New Wifi 7 Mesh Setup

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey guys, 

 

So I am looking to replace my current Wifi 6 mesh setup that I have with a couple of Asus Routers (AX11000 & AC5300) to a more reliable setup. I find that the mesh reliability with Asus just straight up blows. I am having a nightmare keeping the 5Ghz bands up and reliable and the LAN backhaul is so so. So rather than bang my head against a brick wall, I have decided it maybe time to replace the setup entirely. 

 

Wifi 7 by default is relatively expensive, due to the fact it is a relatively new standard. I have seen some solutions up to £1K and beyond which is simply out of my scope. Realistically my cap is £600-700. I am looking for a 2 device mesh setup, one will reside in my office upstairs and one will be in my living room. 

 

Ideally the the LAN backhaul at minimum would be via a 2.5G port, 10G would be nice but likely pushes me way out of my price bracket.

 

Any recommendations ? 

 

Thanks,

E

[The Pook]

WiFi 7 isn't ready for consumers yet, the two "best" options (Deco BE85 and Velop Pro 7) are pushing your budget and neither are problem free.

 

if you can't wait a year or two for them to not be half-baked then go 6e, IMO.  

[Cerberus]

+1 for 6E

 

it can do 1gbps up and down in my use case (s22 ultra)

[ENTERPRISE]

13 hours ago, The Pook said:

WiFi 7 isn't ready for consumers yet, the two "best" options (Deco BE85 and Velop Pro 7) are pushing your budget and neither are problem free.

 

if you can't wait a year or two for them to not be half-baked then go 6e, IMO.  

 

I was considering the Deco BE85, but as you say it is rather pricey. The step down to the Deco BE65 is more affordable and you can get 3x nodes rather than 2 for the price...actually cheaper. 

 

With respects to Wifi 7 maturity, I get your point. I guess I was looking to future proof so I do not have to swap out a system again at a later date. What sort of issues are people having with Wifi 7? I have not ready any in depth reviews or looked at forums yet for peoples complaints.

[The Pook]

7 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

What sort of issues are people having with Wifi 7? I have not ready any in depth reviews or looked at forums yet for peoples complaints.

 

roaming and auto-negotiation issues mostly, TP-Link specifically doesn't (or at least didn't) offer a way to rollback firmware and on more than one occasion they released firmware that was worse than the firmware it was replacing. 

 

I'm still on AC and waiting for it to mature (also poor) 

[ENTERPRISE]

58 minutes ago, The Pook said:

 

roaming and auto-negotiation issues mostly, TP-Link specifically doesn't (or at least didn't) offer a way to rollback firmware and on more than one occasion they released firmware that was worse than the firmware it was replacing. 

 

I'm still on AC and waiting for it to mature (also poor) 

Which WiFi 7 setup were you using?

[The Pook]

I'm still on AC and haven't ran anything newer at home. We've been playing with 7 at work (U7 Pro APs) and it's been noticeably less shite than expected but you're looking at >$1000 to get into the Ubiquiti ecosystem. 

[SoloCamo]

4 hours ago, The Pook said:

 

TP-Link specifically doesn't (or at least didn't) offer a way to rollback firmware and on more than one occasion they released firmware that was worse than the firmware it was replacing. 

 

I'm still on AC and waiting for it to mature (also poor) 

 

Great news to hear considering I just purchased a TP-Link Tri-Band BE9300 Wifi 7 router.  I expect early adopter woes especially with such a "cheap" router but it's only going to have a few devices at most on it and having all 2.5G ports was another selling point.   My other Wifi 6 router will handle the rest.  I was going to pick up a Wifi 6e router instead but the price difference wasn't large enough where I couldn't stand not "future proofing" despite me knowing I'm probably going to be disappointed. 

 

  

3 hours ago, The Pook said:

I'm still on AC and haven't ran anything newer at home. We've been playing with 7 at work (U7 Pro APs) and it's been noticeably less shite than expected but you're looking at >$1000 to get into the Ubiquiti ecosystem. 

