expiredDJ3xclusive posted Sep 29, 2020 08:44 AM
Item 1 of 8
Item 1 of 8
expiredDJ3xclusive posted Sep 29, 2020 08:44 AM
3-Pack TP-Link Deco M5 AC1300 Whole Home WiFi System
+ Free Shipping$150
$170
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TP-Link Deco Whole Home Mesh WiFi System– Up to 5,500 Sq.ft. Coverage, WiFi Router/Extender Replacement, Gigabit Ports,Seamless Roaming, Parental Controls, Works with Alexa(Deco S4 3-Pack) https://smile.amazon.co
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Fun fact: the Deco app will always say your firmware is up to date no matter how many versions behind you are; the ability to update firmware thru the app is broken and has been for over a year.
Whenever a deal on the Deco's pops up, there always seems to be one or two negative reviews on the M9. It seems like people's experience with the M5 is better than the M9.
I ended up getting the TPLink tri-band from Costco when they had it on sale. Did a little changing of things to get it more centrally located in the house (~2100 sq ft multi-level). Doing that greatly improved everything. I can wander the entire house without dropping (even outside). Plenty of bandwidth as we have run three online sessions (1 Teams and 2 Google Meets) at the same time.
Not sure if it was just my configuration, but family is much happier worth single higher performance router. Sometimes less equipment is better in the long run.
As for these units preferring 2.4ghz it all depends how far away the device is from the node. Since 5ghz is way shorter range, if its usually not in the same room, it will always try to move devices outside of immediate vicinity to 2.4ghz cause it has way longer range.
My point with 2.4GHz was not the range but rather the channel selection. 1, 6 or 11 are the only non-overlapping channels and it's a well-known best practice not to use other channels. I set up an M5 last night for a friend that moved and even in a fairly congested suburban area it chose channel 9. Not the best configuration.
Speed good throughout the house, and very good coverage in an almost 6k sq ft home plus the yard. I have Cat5 in several rooms, so was able to hardwire and you get a lot more coverage as a result. As I have two Cat5 ports in my home office, I was able to hardwire to a better location than where the modem is located.
If you can hardwire, I'd absolutely recommend doing so. If you can't hardwire, maybe spring for something with slightly better coverage or get a fourth M5.
One really old laptop that only works on 2.4gHZ has trouble connecting to the Deco network (2.4/5 are together), so I just turn on guest network for that and limit it to 2.4gHZ.
Now if only my crappy internet provider didn't have coverage dropping all the time, it'd be perfect...
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My Deco M5's had been rock solid for 18 months. However, i switched to Comcast XFI for unlimited data and I'm unable to turn off the XFI wifi signal. I've now had problems with conference calls, my sonos cuts in and out..etc. Unclear to me if the issue is the XFI interference or if its how I have them wired into the house Ethernet. My devices might be switching between the two systems as well, so maybe I just need to "forget" the xfi signal on all my devices.
My buddy who is an IT supervisor sad to get the Netgear Orbi and dont look back. He said its worth the extra money.
For reference, my R6700 nighthawk averages 580 mpbs wireless speeds. Wired speeds are 600-800 mpbs. I had hoped these M5's would provide similar speeds over a wider area. I'll probably switch over to an ubiquiti setup eventually.
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If you dont plan on hard wiring them, I would go with the 3pack of m9+ instead next time they are on sale for $200, I believe the 3 pack with the triband might be enough to cover your whole home/garage if you can center the main one in your home with your modem. If the 3 pack is not enough to cover the whole home/garage can always add in a 4th unit M4 or M9 to fill in whatever gap is missing.
As for your slower speeds, if you testing the speeds from your a device connected to your Linksys router using the POE thats probably why, the POE adapters are great for getting a single somewhere, but they are no where near advertised speeds. Even the best ones out there you need a near perfect environment to get over speeds of 100 Mbps.
I have a hard time recommending a 3 pack just to add on a 4th cause cost brings the total system almost to sale prices on the X60 in some situations. If you have the money and if costco has the X60 3pack for $250 still, that would be the next step up for you. Since this is a wifi 6 system it would be a bit more future proof, but its still missing the triband so only recommend this one if you can hardwire the units with ethernet.
Thx! I could hardwire one using the POE adapter but not the other really. I was hoping to not need the POE anymore either to be honest though. Will definitely keep looking and at least with Costco if it doesn't work I can return it
Those speeds are from the router hooked straight to the cable modem. I would expect it to be a bit slower on the one over POE but haven't tested it.
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