TP-Link Deco WiFi 6 Mesh System(Deco X20) – Covers up to 5800 Sq.Ft.

I just came back from the park. I brought an inverter to power the sonoff th10. I brought an android 9 phone to pretend to be the deco ssid. I use another android 10 phone to pair the smart switch. This is my last resort to pair it. It worked and continue to work after i brought it home.

I thought the deco worked pretty well until i realized that the weather has been perfect for a few days. I had several th10 to be temperature sensors for my hvac system. They didn’t connect and couldn’t be paired again. I was panicking and pray for the weather to stay perfect.

There are many reasons that it’s very hard to pair again. And it’s not only deco. But i would call it ideco in the same league as idevices. And that with apple in the way, the psychiatrist is never far away.

There is something called smart connect that you are forced to use in the ideco. You can have only one, single, uno, un, yi, ssid. The idea is that deco will connect to the device in the best band, 2.4 ghz, and one of the two 5 ghz bands. Deco is not tri-band. It doesn’t use both 5 ghz bands simultaneously. But how possibly does it work? I don’t think it’s a new standard. It’s not up to deco. The phone will scan and connect to the strongest signal even with the same ssid. The 2.4 ghz has the advantage. I almost returned it when i saw my phone connected to the lower band. But after some observations, it seems that all the 5 ghz capable devices all connect to the higher band, which should be the case as the interference at the 2.5 ghz band is terrible here.

The 1st problem is those cheap smart things that use little bandwidth stay at the 2.4 ghz tech. All of my switches from different manufacturers only support 2.4. My phone will connect to 5. So the sonoffs won’t pair. I have no control over which band the phone connects to.

You can have 2nd guest ssid but the guest network is isolated from the main network. The deco replaced my three router tree that is increasingly difficult to pair new devices. The sonoffs may be connected to the same ssid on different routers. I was hoping the deco mesh appears to the sonoffs as one router.

Is that easy just to turn off the 5 ghz band during pairing? To my horror, you can’t turn off any band. You are just turning off the broadcasting of the ssid. Any devices that already have the ssid can still connect.

Of course, i can still connect to the 2 ghz band if i forget the ssid and reconnect. But the 2 ghz band here is jammed solid. I have to use two aps at the front and back of the house with an ethernet backhaul. All the aps are wired to the cable internet source. They not actually ethernet cables but modems turning unused tv cables in the house into ethernet. But the modems are limited to 100 mbps from years ago. Now i am paying for 150 mbps. Instead of upgrading that i opted for a wifi 6 mesh.

My 3 deco’s are pretty good in putting a wifi shield around my house that no neighbors’ signals can penetrate. Even the internet speed at 2 ghz is pretty fast and reliable instead of unusable before. But the deco occupies two channels so that you can’t do much from channel 1 to 8. And the rest are belong to my neighbors. You can’t move it around. And i don’t see how it can adapt when there are three deco’s subject to different interferences.

Wifi pairing is always tricky because to be simple you have to give out your password to ewelink. For the sonoff’s newer quick pairing mode, the device is looking for a secret ssid, 12345678 with the password abcabcab. The app asks the phone to generate a hotspot with the ssid and the password so it can communicate with the device. After the device downloaded the normal login credentials, the app deletes the hotspot and connects to the normal ssid. But the iphone would never have allowed that and you can’t do that in android 10 anymore. But that’s the default mode when you power up the iot device. Until the newer devices use bt pairing.

Anyway, i don’t think the 2 ghz from the phone here is good enough to finish pairing. The last resort is the old compatibility mode where the device becomes an ap in channel 7! It’s always channel 7. I never saw it moves. Are you that lucky always? But this sonoff ap always crashes with the deco ap. If i have to add another ap to make another ssid to test things, i will be running out of clean bandwidth at 2 ghz. The only thing i can do is to wait until everybody sleeps and unplug all the deco’s. But i rather go to the park.

I also think you have to delete the device from the app first before you pair it again as some info will be stored in the cloud. Maybe you can try the secret ssid first to unstuck some old bits. The quick pairing mode works in the park.

