Tenda Nova MW12 Mesh WiFi System – Whole Home WiFi Mesh
Tenda Nova MW12 Mesh WiFi System – Whole Home WiFi Mesh System – Tri-Band AC2100 – 6000sq² WiFi Coverage – 3 Gigabit Ports – Easy Setup – Replaces WiFi Router and Extender Booster – 3-Pack
 Nova MW12-3 |  Nova MW12-2 |  Nova MW12-1 |  Nova MW5G-3 |  Nova MW6-3 | |
| Band Type | Tri-band | Tri-band | Tri-band | Dual-Band | Dual-Band |
| Band Speeds | 2*5GHz:867Mbps, 2.4GHz:300Mbps | 2*5GHz:867Mbps, 2.4GHz:300Mbps | 2*5GHz:867Mbps, 2.4GHz:300Mbps | 5 GHz:867Mbps, 2.4 GHz:300Mbps | 5 GHz:867Mbps, 2.4 GHz:300Mbps |
| Compatible Broadband Speed | ≥500 Mbps | ≥500 Mbps | ≥500 Mbps | ＞100 Mbps | ≥200 Mbps |
| Ports | 3*GE WAN/LAN | 3*GE WAN/LAN | 3*GE WAN/LAN | 2*GE WAN/LAN | 2*GE WAN/LAN |
| Coverage Area* | up to 6000 sq.ft | up to 4000 sq.ft | up to 2000 sq.ft | up to 3500 sq.ft | up to 6000 sq.ft |
| Max. No. of Connected Devices | 120 devices | 120 devices | 120 devices | 80 devices | 90 devices |
| WPS | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Works with Alexa | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Parental Controls & QoS | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dimensions: | 10 x 10 x 10 cm; 318 Grams |
| Model: | MW12 |
| Manufacture: | Tenda |
| Dimensions: | 10 x 10 x 10 cm; 318 Grams |
| Origin: | China |
Worked and set up in 10mins, straight from the box. Three mesh boxes set up and great WiFi signal all over the house! Why didn’t I do this years ago?
Bought this to solve connection issues related to my house’s thick stone walls. With three mesh units I completely eliminated the WiFi deadzones and have been impressed with the reliability and speed of the connection. Setup was easy.
Easy to install we have three boxes across the house. Two boxes are connected to via wifi and a third uses wifi and cable. Has boosted the access to wifi around the house and increased the speed. Definitely recommend.
We have historically poor wifi signal in our house since its a 1930’s red brick house so the standard router and wifi extenders just arent upto it, especially since we have kids who watch netflix/play games etc.
After doing some reviewing of products this mesh system seemed good value for money.
Setup on Friday and took about half hour all in, very simple setup and no messing around, once the homebase unit was connected to the router via ethernet cable I placed the other 2 in convenient/wifi poor locations in the house and boom, they connected straight away with full signal/strength throughout the house.
Highly recommend !
Having had problems with getting wifi to my front door ever since I got a doorbell i decided to give these a go
Everything i tried didnt work and was useless but these are absolutely brilliant
Connection is very easy and the Internet doesn’t lose any speed at all
I cannot rate these highly enough they work fantastic all around the house and you only connect one cube to your existing router and the others connect automatically
Absolutely brillia
Easy to use. Good connectivity. Worth noting that (in my experience so far) each link in the chain approx halves your internet speed from that hub. So great if you have a high starting speed.
Getting this upgrade has been night and day in performance, east to set up, used the same chargers so basically swapped them in, 5 mins to set up the primary mode, set the network and password the same as the previous set up and bingo, off we went.
I now get 100mb on the furthest tv (according to Netflix) and 120 on one in our bedroom which is only slightly closer, internet hungry boys are happy (my eldest now gets 200mb over LAN from the second node in the upstairs bedroom).
Really pleased they deliver what I hoped they would. Best thing is was prepared to spend a lot more to get the same result – seriously no need to splash out, get these !!
I have always had a wi-fi dead spot in our snug where I have been unable to watch live tv on my laptop or internet tv. Having tried extenders with no success due to non-common ring mains, I was told to try a mesh system. I did not believe it would work even though we have fibre internet [100 mgs +] but it does. It is brilliant and well worth the cost.
[I did need installation support from my son-in-law.]
Wifi is very flaky around the house and that’s even with a second access point in the loft. Fitted these and they work fantastic, worked great connected wirelessly, work even better connected to each other via cat6 cable. I have full speed internet everywhere now, even at the bottom of the garden !
Can now get WiFi in my cellars very good and easy to install
Having purchased a similar Tenda model for myself, I purchased this as a Christmas gift for friends who were constantly having problems with their existing wifi. Setup was easy following the included instructions. I downloaded the iPhone app and, due to the number of devices connected, set the ssid and password the same as the router’s wifi, having previously turned off the router’s own wifi by logging into it using the admin password on the back of the device. Using the existing ssid and password meant that everything automatically connected to the Tenda devices without having to reset every device. Positioning – the first device goes next to the router which is at the front of the house and is plugged into the router for connectivity. The second was placed in the conservatory for coverage into the back garden and the third was placed upstairs for the bedrooms and the office. Once set up, all worked well, although it ‘failed’ after about a week. Rebooting the primary unit however, restored full operation and has continued to work reliably since.
My only niggle? The power adapters have a very short cable – about 1 metre. Twice the length would be much more useful!
Very easy to setup. Took about 10 minutes in total. Connected into my existing modem so existing smart-plugs etc didn’t need to be changed onto the new network. Extended the range to areas of the house where I needed it (we live in an old barn conversion with thick stone walls). My standard wifi speed is about 400mpbs and the speeds I’m getting via the mesh network are around 350 mbps.
Adding the secondary Novas was straightforward, and then going into settings to switch 25 wi-fi devices to the Nova network also fine. Bit of pain with 20+ wi-fi plugs which were not on their own hub – each had to be reset, reconnected and renamed. All in all it took me around 7 hours to do with the first hour or so wasted with attempting “modem” mode.
The app is fairly basic. It would help if it at least displayed the MAC addresses of devices connected to which node so I could identify which is which and rename them. Hence it drops a star.
But overall, this has solved my longstanding problem with wi-fi dropouts probably due to the number of devices connected. I now have over 60 (with up to 50 in use at any one time) and so far no dropouts!
Basically there’re three floors in my flat, and the top floor is the living room where there’s a smart tv I just got and I usually work on my laptop at living room, but because of the structure of my flat, the stairs and walls between upstairs living room and downstairs bedroom (where the fibre and modem locate) has been a hell of headache even though I’ve had a wifi extender to boost the signal, but it just doesn’t solve the problem, the connection was so bad and unstable, and no mention what the extenders actually do is just copied the source wifi signal and create another signal which is stupid because that means the wifi in my home is inconsistent, and every time I go from the living room to bedroom I have to switch from this wifi to another all of those stupid thing has been total in the ass until I got this mesh wifi system.
Before I decided to buy this I’ve done quite a fair depth of research on those things and also those techy terminologies about broadband and wifi technologies and apparently the MW12 has been my final choice, first is the price, it’s really a budget solution compared with Orbi’s and other expensive mesh wifi. Secondly, considering the situation I really have to deal with in my flat which is the connection between two floors, I had to choose MW12 just for the tri-band feature, because from my research I know this will make communication between the nodes more efficient and stable.
So to conclude, very satisfying purchase and I hope everyone else who are suffering from the same situation know there’s this thing that can actually solve the problem.
We needed something to overcome this.
Got 3 of these magic boxes and never turned back. We are fortunate to have CAT6 in the walls so ours are wired in but I suspect they would work just as well over wifi.
All the boxes interact with each other so they do not interfere with each others frequencies. You configure the same SSID and password as your current hub and it is pretty seamless.
It doesn’t always handover to the box/hub that I want it to, but I suspect my house simply isn’t big enough for one to be weak enough and the other one to be powerful enough to switch over.
Turning off the wifi and turning it back on again it tends to pick the right one up, you quickly find these places in your house and get used to it.
