TP-Link Deco S7 AC1900 Whole Mesh Wi-Fi System, Dual-Band
TP-Link Deco S7 AC1900 Whole Mesh Wi-Fi System, Dual-Band with Gigabit Ports, Coverage up to 5,600 ft2, Connect up to 150 devices, 1.2 GHz CPU, Work with Amazon Alexa, Parental Controls, Pack of 3
2-in-1 Router and Access Point Modes
Flexible and multifunctional, the Deco S7 includes a variety of features allowing it to serve as a router or access point. Just choose the mode for your actual network demands and experience the maximum wireless flexibility.
Stable Connections, for More Devices
Deco S7 provides lag-free connections to over 100 devices. Experience fast networking for devices and applications from browsing, downloading, streaming, to gaming.
All Decos Can Work Together
Deco S7 is compatible with every other Deco model to form a Mesh network. Expand Mesh Wi-Fi coverage anytime by simply adding more Decos.
Robust Parental Controls
Simple, intuitive parental controls make it easy to keep your children safe while they’re online.
-User Profiles
-Filter Levels
-Time Limits
Clients need to support 802.11k/v/r and may require additional set up. Performance may vary depending on the client device.
| Weight: | 1.94 kg |
| Dimensions: | 9.07 x 9.07 x 16.23 cm; 1.94 Kilograms |
| Brand: | TP-Link |
| Model: | DECO S7(3-PACK) |
| Manufacture: | TP-Link |
| Dimensions: | 9.07 x 9.07 x 16.23 cm; 1.94 Kilograms |
X60 - AX5400
Was nervous about buying this but needn’t have been. The biggest obstacle was my own ISP but the product itself was dead easy to set up using the app. I have connected one satellite node by Ethernet which made some difference although to be fair was just as effective without. Great wifi coverage around the whole house now.
Great produc
Worked okay but needed to be set up properly as I didn’t want it as my primary router just as extenders.
I now get a reasonable signal in my garage at the bottom of the garden so I can now install a security camera.
Should of got these sooner!
Brought a cheap mesh (nova mw6) a few years ago as virgin super hub barely gets a signal out of the main room. That was actually not to bad, had signal throughout the house and speeds around 70meg downloads. Then when we started getting more use in the network I noticed it slowing. Did some reaserch and although the house should be fine with 2, got the 3 pack of the deco. What a difference! Straight off the batt I get 350meg download speeds throughout the house, and Anoylingly, it does it with 2 attached, but since I got the 3 I may as well use them. It was real easy to setup, just swapped it to my existing wifi info and everything as jumped onto the new network. Deffo recommend these
Wish I did years ago
Best wifi solution I’ve ever tried. I have spent 100’s on ways to get wi-fi around my house. One way or another, always failed to some extent. THIS works great Maybe it’s just me ctching up with technology, but I now have my expensive Virging broadband, all over my house, where before, whatever I tried wa snot so good. Highly recommend, for ‘problem/trouble’ spots of no internet.
Generally good.
I have a similar issue to another buyer. My main deco, pretty much every day, shows a solid red light while the 2 satellites flash a red light. As far as I can tell everything still works as it should. I still have good wifi and the internet is still available, so I’m at a loss to understand why the red lights are on. If I reboot the deco’s the red lights go off for a few hours then come back on?
Great Wi-Fi Additio
was unable to cover my property fully using my main router supplied from ISP and wanted something easy to set up and use and that is exactly what happened here – they are almost plug and play and work flawlessly – they have a dedicated app for set up and are very easy to use – I can now walk all around my home and not have to worry about any wi-Fi weak or dead spots
Good wifi range
Needed this mainly for my out building to link with my main house wifi. Plugged Deco in to my wifi and linked the 3 deco units with one of them in the out building. Worked a treat. I have double brick construction from 1875 in my house (old victorian house) and out building (coach house) and it worked.
Excellent Wi-Fi coverage over my house
Very pleased I changed from a router to a mesh system. Coverage is excellent even down to the bottom of my large garden whilst the ‘box’ is located in the house.
Simple to install and, as expected from TP-Link, a good quality product.
I have not rated tach support as I have not needed any. I am not a tech nerd (I’m 72) but found that this system worked far better tha a router and signal extenders.
Definitely recommended.
Amazing Mesh Product (S7 AC1900)
We have suffered for years with dead spots and slow internet speeds in our bungalow due to thick walls. We used 2 X Sky WiFi Extenders ontop of the router in our property but even then still struggled to get the signal to all extremes. We get around 55mbps near the router and extenders but this dropped to barely any signal and 5mbps in further rooms with constant slow downs when changing from router to the 2 extenders as moving around.
I bought the triple pack decos when on offer and what a difference.