You have absolutely no web-based control panel like dd-wrt. The one there is just for show.

I stayed with the deco because my problems are solved. Except that smart life doesn’t allow me to edit any device from time to time. I have no idea. I read that some satellites limit the bandwidth to like 60% of the isp bandwidth. Whereas my deco’s are about the same 130 mbps (netflix) vs 150 mbps for the isp.

And also each deco has two ethernet ports whereas some others have only one. So i need 3 mesh devices to give me one cable modem connection, one game connection, and one internet phone connection, and no more. Yes, i have plenty of old routers to split the ethernet ports but they are still in the 70’s!

Original review:

i needed to upgrade. Speed isn’t the main issue as i’m only willing to pay my isp for a 150 mbps connection, enough for more than one 4k streaming and many zooms. I considered a tri-band one because of the interference from neighbors. But wifi 6 cost extra less than going out for a meal. I’m not sure it’s a better decision. But my current 5 ghz aps, d-link ac750s, have dates in the 1970s because they are too old, the dates wrapping around. The deco will see some new wifi 6 devices added to the house.

Installation is easy. All deco’s are identical with a power socket and two ethernet sockets, identical and bi-directional. Each can be used as a satellite or the main router. Basically, you plug it in, open the app and give it the ssid, password, and security mode.

Easy except that the hardware and software are more apple-like than i prefer. I was distracted when i installed the main router. Then i couldn’t find a way to install the 2nd deco. After i exhausted the menus, i found that it’s the + sign. Silly me, or is it? I was also distracted when i added the last deco. The app said i didn’t finish but the led said yes. There’s no way you can see how many deco’s you have in your network. Instead of being driven crazy often by apple products, i let go.

Hours later when i accidentally tapped on the globe icon, with a label saying internet, all my connected deco’s appeared. Silly me, or is it?

The signal strength is a bit stronger. That’s not the point as i can jack up the signal killing my neighbors’. It looks like that i can use only one deco to replace my diy mesh network, except for a room in the middle of the 2nd floor that is somewhat less than the isp speed. I think if your house isn’t that large, and your isp speed isn’t that great, you can just put a satellite deco where you need speed. Because the max speed is much faster, like 1 gbps, and the isp connection is only 150 mbps, the wireless deco connections are as good as wired ethernet. You don’t need to use an ethernet backhaul. I have speeds at the 5 ghz band from over 100 mbps to 120 mbps. Netflix says 130 mbps.

Surprisingly, you can only have one ssid for both bands. My phone automatically connects to the 2.4 ghz band that is much slower because of neighbors’ interference. The only way out seems to set up a guest network for the 2.4 ghz band only and the main network for the 5 ghz only. Use a different ssid for each one so you can select.

This apple-like feature almost made me return it. I wasted my time using the guest network for a different ssid for a different band. The iot switches work but they route via the internet. The guest network is isolated from the main. So i can’t see the ip cameras on the 2.4 ghz band when my phone is normally connected to the 5 ghz band.

When i searched further, this feature isn’t uncommon. It’s like a sort of handover between the two bands. You need both bands because the 2.4 ghz travels further while the 5 ghz band has much more bandwidth. But i don’t think there is a standard protocol to select one of the bands. The deco can’t force a device to change bands. It depends on the device to pick the best band.

When i have the same ssid on two different 2.4 ghz channels, the stronger one will be picked and it simply makes sense. But it’s a disaster if any device picks one of the bands based on signal strength. Comparing the signal strength of the two bands is like comparing apples to oranges. I was alarmed when my phone connects to the 2.4 ghz band and i have no way of making it change.

After observing the deco for days, i conclude that devices that need fast data connect to the 5 ghz band. Most desktops, laptops, and phones connect to the 5 ghz band eventually.

The conventional router settings are still there but a lot less. Perhaps you don’t need to with the content filters and parental controls. To change the dns server, you need to tap on the dynamic ip setting, and then edit it to see the dns address.

The content filters depend on the trend micro and the deco database, which is not as reliable as the opendns database. But you can add individual url’s. As for parental control, there is a time limit on each device that is hard to program on older devices. There are also bedtime settings so it’s rather enough for kids.