They are magic, it was a great investment, the people in my house seem happy.
Mesh systems seemed to be the way to go, and after much research (do I need “backhaul”? Answer: probably not, but it’s a good thing to have. Do I need Wifi6? At this stage, probably not), I plumped for this MW12 system.
Was it the cheapest? No: I could have gone for MW3, MW5s, MW6s, which would have been a bit less.
Was it the most expensive? Absolutely not: similar mesh systems from bigger “names” (Tp-link, Linksys, Asus, etc) were loads more: especially if you want tri-band (and therefore backhaul). But I knew I would probably need 4 nodes, and my budget was under 200; so this was really the only option.
Setup was MUCH easier than I expected:
– turn off wifi on your router (you don’t have to do this, but it makes it easier later on)
– connect the node to the router with an ethernet cable. It takes 30-40 seconds until the light stops flashing and turns solid green. This is now your “primary” unit (or “node”).
– download the Tenda app, and find your node’s network.
– rename it with your original router’s SSID and password. (You don’t have to do this, but if you do, all your devices which currently connect to your router will seamlessly connect to you new network without you having to reconnect them all). This saves LOADS of time….
– plug in the remaining units somewhere near to the primary one (I did them one by one: don’t know if it works if you plug them all in at once).
– On the app, they should all appear: you can now move them around the house and make sure that they can all connect to at least one of the others.
If you want to add an additional node that’s not part of the original kit, go to the Tenda app, point your camera at the QR code on the bottom of it when it asks, and wait 30-40 seconds. For me, that was enough.
This seems really complicated, but it actually isn’t! I bought mine on Amazon Warehouse, so it didn’t come with instructions: but they were easily found online.
And now I have a mesh network running in my house, and the speed through it is much faster than before. On my son’s PS5, he was getting 25MBps: that’s now up to 60.
So this is a VERY long review to say that I am very happy with my purchase…!
HOWEVER!!! When I used the 3rd unit and connected using a ethernet cabel to our pc we are getting increased speeds of around 360mgb/s. So I would suggest using this systems along side your normal internet, and using it for hardwired devices only as it does give you a faster connection when hardwired. The stability of the signal is very good via ethernet. We are going to use is on the pc and also the tv’s in the house.
All in all i would say this is a good product for the price.
I was looking for a tri-band mesh, and I saw this on sale on Prime Day, I’d not heard of Tenda before, but after a google search and reading reviews and YouTube vids it look like a great system, and I must say it was. I was blown away by the range this had over my current ISP supplied WiFi router, just one of these connected to my router via ethernet delivered enough coverage to fill my entire house with a pretty good signal, even to the summerhouse at the bottom of my garden about 40m away, and when I added one of the satellites near the kitchen window I had the full 75Mb connection and 4 bars on my WiFi outside no problem.
So this is an impressive system, only really let down my its mobile / tablet app NB: there’s no way to connect to this using a computer or browser it’s app only. The app itself is OK, but it’s a bit noddy, I guess it’s fine for those that want to set up a wifi easily and then never look at it again, but if you want to set IP ranges or get into more configurations then you’re pretty much out of luck.
When this was all working it was working brilliantly, but after a couple of weeks I noticed the satellite (I only needed to use 1, the other was still in the box), kept dropping connection to the main base station. I tried resetting it but no go, but switching off and on the main base station solved it. OK I thought, just a glitch. But then it did it the next day, same solution, ok. But on the third day it did it again, I thought uh-oh. So rather than waste my time or risk it, I’ve sent mine back today. I could have just had a duff unit, or there was a firmware issue, but I’m not taking the risk, I’m still in the 30 days window so back it goes. frustrating as now I have to spend more for an Orbi Mesh that’s not on sale anymore, grrrrrrr!
hope my review helped
All appears to be working well. very easy to set up-you don’t really need to download the App if you have set up routers before. Our download speed increased considerably but upload was not so good. The only downside to these units are that they all have to be plugged into the mains-which is OK but they work better up high, so why supply them with such a short DC lead to adapter? These need to be at least another two feet longer to make sense. Not everyone has sockets at waist height, the domestic wiring standard is 450mm from floor, unless above a kitchen worktop..After three months the main 1st unit failed to come on-no wi-fi!! Had to disconnect all and put one of the other modules as the 1st. Then issue with Amazon on returning the unit ass they wanted me to return all three modules!!! Had a really helpful chap Fariz, who organised a refund for one module and did not have to return them. Thank goodness.
Mesh. Sounds a bit like a piece of medical equipment. In this case, however, it is the answer to poor wifi in your house.
The problem I have here is the construction of the house – early post war with concrete floor and thick brick walls, add in one room that was specially reinforced with extra-thick walls and a heavy metal frame around the door (a sad story of the mentally handicapped brother of the original occupants being locked in what was effectively a prison cell) and you end up with dismal wifi.
The original BT setup gave 40mb/s at the router, which was fine in the room it was in, however move just one room away and you were looking at 15mb/s, two rooms away you were hovering around 10 and the “secure” room, that barely got above 6 or 7, despite being only 30ft from the router.
Onto this I attempted to add a few Ring products, a doorbell and some cameras – I wanted a couple out front to cover the cars, however this was impossible.
So I invested in BT discs, 5 additional ones. That improved the signal to a couple of rooms, however I still couldn’t get better than an RSI of 82 on a camera out front, only 10ft from the nearest disc.
Drastic action was required. The BT discs were sold, and the profit on what I’d paid secondhand for them funded a Tenda MW6 setup.
I was initially skeptical about just what if any difference this was going to make, and one of the nodes appearing to be DOA didn’t really help.
A quick email to Tenda tech support, which was answered within hours, and the first set had been returned and a replacement received from Amazon.
Before I go on I’ll say that having experienced the same issue again when changing internet suppliers and setting the system up again, I suspect there wasn’t actually anything wrong with the first set, it’s just that sometimes it can take a few attempts to get the nodes to see each other and everything to run smoothly.
Setup is dead easy, follow the instructions in the app and unless you have a house construction like mine, you’ll be up and running in minutes.
Does it actually make a difference though? YES, 100%. I now have (having changed supplier to Vodaphone) 42mb/s at the router and between 38 and 39 everywhere else in the house, even the “secure” room.
When I switched to Vodaphone the signal was so weak I couldn’t actually get it to reach even the front door, meaning none of the exterior cameras would work, not even the doorbell.
Setting the MW6 back up has meant that all the cameras now have very healthy signals, even those more than 50ft from the house, in fact the wifi signal now goes right to the other side of the road.
So if you are struggling with deadspots in your house, want to add wifi to a summer house in your garden, or like me just need a reliable signal for security cameras, I can heartily recommend the Tenda MW6.
One little caveat; once you have it up and running keep your eye on which devices are connected to each node.
The way the Tenda, and to be fair most of these systems, work is that a device will latch onto what it considers the best node, often, for some strange reason, this is not the one nearest or indeed the one with the strongest signal, with the result you can suddenly experience a degradation of quality for no apparent reason.
If this happens don’t worry, open the Tenda app, identify the device that is connecting to the wrong node, and block it.
This has the effect of disconnecting the device, then all you need do is click to unblock it and it should latch back onto the nearest node.
I tried various ways to improve the signal (such as placing the router in a window) as well as the speeds & had until recently invested in extenders which at the time suited our needs, but with the introduction of all things becoming smart & adding extra rooms on our home, we needed the signal to be better without the loss of speeds experienced when using an extender.
So, I did some research & found that mesh wifi would solve our problems – but knowing which ones to buy without spending a fortune was also a challenge.
I did my research & found the Tenda Nova mesh set should meet our needs whilst being a reasonable price, so I initially invested in the 2 cube set.
Due to having the first cube located right next to the router, I decided to invest in an add-on nova to bump it up to 3. Had I had known this I would have bought the 3 piece set initially, but you live & learn.
So – I got the kit & due to the router already being quite difficult to place to get the best signal, we made the decision to locate it in an outdoor building as with increased signal strength, comes also faster speeds. Our speed went from around 20 to 50 just by locating the router in our shed.
