Was looking for a tri-band mesh setup for my house that running ethernet cables is going to be difficult in. Though I would give this a go with the free eBay plus returns if it doesn't work out. Will hopefully allow me to make full use of a new FTTP connection.
Specs here:
These are tri band. No 5ghz sharing the wifi across your house to other nodes. It has additional band so you don’t drop speed. Power point are good but they are bulky as anything. These are good if you would prefer wireless don’t need wired (running a plex server/gamer)
AI wrote this comment lmao. answered nothing
Slightly erks me when ppl neg for an honest question. Things always seems expensive when you don't really know or understand the product and what it is relative to the market. But on the other hand, the only excuse not to google is laziness. Anyway, here's info so you can skip the googling bit.
https://dongknows.com/powerline-networking-explained/
https://dongknows.com/dual-band-vs-tri-band-wi-fi-routers-ex…
I tried powerline adapters before opting to buy this. I wasn't getting the best speeds in my house. They can be a bit hit and miss depending on the way your house is wired.
Wireless extenders and mesh are not the same thing. Explaining with broad strokes, wireless extenders simply act to copy a network as its own. That means a lot of added latency, as it listens for the incoming signal, and then repeats what it hears.
It means slower speeds, as the internal wireless chip isn't as powerful, and it again, needs to receive before rebroadcasting.
It means increased complexity, as the extender will give its own wireless name (eg. YOURWIFI_ext), and your device will have to disconnect from one wifi to connect to the second. *
Remember in old movies how the villain would conceal their location on the phone by having their goon hold up one phone to another? That's wireless extenders. It's the solution we used when we had nothing better.
Powerline adaptors come with problems, too.
They only work if both ends are on the same circuit.
They are highly prone to electrical interference.
They lose speed.
They work better as a single pair, not when using multiple. Think of an extension cord. You can connect one to the router and then a bedroom, for example. But what happens when you want to wire up multiple bedrooms? You'll end up with multiple points to start off with (multiple extension cords).
They are more often than not bloody huge, not only requiring a vacant power point, but often encroaching on the surrounding ones as well.
Or… mesh.
One network. Freedom of devices. Each node communicates with the other. High speed. Low latency. Good stuff. And why is this one $500? Because it's a good one.
This was a lot better explanation than I gave. Powerline adapters are very hit and miss. My parents did an upstairs and the power circuit are different for example so that eliminates that. You can also drop a little bit of speed. Mesh is good but get tri band. Meaning you get 2.4, 5ghz and another 5ghz band. The sharing of internet to different nodes is by the third 5ghz. The 2nd 5ghz band isn’t sharing wifi with you and another node meaning you shouldn’t drop your speed (half typically if dual band). The dual band units are great if you have Ethernet ports around your place and need access points around your place.
Thank you for an incredibly good explanation on why to buy this over a wireless extender.
When you say high speed, low latency would you expect all routers to have roughly the same speed? Or will a second router a few walls from the original modem have a drop in speed and latency? I only ask because I have one of these that has a vdsl modem inbuilt as I have FTTN. I can add additional routers and was wondering if I could have potentially similar speed throughout my house than I get in the room where the modem is installed?
Hopefully. Can't defeat physics, and since the data cannot be in two locations at the same time, there will be some latency, but not nearly as much as the extenders.
If you can, go full ethernet. It's the best option.
If you can't, go mesh. It's the best alternative.
@Morien: thanks mate, I will see if can find someone who only needs 1-2 as I only need 1 for my house.
This is brilliant, thanks for explaining it. Do these use a lot of power sockets? I have a very limited amount of them in my home and currently just have a little weak extender that only uses up one space in a power board.
One power socket per node, and can be put on a double adaptor. It's just a power cable.
I have these and I'm very impressed. Coverage is excellent, setup was simple, speed is excellent.
Same. Much better than my old Tenda MW12 mesh system I was running previously.
Likewise.
At this price these are a steal!
I really sad when I didn't buy this when they are 350 for 2 node.
I have these. I get Wifi signal to the street for my Blackvue camera. I also even get wifi signal in my granny flat with excellent wifi signal. Great product and simple to set up.
I have the M9Plus models. Thinking of upgrading to these ax models. Can I ask how far away is your granny flat? Also what building materials is your flat made up out of? Building a granny flat now and trying to make a plan for wifi into it from the main house. I’m thinking of trench and running Ethernet in a conduit into a deco in the granny flat. My existing decos have thereby backhaul. Thanks!