Setup was seemless, I only ended using 2 of the 3 which took me around 5 mins to do the pair using the app and now we have 55mbps WiFi coverage in the entire bungalow with no slow downs as its one big mesh wifi.
Really wish we had done this years ago.
Transformed our Wi-Fi coverage
Our Wi-Fi coverage throughout the house was very poor after needing to relocate the router to an upstairs bedroom. After weeks of putting up with patchy and poor signal I sought an alternative. The Netgear alternative is ludicrously priced, so the fact this was only about 100 made me think twice.
However, this product has been transformative. It provides good signal to all parts of the house. The set up via the app was very simple. Some questions about the connection were confusing, but sticking to the defaults worked well. I would recommend this product to anyone with Wi-Fi issues.
Good quality
I was recommended to use a three pack of these as part of setting up Starlink internet. The coverage is very good. There is a strong signal 50 yards from the house. One unit failed after a few weeks and after an exchange of emails with Tech Support I was recommended to replace it. Amazon supplied a replacement next day and everything has been OK since then.
Great product great price.
Bought this to improve the WiFi signal across the property and it does just that. I only have 30meg broadband so can’t say anything for high performance but I get around 30 out of it.
One disappointment is that it won’t talk to an existing powerline network as the powerline is used for backhaul only. Also don’t plug this into a powerline adapter with pass through power socket as they interfere, having said that you can successfully connect an existing powerline network to one of the ethernet ports to connect that to the deco network.
The network topology that it creates is questionable sometimes and you have no control over that, but it works.
Software could be better but does the job, also has the benefit of parental controls.
Great - works perfectly
Very easy to set up and works well with TP-Link AB1200 powerline adaptors. I now have reliable and fast wifi all around the house and garden too. I kept a powerline Wi-Fi adapter for use on a detached garage and that connects works fine too. Not cheap but after years of slightly flaky virgin hub 3.0 and range extenders, wish I had sorted this years ago.
Virgin Media Users get advice online
This really is a great piece of kit but only after following advice from online regarding turning my Virgin Super Hub into Modem mode. You can do this online but the instructions in this kit don’t tell you to do it.
Once connected (I have three units) I covered my house in WiFi and in places I was only getting 20/30mb I’m now ten times that amount.
App is great. Easy set up on the app and really please but glad I did what the advice was online before.
My virgin Tivo now plugs direct into the deco unit in the lounge and the all works perfectly.
Well impressed and future proofed it by getting the S7 instead of the S4 as it was only a few quid more.
So me and my partner just moved into our first house, we got Virgin 260 odd mbps package. The router never provided any Wi-Fi upstairs.
The house is a 1930’s house so thick walls which doesn’t help, we had some power line adapters from when I lived with the parents and these only provided 50 mbps at Most and 80 mbps when using LAN on my gaming pc.
I brought this and set it up in around 10 mins. Wow, straight away 170+ Mbps on phone, 261mbps when using LAN on my gaming computer. They may be a little more expensive but by far the best thing that actually works and means you get the same network all over the house compared to repeaters or power line adapters which have their own network name and password.
Early days so I will keep you updated in 20 ish days to see how they perform then.
100% Recommended
We were suffering with Wifi dead zones all over our house. Was recommended this product by my Internet provider and it has not disappointed. From set up to use, absolutely faultless. I highly recommend anyone to purchase the 3 boosters over the 2. The extra cost is with it 100% recommended.
Plug and play.
Solved our home wifi problems. House over 3 floors with wifi home control, sky boxes, phones, guests, laptops, tanlets and development PCs. We rely heavily on what hs previously been a flaky Wifi.
Left the sky boxes on powerline extenders.
Now we get over 500mb/s connection to the fibre feed and IOT devices have solid connections.
Fantastic bit of kit!
I have a large farmhouse which is L shaped. All internal brick walls. I decided on 3 Deco mesh wifi extenders. They all work great and no more internet black spots. Wish I got them sooner!
Mesh
What a difference this has made to my home wifi, reaching all areas of my house and garden , also as it can have up to 150 devices , every device now can connect to WiFi, my router would only connect to around 30 devices
Best Home Network Extension I’ve Ever Used
This product is incredible, set up is easy through the deco app. Seamless connection across a property I’ve had problems with for years with thick walls and fire doors. The triband 2.4GHz, 5GHz and PLC work together instantly out the box.
I’ve tried standard wifi extenders and weaker mesh systems and standalone PLC and nothing has ever come close to the experience with these devices.
Could not reccomend more.