I added the nova to the router using the ethernet cable & went through the set up on the app which was so quick & simple.
I then named the new wifi & added the next nova cube. Really easy.
Then since that was sorted, I disabled the wifi signal on the router itself & located the other cubes so they reach all the areas of the house.
The biggest task was reassigning everything to the new set up – but this is something you would have to do if ever you changed router or supplier anyway, so it took me about an hour but was otherwise very easy. Everything found the right channel even though my wifi only shows as one channel in my phone. No matter whether 2.4 or 5G, everything connected & now with every room having full signal, there was no messing about hoping the signal would remain strong enough to complete set up.
Now my doorbell is running at -22 instead of -70. My smart sockets can now all pick up a signal & our various echo devices are now able to connect as well. TVs, air fryers, laptops, phones, tablets etc all connect really quickly & there is also a seamless transition that allows you to roam around the house & your device will auto-connect to the closest nova cube without any interruption.
We currently have 36 devices on our new set up & all are picking up 5 bars of wifi signal & running at the best speeds we have ever known – even with the decrease in speeds due to everyone being throttled due to lockdown at present. I can’t wait to see what speeds we can get once life gets back to some sort of norm.
This set up has quite literally changed our smart device life.
One of the cubes I initially hid behind our Bose speaker in the bedroom, but I found that doing so was in fact blocking the signal to some devices – namely our Ring doorbell. I moved the cube & sat it on top of the Bose & now everything connected to it is able to connect fully & the signal to the doorbell has increased significantly. We are toying with the idea of putting one in the loft as someone else commented they have done.
I am also able to turn the service light off in the app, so the cube in the bedroom now doesn’t emit light. Not that it was enough to keep me awake, but it’s one thing less to be causing light pollution when I’m in bed.
Also, I found the app full of ways to tweak & personalise your set up. There is a function for when you have more than 30 devices on your network, an auto maintenance schedule, as well as the ability to create numerous channels such as for guests or kids – but also you can create one purely for your echo devices, so if anyone was ever able to hack them then they can’t get into anything else on your network – That was also another tip I picked up from researching these mesh systems.
I can see at a glance which devices are connected to which cube etc. I found it really quite interesting setting it all up & working out all the settings so we get the best possible speeds.
My other half is just happy that he can now watch TV in bed without it constantly buffering as the TV couldn’t pick up the signal from the router through 1 wall before. These Novas are certainly very powerful when it comes to transmitting the signal throughout the house. And because we now have the main router in an external building, we can pick up a full signal in our workshops & down the garden too, so we can listen to our dot in the workshop whilst we are down the garden which in turn enables us to hear if anyone is at the door as well as providing the ability to listen to music without it constantly dropping signal.
PROS:
* Easy to set up
* Easy to use
* Comes with a warranty for peace of mind
* You can personalise the settings to your requirements
* Very responsive
* Good signal range
* Super quick to connect
* Small white boxes with a long power cable makes them easy to put around the house as they are unobtrusive
* Able to roam around our home now & the devices don’t lose signal
CONS:
* Not able to set the channels as they are preset
* Can’t control which items connect to which cube
Verdict:
Why did I not find out about these sooner??? 5 stars – great product, Would recommend. I am very happy with this item.
So after spending a couple of days researching different mesh systems I finally bit the bullet and went with the Nova MW6-3 system. Not because I believed it would be the best but seemed the best value for money. I was actually recommended the TP-Link Deco P9 from a work colleague but didn’t fancy spending the near 200 they cost and these seemed to do what I wanted it to do for a wee bit less.
I had recently just got BT’s 900MBs Fibre to premises installed and was excited as never seen speeds like it before however I wasn’t naive and knew I was never going to get these speeds wirelessly. Downstairs right next to the router I was getting about 350-400Mbps which don’t get me wrong is brilliant but really wanted to push it to the max.
I live in a 4 story town house and my bedroom is on the top floor, BT’s Smart hub 2 is a little lackluster though and as you go up each floor you lose about 100mbps each time so by the time I reached my room I was lucky if I was getting 30-40mbps. So after doing my research came across the mesh systems and settled on these. Connected one of the cubes up to my router on the ground floor, another on the 2nd floor and finally one on the top floor in my bedroom (Only need to connect one of them to the router/modem the other two will automatically connect to the first cube when they’re plugged in somewhere else in your house). Now it definitely did improve things, was getting up to 100mbps wirelessly which to be fair probably would do most people so have to commend them for getting me a 5x boost in speeds so it definitely does work.
However in order to get it to work better I purchased a 30m CAT6 ethernet cable and set about connecting one end to my router on the ground floor up to the cube in the bedroom on the top floor and thats where the magic really happened. I’ve essentially turned the cube in my bedroom into a second router covering the top two floors as it has a spare ethernet port I was able to plug my PC into it and achieve speeds of 600Mbps and increase the wireless speeds to close to 300mbps for my phone and laptop. For devices on the first 2 floors i’ve just left them connected to the BT hub as I really couldn’t be bothered connecting everything up to the tenda mesh. But Everything on the top 2 floors has now been connected and as I have a cube on the two floors without direct access to hardwired connection its working brilliantly.
So all and all i’m quite satisfied with the Tenda system but difficult to give it 5 stars when I still had to run a 30 meter cable up my house to achieve the same speeds as at the router but hey it works so can’t complain that much.
I had read about problems with BT router but set up was quite straightforward with the Tenda unit deciding on which type of connection is best suited once the primary unit was plugged in to the router. I my case it was the DHCP mode. I then added the two other units to the primary and then placed them at two locations furthest from the primary unit which was basically right next to the router.
Things seemed ok at first until upon closer inspection of the information available ot the app I noticed that quite annoyingly my firesticks were conected not to the nearest Tenda node but to another further away, resulting in occasional dropouts and slow streaming. By now I was regretting not getting the larger MW6 wich is supposedly capable of 6000 sq ft coverage instead of 3500 sq ft for the MW5. I considered returning these for more expensive ones such as the TP Link M9 deco or the Google nest units but then decided to add another set of Tenda Novas to my existing set up instead – so my total outlay was around 100 for the MW5G-3 plus a further 113 for the MW6-3, a total of 6 units which cost less than one set of 3 x M9 Deco. I bought the second set in December 2020.
Now 5 months on here’s my verdict:
These units work well enough for someone with fairly straightforward needs like me – I have one unit in my study hard wired to my PC, two other units hard wired to my Sky boxes, plus my smart TV’s (each Nova unit has two ethernet ports, which is better than some more expensive models)
It transmits in 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz modes so it supports my smart plugs and lights which use the lower band. There is an option called Smart Assistant on the app which is meant to turn itself on for 30 minutes while you set up these devices.
There is an option for Fast Roaming which is meant to transfer your connection seamlessly when you move a device from one room to another, conncecting to the node with the strongest signal, but in practice this can sometimes take a long time to take effect. I have often checked the app to discover that my phone is still connected to the bedroom node when I have come downstairs to the kitchen and am sat right next to the kitchen node. I can force it to switch nodes by switching my phone wifi connection off and on again which then connects to the nearest one. More annoyingly my bedroom firestick doesn’t connect to the node right next to it but to the one in my study which is next door but I suspect it’s because the node in the study is one of the newer MW6 which has a stronger signal.
Support – while they don’t have a UK support line I was able to contact support by email at [email protected] and was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply withi 24 hours. He asked for screenshots of my problems and did say that they are developing a option for you to connect to a specific node instead of the hit or miss situation as at present, but on balance I can live with the present connectivity issues, as the devices mostly connect to the nearest node eventually.
DHCP vs Bridge mode – while support did say to use DHCP mode, I did try to turn off DHCP on my router to prevent two DHCPs running simultaneously but that stopped it and the Tenda functionig altogether so I had to reset the router back to factory settings to get it working again. When it did come back on again I ran a speed test and while I should be getting upwards of 30mbps I was only getting under 20mbps. I have since switched it to Bridge mode and am getting much better speed now. The only problem is that you lose the function of Guest mode, but that’s not a big deal for me. I have also turned off BT router’s wifi transmission so as not to conflict witht the Tenda’ mesh network.