My land size is about 550 m2. The granny flat is brick veneer. With 3, I leave one in front of the house, living room, and granny's flat. I haven't experienced any dropout on wifi at all! I do know that from the front of the house to the across the house, I still get signal.
Could you throw a unit outside towards the flat? Or would you sell off the m9’s if you bought these
The Ethernet option is going to be more work and expense but give you a much better result in the long term. That’s what I did when we put in a studio, then because it was close I kept the trench going over to the garage as well. I now have a guaranteed solid connection to both outbuildings instead of being at the mercy of building construction, weather, and trees interfering with signal. I think most State (if not all) regulations say the trench must be minimum 600mm deep so it’s probably going to be a job for a professional. Be careful of other existing infrastructure around your home, especially if it’s not a new build.
Sydneytec had these at the same price a few days ago. 609 before the ebay promo discount now though.
Awww man, just bought one two days ago and set it up today.
So far so good, except i paid $550 for it
If you have multiple Ethernet points in the house( upstairs and downstairs), would you still have these or do some other arrangement of routers?
you'd get a dual band mesh wifi system. the x20 or similar should do fine. This (x68) has a dedicated 3rd band as a not so great substitute for ethernet cabling
Why would you both with mesh if you have Ethernet ports available?
You’d just use access points where Ethernet ports are available. Less room for issues with the mesh and potential obstacles in the home. Though admittedly you do need a fast switch (expensive) to make use of the ax Wi-Fi speeds.
Well of course I left out the most important point - you’d use wired backhaul with the mesh units. And you are right - cheaper than access points
Not sure what are the differences between v2 and v3?
I couldnt find any based on the info on website provided.
https://www.tp-link.com/au/home-networking/deco/deco-x68/v2/…
https://www.tp-link.com/au/home-networking/deco/deco-x68/v3/…
FYI You can redeem a free 2m LED strip with this purchase - https://www.tp-link.com/au/promotion/soho20220910kl430/
I’ve been running these for the last 6 months and it’s the best setup I’ve had, well worth the price IMO great coverage and consistent speed with easy setup
To my understanding this is the superior unit over the x60 if not using wired back haul right?
I have optus 5g wireless broadband and the modem is known to not play nice with routers. How does this connect into 'WAN'?
Also bought one of these a week ago for 559 Awww! Word of warning when setting up your network password
TP link will put a space at the end of the password by default make sure you look close and remove the space. It
took me a whole day to figure this out , was getting so frustrated when it kept telling me wrong password.
Been running these for an about a year.
Best I’ve ever had,
The only downfall is you can’t seem to nominate or force a device onto a specific band. Sometimes a device is next to the router and it ends up on 2.4.
Either way still happy
Interesting, does look the issue of sending data to third parties has been fixed either.
Anyone know if one can split the units up between different households?
I don't need 3 units in my household as it is not that big. I just want 1 or 2 unit to ensure better bandwidth allocation amongst multiple users in my household. I was thinking usung the 3rd unit for another household. Is that possible?
Yes thats fine. You might need to setup a diffrent deco account but.
Nice, thanks for the reply.
Would a mesh system like this be better for supporting many connections (say 100) than a single router like the asus rt-ax86u?
Different purposes. Probably wouldn't matter either way. Mesh is more about spreading wifi across a large house. AX86U would be a great router! I want one but don't actually need it…
Without looking it up but on a guess Asus AX86U would allow more devices…
Officially the deco x68 can handle 150 devices whilst from what ican gather the ax86u can do 40ish but unofficially much more depending on cpu load (and of course bandwidth but that applies to both systems)
The ax86u has slightly faster cpu 1.8Gz quad core vs 1.5Gz quad core but the deco can spread the load over 3 devices instead having just a single unit handling all connections so I'm thinking the deco is better in this regard? Of course data from all connections must go through the single device that acts as the router but this unit does not need to process and maintain all wifi connections)
Im sure it would be more. I read 250 somewhere I thought it was…
Anyways. Yeah if you need VPN stuff get ASUS otherwise get the Mesh if you have a large house.
This or the Orbi RBK753?
Back in stock
Are these things to increase the wifi strength around your home? $500 seems rather expensive. How would these compare to the ones that plug into the power point and work off the electrical cabling in your home, powerline networking?