We live in a three-story house that experienced frequent wifi dropouts and low-quality connectivity. The connection in the garden was also non-existent. We’d just switched from Sky to BT 900mbps FTTP and discovered that the BT smart hub was even worse when it comes to wifi range. The moment we walked upstairs or out into the garden, it was a dead zone. I was starting to think upgrading to FTTP was a big mistake as we’d never be able to get the best from it throughout the house. I cannot tell you how impressed I am with the Deco system. From the moment we installed it (which was as easy as plugging everything in and using the app to configure), we were getting high-speed wifi everywhere. I went to the end of the garden and was still getting 45mbps which was amazing. If you’re looking for a mesh system that just works, this is the one. Grab it while it’s on special offer. You won’t be disappointed!
I was struggling with no wifi zones and very slow connection when I was using the virgin media modem as a router or even connected to range extenders. I purchased this system and it solved all my wifi issues at home, it works wonders! I’ve been using it for several months and no issues whatsoever. Even in the garden I can now stay connected with speeds above 400mbps on my iPhone, and this speed is even better on my notebook. Very happy with the product!
Amazing mesh system
Our virgin router was struggling to cope with surge in connected devices and we experienced connectivity issues with work laptops. It was very frustrating and after much research I got this wifi mesh system. It was the best investment decision. I wish I had bought this early on . Drop out during work calls is almost nil now. Amazing buffering in connected devices and consistent speed. I thoroughly recommend this system.
Very good way to extend wifi signals
The wifi signal from the router was not reaching some parts of the house, which was very irritating as devices would either drop their signal or not connect to start with. However, the TP-Link Deco S7 is easy to set up and has created a new mesh network which has proved much more resilient and much less likely to lose the signal than just relying on the broadband router itself.
Works really well, seamless connection and improves my WiFi no end over the regular (bad) VM connection. One thing that is odd, is that my main deco keeps switching to a red light, and the one connected by WiFi to the main unit starts flashing red pretty much daily. During this time I don’t lose internet access though. The hardwired third connection turns its light back on, despite it being off in the app, so I have covered it with a coin as it is in a bedroom. Overall, I would recommend, but I am concerned about long term reliability with the frequency of the lights turning back o
This product was so easy to configure using the downloadable app, prior to using this I was using the standard virgin media router, since swapping to using these the WiFi coverage and stability in my house is easily 100x better than it was before.
Since changing to these we’ve not had a single issue with devices dropping off the network and the connection speed is much better too.
If you connection issues at all with your providers standard router then highly recommend you upgrade to this.
Well worth the money!
Overall a very nice piece of kit, especially for the price. My one gripe is the lack of any interfacing outside of a stupid little phone app. You can’t access any admin consoles over a browser.
I also wish there was a way to force the chain of the network, rather than have the one at the back of the house connect to the front of the house while avoiding the node in the middle. Could do with some tidying up, as the only way to fix this currently is to unplug each one and allow them to reconnect in the order you want.
I live in a semi rural area and recently installed Starlink for much much faster and reliable internet. I heard other Starlink customers were using TP Link deco mesh so thought I’d try them, replacing a mismatch of routers in AP mode and wireless access points. My main connection to the Starlink router is wired and so are 3 out of 4 deco units.
Initially, I had trouble getting them to work as the app kept reporting the ethernet cable as being unplugged, even though it wasn’t. After some net trawling I found that the main deco needs to be directly connected to your modem. Mine went through a switch first, and that was causing the problem. Luckily, having ethernet cables in place already meant I could move the main deco unit to a direct connection with the router and use the network switch elsewhere.
Once this problem was solved I’m very pleased with the setup. The most noticeable thing is being able to walk the length of the house and stay connected seamlessly. (My house is long, so needs 4 decos in a chain for best performance).
I’m getting 50-60 mbps over WiFi and 150mbps if connected by ethernet cable. They look nice too and it’s very easy to add further units if needed.
We live in a 2 bed flat and due to the location of our Wi-Fi hub (at one end of flat) we could never get Wi-Fi at the other end in the bedrooms. I’m told due to the walls. We’ve tried Bt, plusnet, virgin (multiple units) etc. All had same results. With this fitted directly to our current virgin hub and becoming the main unit we then fitted the other 2 units so as to create a triangle at furthest points in flat. We now have perfect signal throughout the home for the first time! It’s fantastic! There is a little slow down at the furthest units of around 15/20% (at worse times) but based on the speeds we have that makes no noticeable difference. I love the app and being able to see what’s connected and to which unit at any given time. You can also set up alerts when a new unit is registered to the network and you can name it for future reference. You can also temp disable a device, for instance a child’s games machine, if you need to do so. Totally recommend! A*
Gets the job done
No issues with installation, powerline worked no problem although ymmv depending on your homes wiring.
Great coverage throughout the house now, some places are not as fast as others on speed tests but in reality max speed is not needed everywhere. Don’t believe the marketing on fastest possible speeds and new wifi standards, you don’t need them unless you’re watching 4k video from multiple devices simultaneously under the stairs for some reason.