One useful tip is to create the Tenda’s mesh network username and password to the same a your existing router username and password – saves having to re-enter all the username and passwords on the devices that are presently connected.
In conclusion as long as your needs are fairly simple like mine are, these are definitely value for money mesh systems, although I wouuld always go for more than you think you need. Even with the more expensive systems I suspect that I would need more than three nodes to achieve seamless stable connections, which would more than double or triple the cost of these 6 mesh units. I have now cancelled the refund request on my Amazon account.
I recently moved to a large 100 year old house and was having real trouble getting WiFi around the place. My internet is via BT, with a 70Mbps fibre line and Smart Hub 2. I found that the SH2 barely stretched a couple of rooms over and initially tried setting up some old routers as access points but was having no luck at all. I admitted defeat and bought this Tenda MW6-3 and it has worked wonders.
Setup is straightforward as the system doesn’t actually have that many settings. I set the SSID and password and then selected the bridge mode as I have kept the BT SH2 in place as my router, although have turned off WiFi on the BT device.
I did have a high pitched noise coming from one of the Tenda hub power supplies but spoke to Amazon and was able to get this resolved.
I have placed one hub next to my router, joined with a network cable. Then another hub in the office and another upstairs in my bedroom. Standing next to the router/hub I get the full 70Mbps and upstairs in the bedroom I average around 50Mbps. A slight loss but I’m very pleased and my wife is happy there are no longer cables running over the house. One word of warning around placement near TVs. I had the bedroom speed jump from 2 to 50 Mbps just by moving it a few feet away from the TV. Must be due to the metal in the TV.
No issues with connecting various devices and smart plugs etc. All seem to connect straight away, even when the device needs 2.4 GHz only.
Signal is good almost everywhere in the house and it is 3000 sq ft.
I cannot get the speed readings the app to work but this may be because I am using bridge mode.
Overall very pleased. Not a 5 star rating due to the power supply issue but definitely a great mesh system for the money.
WiFi has ben a constant problem in our moderately large, heavily connected house. No amount of extenders, cabling etc. ever fully removed dead spots and drop outs.
Fast, tri-band mesh WiFi systems have been a bit too expensive to justify.
The latest Tenda mesh is the exception. A bargain on Cyber Monday and decent value all the rest of the year, it’s a stylish white cube, 100mm on a side and mercifully lacking in flashing lights.
I bought the 3 pack. You pick one and plug it into your broadband or fibre modem instead of your current router, set it up; it becomes the primary device. Then simply plug the other cubes into the mains elsewhere in the house; they find the parent in a minute or so and become secondary WiFi points with no need to configure them.
Once up and running the coverage is excellent and performance is excellent too thanks to a dedicated back channel. So far they have been very stable and fast.
Setup should be super easy – no complex IP addresses to get in to a management portal via a browser (with dozens of settings home users really don’t want); just plug the Primary cube in to your broadband box and turn on the power, download the iOS or Android app, connect your phone to the dedicated WiFi network it temporarily creates, then use the Setup screen that appears to set your own WiFi network (the same as your existing one is a good idea) and you are done.
But…
For me that just didn’t work. No amount of reboots, WiFi connecting or swearing would persuade the Setup screen to appear. The app is rubbish at telling you why not.
In a flash of insight, it occurred to me that sometimes your phone will route things via your mobile data connection. Turning data off on my phone brought it all to life and it really was simple after that. It’s a shame Tenda haven’t caught this obvious but disheartening bug.
The other thing to watch out for is the lack of a Static IP address option. It’s a major limitation for those of us with more advanced uses.
I have multiple network-connected devices that need to be addressed via their IP address, so need a static IP assigned against their MAC address. This feature, standard on all the other routers, is simply absent. Hopefully it will arrive in a future update.
Everything else is great and I’m no left with the pleasant problem of wondering what to use my redundant kit for.
I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to install – one thing I couldn’t work out before buying was whether it would actually replace the router or go alongside (may be simple to some but as I said I am not an expert). The primary Tenda Nova unit plugs directly into your router and the other units sync really easily with the primary one. The good thing is (and I think this is what a mesh Wifi is) that you get an additional Wifi network to your main network so you can leave most devices on your main network assuming they work ok but in hard to reach parts of the house you can use the Mesh Wifi. So basically now devices on the 2nd floor of my house use the Tenda Nova Mesh Wifi and all the other devices I’ve left on the Sky Ultra connection. The Wifi on the top floor of the house now runs at between 40-60mb which is a lot better than I was getting previously but in all honesty I would have hoped it would be a little higher based on the speeds coming into the ground floor but it’s perfectly good for what I need. I’ve only scored 3/5 on stability because there is quite a lot of variance in the speed. – it’s always 30mb + but I have seen it as high as 80mb but as said, usually in that 40-60mb range.
24 hours after setting up it did momentarily drop right down to 1-3mb and I was in a bit of a panic that I would have to return. A simple switch off and on seemed to get it working again and 7 days later it’s worked fine the whole time.
Picked this up partly to replace our wifi network with a wider ranging mesh, partly to add a reliable wired connection to a home office at the outer reaches of our existing wifi. This review is from the perspective of a Virgin Media Ireland customer with a 500mb connection using the Hub 3.0 modem.
I picked this unit over a similarly priced TP-Link one as I have used a powerline kit and a wifi range extender from them already to remedy my wifi issues and I wasn’t impressed with performance, I thought I might have better luck with a different brand.
Some review mentioned that the Nova units feel cheap and look a bit tacky – the plastic used isn’t the most premium feeling but I actually like the design, it reminded me a lot of one of the companion cubes from Portal!
Setup was simple, just plugged one Nova into the router and the other upstairs, then followed the quickstart guide in the instructions along with the App. I was up and running in about 5 minutes.
Performance wise this is pretty much all good news. We have a home office which for various reasons was not getting good wifi coverage even though the PCs were less than 10m from the router and previously the signal capped at between 5 and 10mb when other areas of the house were getting 200+ easily. With the Novas set up I can often get the same wifi speeds in the office as I can in the rest of the house. Our Virgin hub resides on a shelf in the sitting room, directly under the master bedroom, and in these two rooms the hub wifi often wins out on speed, with the nova hitting 90% of whatever the virgin is able to achieve. That’s not always the case though, and on rare occasions the Nova will get the higher speed. Once you move either outside the house or upstairs into that blind spot office it’s a completely different story, with the nova regularly hitting over 200mb and the virgin router struggling to go above 30. We have a PC wired into the office nova permanently, and the connection is stable and reliably fast, completely overhauling the issues we were having.
I’ve knocked one star off this review as I would have thought that the Nova would allow us to retire our old wifi connection, but we’re still better off using that in certain rooms. As a result I have devices connected to different networks depending on which room they live in, which isn’t completely ideal. The Nova speeds are MORE than adequate here, but if I can get more out of the original router why wouldn’t I?
Overall I’d definitely recommend this mesh system!
The pair of these MW6-2’s effectively solved two issues for us — Covering our house including the garage with Wi-Fi and finally giving me a stable connection to my bedroom desktop PC. I waited a month before writing this review as I have not managed to find any Wi-Fi adapter or Powerline kit that could keep this PC connected for even a week without dropping out.
My bedroom PC is at the end of a hallway with the main router at the other end. There is a wall and a few obstacles in-between. Over the years, I tried various Wi-Fi adapters and while most performed well on speed such as the TP-Link Archer T9UH, they all randomly dropped out at least once every few days, very annoying especially when on a video call. I also had no luck with Powerline Ethernet adapters, where even the 1200Mbps models were barely usable.
After reading a lot of good feedback about various Wi-Fi mesh kits, I decided to purchase this MW6-2 dual pack kit. I basically wanted Gigabit ports on each node and these have two Gigabit ports on each box. I did not have high hopes based on my dreadful experience with Wi-Fi repeaters in the past. My first impression with the Tenda Nova was mixed — It requires an App to configure and it displayed a full screen Ad the first time I launched it. Configuration is simple, but basic, giving the option to set the Wi-Fi name, password, router/AP mode, add nodes and a few other settings. I set mine to access point mode so everything is on the same network as the main router.
