TP-Link Deco AX3000 WiFi 6 Mesh

Thanks to Prime Day it was time for me to finally upgrade my home network. I was looking for a reasonably priced WiFi-6 mesh system with 3 stations (1 main + 2 satellites), at least AX3000 speeds, and a price tag of up to $300. It came down to two choices: the Eero 6+ and what I chose instead, the TP-Link Deco X55. Both systems had similar specs, but I liked how the TP-Link Deco had 3x Gigabit ethernet ports per satellite (the Eeeros have just 2). That meant I could wire each satellite in a daisy-chain configuration for a wired backhaul AND connect the 3rd ethernet plug to the gigabit switches I had at each satellite location. This meant that all of my hard-wired devices could stay hardwired, while adding mesh WiFi at full speeds (no bandwidth reserved for transmission thanks to the backhaul).

Installation was quick and easy – I simply turned off my cable modem, disconnected my previous router, installed one of the Deco X55’s in its place (in my bedroom), and turned everything back on. After downloading the TP-Link Deco app I had an internet connection set up and good to go in less than 5 minutes! Once that was working, I added the other two Deco’s into the mix – one in the living room and one in the family room – with all three forming an almost perfect triangle for whole-home coverage. In less than 15 minutes after opening the box, I had a fast, Wifi-6 mesh system in my home.

I had been using an older AC1900 router for almost 10 years now and back then it was just fine – but with more and more smart home devices being added to my home, it no longer was enough. I have a medium-sized amount of smart home devices (around 50 devices including hubs) and on occasion, I’d experience signal dropouts on some of the farther cameras, and other devices would sporadically go offline/online at random. With the X55 mesh installed, all of my issues disappeared! My smart cameras used to show a signal strength of between 80% (indoor cameras) down to around 55% (outdoor cameras). With the TP-Link Deco mesh in place, the signal strength changed to 100% indoor and 95% outdoor – a major improvement for sure. Pulling up live and recorded footage from the outdoor camera is so much quicker now. All of the other indoor smart devices I have all show 98-100% signal strength. Needless to say, this was a definite upgrade!

As for my rating, I give it a solid 4-stars. There are a few small details that keep me from giving it a full 5-stars: some missing features that I had with my old router. One of them is being able to bulk reserve IPs by entering them into the app beforehand; with the TP-Link Deco, the device has to be connected to the network FIRST (with whatever DHCP IP address the Deco gives it), then you have to go into the app to reserve it with a static IP. I would rather have the more common table where you just enter each Mac address, static IP, and device name and it’s done. Another missing feature is being able to have at least 2 separate SSIDs (not including a guest SSID). With the Deco you can only have one main SSID and one isolated guest SSID.

Finally, to see some speed numbers I ran speed tests using both fast.com and speedtest.com, and the day before installing the mesh system I had an average internet speed of around ~260Mbps. The day after I installed the TP-Link mesh system my speeds went up to well over 490Mbps! Downloading is a lot faster, and streaming is super snappy as well.

So in the end, I am very happy with my purchase of the TP-Link Deco X55 Wifi6 mesh system. Aside from the small feature complaints above, everything is awesome! I no longer have devices going offline/online. My internet speed has almost doubled (my old router was the bottleneck!) and streaming seems quicker as well. If you are looking for a mesh system to upgrade your current home network to the current WiFi6 standards, I would say that this is definitely a good buy!

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EDIT 02.18.2024: TP-Link Improvements Are Awesome!
TP-Link has been steadily pushing out Deco firmware and app updates, and my -1 star complaint no longer exists thanks to two added features that completely address my complaints:

– CUSTOM IP RESERVATIONS
First, I don’t have to play the game of connecting a new device, letting the Deco assign a DHCP address to it, then having to go back into the app to manually change the reserved IP. Now I can go straight into the Deco app and under the “Address Reservation” tab I can now select “Custom”; this brings me to a page where I can manually type in a MAC address AND the local IP address that I want to assign to it – without having to connect the device first.

– SEPARATE IoT NETWORK
My other complaint was that I only had the option to have two SSIDs – one main and one guest network. I wanted to be able to configure another SSID specifically so I could group all of my Smarthome devices, and after a couple of firmware updates later TP-Link not only gave me that option, but an even better one: they added a dedicated Iot (Internt of Things) network! Not only does this group my sparthome devices separate from my main network, but it also restricts communications between networks so that the IoT devices stay isolated. This is exactly the feature I wanted them to add during my initial review.

– VPN COMPATIBILITY
TP-Link has also added the option to use a VPN (server or client) directly through the router, as opposed to having to VPN each individual device manually. Furthermore, the VPN can be assigned to the network in two ways: either all devices (every device connected to the mesh will go through the VPN) or I can select specific MAC addresses that must pass through the VPN before reaching the Internet (tI chose option #2). With this I can make sure that certain devices that like to “call home” can only do so through the VPN, helping to protect my network and privacy.

All in all, TP-Link has done a great job at supporting these devices, and their ability to add additional features over time have made me feel confident to revise my initial review now give this system a worthy 5 stars!

Super bien vale la pena lo recomiendo y rápido envio

كأول تجربة لي في شراء موزعات الشبكه وطحت على النوع هذا والحمدلله التجربه من اروع ما يكون سهوله في التنصيب والتوزيع والسرعه واصله الي اقصى زاويه بالمنزل من افضل ما يكون مع العمل لكل من يريد ان يشتري الموزعات هذي لا تعتقد انك راح تاخذ نفس السرعه من المودم الي اخر جهاز ولكن ولله الحمد السرعه عندي مابين ٣٠٠ ميقا الي ٦٠٠ فايف جي واستطعت الحصول النصف واعلى في كافة المنزل مع تغطيه ممتازه يستحق كل ريال فيه حقيقه

I’ve done light networking admin and troubleshooting at a previous job and have been around computers for most of my life. My dad had an Ethernet in the house in the 90’s. I built my first PC when I was 11. I’m 43 now. I’m not an expert, but I have more experience than probably most. This was really easy to setup. I downloaded the app and it walked me through setup. Only thing that caused me an issue was I was running a VPN on my phone which initially blocked access until I disabled the VPN. The setup was easy. I installed one node near the cable modem which is in the side attic of the room over the garage. I installed another node downstairs and the last node upstairs. I already have network cable ran in the house so all the nodes are connected by LAN and do wired backhaul. All of the streaming peripherals like Apple TVs are also wired. The only devices using the WiFi are phones and laptops. The system broadcasts one network and auto configures your device for best speed. You don’t have to choose a 5ghz or 2.4ghz network. That is automatic. The house has excellent signal everywhere. I put on YouTube and walked into every room while steaming. It never flickered or stopped. It seamlessly moved from node to node as needed. The app checked the firmware on the nodes and updated the firmware on each one, very simple process.

I will update this if anything changes. Right now, it’s very fast meshed WiFi that works very well. It was super easy to install and update. The app is intuitive and useful.