TP-LINK Deco M9 Mesh Wi-Fi System Review & Comments

Si01327

Would you mind sharing which system you opted for yourself?  Given how thorough you are with testing and your attention to detail, I for one would interested to know which one ticked the most boxes for you!  I'm in the process of looking to install a mesh system at home myself so if it was a particular make/model that I may have not considered so far I'd definitely add it to my list!

Thanks.

Greg Hook

I am always happy to add a particular test to a review, if it is something I can achieve without having to pay too much for it. The Lanspeedtest software I have purchased myself as it was only about £10 I think.

mickevh

I liked the look of one of the MetaGreek (the InSSIDer guys) products called Wi-Spy/Channelyzer which IIRC looks at the actual RF spectrum - but last time I checked it was over 800GBP, so I won't buy buying that one with my own money!

guest

For me, it came down to what compromise at what price.

I bought several brands but Ubiquity, BT and Zyxel were interesting for several reasons.

Depending on the environment, devices, and budget you have I found all AP's tested offered something but the negatives sometimes outweighed the positives.

My favorite was the Zyxel using the free Nebula cloud. But it had its negatives (email notifications the biggest one (paid option) and layer 2 isolation). Highly recommend checking it out for testing. Unexpected as I have never tried anything from this brand before.

For me, the biggest disappointment was the Ubiquiti AC Pro with v4 firmware with Apple 3x3 laptops (worked fine with Windows 3x3 laptops). I did contemplate the Ubiquiti AC Pro HD as there free controller software is great and as I understand the issues have been fixed with the new model, but it was way over budget for the number of AP's needed and pound for pound I would have been looking at comparing it with Aruba, Fortinet etc. I use a couple of Ubiquiti products and found them very good at what they do and previously used there older AP models running v3 firmware. This is the brand most people seem to recommend whenever anyone asks which one they should get and does have a very loyal following.

The BT whole home is an odd one. Cheapest out of all the brands I bought (for 3 AP's), but non-configurable, basic and really needs a wired backhaul (it does work wirelessly just not as well as it should). It has many negatives: It has no DFS, no way of dropping the wide channel, No SSID (outside of name and password) control, and No ceiling/wall mount/POE options but it does give solid, stable wifi cheaplyish.

I found issues with all mesh AP's that I tested that did not/could not use wire but again its all a question of what compromises you can/have to put up with. I was also in the process of wiring my house with CAT6A so the location/POE etc had no effect on my purchase options. After testing so many I knew any system I was putting was going to have to have wire and factored that in.

Good luck with your search - I recommend a reseller you can easily return

jslater

For me, I went with the Ubiquiti Amplifi HD mesh WiFi. Stupidly easy to set up and has been rock solid.

I’ve got the main AP on the ground floor, then another on the first and the last in the loft.

I doubt I’d its the fastest, but I’ve had zero issues with it since setting up (literally a few minutes job).

The other thing I like is that there’s no wires on first and loft, the units simply plug into the electric socket and the antenna is magnetically attaches. Perfect as the kids can’t break them

Will probably upgrade it once wifi6 is more mature but they do perfectly fine for now.

I put in cat6 cabling but haven’t bothered using it. Ironically my TVs only have 100Mb wired connection so the WiFi is actually faster!

chattoe

I’m starting to research these mesh systems as I’m moving into an older house soon that’s solid brick.

I’m looking at the Orbi and AmpliFI.

As I understand it a wired back haul is a wired connection from the source to the second satellite or Ap to emit WiFi right?
if true this is the method I would like to take.

I’d also like to have the option of an external unit for the garden too as well as it being WiFi6 compatible which there isn’t any out there at the moment.

I have seen Netgear coming out with one later in the year so may hold out for that

mickevh

Bear in mind that all Wi-Fi devcies (including phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) are both radio transmitters and receivers. It's two way radio like walkie-talkies (or a conversation) not one way radio like television (or a lecture.) The AP's are the "point" at which you "access" the rest of the (wired) network, hence the name - engineers are not terribly imaginative about naming things - we leave it to Apple to invent cool names for stuff (Apple call their AP's "airport" which of course is much cooler and therefore worth paying three times as much for.)

When designing a Wi-Fi infrastructure, we often aim to get data off the airwaves and onto the wires as soon as possible thereby freeing up as much of the radio air time as we can for where it's most useful - ie all the portable devices. (Wi-Fi is rather inefficient compared to wired ethernet.) Hence, on anything but the most trivial small deployment, we put up multiple AP's, locate them as close as we can to where we expect most people to spend most time with their Wi-Fi devices and connect the AP's to "the rest" of the network with cables. We often call the cabling infrastructure the "backhaul" though I'm not sure that is terminology cited in any standards. Apart from the fact that there's an AP on the end, cabled Ethernet backhaul links are nothing special - it's just an Ethernet lobe like any other.

Multiple AP's creating a "cellular" coverage pattern connected to a wired backhaul is by far the best way to provide Wi-Fi in environments with either many clients, large (or challenging) geographical spread or a combination of both. Enterprise scale deployments have always been done this way. It's now percolating down to SOHO use case where people are finding one AP in the middle of the house cannot cut it.

In enterprise systems, it's also often possible to create a backhaul link between AP's using Wi-Fi for scenarios where it's just not possible to get a cable in. Some vendors used to call these "mesh" (or "bridge") links and it seems this is now percolating down to the SOHO market and the term "mesh" has become the latest advertising buzzword that vendors are using to sell the idea as if is some shiny new thing.

"Mesh" also seems to be a phrase to sell the idea of "integrated" systems that do things like automate channel planning, assist the hand off of clients between AP's more smoothly and provide a management platform - these days probably a phone app. Again, this is nothing new, enterprise scale systems have always done this, it's just now filtering down to the SOHO market.

So, in terms of physical infrastructure, multilple AP's near your clients connected to a common cabled "backhaul" infrastructure is by far the best way to go. If one cannot, or isn't willing to, get the drill out and install the cables, then these newer "mesh" systems that can do backhaul over Wi-Fi instead (or as well) as cabled backhaul seem like a good option, but you may pay a performance penalty depending on your use case (some systems have a few "tricks" to mitigate this such as "tri band" AP's that use different radio channels for client access and backhaul.) And if you buy a system where the AP's integrate (ie talk) with each other to offer other features, then great if it's offering something useful such as automated setup and configuration, easier roaming handoffs, automated channel planning, automated decisions on whether to use Wired/Wi-Fi backhaul, automated decisions about which AP "meshes" with which AP, etc.

I've not tested any of these SOHO "mesh" (and "whole home" etc) systems as I've never had need to use them, (readers might guess I've mostly built larger enterprise scale systems,) but IIRC there are some of these SOHO "mesh" and "whole home" systems that can only provide the backhaul links over Wi-Fi ("mesh") links, so I would be careful to check that any prospective purchase can use wired Ethernet as well as Wi-Fi backhauls (and better still, if the system is smart enough to figure out which to use automatically) if I were planning for wired backhauls.