After configuration, I placed the second node on my bedroom PC, connected an Ethernet cable to it and disconnected the USB Wi-Fi. From testing performance between this PC and another PC connected to the main router by Ethernet using iperf3 in multi-stream mode, I get around 400Mbps as shown. This is a massive improvement over the TP-Link T9UH that got around 110Mbps on the 5GHz band placed in the same spot. Since setting this up a month ago, I am really happy with the stability. The only time my PC dropped out was during an ISP outage. I also like that the LED on the nodes turns red during an ISP outage.
As the second node extends the Wi-Fi, I now get around 200Mbps throughput on my phone in my bedroom as shown in an multi-stream iperf3 test to the PC attached to the main router. Previously it got under 10Mbps and could not reliably stream music without dropping out every few minutes. This Wi-Fi coverage also reaches the garage beyond this room where previously there was no Wi-Fi signal due to the thick concrete cavity wall in-between. I get between 50-150Mbps depending where I stand in the garage. The fastest Wi-Fi speed I can get is around 500Mbps standing about 2m from the primary node as shown.
I do have one serious negative point to say that will affect some people — The Wi-Fi channel is fixed to channel 6 on 2.4GHz band and channel 40 on the 5GHz band and neither band can be switched off. It does not auto select either as my ISP-provided Fritz Box router was also set to channel 6 on 2.4GHz, so I had to change my ISP router to another Wi-Fi channel. The second node rebroadcasts on a different 2.4GHz band channel (band 1 here) and on the same channel 40 on the 5GHz band. While this kit works well for our rural bungalow, I am sure these fixed channels are going to be a problem for those that live next door to someone using channel 6 or 40.
We have an approximately 3000 sq ft house built sometime in the late 1960s and over three floors. The fibre cable comes in at one end of the house making it impossible for the Wifi to spread throughout the house vertically but also horizontally through to the garden and garage on the opposite end of the house.
It is important to mention the other solutions tried to provide a comparison with Tends Nova MW6:
An all singing, all dancing Wifi router
Wireless repeaters throughout the house
Powerline adaptors
Virgin Media Wifi booster
None of the above solutions did much to improve the situation. In comes Tends Nova MW6.
Aesthetics:- Each node is exactly the same and can be interchanged and measures 10cm on each size. The nodes are quite light in weight and look reasonably constructed. There is a slot to hang the nodes on to a nail on the wall or somewhere else which is handy. The LED on the nodes is non obtrusive and can be turned off on the app. Each node comes with a power adapter which is a bit on the shorter side however one can buy an extension cord or a longer 12v plug.
Set-up:- Is a breeze with the Tends Nova app which guides you comfortably to achieve a solid connection. You can download a wifi speed checker and place the secondary nodes where the connection is weak/weakest.
Best points:
1. Value for money especially given how much other similar mesh solutions cost.
2. The reach of the nodes is quite amazing. Usually it is advised to place the nods within 12 feet and with a clear view of each other but Tenda Nova MW6 connect to each other beyond this distance and through multiple walls. For example, my main node and the one in the garage are at least 20m apart with 5 walls in between and still I get a solid connection in the garage.
3. Definitely improved the wifi problem at our place. Now we are connected in every inch of our house.
4. The app allows ‘fast roaming’ which aids handing off the device connection from one node to another seamlessly.
5. Each node has an ethernet port so you can connect devices, for example work laptop, directly to have the best connection.
6. The maintenance schedule on the app allows rebooting the system everyday at a set time automatically which is very convenient. You can also choose specific days on which you want the reboot to occur.
7. Provisions for guest network and parental control via the app are good functions. Any reasonably router must have these functions but incorporating them into Tends Nova makes it even more convenient.
8. You can check which devices are connected to which node on the app which is brilliant because if you are not happy with an active connection, you can reboot the device which then will choose the strongest connection.
Limitations:
1. You cannot choose the wireless channels!! The MW6 selects a pre-set channel by default. This is a pain as the channel Tenda uses is very close to the busiest channel in my area.
2. You will lose the WPS functionality since the nodes do not have this facility. The only way you can still have WPS is if you are still using your main router and its wifi- which most people would not.
3. If you have the smart roaming turned on, then the wireless printer won’t connect (if you do have one at home). This is not Tends Nova’s fault but rather the printer’s incapability to not allow 802.11r standard.
4. The nova cubes/nodes are not the most pleasing to the eyes or discreet, especially when placed on the table etc.
5. Strangely, the devices would connect to a random node or a weaker connection rather than the nearest node and the strongest connection. For example, Amazon echo dots for some reason always connect to 5Ghz and my phone and laptop would connect to 2.4Ghz. Similarly, if I am sitting 3 feet away from the primary node/router, my phone would still connect to the farthest secondary node. This, I presume, is not Tends Nova’s fault but rather how the devices connect to various available connections.
6. I initially used 1 primary and 5 secondary nodes throughout the house but was not entirely happy with the performance. Intermittent connectivity issues were noted. I then removed 3 nodes and the performance seems to have improved. I am testing it currently to see if this is not just a placebo effect.
7. The app does not have a ‘refresh’ function within. This is a pain because I have to close and open the app every time I make a change to the nodes.
8. The app is slow.
Overall, despite the limitations, I am pleasantly pleased with the performance of Tends Nova MW6 as it solves by main problem of WiFi reach without breaking the bank.
If you think the above review was useful, it would be highly appreciated if you could hit the ‘Helpful’ button.
TL;DR version: Does exactly what you need it for. May need some adjustment of configuration parameters to suit your home environment.
I purchased the Tenda MW6-3 Mesh Wifi during COVID-19 to enhance signal coverage. Although our house is not huge, the Virgin Media router is positioned about as far forward to the front of the house as you can imagine, and our detached garage is a long way back from the rear of the house. Our coverage before using this product barely reach outside the back of the house.
Installation was easy: unboxed, plugged in and connected the first unit to an available ethernet port on my router. All the individual units were already paired to one another, so they worked straight out of the box. I downloaded the Tenda App, and setup was a breeze – literally followed the guide.
My initial configuration during setup was to:
1) Replicate my existing WLAN network onto the Tenda.
2) Set the Tenda to Bridge Mode.
3) Label the location of my Tenda nodes.
I positioned these nodes all within the house. Whilst the coverage was fantastic, it became clear that they were actually far too close to each other in that configuration, and was actually not providing the benefit I hoped for. By removing one of the nodes, and ensuring that the remaining two were at opposite ends of the house, and split over the floors, I was able to assure a strong signal across the house that resulted in much better performance.
Once I was happy with how the system operated, I reconfigured the router to modem mode and set the Tenda to their DHCP mode default. These changes required a restart, and when all this came back online, the service was as good as before, with the added benefit of the controls and management functionality becoming fully available.
I also adjusted the parameter on roaming in the Tenda App, to limit proactive roaming. With the devices being so close (even with only two), I would find that in strong overlap points, some of our devices would keep switching between the hubs whilst effectively stationary. By changing this setting, this was no longer experienced.
Even without the third node currently, I can now get a signal at the back of my garage. I intend to put the third node in the garage to allow me to use it for additional space, and have no doubt it will continue to work as well, if not even better.
I now have a robust and reliable wireless network that I can depend on. Which is exactly the point of this unit. 5 stars.
Pros…
– Good price
– A nice app with some good little features
– They look nice
– Good wifi signal (I’m getting my full 100mb/s on Virgin)
– Setup is straightforward if you use the default setup (i.e. you plug one into your router and the others connect wirelessly to the primary).