Impressive range extensio
I installed a pack of 3 DecoP9 to improve the barely satisfactory range afforded by my SKY Router. Once set up this gave me very impressive signal around my house, even at the bottom of my large garden. Unfortunately after about a year one of the units failed however, under the 3 year warranty this was replaced.
The only problem was following the procedure to return the defective item which, as an ‘oldie’, I found almost impossible to understand. Thankfully Anicee Condes of TP-Link Technical Support superbly guided me through this process.
My only complaint with this product is the on-line guidance for installation is, for me, quite difficult to follow and should be produced as ‘TP-Link for duffers!
Massive improvement to WiFi
Massive improvement on Wi-Fi signal much better than Wi-Fi extenders easy to install and a great app that goes with it . Can see exactly what’s device being used and whe
So far so good
Easy to install and monitor, although we had some issues initially for the last 2 months i only had to reset one of them only twice. which is quite remarkable in my experience with wifi equipme
Amazing performance!
I first tried Google Wifi, which capped my speed and was super unstable. I returned it and got the Deco X60. It’s simply amazing! Setup is super easy and I’m getting stable full speed in every spot in my house.
Faultless
Got it to replace a Netgear Orbi mesh which had started playing up after 3 years. Easy to install and working perfectly without a single hiccup so far on my domestic network with around 100 devices including macs, iPads, iPhones, Android pads, TV and IOT hub and devices.
So far - Grea
Am upgrading an old Deco M5 system that I have had for years. Arrived yesterday and installed this morning. Very easy to install using the Deco App, and took about 20 minutes to upgrade my entire system *(also reducing the need for my multiple M5’s). I have one problem;em but chatted with Joshua at TP-Link Technical support who quickly understood and sorted the problem.
So far so good
If you read any negative reviews first like I do with most products, I implore you to ignore it in relation to this product. It quite simply does exactly what it says on the tin and the instructions to install are easy to understand and follow.
Once the initial unit is connected, the others just follow and the app guides you through it all. The only issue you are likely to face is the fact you most like have to update the firmware which results in a message suggesting the connection failed but simply complete the firmware install, reboot the system and bob’s yer uncle.
Amazing, finally I have Wi Fi !!!
Amazing product, easy to set up, works well (I am a VM customer) only recently I found out about these otherwise I would have purchased them years ago!!! It’s been a hassle the last 4 years, VM engineers telling me “you’ve got great signal” but none of them explain exactly the difference between internet and Wi-Fi very good coverage, happy house:)
Have just bought the three pack of the Deco S7 after returning a three pack of the Linksys Velop WHW0303 devices. The differences are quite marked between the two systems.
Initial impression – The Velop comes in an “Apple esque” smart box with magnetic closures and a ribbon tag with the name on it. The Deco comes in a normal but presentable cardboard box. Easily recyclable and adequate for the job. They both have (UK) plug mounted power supplies, but the Velops are so wide that they block the use of the adjacent sockets on plugblocks or the on/off switches on normal double sockets.
Both use the mandatory mobile app to set the systems up. The Velop app does seem to offer more functionality than the Deco, not sure if it is all useful, but the Deco app is more responsive to commands and more logical. The Velop app seems to take ages to make any changes and at one point indicated that the operation I was performing would take up to 6 minutes! No such problem with the Deco app.
I had both systems setup with one node connected to my broadband and the other two ‘wirelessly’ connected.
Once setup the Deco system works just as you would expect it to. Mobile devices seamlessly transitioning from one node to another as they move around. My broadband is 270Mbps and I can get that speed from anywhere in the house now. Which I was unable to get from the Velop system with the nodes located in the same places round the house.
Spent several hours trying to get the Velop system to work properly with its default setting and messing with its advance settings. It didn’t transition my mobile devices to the strongest signal and the speed suffered.
Setting up the Deco system took less than 20 minutes. Wish I had bought the Decos first.
I consider myself IT literate as I work in the industry and have no connection with or previous experience with either brand.
Fast and mostly stable
Only issue I have had is iPhone freezing on certain websites, but this could be an iOS issue. I use my Wi-Fi for work VCs every day and it’s rock solid for that. No problems with speed. App has needed a few resets but now working well. Positioning of nodes is important, best to put them close for any updates then move to desired location afterwards. Replacement for Tenda mw6 which had a unstable rubbish app by comparison. Units look good.
he coverage is absolutely superb .
its app driven rather than a full piece of software which is annoying
it links the 2.4 and 5 signals together and i still havnt found a way to move then which means that soem older IOT devices cant see it properly . the powerline and settup of these devices is easy even though its app driven and it covers a 3 storey house in total with no issues and even covers a garden and front garden to roughly 300 feet as well … its a 1 stop shop that is simple to install and setup , I woudl not usze it as a primary router as the config for the router is rather poor so just plug this into and existign router ans switch the wifi off on the router . Could do with a decent web interphase and a Full software config ratehr than an app .