For my classic rt-n16, with dd-wrt on you can program it as a linux computer. I used to have a timetable for games and other fun sites when switching to different dns filters automatically. With the automation feature of the deco, it looks like it can do something like that. You can do something when some devices connect to the mesh or at a specific time, but there’s nothing much to set.

It’s not easy to see what websites are connected to anymore. Though the top ones are listed on the monthly reports. If you want to know you need to set the dns to something like opendns so you can see the website logs.

For the deco, it’s mac-based filtering so you can easily tell which devices are connected and give them a meaningful name. The rt-n16 wasn’t able to install a mac filter so i have to set up a table of ip reservations manually and then setup filters on the static ip addresses. But my rt-n16 isn’t reliable anymore. It crashes once in a few months and lost all data. I have to restore backups that aren’t always updated. And the last time i thought i couldn’t power it up anymore.

Do i need that high speed? I think i can pay a lot less going for 50 mbps at my isp. But i need better wifi to deal with interference from my neighbors. I need either a good mesh or an ethernet backhaul. I did have an ethernet backhaul. All my wifi ap’s are connected by ethernet. But it’s not direct ethernet cables. They are tv cables with ethernet modems on both ends. I had them when the 5 ghz band began to be crowded. I had two to finally four ap or routers, ethernet connected via tv cable.

But with wifi 6 mesh this good we can save a lot of money by sharing the isp with neighbors. Each house only needs one deco and we can share the 150 mbps or higher among as many houses as we want.

The tv cable modem adaptors i have are cheap and limited to 100 mbps. The faster ones are not worthwhile until i have a gigabyte isp connection. This is the main reason i go for better wifi to get my worth of the 150 mbps isp connection.

Do i need a mesh? Probably not for an average 3 bedroom. The newer routers seem to handle interference well at the 5 ghz band. It’s also better at 2.4 ghz. They use a wideband, 40 mhz instead of 20 mhz.

But i always have a diy mesh. You can actually use the same ssid on two different ap’s. It works seamlessly on two different channels without overlapping. Though it’s not a seamless handover, you have to disconnect manually and reconnect if it doesn’t disconnect automatically due to poor signal. Though it’s a lot easier for the kids instead of using different ssids depending on where they are.

The front and back of the house are subject to different interfering signals. With only one ap i have to suffer all of them. With two ap and two channels, i suffer only half. It worked well until the 5 ghz channels are crowded too. I suppose the older ap’s at 5 ghz doesn’t work as well with newer ap’s with newer devices.

With a 3-deco mesh at 2.4 ghz, i won’t worry about dead zones for the iot and outside cameras. They are a fraction of the isp connection but very reliable now across the house. Maybe one or two can do it, but since i got three already, i don’t bother to sell one of them.

Purchased this because at&t modem, with 1gb fiber optic speed, kept randomly disconnecting when everyone was home. This worked for me with the following:

– 4 bedroom + 1 office, 3500sqft main house (2 floors)
– 1 bedroom studio, 600sqft (2 floors)
– 2 bedroom guest house 1100sqft (1 floor)
– 7 people living in the property total
– 25 devices connected at the same time, in average
– 1 person full time work from home
– 2 flex workers
– 2 gamers / students
– 2 musicians / djs

the pack of 3 was ‘enough’ for regular streaming and work from home/school, but lag was bad for the people gaming, and the guest house was a little too far from the modem, so had to order another pack of 3 but it was totally worth it. Of second set ordered, one was placed by the door to the backyard, and the guest house deco was placed by the front door closest to the main house. The other two decos were placed one in each room for gamers. Speeds are as followed:

