Deco X50-PoE

My go-to recommendation for home mesh with some wired nodes is the Deco X50 PoE. Super simple to set up, WiFi 6 and works fine with PPPoE (which your EE connection will need if you're planning on ditching their router). You get wall/ceiling brackets, and 12v power supplies included in the box, but you can use an inexpensive PoE switch to make AP placement more flexible if you choose. Even if you're using an AP with wireless backhaul, you might find that using a PoE injector with an ethernet cable makes it easier to place somewhere without easy access to AC power. If you could be tempted by full wired backhaul, my quick and dirty but fairly discreet recommendation is grab some white ethernet cable, white CT60 cable staples, and an appropriate staple gun. Makes it super easy to run cables around skirting etc, and is fairly landlord-friendly if you're renting.

It really depends on where you can place the access points. WiFi is not magic and any obstacle like wall, tv on wall, cabinets and furniture will weaken the signal. For the best setup get as many of the access points on Ethernet cable and make sure you at least get Decos with WiFi6 standard, it is way more efficient that WiFi5. I would probably not go with the x10, just because it is the low price solution they make but I could be wrong and maybe it works fine. I have a single X50-PoE in the ceiling of my living room and it covers the entire 160m2 ground floor. It gained about 50% coverage and speed when placed in the ceiling instead of on my desk. You could also check with your ISP if you can skip their router and put your own Deco on there, then you have full control of your setup but that would probably require another Deco unit. You could also look at used or refurbished Decos if you are on a budget, that’s how I got my first 3 x55 and once I saw how will they worked I got the x50 for the ceiling and used the x55 and my parents house.

Yep…I’ve got an X50-PoE at home and installed one at my friends house as well.

You should at least be able to do wired from the isp modem to the first Deco. Get a X50-PoE and place it in the ceiling of the livingroom, if you are lucky it will cover the entire house, it did for me. And if it does not cover place another AP in bedroom 2, that should be all you need.

Yes it's most likely your Mesh that is the bottleneck. I upgraded from Google Nest (5 access points) to TP-Link Deco X55 and X50 (2 access points) and i have way better coverage and speed now with less than half the access points. What really made a difference for me was getting the X50 mounted in the ceiling in my living room, it pretty much covers the entire house alone. Wifi is not magic and any obstacle like walls, windows, tv on a wall, bookshelf or cabinet will reduce the signal, which is why all the different makers of wifi access points have some sort of guide that tells you not to place them in corners, in narrow spaces etc. Do you use a router from your ISP? I've setup Deco at home, at my parents and brothers place, so that will be my recomendation. Go buy it somewhere where you can return it if you dont like it, then you can easily see how many access points you need and what the coverage and speed is.

Yeah I dont really get it, it’s like all the middle range Deco pretty much perform and do the same, TP links plan must be to just swamp the market with white boxes, so that it looks like they provide so many different products, but to the average consumer 80% of them are the same. I have both X55, X50 and X50 outdoor and the only major difference on those is that the X55 support easymesh and the X50 does not and it’s not even listed on their site when you compare units. I found out when I wanted to set a X50 as main unit, then I got a warning that easymesh would be disabled.

Yes! I’ve got a single BE65 as main unit connected to the fiber in my basement, ethernet from basement to an unmanaged PoE switch at my office on high ground floor and PoE to a X50 mounted in the ceiling of my living room and this covers my entire 160m2 old brick house and terrace outside my living room. I’ve then got a x50-PoE Outdoor in my carport for my car and charger. Tv, Sonos, Hue, alarm system and office docking station are all on cable to a switch and I’ve got about 10 IOT on wireless. Looking at the Deco app right now I have 26 online clients. BE65 also supports NAS USB storage and I thought I was going to use it for Apple Time Machine backup but apple stopped supporting that, so now I have a 1TB NAS included in my setup. Works great! Ps. this setup replaced 5 Google Mesh gen. 2 access points and performs way better, more stable, better coverage and 2-3 times the speed.

Best thing i ever did in my home setup was scrapping Google Mesh wifi5 for a Deco wifi6 setup. Went from 5 to 2 units to cover my entire house, 160 m2 old brick stone house.

I recommend TP link Deco, there is s nice user friendly app and it’s an easy setup. However as someone else wrote, mesh can be difficult on different floors without some cabeling in between floors. I have set it up at one location with an outdoor deco x50 as the main point and then 8 indoor units to cover 8 apartments in two floors and that works good, so that’s an alternative solution for you to consider.

The brand isn't specifically the issue here, it's that you choose the base entry models such as the x10 & x20... You need to choose the appropriate models that will cater for the capacity and coverage your going to need. Deco is a basic home user mesh system that supports guest and iot networks, although I only ever use the x50 and above models... Ubiquiti once again is a brand and if you choose the wrong models, then your going to be blindly saying Ubiquiti is rubbish... Make sure you use a controller with Ubiquiti vs stand alone access points, individually configured.

Well I'd be considering simply upgrading your Deco system with atleast one x50 if not two... Deco x50 2 pack is roughly $300 It's going to be cheaper than going down the Ubiquiti route, considering your going to need a UX7 at roughly $400 + a U7-IW and stand at roughly another $400 to replicate your current setup.

I've been running the deco x50 for over a year now and it's been the most reliable Wi-Fi I've ever had. I'm not a big fan of the mandatory app to manage it, but it's been working with minor issue ever since.

I bought the 3x system. With 2 nodes wired throughout the house and one in my garage.

Before I changed to a Unifi stack (UCG-Max plus some camera's and some AC HD AP's that are meshed), I used TP-LINK DECO Mesh AP's, they work quite well and very easy to set up.

I think any of those 3 would work for you. I personally have setup my home network on the Deco X50 mesh system with 4 AP in total, and my smart home network in Home Assistant. No issues at all and provides a fair amount of control over your devices and network (priority, IP reservation, preferred bands/AP, etc. ).

Wifi boosters are a waste of time in my opinion. Mesh Wifi on the other hand can work very well. A great trick is to use the mesh stations as "ethernet extenders". I recommend a 3 unit mesh system for your house. Put one beside the modem and plug directly into the modem. Put one behind your TV and use an ethernet cable to connect your console (and possibly your TV) to the mesh unit. Put the third unit upstairs in a central location or in an office/study room if you have one. You need to disable the wifi signal coming from your modem to avoid wifi conflicts. If you have Sky internet and Sky TV this can be tricky to do because Sky TV force enables Sky wifi. There are work arounds such as making sure the Sky TV box is connected with ethernet rather than with wifi. I have used TP Link Deco mesh for years and find them excellent. Others recommend Asus. A wifi 5 system is cheap and good for 300MBs or so wifi speeds. I currently have a three unit wifi 6+ system and we are getting 700MBs+ wifi speeds and over 900MBs on devices plugged directly into the mesh units. I assume Wifi 7 is even better but it costs more. Just try to make sure you get a tri band mesh system so that you can use all three wifi bands (2.5, 5 and 6 GHz.)

This is exactly the set I have. Works great in. Two storey House.

To get the benefit of mesh you need two units. Plug one into your modem and put the second beside your PC and plug the pc into it with a short ethernet cable. Be sure to disable your modems built in WiFi and use the mesh WiFi instead to avoid clashes. Note if you have fibre to the premises you might not even need the modem. You can plug the master mesh unit directly into the ONT if you have the correct login details. The mesh units talk to each other and establish a very fast wireless link between units. It's not as good as a wired connection but it's the next best thing.