Works exceptionally well through solid walls
Recently swapped my Google Nest Wifi for the Deco X60 and really pleased with the improved results. The Mesh function works seamlessly across my Victorian house which has numerous internal solid walls.
I now get a great signal in rooms previously almost inaccessible with the Google WiFi units.
Highly recommended for large / older homes with hard to reach wifi areas. Really easy to install and setup as well.
I have a big old house, which means you get a few dead spots so have used these to eliminate that.
They’re pretty compact and easy to set up, and tbh the range on just one of them seemed to be a big improvement on my last tp-link router I had, 100% better than your standard virgin router. I have two out of the three set up and link them with a cable for better speeds. (you can link them wirelessly though). They are working well and rarely get any internet issues if any.
Software wise: its simple to use and has some control features on it, not as many as my previous router, but you can set up guest networks, name devices and categorise them. You can add parental controls and group devices allowing times and access rights. I do like that you can get notifications when a device joins your network.
My only gripe with them really is the amount of ports (2) in the back of them. If you link the two together for faster performance, then both ports are used in the first deco and only one is spare in the second. Once my hive system is plugged in you can’t port in anything else. Probably not a big issue and you can get a switch box, but just another would have been useful.
For the price I got them for they’ve been a good solution, standards are changing all the time and these will no doubt be out of date now. I didn’t need 3 of these so if you’re house isn’t big you can just buy the single for a big improvement on your wifi coverage.
If you have a Virgin Media router, you’ll appreciate just how poor they are in terms of WiFi performance.
Utterly fed up with the WiFi coverage not reaching all areas within our (very modest) home, I decided to try a Mesh system.
This is actually at the cheaper end of the scale, so wasn’t sure how it would perform with c, but have been left very impressed. Very easy to set up and ultimately operate, I now have full coverage throughout our house (and actually excellent ends into our garden as a welcome bonus) with no loss of speed (which always happens with traditional extenders.
There are a couple of niggles with the app settings (doesn’t always allow you switch off LED’s as you should and the LED flashes to indicate a network error (had to Google what it meant) when there appears to be no issues.
However, these are small issues in the grand scheme of things.
In summary, if you need to improve WiFi coverage in your home, do not but any extender and get a mesh system.
It just worked
I spent a huge amount of money on Google nest and found it super confusing to install and still couldn’t get the mesh to work so returned it and bought this.
The Deco mesh is simply FANTASTIC. Super easy to install in 4 simple steps and works great. We live in a 120 yr old farmhouse with stone walls 80cm plus thick. This Wi-Fi mesh reached even the furthest room from the router and 4 kids were able to game on various devices while I watched movies. Fantastic value for money!
Reliable and stable.
Simple to set up out of the box. Has limited configuration options (as pointed out by other reviewers) which can frustrate the ‘techies’. But as a plug in, set up, do its thing Wifi system it works very well indeed. 1 month in and very satisfied thus far.
Decent mesh network but seemed to cause buffering
Overall range on these was quite impressive, and provided decent wifi speeds throughout my whole home but I had two major issues which forced me to return them.
Firstly any streaming service, such as netflix, or catch up, suffered really bad buffering with these mesh points.
Secondly, even after turning off the LED’s in the app they would constantly turn themselves back on which was particularly annoying as I had one of these placed in a bedroom which lit the room up at night.
1gb internet coming into the house, and a pitiful 80mb internet available in the office with a power line connector, separate network ids and patchy WiFi everywhere. It drove me nuts for about 3 years. I was very skeptical of mesh networks as I would need at least two hops to get to the office.
With the main deco unit in the living room on ground floor, booster unit on middle floor hallway, and a final unit in the office on the top floor, I’m getting about 200mb up top now. Thats not amazing, but it’s consistently twice as good at least. We also have perfect coverage all over the house for all the other devices which is the business.
So basically, these can be used in series to reach far away locations. The speed achieved is pretty good, albeit not amazing. Setup was simple. There is an app, and you do need it to get going unfortunately. But it’s actually a really good app and no issues registering an email or anything like that. Stress free.
Going to upgrade the pc WiFi card to WiFi 6 next and hoping for another speed boost. Happy days anyway, pricey, but happy with the purchase.
So we have a 4 bed house that consists of a 2 story extension, and a man cave in the garden so there are some old school brick cavity walls to get through.
Now previously we had TP wifi extenders on 2.4 & 5G.
So original Virgin hub plus 2 extenders ment 5 possible networks to switch from, depending on device (wifi plugs only 2.4G) room and signal strength. So a real ball ache if you were moving from room to room, while on a video call it would drop out.