– studio + 1 deco (2nd floor) –> wifi 250mbps, ps4 with ethernet to deco 450mbps
– guest house + 1 deco (closest point to the main house) –> wifi 150mbps, pc with ethernet 200mbps
– main house:
– main deco connected to at&t modem. Deco set up as router and modem with ip pass through.
Make sure you set up the nat/gaming in the modem if you have online gamers in your house.
– 1 deco gaming/student room (2nd floor) –> macbookpro wifi 350mbsp, pc with ethernet 700mbps
– 1 deco living room (1st floor) –> wifi 150mbps
– 1 deco office (1st floor – concrete walls) –> pc wifi 100mbps or with ethernet 200mbs
– deco closest to office deco is 3 concrete walls over in the living room

before deco set up and modem reconfiguration speeds were:
– guest house –> wifi 40mbps with no ethernet option
– studio –> wifi 70mbps, ps4 lag was really bad and uplayable
– main house:
– office –> wifi 30mbps with no ethernet option
– rest of the house had an average of 150-300mbps

i hope this break down gives you an idea of how much difference it makes. Everyone is happy and no one is lagging. If you have a lot of people, devices, guest house, studio and main house that all need goo internet speed, this is a reasonable price solution. Again, a pack of 3 would have been fine but gaming would had been laggy sometimes when everyone is home.

I’ve had the 2-piece router since january, 22. Now it’s september, 22 and it stopped working inexplicably. Everyone could connect to the network, but not the internet. We’re all familiar with this issue and it’s usually easy to fix. Last night that wasn’t the case. I did the entire reset, several times, of both modem and router, going through the deco app on my phone, yet it wouldn’t resolve.

I told my husband to buy a new router the next day, but on a whim, i check amazon review questions and one responder said, ‘call tp-link support, they are awesome’. I didn’t believe it for one second, but after googling their number gave them a call at like 9 pm pacific time.

Von was the it rep who helped me. Man, from start to finish, he was patient and kind to me. It took us almost an hour, but after going through many different steps and scenarios, the issue was resolved and the routers are now working.

In all honesty, i’m not super impressed with the routers. I have the second unit downstairs, right near the front door, and just being a few feet away out on the porch or in the driveway, i often lose the signal, which can be frustrating as i work from home and have to be able to answer the phone anywhere.

Inside the house, there is no issue though, and it does cover the entire 2,300 square foot home. I was hoping to be able to go outside sometimes while working, but i can’t depend on the signal strength so i’m still stuck inside.

I don’t think amazon let’s you link help numbers or websites, but i’ll tell you the correct cs number ends with 8139. Hopefully that’s ok with amazon. There are a lot of scam sites out there that will tell you they are tp-link, but if you call that 8139 number, it is them and they don’t charge you.

I haven’t gotten such outstanding it support in decades. I didn’t think it existed anymore, unless you paid for it. I also have to state again how impressed i was with von, specifically. He was so patient and kind. For the value of having that kind of customer service, i’m sticking with this product.

Thank you von, and thank you tp-link.

I had been disappointed with the wifi signal in my home for a long time (i was using router internal to my cable modem provided by internet provider) but had become complacent about it. I was paying for 250 mbps and would be lucky if i would see 50 mbps verifying this with speedtest app. Most of the time it was sub 30 mbps.. It really started getting awful the last couple of weeks, my security cameras outside my home had become almost unusable do to poor signal and i would lose my wireless connection walking inside to my front door which is about 30’ and in line of site of my router. I had tried many wifi extenders which did nothing so i took a shot with this tp setup. It is incredible my wireless download signal now clocks in at at least 225 – 250 mbps routinely and upload is about 180 mbps or better. The system is pretty simple to setup but be advised you are going to have to change network info on all your enabled devices ie: lights, phone, tablet, streaming devices for tv and anything else that communicates wirelessly on you network, so have all your log in info handy you will need it. I am far from the tech savvy individual but do have some skills in that direction and was frustrated at times during setup but google and youtube saved me a few times through setup. One of the first things you are going to have to do is disconnect or shutoff your current router some have a switch mine i had to log into modem and shut it down, log in info is usually on tag on modem if not call your provider and they will shut it down for you. After connecting tp device my speeds were better above 100mbps but with in 24 hrs. I was getting the i have been paying for. All my cameras and devices are working at 100% efficiency no connection issues at all. Oh yeah do not forget to call your provider and make sure you will no longer be paying monthly for their router. Gef this device!