– You can daisy chain them over structured cabling (Broadband router > WAN [NOVA1] LAN > WAN [NOVA2] LAN > WAN [NOVA3] so you can get full bandwidth on all of them (but this uses two of your LAN ports for the middle NOVA in the chain)
– Some interesting features on the app. For example:
o you can see who is eating up your bandwidth (stop that streaming, girls!)
o you can name your devices to make it easier to see what devices are connected (and how much they’re using)
o you can do some basic bandwidth QOS to stop one device eating up all the bandwidth
o you can do some basic parental controls for devices connected to it
Cons…
– They create their own subnet with their own DHCP (default is 192.168.5.0/24 but you can change it) so some protocols are problematic if you want to communicate from the WIFI network to devices on an Ethernet LAN.
For example…
o I had issues connecting to Samba shares on my NAS (which is hardwired to my main LAN) from the Tenda WiFi. I was eventually able to mostly overcome this but it is a bit intermittent.
o I wasn’t able to print to a printer I had shared from a Windows machine on my main LAN. Again, I was able to overcome this with direct IP printing but not ideal.
– I couldn’t use these reliably in Bridged Mode, even when daisy-chained together. To be clear, Bridged Mode bridges WiFi devices directly to the main connected LAN. In this mode, Wireless devices get their DHCP from your main broadband router and sit directly on your main subnet, and there is no dedicated subnet for the Tenda. However, while this worked for a couple of days, the Tenda boxes suddenly disconnected with a red LED and I had to reboot them to restore WiFi. This might be more to do with my Virgin router (and your mileage may vary) but eventually I gave up on this idea and left them in DHCP mode.
– Ditto for connecting these to your LAN individually in bridged mode. They worked for a couple of days ok but ended up losing internet with a red LED.
– If you use them the way Tenda recommends, with one primary connected to your router and the others wirelessly connected to the primary, you’r broadband speeds on the Secondary units will be significantly worse (in my experience). I tested before wiring them together and I was getting about a 50% drop in bandwidth compared to the primary unit.
Overall:
– Good value kit which does what it says on the tin. But make sure you understand its limitations and go in with your eyes open with regards to the fact that they use their own subnet and DHCP.
We live in a large-ish three bedroom house, parts of which date back to the 18th century. Obstacles to obtaining a consistent wi-fi signal include solid walls; some of which are a metre in thickness, but more surprisingly, oak floorboards which seem to absorb the signal completely and prevent us receiving a robust signal anywhere upstairs apart from the landing immediately above where our router is situated.
We have tried a number of options, including using the houses’ internal 13 amp hard wired system, with which we have had some limited success, but the system is difficult to expand, as obtaining the extended plugs is not easy, in addition, we have tried simple wi-fi/booster extenders, which continually drop the signal. Therefore, after reading reviews for this item, I decided to purchase a set.
The item arrived in a sturdy box with all items securely held. There is a simple set-up guide which is easy to follow.
Installing the system was simple – download an app (which you don’t need for the basic set-up). Instal and connect one unit via cable right to the router, one upstairs immediately over the router and for the first time ever, we have a signal across the whole house. So why did we buy the system with three transmitters? Easy, we have some outbuildings 25 metres from the house and so I thought that if I installed one externally under cover, we could transmit to the outbuildings. In effect, a weak signal was received at the outbuildings without it being connected and so I set the third unit in one of the outbuildings and now we have wi-fi throughout the house, upstairs and downstairs plus we have wi-fi boosted and therefore strong in our outbuildings and also for an area of around 20 metres in front of our house. It is incredible, the signal is strong and whilst it does not compensate for receiving very slow broadband, it does help to negate some of the frustration with this issue and allows us access to the internet, albeit slower than in a town.
There are a whole host of options available which we have not accessed, simply as we just wanted a robust signal and have no need for them. For us that is all we need, however, should you wish reassurance regarding the enhanced options that this system offers, there are a few very positive reviews here regarding setting up private networks etc etc etc.
Worth every penny.
After much research I settled on the nova MW6 to hopefully solve my Wi-fi issues.
Delivery was the usual hassle free affair I’ve come to expect from amazon and the item arrived in good quality packaging which is always a good sign. Installation was a fiddle the hardest bit was putting my virgin media hub into modem mode but that’s more a virgin issue than anything else. There a QR code on the quick start guide which takes you to the app download and once that’s all done you can hook one of the cubes up to your modem and follow the simple step by step guide on the app.
In the past I had the common issue associated with virgin media routers that the Wi-fi signal didn’t cover my entire property and I’d chosen to use power lines and a Wi-fi power line to boost the coverage. This was fun although the Wi-fi was always dropping out with the hub and switching between Wi-fi signals as I walked around the house was always an issue.
Now I have these little cubes set up the transition from one Wi-fi source to another is seem less so much so I can happily wonder round the house whilst video calling and not notice any drop outs.
The coverage from one cube is far better than that of the virgin super hub but I’ve still installed all three as the property is fairly large and I also wanted coverage in my garden.
I’ve only had them up and running for a couple of days so can’t really speak of reliability but so far so good, a nice feature in the app is being able to set an automatic reboot at a time and frequency of your choice which will clear any errors much the same as turning your existing router on and off, the difference being you can set it during your sleeping hours and not have to do it manually.
The Alexa control is also a nice touch although adding the skill to the echo is a little convoluted however once done being able to ditch the Wi-fi off or turn the guest network on is a bonus.
The review I read all said these cubes were very good however not the fastest out there, whilst this may be true I have three TVs, two iPads, an Xbox one and two laptops all connected and there’s been no issues streaming or gaming so unless you require lightening speeds for downloading content these are going to be good enough and at the price hard to beat.
All in all I’d recommend these to anyone.
I spent ages reviewing tech sites for a Mesh solution and these looked straightforward and very reasonably priced.
UNBOXING
The devices are probably twice the size of Rubik’s cubes and I opted for the three-pack due to the size of my house. The devices come well packaged with Uk plugs and also comes with a thin Ethernet lead to plug into your existing router/modem.
SETUP
After a quick read through the brief instruction booklet, the first decision I needed to make was where I was going to position the devices to get the best signal throughout the house so that I could eliminate all the dead-spots. I positioned the devices in the Attic hallway, first floor hall way and ground floor hall way.
I connected the first device to the router and downloaded the Tenda app from the AppStore. Setup was very easy as all the admin passwords are at the bottom of the devices – not figured out yet how to change these yet.
CONNECTIVITY
Within 5 minutes all the devices were connected and my teenage kids whooped for joy when the SpeedTest app reported >100Mb wireless speeds in most of the bedrooms – nothing was less than <30mb in speed. Even the kitchen, which usually had my wife complaining as she got <2mb previously was working at around 40Mb! Result.
ISSUES
Since installing the devices I've had one instance where the routers have dropped signal or appear to slow down to <1mb throughput for some unknown reason. This appeared to be a similar problem to what some other users have reported but I then made the decision to attach my devices to the ceiling in each hallway and to be honest they don't look out of place. Having them on the ceilings has meant that I get very little interference from other electronics nearby and so far I've got no complaints as signal strength is perfect for the whole household.
SUPPORT
The one issue I had was the connectivity dropping and getting hold of a technical support phone number or email address is almost impossible with no contact details provided for UK or Europe. For that reason I just hope I never have to to contact them as I've had no reply to my support request for almost a week!
RELIABILITY
So far I have very little to complain about in terms of daily operation as the devices have been working fine since I reset them (powered off and then on when I last lost connectivity).
Recommendation
I'd recommend to try these if you want basic Mesh WiFi and are not too bothered about fancy VPN or lots of advanced parental controls. They have cured my WiFi dead spots but time will tell how they fair over the long run for reliability.
UPDATE 02 FEB 2020
I've had the devices now for over a week and I've not a had a single problem with them. Speed has been stable at around 80-100Mb throughout the house - I'm hoping it stays that way. Really pleased with the WiFi devices and would highly recommend
UPDATE 23 JUN 2020
The router and satellites have been running flawlessly now since Feb. Even my neighbour has invested in the same model. Not a single complaint to make about these devices. Better than any range extender or power line adapter.