So now you know the situation here comes the TP Deco x60…..
Quick Google and the Virgin hub is now a router only (4 min).
TP Deco App downloaded start setup of the Deco and the network 1st Deco (8 min), connect 3 devices (2 min) set up 2nd Deco (4 min) add 2 devices in kitchen (2 min) walk to the man cave add 2 devices and 2 plugs (5 min), go upstairs add 3rd Deco (3 min) add laptop, printer and 4 other devices (5 min).
Wander round testing speeds via the Deco App (5 min)…. Added 3 more devices (2 min) now I never had to change network, and signal is great throughout and there is plenty of bandwidth.
Units were simple to set up and I’m no techno wizz and managed 3 Decos and 15+ devices in 45 min. The ultimate was when the when the Mrs came home and I added her phone in 30 seconds.
None of us have had to swap networks it is seamless signal is great.
My only moan would be 2 things…
1st I wish the app would help you find the best spots to put the next Deco.
2nd I wish that it was easier to identify the type of device so I can set up profiles for the kids.
So in short easy to set up, single network, great signal strength and bandwidth, and the App is cool.
Bought this on black Friday so got a great saving
Satisfactory mesh network
I have a 100mbps connection and managed to get 70mbps to a node on the same circuit but speed drops to 35 Mbps on one on another circuit. WiFi signal itself is solid throughout a two storey semi with a loft. There is a random issue with a Sky Q box constantly losing connection – though was easy to fix. Just needed to turn node to node roaming off for the Sky box which the TP link app allows you to do easily.
Great mesh wifi system, but takes a while for unconnected nodes to "warm up"
The mesh wifi system provides our whole house (900 sq ft) with perfect wifi. The only real disappointment comes from the fact that when you attempt to connect to a node that isn’t currently in use by any device (We’ve put one in an office that is used during working hours only) the node takes a while to fully connect and provide the devices with access to the internet.
The powerline side of the mesh is great by allowing you to get great connection across your property, even through to extensions and walls that were originally external. Overall we’re happy with it, just wish that our devices were connected immediately when we need it.
Have had VM wif pod, this is definitely an upgrade. My house now has virtually no dead WiFi spots and connections are solid all around my house.
However, there is one aspect of the mesh router that I find mislead in marketing.
This router is marketed to have Powerline technology built in as a back bone of its mesh technology. So in short instead of relying on WiFi signals between the devices to keep the connection (and potentially reducing the bandwidth that is allocated to actual devices such as phones, tablet, etc), you can use the existing electrical wiring of the house to carry the signal to each other.
Now I thought this would be great for my house since I already utilise powerline. So idea was to use the mesh router near my modem as a injection device and use existing powerline hub around the house.
Well. That didn’t work. Turns out, while the mesh router does have powerline capability, it’s not compatible with other devices. So in sense it can talk to themselves using powerline technology.
It might have been me simply not reading carefully, or someone else might have asked this question on amazon before. But a warning regarding this would have been nice.
Also as a side note. Android app kept crashing so I ended up installing the app on my ipad.
I bought these to replace my previous five BT Whole Home Mini mesh WiFi system disks. Virgin have recently upgraded our broadband to 1 GBS and I wanted a WiFi 6 system to make the best use of it. The TP Link Deco units are bigger than the BT Mini disks, cylinder shaped but no more obtrusive and easy to hide. They feel solid and well built, much more so than the BT disks. Installation of the main unit was easy and involved downloading the Deco App onto my Android phone, then following the instructions and plugging in the power and Ethernet cables. The satellite units were equally easy to connect using the Ap. One thing I learned from my BT disks is to initially install mesh satellites in the same room as the master and then move them to their final location – it avoids all sorts of problems. Having changed the SSID and password the system was fully working and picked up all the static WiFi devices in the house. A speed test on the main unit produced a download speed of over 500Mbs to my Android phone and 50Mbs upload – blistering, and at least twice as fast as my previous system. The satellite units tested at 400Mbs down and 45Mbs up. I’ve gone down from five BT disks to three TP Link cylinders but the signal is far more powerful and covers the whole five bedroom house. The worst coverage area speed tests at 35Mbs down and 30Mbs up which compares well with the best performance I was getting from the BT Mini Disk system. Essentially, the WiFi signal is stable and reliable throughout the house despite using two fewer access points. Video conferencing is stable and playing videos from the internet produces a smooth replay experience. In my experience WiFi 6 on the Deco units produces a smooth no fuss service. The only downside is that the Deco units are not cheap, albeit much cheaper than some of the opposition. Also, I’m not a massive fan of the way the Ap is layed out. TP Link used to be a model of ease and clarity in its control software but finding stuff in the Deco ap is not as easy. It’s all there, but not particularly obvious or easy to find. I had to use the (excellent) help system just to find the screen to change the SSID. You should not have to hunt round for important settings or need to press obscure icons. Having said that, the installation routine was easy and worked well and the quirky Ap does not detract from the excellent WiFi 6 performance.