Our installation: we subscribe to a 800 mbps comcast plan which actually tests at 900 mbps. Our 1975 tinker toy construction (drywall/plywood) l-shaped, single-story ranch 2300 sqft home has a crawl space under the footprint with an attached 3 car garage and backyard patio/swimming pool area.

The 5800 sqft wi-fi coverage (overall average wi-fi data rates = 500 mbps includes smartphones) is more than adequate for our needs (no gaming, 2 tvs (family room and garage) with 5 alexa plus/echo dots, roaming smartphones/gen 6 laptop, desktop, multiple switches/plugs, xfinity/comcast owned home security router and irrigation controllers).

We tested the deco x-68 (2-pack) with dedicated 5ghz tri-band, finding the home security upgrade solicitations to be annoying vs the lifetime included home security bundled with the x-20 (very good). Since we have a crawl space, wiring backhaul cat 7 cable (chosen if isp plan ever exceeds 1 gig) through a tp-link unmanaged 5-port switch made longer term usage/performance sense. Note: also connected tp-link usb/ethernet adapter to switch for hp pavilion desktop (ethernet adapter only 100 mbps)…increased wi-fi data rate from 250 mbps to wired 500 mbps. Aside: the mrs wasn’t thrilled to call the local fire department because i was stuck trying to get out of the crawl space!

900-600-300-(50%)

900 = isp subscription signal data rate directly from arris sb8200 cable modem to desktop and laptop. Alert: the cable modem has 2 1-gigabit ports, but only 1 is operational unless you upgrade your comcast subscription plan (not knowing cost me a lot of time plus the comcast technician during his visit didn’t even comment on this condition…’we don’t troubleshoot 3rd party equipment’ oh you don’t? = i collected $250 in refunds from comcast during this installation process) suggestion: we put a book cover around cable modem on bookcase to hide it, but it’s still accessible if we need to manually reboot (see photo).

600 = signal loss (300 mbps) connecting cable modem to main deco and backhaul ethernet cable wiring 2 nodes/satellites. Both our desktop and lenovo gen 6 laptop speed test at 600 mbps by each deco x-20 location. Note: gen 6 laptop ‘wi-fi data rate’ is also 600 mbps at each location which implies the gen 6 new standards firmware is performing well. Also smartphone pixel 3a xl wi-fi roaming throughout house speed tests at 500 mbps.

300 = signal loss (300 mbps) speed testing wi-fi on the gen 6 laptop in remote areas: garage & patio areas performing at 300 mbps

50% loss non-wired backhaul = using the deco x-20 routers to transmit isp signal through its 4 antenna/radios vs backhaul wiring, decreases signal by 50% at all locations…ie signal in garage by android tv drops from 300 mbps to 150mbps (basically triggered decision to run ethernet cables or reinvestigate tri-band solutions)

deco app = extremely well designed, absolute piece o cake to use. Provides me all i need to manage the entire network (connected devices/mac addresses/connected frequency rate (2.4 vs 5)/locations/wired not wired) by online/offline plus separate listing by locations) easily reboot all decos, optimize network, turn on/off guest network (works well with alexa skill) to include 2.4ghz and/or 5ghz signals+++ = just terrific!

Tp link support = 24/7 phone support with very caring and generally very competent technical troubleshooting. I made a very costly set-up error by testing qos (quality of service) by entering 100 mbps download (i recommended to tp-link about adding warning for this input) because it basically puts a governor on your real available data rates. Xfinity and i got tired proving i was getting the subscription rate we are paying for!

Bottom line = for our installation and needs, we couldn’t be more ecstatic with the upgraded high-efficiency/high-value mesh routers for $220. Note: switch, usb/ethernet adapter, cat 7 cables = $75

what triggered this entire project was our purchase of a gen 6 enabled lenovo laptop. Of note, both your router and connected device need 802.11ax or gen 6 chip sets to tap ofdma (orthogonal frequency division multiple access)/ru (resource units) efficiency and wpa3 security (160 mhz channels (not supported in x-20) and mu-mimo (multi-user, multiple input, multiple output = currently vaporware) adds nothing to our wlan performance needs). I believe, although cannot unequivocally test, the gen 6 enhanced data rates are performing extremely well. All other legacy devices are solid with the new available signal strength and strong data rates near the 3 aps (access points). Our orbit hose/timer up the back hill tucked under the redwood trees receives 75 mbps!