I have tried PowerLine adapters and WiFi extenders but all have proved to be slow and unreliable. I have made a 1 gigabit hardwired LAN in the front of the house and this connects our printer, NAS, Smart TVs and YouView Box etc to our BT Home Hub 6 router. Beyond that, WiFi fails about half way to the kitchen and extending the wired LAN would be, at best, impractical. In any case, it’s WiFi we want in a communal area with the family collection of portable gadgets, tablets, PCs and mobiles etc.
Even at close range, we have also always found the BT Router to be unreliable as regards WiFi. We do live in the shadow of the Crystal Palace TV Transmitter, so I suspect radio interference is another issue for us.
So, trying a Mesh WiFi system was a last resort!
I looked at the MW3 system but it doesn’t support 1 gigabit LAN connections and that would impact the speed of transfer between the NAS (on our hardwired network) and WiFi devices in the kitchen. The MW5 looked good but I opted for the MW6 as (a) it was a few pounds cheaper and (b) it is advertised as covering a much greater range.
I was more than a tad dubious as previously nothing had really solved our issues. Well, I am very pleasantly surprised – everything works brilliantly.
I disabled WiFi in the BT Router and connected the first Tenda box to it via our LAN (and a couple of switches). I then installed the Tenda APP on my Huawei mobile and set the WiFi SSID and PW to be the same as those previously used on the BT Router.
It all seemed to work so I installed the other 2 boxes – one half way to the kitchen and the other in the kitchen itself. They came up with ‘blue’ LED’s after a minute – and we appeared to be all set.
However, I then noticed a couple of issues. Firstly, internet speeds from any WiFi device were only about 10% of that we had before. Also, there was no communication between WiFi and LAN devices (eg. We were unable to print or to access the NAS).
I then realised that I needed to set the Tenda boxes to ‘Bridge’ mode (rather than AP – as my BT Router is still our DHCP server). I did this easily and then noticed a firmware update was available. That took about 5 minutes to automatically download and install (using the APP). I then powered everything Off/On (including the BT Router) and it all burst into life. Everything works perfectly and connection speed is excellent. Also, for the first time, we can roam around the house with a mobile or tablet with no loss of connection.
I have even found that the ‘middle’ Tenda box is not actually necessary. If I power it off, we still get an excellent connection in the kitchen. However, I have left it in situ for redundancy purposes.
So, thus far I am very pleased indeed. I don’t write many 5-star reviews but this kit has far exceeded my expectation and one month later it is still working reliably. For the first time, we also have usable 5 GHz (and not just dodgy 2.4 GHz) WiFi in the kitchen!
As such, I am so glad I didn’t pay over twice the price for some of the competitor’s kits. This does everything we need.
Notes.
– When switching to ‘Bridge’ mode, some of the set-up options are no longer available. However, that’s fine as they are mostly still available on the BT Router which, in our case, continues to manage our network.
– Also, while ‘Backhaul’ is available on this kit, that’s only via wired LAN connections (some other manufacturers support it with a proprietary PowerLine type solution). That’s not an issue for us but it may be a consideration for some buyers.
I placed the first Nova node downstairs near the existing router and the other upstairs in the office with the network switch there connected to one of its gigabit ethernet ports using a CAT6 ethernet cable.
The first Nova node gave a blue light after a short time so I then switched on my second Nova node upstairs which connected seamlessly and also gave a blue light indicating excellent signal level. I then used the Android app to update the firmware on both devices. Within minutes I had all of my 5Ghz Wifi devices up and running and the office devices connected fine via the switch.
I probably “overthought” things in trying to avoid any clashes between the existing router and the Novas so disabled 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz Wifi on my existing router before connecting and switching on the first Nova node. The 5Ghz band worked fine on the Novas and I assumed that they would also detect the presence of a 2.4Ghz signal from my security cameras but that was not the case.
NOTE: If you have any 2.4Ghz devices (mainly security cameras or old phones) do not disable the 2.4Ghz band on your existing router before configuring the Novas.
After a bit of online research it appears that the app should have a Smart Assitant assitant option under Settings allowing 2.4Ghz to be made available for 30 minutes to allow these devices to be configured. However, the Smart Assistant option was missing in my app!! I posted a question on Amazon and also emailed Tenda about this but they both drew a blank. I left it a day thinking that Tenda might reply but heard nothing.
After giving it some thought I realised that re-enabling 2.4Ghz on my existing router might prompt the Nova nodes to detect that signal which might make Smart Assitant appear in the app. Long story short, that worked! I was then able to set up my 2.4Ghz devices without any problem.
I ran a WiFi analysis (signal and speed test) from all of the rooms in my house on 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz, and also a LAN Speed Test between two PCs, one upstairs and the other downstairs both before and after Nova installation. With the Novas in place and WiFi disabled on my existing router there was a signal level improvement in all rooms and especially in the furthest away rooms where it was around 20dB higher than with the old router. Speedtest maxed out my Internet connection (fibre 38Mb/s down 9Mb/s up) from everywhere in the house. Most surprisingly the LAN Speed Test showed a big improvement using the wireless connection between the office and downstairs. I double checked the results and also ran some video streaming tests. I tried streaming higher and higher bit rate videos from my NAS in the office to the TV downstairs until I got stuttering on the TV. This showed that I am able to stream much higher bitrate videos from the NAS to my TV using the Novas rather than the old wired connection! Very impressive.
The system has been running flawlessly since then.
I would have given 5 stars but docked one star for the lack of documentation re 2.4Ghz configuration and the slow Tenda support (they replied today, over 2 weeks later telling me to select Smart Assitant from my app!!). I think the manual/app should include a whole section on bridge mode setup showing various configuration scenarios and make it clear that if you have 2.4Ghz devices not to disable that band on your existing router until you have set them up on your Novas.
Nonetheless, given the price of these compared to other similar devices I would wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone wanting to extend the reach of their home WiFi.
On one of these distant nodes I hard-wired in my laser printer and that also seemed to go OK. There is no HTML interface to the Nova unit(s) so you can only monitor the health of the mesh using a slightly-restrictive iOS or Android app. Not a disaster but a bit clunky when you’re investigating a primarily-Windows / PC based network.
Then the problems started to arise. My laser printer: although my Tenda app told me it had an IP address it could not be seen by any of the PCs. Various IOT devices were also registered on the network with 192.168.5.xxx IP addresses but were unable to communicate. Other devices started to fall off network. After much fiddling about I identified that there was a conflict between my existing router and the Nova mesh, both seeming to issue IP addresses, Nova on 192.168.5.xxx and my Plusnet router on 192.168.1.xxx.
Don’t give up though! At this point I nearly put the whole lot back in the box to return to Amazon. Last thought I had was to switch the Nova mesh to “bridge” and power-cycle everything. This fixed all my problems, all IP addresses returned to normal, the laser printer now works from anywhere in the house, my IOT devices woke up, internet speeds resumed. If you read the guff this is a rarely-discussed fix, but I strongly recommend it. Yes, you use some of the useless features like “guest wifi” and… can’t think of anything else. In return you get great wifi and you keep the HTML UI from the router to check device connections.
So, overall it’s a great improvement to wifi but don’t buy it for any of the other features.
So, as we all do, I poured over reviews for days and days. I was looking about the 150 mark for 4,500+ sq feet coverage. This was an immediate favourite. I read reviews, I compared to other more expensive things, like Linksys and TP-Link, but decided I would go out on a limb for the MW6.
I will point out that speed of the transfer is not high on my list, as I live in the middle of nowhere and have 7Mbits if I am lucky. I also have IT background, so familiar with setting up kit of all types.
When it arrived, I initially I powered it up and used it purely for Wi-Fi. Was great. House is a 4,200 sq ft chalet style bungalow and I have no less than half strength everywhere in the house, mostly full signal. Even outside immediately around my house had good coverage.
Next day, I started to add PowerLine for my wired tech (TV, SkyQ and desktop PC) and my Tado heating system. I knew from the reviews that this might be tricky. Have about 17 things connected.
To my surprise, it all just worked! I was really happy. I checked Firmware and was already on the latest, so wondered if that was helping.
App is easy to use and prefer it to a clunky web interface.