I love the design
I love the app that come with it.
I love the flexibility it gives me.
I love the ease of setup (when i was not playing around and followed the instructions it went right!)
Disappointed by the web interface and what you can do it. (not much)
Disappointed in the signal strength. (read below)
Disappointed by the 1g ethernet connection on back. Assumed they would be 2.5GB at least but no, only 1GB
I have a 3 bed 1900 (ish) iron-brick house. Although i picked it up everywhere (better than broadband supplied router with extenders) I still had low signal in the places i wanted it to be good. Even with 3 of them i found cold spots (not dead) where buffering happened and lag become noticeable. After 3 months of frustration and disappointment (where i considered sending them back) i decided to hit the credit card and by 3 more x60’s, that where on offer at the time (amazon flash deal).
So now i have 6 of them (probably could have done with 5), I’m happy as a pig in mud 🙂
Zero cold spots in the house and can still pick up signal from 20m away outside of house (neighbours must love me) so garden streaming/zoom/facetimes have been done without issues.
Speed is relative when compare to a bottle neck of a internet connection which is always going to be your slowest part unless you go to a 1gig link.
I’ve backboned 3 of them together as a test and found 2 of my 4/8 port switches didn’t work (HP and Netgear). Lucky enough I recently brought a tp-link gig 5port switch which did. lots of talk on internet about it but in the end its a “try and see” if yours works or not if your going to cable backbone them. But buy/budget for a new tp-link switch if you want to cable backbone from day one. Cable backbone’ing is automatic although you need to setup as wi-fi backbone first (which it does automatically during setup). Then connect up the ethernet from switch and the x60’s will do the rest by itself.
Be warned though , it’s not instant. Took mine 5-10min before it switched over to cable backbone. Might have been because I was confusing the hell out of it… plugging it in and then unplugging it, trying to figure out why the hell it didn’t switch over….
Overall i love it and cant really fault the devices directly. If you can cable them up, you save yourself a lot of money from the triband x90’s. have 42 devices (on last count) on the network and it not even registering as being taxed/ overworked…
Also if you have a modern (non-metal ore brick work) 3 should do you. If you do the expect to get a few more or the (sale pitched) more powerful and expensive x90’s (if your stuck on TP Link, other WIFI6 MESH systems are available…)
Also Also – TP-Link love and i mean really LOVE your “Network Optimisation” option. Who needs wifi sniffer and a IT networking degree / compta+ network, when you can push of a button on the deco app, which then sniffs and configures best channels for you x60’s for optimal performance, if it registers conflicting /noisy wifi channels. (i’ve tested this with a sniffer because i’m sad i know. It does exactly do what it says on the app button!).
Definitley works but with a few niggles
Setup was pretty straight forward i used the steps outlined by another reviewer and it worked pretty well i did have to reset one of the P9s again and then it worked.
Dropout has been acceptable but its not been faultless signal has dropped 3 or 4 times over the last month since i have got it, two of these days was when virgin was having issues across the country.
Overall the P9 has significantly improved the range of wifi across my house, previously i was struggling with 1 bar in the bedroom but this has bumped it up the Max in all the rooms. I even get a signal 50ft away in the garden at 1 bar whereas before i would have gotten nothing.
i have included his steps below
I set up Deco as router and put Virgin Hub3 as modem only, which is the default recommended setup.
Setup quick and easy if right sequence is followed, so for benefit of those who may do it in future………..
1. MOST importantly, do the pinhole reset on your Virgin Hub3 by 20 sec+ press on pin hole button just below lowermost ethernet port on back of Hub. This resulted in an improvement of my router speed tested with laptop connected to lowest ethernet port on Hub. It will restart as router with WiFi as default from Virgin.
2. Connect to Hub interface by typing address 192.168.0.1 in browser. Use password (8 digits) on bottom of hub. This is not the same as your WiFi password.
Select ‘Modem Mode’ and tick modem mode box and accept. Note if you do not have a computer to connect by ethernet to the hub then you would have to pinhole reset to return to Router mode with WiFi from hub.
Allow the Hub to reboot into modem mode…..it is complete when only magenta light is showing at base. Any other ethernet cables you have connected to hub will now not be getting any signal as it has lost it’s router function. Only the lowermost ethernet port will be active in Modem mode. I confirmed that modem mode was active by getting full advertised speed of 547 Mb/sec with laptop connected via ethernet cable.