 

 

Yup, Ubiquiti is good stuff, especially if are using it for business use.  Every IT company I've worked at over the last decade either migrated to them or stuck with them as the price/performance is hard to pass up.

Edited June 4 by SoloCamo

[The Pook]

9 minutes ago, SoloCamo said:

 

Great news to hear considering I just purchased a TP-Link Tri-Band BE9300 Wifi 7 router.

 

Probably should've said the TP-Link, I was talking about the Deco BE85. They don't disallow it on everything (at least they didn't, maybe they do now for their newer stuff). 

[ENTERPRISE]

11 hours ago, The Pook said:

 

Probably should've said the TP-Link, I was talking about the Deco BE85. They don't disallow it on everything (at least they didn't, maybe they do now for their newer stuff). 

 

I would love to call it a day and get the Deco BE85, just for the sake of ultimate future proofing, but at £885 here (That is for 2x nodes). Not sure I can stretch that far, but the Deco BE65 is still an excellent contender, slower in throughput than the BE85 but you do get 3x nodes for the price which is more likely to kill out dead zones.

 

My wired network at home operates on 10Gb, obviously for the sake of file transfer over Wifi it would be good to have the BE85 with its 10Gb backhaul and approximate overall throughput. If I look at it solely at matching the Wifi speeds to my current FTTP Broadband (1Gb Up & Down) then the BE65 is still a great contender and file transfer wouldn't be too shabby. 

 

Hmmmm decisions decisions. May have to consult the credit card lol.

[ENTERPRISE]

Hey guys, 

 

Been revisiting this and checking out some options and I came across the TP Deco XE200, which is a Wifi 6e device but offers some speed and more powerful MU-MIMO config as shown below, plus comes with 10Gb. Possibly could be a better balance of features over a WiFi 7 device. 

 

 

Any opinions?

[ozlay]

21 hours ago, ENTERPRISE said:

Hey guys, 

 

Been revisiting this and checking out some options and I came across the TP Deco XE200, which is a Wifi 6e device but offers some speed and more powerful MU-MIMO config as shown below, plus comes with 10Gb. Possibly could be a better balance of features over a WiFi 7 device. 

 

 

Any opinions?

I believe there is a newer be10000/11000. That is wifi 7.

Edited June 7 by ozlay

[ENTERPRISE]

4 hours ago, ozlay said:

I believe there is a newer be10000/11000. That is wifi 7.

 

Yeah there is supposed to be a Deco65 Pro launching at some point . Still deciding on which route to go, I have pinged between a few different models as mentioned in this thread. After further research the Deco65's throughput is frankly not that great and the Deco XE200 is far superior, but lacks Wifi 7, even though that is not a deal breaker. 

 

At the moment I am leaning to getting a single Deco85 as it ticks all the boxes, and perhaps getting a second later. Right now I cannot spring for a set of 2 as it is a little on the expensive side, hell even one is stretching it.

[ozlay]

There is a deco95 as well. But it's pricy. Are all your devices wpa3 compatible?

Edited June 8 by ozlay

[ENTERPRISE]

5 minutes ago, ozlay said:

There is a deco95 as well. But it's pricy. Are all your devices wpa3 compatible?

 

Deco95 is a good shout. I am not sure actually regarding WPA3. I am willing to bet not ALL are. The Deco95 is looks harder to obtain. Looks like it is available in the US however.

[ENTERPRISE]

Just as an update, I ended up getting the Tp Link Deco BE85. It ticks all the boxes for now and will hold me into the future for a fair bit considering that these will hold me over when things start to slide into Wifi 7 compatibility.  The Deco95 ultimately only offers an additional wireless band and for the price increase and the fact I would have to import these as they are only in the US, it just didn't make sense.

 

I will give some feedback once I have set them up and played around with them a little but.

[ENTERPRISE]

**Update** 

 

So after having the Deco units setup for a little while I can attest that the performance is excellent on the Wifi and I am getting 910Mbps Down & 886Mbps Up, on my laptop. So I am very pleased with the speeds I am getting.  The mesh on the Deco also seems consistent and stable as I have not had any drops or outages and roaming around the house is seamless and there is no disruption that I can see when your device is handed over from one mesh node to another. 