6e chip set devices will be rapidly appearing in the marketplace over the next few years. You need both the router and device to include 6e chipsets to utilize the new 1200 mhz, 6ghz ‘pristine spectrum’. As we long term evolve (lte), our new deco x-20 (3-pack) will easily last 3 years or longer as our devices are steadily upgraded to 6e.

We highly recommend!

While i loved the detailed control i got with my old router with custom tomato firmware, my long narrow house wasn’t going to get adequate coverage from any single router even with ideal placement, and of course the teenagers reside at the opposite end from where the router must connect to cable. So it was time to get a fundamentally better solution.

If you do your research you will know that there are better options out there than this one, with things like a dedicated backhaul and much higher maximum speed ratings. However, i can tell you that i have a 300 mbps broadband connection and this has enough capacity to comfortably support excellent connection speed with a minimum of 10 devices in active use at all times (certainly better than i could get with my previous single dual-band router, as good as it was). The nodes are stylish which made it possible for me to set them up with near optimal placement–i am certain my wife would not have looked kindly upon some of the better performing but boxy and ugly offerings out there.

For the money, i can comfortably recommend this as a good-enough choice for most people. I see myself sticking with this one for several years before an upgrade is warranted for security or performance reasons.

My first m5 deco worked like a charm for over four years with great connectivity and no issues until it died recently. I was initially going to just replace the m5 router with a new one. But i saw that the deco x20 was only $20 more at a deal price and had faster connectivity and more capabilities. The x20 does require downloading an app and then connecting the first x20, while the x5 ist needed to be plugged in. I had previously used a tp-link 4 port splitter to connect to the modem before i connected to the router and experienced no issues. But the x20 require you to connect directly to the modem before the splitter, although it doesn’t say this anywhere in the instructions. So i couldn’t get the x20 connected to the internet or complete installation after hours of trying. A tech from my internet provider caught the error since i had good connectivity with my hard wired desktop. There is no tech support at tp-link to call, but only an automated chat function with no human to talk to. So although i am very happy with the x20, i think the installation instructions could have been clearer and with tech support available. At one point, i was considering shipping the router back. The paper instructions that came with the x20 are also very difficult to read due to the small print size. The online instructions are better. Tp-link needs to add a faq advising to connect directly to the modem and not thru a splitter. That would have saved me a lot of time and effort.

I bought a set of 3 tp-link deco x20 devices, and an additional set of 2. Each device can be a router or a mesh extender, so that’s great. I have the router device and then 4 wired mesh extenders to cover my whole home. Probably don’t need that many, but the tp-link devices are not expensive. Setup was super easy, and the devices instantly recognize when you plug-in an ethernet cable, to change them from wireless mesh extenders to wired mesh extenders.

I set them up one at a time, through the iphone app, sitting in my home office. I configured the router with my preferred ip subnet, password, etc., gave the devices each an appropriate name, moved them to their final location, plugged-in the ethernet cable and turned them on. Viola!

I replaced an orbi configuration with these devices (one router and 4 satellites). Deco is much cheaper, has a better interface, is smaller and less obnoxious-looking, and signal strength is great. I have had no problems whatsoever, where the orbi was always somewhat flaky. I highly recommend the tp-link deco x20 network devices.

I installed the eero 6 but was disappointed with a) the speeds i was getting around the house, b) fluctuations in the speeds for no apparent reasons even when the speed coming out of the modem was stable. I liked the eero software. I decided to try the tp-link deco wifi 6 which is about the equivalent in functionality and price. The deco has one major advantage in that each of the units can have a direct ethernet connection to devices. Not possible with the eero 6. Only the unit designated as the router had an ethernet port. But the big difference was the speeds. I am paying for 300 mbps service from xfinity. Both the eero and the deco show speeds out of the modem well above the 300 level. Varying between 320 and 350. But that is where the similarity ends. With the eero i was getting siri speeds between 60 and 150 mbps. With the deco i am getting a consistent 180 to 210. And my mac mini m1 is connected by ethernet to one of the decos (not possible with the eero) and i am consistently getting over 300 mbps! That’s about twice the speed i was getting from the eero.