All day, no issues. Heating system was connected and talking to the App. My TV streamed a film on Google Play without issues. Sky Q app linked to my Sky Q box. Excellent!
Then around 10pm, it started having issues. Nodes were dropping off and no internet connectivity.
My initial setup was Netgear modem/router, which was connected to the MW6. The MW6 was then linked to a Netgear 5 port hub. This hub then had Tado plugged into it and a cable to the Powerline adaptor.
If I unplugged the MW6 from the 5 port hub, it came back online and was stable, but obviously all wired and the Tado system went offline.
The setup that worked in the end was to put the MW6 into Bridge mode and connect everything into the back of the Netgear Modem/Router.
People say that all the functionality disappears. Some of it does, but it is stuff I don’t need. I can still see all devices on my network. It does still have some advance stuff, but not stuff I want to get into for a family home. I just need it to work and it does that quite well indeed.
No drop outs since and I have a large pile of all the extra kit I was having to use before.
UPDATE:
One issue was that my Canon Wi-Fi printer could see the Access Points but refused to connect to them. There is also no WPS button. An internet review stated that if you push the reset button, it uses that. Incorrect, you just end up resetting everything!
I resolved this by adding an old Router to my wired configuration as an Extender. This was able to be sent and connected to. Not the end of the world. When I replace my printer, hoping it will connect without this.
Still no issues with system a couple of weeks on.
I recently had Virgin upgrade my hub to 3.0 as had prev been on 2ac and I was getting drop outs all the time and the range seemed to have decreased a lot in the 3= years I’d had it. After the change, the wifi range on 3.0 was better but still had same issues (although not as bad with either wifi-drop out or internet drop out. (This was possibly due to having 18+ devices connected to Hub 2ac/3.0 but it was very frustrating.)
Checked out a lot of reviews on mesh networks (Which?/PCMAG/tech adviser/t3) and was nervous about buying this ‘cheaper’ (MK6-3) option. Not disappointed. Managed to have this set up in around 30 mins. Easy paper instructions + app works well. After another hour or so and had every single wi-fi device was connected to it and working well. I have some Sonos speakers so had to re-connect and restart a few speakers but in the end all working fine without any significant setting changes required. House is fairly big with odd shaped lower floor and some old thick walls. Despite that, the range with 2 nodes was pretty good but 3 means whole house getting great coverage. Speeds are good too, I am getting the same speeds through the mesh network (router turned to modem mode) as I was when stood right by the Hub 3.0 router. So, it’s early days but at moment, glad I didn’t opt for a 300 + system – at around half the price of other 3 node systems this great value.. If anything changes I’ll update this review.
Update 2021.
Adding this as might be helpful for others.
Added 3 more nodes as needed to extend out to garden and also had one dead zone up stairs. After adding 2 nodes, the whole thing became unstable, newer boxes ‘going red’ and required restarting again. Read various things about firmware and realised the newer nodes had newer firmware. Speeds seemed low too. Thought it was either too much traffic or some nodes giving up ghost. Thought was going to end up in bin
Despite several attempts I’ve not been able to update older nodes to the most recent firmware. I’m not even sure if that is possible.
In the end, I hard reset everything. I took all nodes into one room. Reset them all. Then started again, (adding one of newer nodes as primary node), then adding all back one by one. I have one node that is linked via Ethernet cable (from a switch). [See picture I got from another site] Anyway, whole thing seems much more stable and all boxes working well. I have realised you can have an Ethernet cables from the (LAN port) to a computer/console even if no backhaul cable.
Had to be v patient, but despite boxes running on different firmware they are all working well now.
I ordered on Tuesday and Amazon dutifully delivered Wednesday. Opening the box fells like you are unpacking something that has been thought about and each of the nodes look like someone actually made models and put them around their house/office to see what they looked like, simple but ‘elegant’ (for a wifi router) and uncluttered. There are no buttons to fiddle with, a blessed relief with a toddler that was forever resetting the previous system to make the lights flash!
Actually read the instructions prior to plugging in (worlds first) and it was all set up very quickly, get one node connected (as a master), set the network up on a phone app (if you are upgrading an existing system, you might want to download the app before you unplug the old system if your 4G coverage is poor) and then you can just go around the house plugging in the other nodes wherever you want them. Instructions advise 45-60 seconds to establish a connection but mine where pretty much all instant. The app is simple and intuitive and even gives control over wether the indicator light is on or off, its only a tiny light but if you had a node in a bedroom it could be annoying. The whole house is now fully connected to a single network and you can just add more nodes at a later date should you need to get more range, though I think the system I have is already overkill for the size of property.
We have an LG smart TV in the kitchen, which is where we spend most of our time and despite a 100 Mb internet connection, I’ve never been able to get anything other than Netflix working on the wireless connection, despite the router being in the same room and unobstructed. Some research indicated the LG tvs (or mine specifically) has a very weak wifi receiver. Now I have one of the Tenda nodes plugged in behind the TV with a short ethernet cable plugged from the Node to the TV and voila, perfect viewing on all channels in HD.
No idea how robust the system is, but from my initial experiences with the system; ease of set-up and quality of finish, I’m confident that enough time has gone into the development of the system to suit my needs for the next 5 years until the next step in technology takes over (and makes it into our house).
Very happy with purchase, yes it seems expensive but if I total the amount I’ve spent on trying to remedy the situation with bad results its a bargain I’d recommend one to anyone. Has a host of features that I don’t really understand (or need) but the set-up defaults to idiot proof mode to get you up and running securely without having to sit a PHD in computer science.
I still had dead spots, I don’t leave in a mansion, but the cable input is in my office at one corner of the house so the main router is in the wrong place. I have been reading about the mesh networks but to be honest could not justify the cost.
The I spotted the Tender Nova MW6 on special offer, so gave it a go.
The box arrived the following day (Amazon Prime) and the box ‘felt quality’ well made and printing was nice and clear. Opened the box to find a well laid out box with partitions to protect the product.
The wifi boxes themselves has a cellophane wrapped round the sides presumably to stop scratching.
The units are light and but do not feel cheap as I have seen in a write up, in fact have quite a solid feel. Smart enough to be left on show. Underneath is the is the connections for power, network cable (one flat white network cable supplied), there is a cut out so the cable can exit and still allow the unit to sit flat on its 4 legs. The reset button is virtually invisible. On top is the led light, it is quite small but quite bright at night especially when blue in colour.
Read the small instruction Manuel and plugged the first unit in connected the lan cable from my router and also one mains unit so as not to disturb the current set up. The unit flashed a few time and then went solid blue. Checked with my Ipad and logged into the nova wireless using the SSID and password written under the unit.
Wow coverage was much better than my Vodaphone router (which was already better than my BT Router). Very impressed. Connected the second unit in the living room furthest point in the house from my office (approx. 10m) and through two walls, within a few moments the LED went solid blue. Signal downstairs was solid and in my garden (first time that had ever been the case). I then connected a lan cable to the second unit and connected to my TV. It worked. I could now remove one mains unit.
I connected the third box upstairs directly over the second unit, it again gave me a solid blue light. For the first time ever I had complete wireless coverage within the house and no dead spots.
I had to move this upstairs unit to another room as at night the blue light was too bright for a bedroom (I could have just put some tape over it, but also gave me an opportunity to experiment).
The negatives, the power cables are short about 1.15m, this proved difficult in the bedroom to get the box to sit on a unit and required an extension lead to be used. For the sake of a few centimetres. Also the power pack is 8cm long and when used with a four way extension lead or double ganged extension lead (as used under my TV unit) they took up two sockets.
I left this setup for a week and had no real problems, my wife’s Ipad switched over to the main router and for some reason did not switch back until reset which caused her to get a poor signal (one of the dead spots), I switched of the wireless on my main router and have had no further issues.
Still relatively expensive for what they are someone somewhere making a good profit, but they work! You don’t need to use the app, unless adding another unit which did not come in the original box. Note the app is for IOS and android only, there is no app available for Windows which is a bit disappointing.
If you are having wifi coverage problems I would recommend these units.