 is built for exactly this kind of 'obstacle course' layout.
I guess I am the only one voting Omada... I had the Deco BE22000 beasts. They worked great but extreme overkill for iPhones and iPad (Apple restricts you to 160Hz wide @ 5&6 GHz) although a ton of IoT. They were nice for laptops but not so much so that they were worth the cost, watts, and restricted VLAN... I grabbed a few EAP773's and VLAN support just works. Also, no more counter decor, lol. Price-wise wise there are half the cost of the beasts for more AP's and wider coverage with the same speed at the end device for me. The controller works fine via Docker container, but could just as easily be the hardware box... It feels more complex due to the controller but it isn't really.
I had a TP-Link BE85 setup before this and returned it because of constant disconnects which is a known issue with them. I felt like their speeds were higher than Eero but the disconnects and the complexity of three separate SSID’s versus a single one made Eero a better choice. Prior to that, I owned an AMPLIFI Alien setup that I really liked. One of my units started having issues and needed replaced after several years. AMPLIFI has decided not to continue supporting the Alien product anymore so that was stuck on WiFi 6. Before the AMPLIFI setup I owned a Linksys Velop system and it was absolute trash. I don’t think there is a such thing as a perfect mesh system because if there was I would have bought it. That being said, I am sharing the same frustrations as you with the recent firmware updates.
I've had the be85 since launch. 2 of them and they have been flawless for me. Not one dropped connection in more than a year. Speeds and coverage are both top notch and by far the best routers I've owned, and I've had many
I started with 500 Mbps coax service, using 3 XE75 Pros. Over time I moved up to 1Gbps coax service and I also started moving to BE85 units. I now have 2 Gbps fiber and I now have 4 BE85’s. With the purchase of the fourth BE85, I no longer need the XE75 Pros.
Honestly, I’m quite pleased with the BE85’s and I prefer them over the XE75 Pros. I’m currently using wireless backhaul and I live in an older home with thick interior walls. I typically get 1.55 Gbps download speed and about the same for upload using WiFi. I plan to move to Ethernet backhaul, but I haven’t had time to make the change.
Living in the U.S. my biggest concern is the threat by the federal government to ban the sale of new TP-Link equipment. If that happens, then it’s only a matter of time before the security software updates stop. However, this shouldn’t be a problem for users outside the U.S.
alexnyc3894