I liked the eero software a little bit more than the deco. The deco allows for a lot more advanced configuration, but right now i don’t see a need. The eero interface seems a bit more intuitive. When it comes to the basics they both seem to cover the same turf.

Deco comes with home shield free for life. Home shield pro is an $55 per year. I think the basic plan will be sufficient for my needs. The eero secure plan is $30 per year. They have no free plan. They have a $99 subscription which adds an additional three tools. I already subscribe to 1password and use the free version of malwarebytes, but if i didn’t, this bundle would be a good deal. But, the deco system is so much faster, has the ethernet ports, and comes with an adequate security systems build in for life. So for me, it was an easy decision. The eero 6 went back today.

To understand why we changed out our old system for tp-link deco wifi 6 mesh wifi system will help.

Tldr: even with a two-year-old ac wifi router, we had spotty coverage, dropped signals, added an internet extender, changed channels, and it still was irritating. Bought the deco x20 system and it has been great with full, fast wifi everywhere.

We had a decent, two-year-old, brand name, ac wifi router before these tp-link mesh routers, but it could not cover the whole house in wifi. Working from home or wanting to use a tablet in a bedroom or the basement just accented the existing issues.

In our new home, we had placed our modem and router in our office as working from home was the priority. The office is a addition to our 1950s brick home and the interior walls in the rest of the house are plaster, likely having a wire lath creating a faraday cage, all of which makes wifi spotty at best. I did not want to have our internet company come out to rerun wires and have an ugly bunch of tech mounted high on our walls (especially the living room, kitchen, or dining room).

There are rules in technology:
don’t cover or hide it as it needs air for cooling; put it antennas up high for a better signal; it needs several dangling, twisted cords to make it work; it has to be black so it stands out against everything; and every device must have at least two bright led search lights and at least one or more of those have to blink in crazy non-sequential patterns. At night, these lights must be able to be seen from space (i am looking at you, oral-b toothbrushes and charging cables with tiny led bulbs). Flashing bright lights on a prisoner is a form of torture. We do it willingly.

I purchased a band name $50 mesh extender that would randomly disconnect glowing red, there were still dead zones, and the basement and back bedrooms were constantly having connection issues. Wifi is a bit like drifting air currents that flow in and out of an area, not the strong concentric rings radiating out as you see in diagrams. Our neighbor’s wifi could have been causing problems, so i downloaded software to measure my signal and channels. I watched my signals go from great to noting and back up again for no clear reason.

Spectrum kept telling us that their modem and lines were great and it was our setup after their modem that made us get 6 mbps (dial up speeds) to 65 mbps rather than 100 mbps, even when the computer was near the router.

This all changed with this tp-link deco wifi 6 mesh wifi system (deco x20).
The three white mesh towers are exactly the same; each are 4′ in diameter and almost 5′ tall, about the size of a 32 oz can, and they are attractive so it isn’t a problem to have them out where they can be seen. If you buy the set, they are already configured to each other, so you plug in the power cord to the mesh towers (repeaters) where you want them and it is done. There are no dead zones in our house now and we get speeds of 60 mbps (old phone) to 112 mbps everywhere. I didn’t rate the tech support as i haven’t needed it.

I have an older laptop at the far end of the house, to upgrade it, i bought a new usb mesh networking antenna, and even being in the same room didn’t help my signal too much. I moved the tp-link deco mesh tower (wireless, not network wired) near my computer and used a network cable to connect it to my laptop. I just ran a speed test and i am getting 114 mbps on a 100 mbps internet connection.

I can even set the times that the mesh towers show their led lights, so one of these can even be in your bed room and not light up the night.