 

However there is some alarming downsides to these units that you will only discover upon purchase as it is not made clear on the product page, nor was it really bought up in the reviews. 

 

1. In order to setup the devices you are forced to create a cloud account with TP Link. Yes that's right...You can do NOTHING with these units until you are signed up. Furthermore, there is likely usage statistics data sent back to TP Link.

 

2. Setup and management of the units are done through the phone app ONLY. See point 3 for more detail. 

 

3. The Web UI is completely gimped offering only the very basics in router/AP management as TP Link have decided to force users to use the phone app. 

 

So if you are expecting to have a full web UI management experience with the Deco series, it isn't going to happen and furthermore the phone app while certainly offers most things are missing some features you would inherently expect including but not limited to things such as Backup/Restore, MAC whitelisting, Manual Wifi Channel Selection.  Granted, they are actively adding new features to the app, so hopefully in time these will be included.

 

There (rightly) is a large complaint thread on the TP Link Forums from hundreds of users demanding a proper Web UI interface as there a multitude of reasons why management via a phone app is untenable.  I also posted my concerns. Unfortunately it is TP Links stance that irrespective of consumers complaints they are going to stay the course with the phone app...which is complete madness. 

 

You can see my complaint as posted below. 

 

Quote

Deco BE85 owner here. 

 

I simply have to echo all the other comments and concerns noted. Why have such excellent hardware and completely gimp it with a virtually non existent web interface? It just does not make sense. Using the app as a configuration tool should be considered something to compliment the web interface, not the otherway round...or even worse forcing users to use the app and kill off the web interface, which in essence is what you have done.

 

Web interfaces also allows for better device longevity which is best for all involved, especially if you want to look good on the "Green" front. What happens when for whatever reason/factor the app is not useable any longer? All I/other consumers will be left with are paper weights. Do you think consumers will come back to you to purchase a replacement product? Dream on. Once bitten, all trust is lost and they will move on to your competitors.

 

Why have you catered to inexperienced networking users only? If you tied in the app with a web interface (Like Asus do very succesfully), you could have had the best of both worlds and had a simple "Step by Step"  type app setup for inexperienced users, while retaining the web interface for more experienced users. Choice choice choice should be the moto. Why set up arbritary limimations! There is clearly not a REAL or technical limitation to TP Link having a full web interface.

 

Furthermore, the Deco BE85 and similar units do not have the correct price bracket if these are for your inexperienced home users. For the price point the Deco's sit at, I would expect a fully fledged web interface. However even that is besides the point, I would still expect the product at the lowest end of the stack to have a fully functioning web interface. 

 

What will it take for you to listen to your consumers? Sure it is a few years late, but you still have a chance to do the right thing by your cosumers and frankly you could save some face as TP Link as well in the process. 

 

At this point, as a company it seems like you have stuck your heels into the ground like a petulant child and refuse to acknowledge consumers wants and needs.  

 

I would also like to point out that ironically, in your initial post you start your statement with "The initial plan of the Deco Whole Mesh system is to configure via Deco APP". You yourselves have stated that this was your "Initial" plan. If it was/is "Intitial", then why not take a step back, look at the feedback and alter course?

 

I have enjoyed TP Links products in the past, but this new road you are taking is wrong, and I think you know it but for whatever factor or unforeseen reason to consumers (TP Link Internal), you are sticking to the current course. If that is so, this will be the last time I will use your products and I will have to stop recommending them professionally and personally. 

 

I will be pointing this thread out to media outlets as I beleive this issue should spread far and wide, perhaps then you may take your consumers a little more seriously. 

 

So in summary, these are excellent devices so far as the hardware and the speeds achieved and when used in AP mode, the lack of a Web UI is not a killer issue, hence why I have decided to keep them. However in router mode I could see that managing these devices would be an absolute nightmare. 

 

Can I really recommend these to others, realistically no...for all the reasons above and per my post on the TP Link forums.