Post is a little old but seen it looking for something else. If your still researching, yes TP link has been great for me. I had the archer axe 5400 for a while, was losing signal and speed towards far corners of home so I bought the archer axe95. I set up the axe95 router as main, moved axe5400 router to another room, made longer cable to connect them, set the axe5400 to AP mode. It's not a true mesh network, but I set the router in AP mode with same wireless settings as main router with no issues. I don't notice phone swapping between routers, great signal strength and speed in whole house, front lawn, separate carport/small guest room, and whole back yard. Well outskirts of back yard speeds start dropping quickly.They have smart connect options so the router can use the 2.4 channels for IoT devices if it needs too. TP link has a super easy app you can use to setup/manage or connect directly with cat cable to setup/manage. There is also a good bit of videos available to walk you through this specific setup as well. They will however advised using different wireless names for ur AP mode router and it's probably the correct way, but I haven't had any issues using same wireless settings on both for what it's worth.
I use TP link Deco X95 2 nodes system at home and Unifi 7 at work works without any issues for over a year though we will replace Eufy at work as we rolling out our own cloud platform
I’m running TPLink Deco x95… I grew tired of the app only interface (NO WEB BASED BROWSER FOR SETUP)…
So they are now just wired backhaul access points to a TPLink archer AX6600. They are solid hardware wise… the deco software is a let down however.
For reference I run home assistant with a heap of devices including cameras and a Plex server.
I use HomeKit via a hard wired ATV4K and 6 HomePod minis through the house. Home assistant serves up alle devices and cameras to HomeKit without issue.
If your FTTP NTD is stuck in the garage, don’t expect one giant router to cover the whole property. Even a high-end unit like the ASUS GT-AX11000 Pro will choke once you add 20+ meters, two walls, a wardrobe, and three doors. Wi-Fi 6 is good, but it can’t bend physics.
What actually works:
Stay ASUS: Another GT-AX11000 Pro in AiMesh mode with 5 GHz-2 dedicated to backhaul. Identical hardware syncs better and avoids a lot of the “AiMesh nightmare” stories.
TP-Link Deco X95/X90: Very solid tri-band Wi-Fi 6 kits. Great balance of throughput and reliability.
Eero Pro 6E: Simple and stable, though be aware that features like advanced parental controls, ad blocking, and network security sit behind a paid Eero Plus subscription. Stock Eero hardware still covers fine, but the extras aren’t free.
Ubiquiti UniFi: Fantastic when you can run wired backhaul. Pure wireless uplink works, but it takes more tuning and often won’t outperform a well-placed consumer tri-band mesh system.
Placement > hardware. Don’t leave your main router in the garage. Pull a short Ethernet run inside (adhesive raceways look tidy) and put your main node on the first interior wall. Add a second node halfway to the far corner, and if it’s still weak, a third to finish the chain.
On a 1 Gbps NBN plan, a good tri-band mesh should still give you ~400–700 Mbps at the far end. With one lonely router in the garage, you’ll likely see <100 Mbps and dropouts.
(Side note: I run FixIT Computer & Tech, a small IT shop in Port Angeles, WA. I see this exact situation all the time—new house, NBN box in the garage, and Wi-Fi disappointment. The fix is almost never “buy the most expensive router,” it’s smart mesh placement and making the backhaul work for you.)
Such a huge upgrade from my w7200. No drops, no connection headaches, no issues with smart devices (save for a weird issue connecting local network to my pool equipment), and my wife was losing her mind as her WiFi was horrid and intermittent in her office with the last units and replacing them at same locations and she is now a solid 400mbit clean
I run my 85s in Access Point mode with my own firewall/router in front of the 85s. Hence the 85s just have to worry about serving up WiFi. They have been great.
My firewall gets regular updates and hence I am not as concerned about update frequency. I was in the NETGEAR camp for about a decade and their update frequency was no better. I ultimately went Voxel with my NETGEARs.
The rub with the 95 was that it splits the 6ghz band in 2 losing one of the wide MLO channels. My 2 downstairs I hardwired and hence I did not need dedicated wireless backhaul. I do have another upstairs over the garage, but that is for the kids, and I am not as concerned. So long as they can watch TV, and do their homework - they don’t need full bandwidth.
Top Mesh Wifi Systems on Reddit
1
eero
Pro 6 Series
82% positive of 177 users
Easy, reliable, smart home ready; but paid features.
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