Is tp-link reliable? I know that was my concern. My brother was the technology director for a nationally known company. He used tp-link equipment regularly, expecting it to last a short while, but they tended to outlast and perform as well as the far more expensive, bigger brand names.

I am glad that i bought these.

The fact they do not have google assistant or other verbal interface integration was a plus to me, as i do not want systems always listening. I think we are going to find these types of ‘servant’ technologies being hacked or not working towards our best interests. The iot is useful, but more often it is shorthand for idiot.

After moving to a new house that’s all brick, we were having a lot of issues with connectivity with our nighthawk wifi router not being able to work around walls or the distance it had with the last house.

Upon researching various routers that just didn’t seem to offer the power/distance we needed, we read more about mesh networking & learning of the benefits including adding additional nodes, we decided to give it a try. We were pleasantly surprised with the wide area coverage including the app that alerts us to any connections & the ability to black list them. The only disappointing issue with the deco mesh was the scaled down customizing (normally included with most wifi routers) & that if we wanted greater control, we’d have to pay for a plan.

We definitely recommend this product for anyone looking to get started in mesh networking especially in places where you have connectivity issues with regular wifi routers.

I have a motorola mg7700, the instructions say to set the motorola to bridge mode. I tried for 2 days and gave up. I set the motorola back as a router to e-router dual mode so that i can use it as before without the x20 connected. I tried connecting the x20 for one last time and i got a different message this time, it told me that i couldn’t create a new network with the same name as an existing network, because i wanted to keep the same network name on the x20. So i changed the name of the network on the motorola and everything connected. The signal is very strong for a two story house and now i have 3 networks. Very important, do a factory reset on the modem/router first but don’t set it to bridge mode, just change the name of the 2.4. Set your modem/router to dual mode.

I bought preowned/refurbished…it’s been about a month and it works great. 2 units serve our 2 story 1400 sqft home well. I had a difficult time setting up initially but i found it was due to my isp not communicating well with my modem. Tech support was not helpful at all, but glad i figured it out on my own. The deco app works well, i just wish they had support from desktop and laptop computers as well as mobile devices.

Long story, short…once you get past the initial setup headache, you’re golden.

This system has helped a great deal with improving my internet connection. It hasn’t totally resolved the issues though. I still get some freezing and some slow connection. Overall, it’s better than it was.

We had a lightning strike and i had to reconfigure the deco’s. I was having trouble and called technical support. Had to wait about 10 minutes, but the technician was absolutely amazing. It means so much to have people available to help the less technologically inclined customers.
My tech was hanson chan and he was awesome.

Does the job. No dropouts no mysterious
need to reboot every five months. Reserving ip addresses for the dhcp server is incredibly clunky. Dhcp reserved addresses should be a de riguere techniques to detect a rogue client on your network. The ui is clunky and requires several screens to reserve an address. But the most egregious, worst implementation issue is that the client has to be live for you to reserve the ethernet and ip address pair. In any other system, you simply enter the pair and move on. Not here; it has to be live and already detected. Some idiot engineer decided to do it this way instead. I can’t blame a manager for this nonsense

Well. I have tp link router x18000. Honestly i never had any issue with wifi coverage around the house. Well i have 1500sqf house. Lately i bought 2 ring doorbells. Still i had fairly good wifi connection. I’m a tech savvy. I like trying things. With prime day sale. I said oh well i try this model. Well not impressed. First i had to change the location of the other 2 decos few time to get good signal with the main. We talking about 1500sqf house. What the range for this should be?
Then i noticed no difference in coverage between my $90 router and how much are those?
I’m not impressed considering how much you pay. I can’t say i would recommend or not recommend. Hey it might work for you. For me i won’t buy. In fact i went and bought tp link re305 extender for $40 and it’s working great lol. Again i like give things a try.

It’s been a while i bought this product but never get a chance to review it.
This is good for small house but not recommended for bigger house like 5000 sq . I am still having wi-fi issue sometimes.

We have a convoluted floor layout and poor reception. These have helped

Very good coverage and can eliminate the dead spots. Only peeve is that it doesnt have a web interface of the app.