TP-Link - Deco BE16000 Quad-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 7 System with Multi-Gig (3-Pack) - White

I have been looking at WiFi solutions utilizing 6GHz for an apartment in the city. The problem: congestion and interference on the 2.4GHz band render it slow and unreliable while the 5GHz band is useable with limited bandwidth channels of 40MHz. The solution: 6GHz is wide open! I tried a number of routers and mesh sets from BestBuy as they have an easy return and exchange policy. I was replacing a very good 3 year old, 12 stream, 11000Mbps, Triband, WiFi 6 router. This would drop connection to older AC clients 50 feet away through multiple walls. 6GHz has high bandwidth with limited ability to penetrate multiple walls. Hence a mesh setup for a 1000 SqFt apartment starts to make sense. Yet it also needed to be easy to use, self healing, remotely monitored,… basically non-techie proof. (And finally, this is for my daughter who also wants something that looks nice sitting out in the open.) I’ve used all the major brands over the last 20 years. Currently ASUS and TP-Link have WiFi-7 mesh solutions that fully embrace MLO. (Netgear/Orbi is still using dedicated 5GHz wireless backhaul on its most advanced mesh sets while it is moving to MLO backhaul.) Still, the price of WiFi 7 remains unreasonably high…. Enter the TP-Link Deco WIFi 7 solutions: The BE11000 triband runs about $233/node, BE16000 triband quad-radio is $283/node, BE22000 triband $367/node, BE33000 triband quad-radio $467/node. The latter two are multi-10gig wired as well which is unnecessary for my use case. The BE11000 or 16000 both worked for our needs. I found the quad-radio setup of the BE16000 more versatile as 6GHz channels become more prevalent in the future. Meanwhile the Deco MLO firmware works right now! It’s the magic behind WiFi-7 allowing 6GHz to work seamlessly while WiFi-6E remains a bit clunky. I found the Deco setup and functionality to be simple to setup and troubleshoot. While this is only a 350Mbps cable internet connection, it passes that bandwidth throughout the whole apartment easily. Downloads for AX clients are over 300Mbps while AC clients on the non-MLO network are over 200Mbps. The AC client is a streaming device connected through a satellite node via wireless backhaul to the main node. It could not reliably connect to the old router, yet now it works better than it ever has! The only downside to the TP-Link Deco solution is their anti-virus/malware protection software requires an additional subscription of $69.99 for a full year, billed annually. (Netgear and Eero also charge subscription fees for advanced security features while ASUS includes these important items as part of their package.) I’ll give the hardware and firmware a 5-star rating, yet I would subtract a 1/2 star for the subscription fees if I could. Overall, TP-Link Deco has solid equipment with functional software and solid firmware making WiFi-7 reliable for real world use now. ASUS ZenWiFi and Netgear Orbi also have compelling mesh sets which should be widely available and have solidified firmware by 4Q 2024. If you can wait a bit longer for WiFi-7, prices and reliability will both improve significantly. TP-Link Deco WIfi-7 is ready now, easy to setup, easy to use, easy to monitor…. It just works!

I have had this 3 pack router combo for almost a month. Tomorrow is my last day to return it, and im returning it today. Let me start with the good, the speed is pretty awesome. On my newer laptop im getting almost 600 down which is awesome. Unfortunately, that is the only good thing about this. Now the bad. The range is so awful its barely usable. I have one mesh router in my living room. Less than 15 ft away are my govee smart lights, i have 9 of them in the living room. The govee lights barely connect. They will connect for a minute or two and then disconnect. I have tried on the normal network and also on the IoT network. Both have the same issue. Ive spent over 3 hours trying to get the lights to connect, and stay connected, to wifi. They just randomly disconnect which makes them uncontrollable in the house. One bulb is literally 2 ft from the router. And it has the same issue. One of the other mesh routers i have in my dining room window and the signal doesnt even reach half way across my back yard, and i have a pretty normal sized back yard. There is almost zero signal on the other side of my pool, which is maybe 30ft away. Im including photos of the router locations so you can see how laughable it is. My eero mesh router and Google Nest 6e routers had much much much better range at a measly fraction of the price. We have tried moving the routers to get better signal, we have tried rebooting them, updating them and more. Ive been in IT for 23 years and ive never had to fight this much with a wifi system ever. For the price, its not worth it at all. I would say if this system was under 200 dollars then maybe the great speed and complete awful range would be worth it, but I dont even think its worth it at that price point. Im heading to BB in an hour to pick up the Nighthawk, which isnt mesh to see how much better it is. If youre thinking about buying this, please do your research. Look at how many people are complaining about it online, and look for better alternatives. No router that costs almost 1000 should perform worse tha ones that cost 1/4 of the price

This is my second system. I had purchased another brand several years ago and was never completely happy with it. I was so happy with the Deco system that I purchased a second system for my vacation house as well. It’s easy to set up and manage. The applicaiton that manages the wireless mesh system is great. I have been sold on the Deco system. I have been running this for two months now and have had no issues.