4. Kill power and reboot Hub3 again…it will go into modem mode with the magenta light on.
5. Kill power on Hub…..begin TpLink sequence
6. Make sure Deco app is installed on your phone and you have registered an account. Connect Deco disk to be used as router to lowest ethernet port on hub by Cat6 ethernet cable or better. I did not use the bundled cable with the deco set because no markings on it so was not sure of performance. Got 5 Cat7 cables for around 10 on Prime. Connect power source to Deco and plug in. At this point Hub 3 is still OFF with no power.
7. Follow steps on Deco app on your phone until blue flashing light appears on your Deco. The Deco app will then find the Deco disk. AT THIS POINT POWER UP HUB3 and let it go into modem mode. It is very important to have deco connected to Hub and in blue flashing mode when you power up the Hub3.
8. Hub 3 will start in Modem mode and Deco will get internet signal from Hub modem and create WiFi network.
At this point you are invited to name your network and create password. If you intend to use same credentials as your original Virgin WiFi network it would be best to delete it from your phone so that the TpLink app can establish the connection for you as a new network . All your other devices with the saved credentials will connect automatically as before.
9. Take your other 2 Deco disks to their desired locations and follow steps for adding a new Deco until they show green lights.
This review relates to the TP-LINK Deco P9 Whole Home Powerline Mesh Wi-Fi System, up To 6000 Sq ft coverage. Amazon seems to clump all the reviews together for these type of devices, so to clarify it’s the P9.
I’ve been suffering slow patchy coverage and internet drop outs with my Virgin Media hub 3, connected to an Archer AC1900 router via powerline adapters. My Virgin router was upstairs in modem mode, and my Archer AC1900 router downstairs. This set up was less than satisfactory with a loss off internet speed as I move around the house and internet drop outs two or three times a day. This is a particular problem as I have Ring cameras that need a stable connection. My house is a sixties built larger than average semi with sound proofing in the walls and ceilings which adds to the problem.
I bought the TP-Link Deco P9 Powerline Mesh system in the Black Friday deal for 169.00. It was incredibly easy to set up. All I had to ensure was that my router was in modem mode (just a tick in a box when I logged into the admin page of my Virgin Hub 3). The Admin credentials were on a sticker on the bottom of the router. It will save you a bit of time if you download the Deco app first and create a TP-Link account. You’ll need this to set the TP-Link devices up from your phone. Once this was done I connected one P9 device to my Virgin Hub via an Amazon Basics Cat 6 Ethernet cable. The app walked me through set up which was just a case of connecting to the device and following the on screen instructions, and then changing the default SSID name and creating a new password. Once set up is complete it’s a short wait until the light on the top of the unit turns white and the unit is now operational. The first device was upstairs near the Virgin router, the other two units were placed downstairs. One in my back lounge where my TV is, and the other in my front dining room. I just plugged the other two in and they automatically connected, no more set up needed.
The devices are aesthetically pleasing and made of white plastic. Slightly taller than an Amazon Echo. They don’t look out of place on a table top or shelf. The plug is a standard UK 3 pin plug (for the UK version), which means that the powerline element must be built into the unit itself. This was welcome as it means the small form factor plug fits anywhere (rather than the bulky powerline plugs i’m used to). Each unit has two ethernet ports, for connecting to a router, or for connection between each other or to other devices. As these units use just a single SSID (which I created at set up), my devices connect to the strongest signal and see the Wi-Fi as one connection rather than three. This should mean seamless switching to the strongest signal, unlike extenders which create separate SSID’s. It also means that if one P9 goes down, your device can connect to the next available one.
With my placement of these devices, I’m now receiving 112 Mbps download and 12 Mbps upload speed in every room with my 100 Mbps Virgin Internet package. It also works at near full speed at the bottom of my garden which is impressive. The app is simple and doesn’t give you full control over the router, but does have some handy tools such as monthly reports, blacklists, parental controls (even being able to see internet pages visited by other phones or computers), high priority devices, adding managers, fast roaming (newer devices switch to the fastest connection quicker), and a few more settings.
I believe the powerline element of these are to enable ‘Backhaul’ communication. That is, communication from the three devices back to the router via your electrical wiring, so keeping the Wi-Fi less clogged with traffic. You can’t use the powerline feature to connect other powerline adapters. It’s a hidden network just for the three units to communicate. It also helps through thicker walls where Wi-Fi might be weak, to keep all the devices talking back to the router.
This has transformed the Wi-Fi in my house giving me fast full speed coverage everywhere. It has great flexibility for moving the devices around to test where they work best (all you need is a plug socket). Of course, if you can link these together via ethernet cable you’ll get the best connection. But for me, locating them on different floors and in different rooms, just plugging them into a power socket and using WiFi, they have been brilliant. Full speed everywhere and not one known drop out of internet so far. Highly recommended.