TP-Link Deco WiFi 6 Mesh System(Deco X20) - Covers up to 5800 Sq.Ft. , Replaces Wireless Routers and Extenders(3-Pack, 6 Ethernet Ports in total, supports Wired Ethernet Backhaul)

My first M5 DECO worked like a charm for over four years with great connectivity and no issues until it died recently. I was initially going to just replace the M5 router with a new one. But I saw that the DECO X20 was only $20 more at a deal price and had faster connectivity and more capabilities. The X20 does require downloading an app and then connecting the first X20, while the X5 ist needed to be plugged in. I had previously used a TP-Link 4 port splitter to connect to the modem BEFORE I connected to the router and experienced no issues. But the X20 require you to connect directly to the modem BEFORE the splitter, although it doesn’t say this anywhere in the instructions. So I couldn’t get the X20 connected to the internet or complete installation after hours of trying. A tech from my internet provider caught the error since I had good connectivity with my hard wired desktop. There is no tech support at TP-Link to call, but only an automated chat function with no human to talk to. So although I am very happy with the X20, I think the installation instructions could have been clearer and with tech support available. At one point, I was considering shipping the router back. The paper instructions that came with the X20 are also very difficult to read due to the small print size. The online instructions are better. TP-Link needs to add a FAQ advising to connect directly to the modem and not thru a splitter. That would have saved me a lot of time and effort.

Bryant Chacon provided excellent tech support getting my units set up. Highly recommend this product. Easy to set up actually and if I would have just followed the app and was a little more patient wanting for the system to set up I would not have needed the tech support. You will enjoy.

One of the best benefits is being able to keep kids devices off of specific websites - regardless of the type of device (iPhone, Android, etc). Parental control apps aren’t very good at that and the ones I’ve seen are sketchy at best on iPhone. With this router I can put the name of sites, type of content, time of day, etc directly from my phone. Also pleased with the router functionally and speed.

In my first attempt to setup the Deco, I had one unit plugged into the router and the other two creating the mesh purely on WiFi. While this resulted in a successful network, my devices were not reliable on it. My laptop kept dropping, or had large latency and low bandwidth. I work from home, and my meeting and video quality was not great. Switching across Decos wasnt as seamless as Id liked. In my second attempt, I used the ethernet backhaul for the devices (fortunately my house is wired for ethernet). This immediately improved the Deco network, now my devices were reliable. I then switched to access point mode so I could use my existing router, and its been working very well thus far. So - I can only recommend this if you can use the ethernet backhaul. WiFi alone does not create a stable or seamless network.

2 Story, 2700sf home. Finally updated my home network. I’m glad I went with a TP-Link Mesh Network. I now have excellent Wi-Fi coverage throughout my home and outside too. no more weak or dead spots. The X20 units work great. My ISP bandwidth is 250Mbps and the X20 units use all the available bandwidth. I get the low 180Mbps outside at the very edge of our property. The Deco app to monitor and manage my Wi-Fi network is stellar. It’s easy, simple to use and has great features. I set up the guest network and was easily able to prioritize device that was streaming our music to keep the party going.

Review of TP-Link Deco WiFi 6 Mesh System (Deco X20) - Covers up to 5800 Sq.Ft. , Replaces Wireless Routers and Extenders (3-Pack, 6 Ethernet Ports in total, supports Wired Ethernet Backhaul) @ $171.19 when I purchased these in November 2022, now at $159.99. This is my second purchase of TP-Links mesh WiFi systems. My first purchase was a 2-pack of the AX3000/W6000. My home is a single-story home with a detached 2-car garage that sits on about 1/2 acre. I have a partial basement, which I do have a couple of smart plugs in use to control a dehumidifier and another item that needs temporarily and intermittently charged. The older system worked quite well, but sometimes it would not always reach the farthest corners of my property and sometimes my garage, which has security cameras inside and outside, as does my home. I decided to try the slightly larger (3 units instead of 2) with this system here. I really like it. I have awesome coverage everywhere now. I found set up easy (I am fairly tech savvy). I liked that this system is able to easily handle a lot of devices (up to 150) that connect to WiFi. It (the app) lets you know what is connecting and warns of unknown attempts to connect. I am comfortable with the systems security too. It allows 5GH and 2.4GH compatible, WiFi 6 compatible, and is backwards compatible to work with older routers. Each unit has connection available for a cable required by most hubs. The power cords are long enough too. I was able to add my older system onto this one after some work with getting them to reset (for some reason they would not at first). But, most often older systems from TP-Link should connect to these without difficulties. Ive expanded my coverage even more this way. I liked that I was able to basically plug-n-play these one at a time. The first one went into my ISPs router/modem, and from there each TP-Link unit connected to the main one at my computer/router. The app was straight forward with adding the additional units. The app is also pretty user friendly in my opinion. I dont have 150 devices using the mesh system, but I have quite a few, and I have not seen any drops in speed on my system. The app will tell you your speeds too. Hopefully this helps someone decide about this product.

These are currently my favorite mesh routers, I run them in all of my managed locations. THey are extremely reliable and they have good speeds. There is however one con that I recently discovered (which is why I gave it only four stars), bufferbloat. This is something relatively new, but nonetheless important. None of the TP-Link products account for bufferbloat (that I am aware of).

I found out about these units (X50-PoE) when I was looking for devices powered via PoE. Immediately I started to chat with the TP-Link Support and Austin was instrumental in guiding me technically and commercially about the products. We reviewed the options to use the X50-PoE as well as the Omada products. I decided to move forward with the X50-PoE because I want my family to be able to handle changes in configuration and setup and the Deco App is sop easy and interactive. Im impressed with the WiFi coverage in my house (3000 sqft) and the coverage reach outside (Have a big property and the signal still strong). Koodos to TP-Link for this product and a big Thanks to Austin for his great and continuous support. By the way, Im using also a TP-Link switch to handle all ethernet ports with PoE capability (TL-SG2428P).

The setup is simple and clean, all you have to do is to type in a name and password for your wifi when you set up the first one and it will set up the rest when you add the remaining mesh to extend your signal. An important note when finding a placement for setting up a wireless mesh, make sure the place you extend from also gets a good signal connection from one of the other mesh routers. For my case, the main router is on the 2nd floor close to the stairs, the 2nd router is placed relatively close to the staircase where the signal is still full bar, the 3rd router is placed also on the 2nd bedroom above the living room where the signal can pass through either from below or directly from the main router. The result is I am able to get a solid 300 Mbps to download out of a 500 Mbps internet plan on the 2nd floor, and 250Mbps on the 1st floor. If my router on the 1st floor can get a better signal from the other routers, Im sure I can get it up to 300 as well. It also gives you 2 ethernet ports per router that you can connect to your computer, hue hub, printer and so on for better connection with those devices. Note that this also applies to the main router and it would lose one port for the internet input from your modem. It is good if you do not have a lot of ethernet connected device in one location like me. For my use case, I am happy with 300 Mbps over wireless. I havent try ethernet through my mesh routers but I am pretty sure it would be the same case as wireless as that is the main way the routers communicate with the main one. Another thing to keep a note of is that you cannot separate the names for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi networks, they are all tied into one name and automatically managed by the routers. So those who like to stay on 5Ghz can turn off 2.4Ghz and force the routers to use 5Ghz but might have worst signal strength when going through walls. They have QoS service, which allows the user to make some devices have higher priority when using the bandwidth, it can also set the priority by the following category steaming, gaming, downloading files, browsing or chatting, where bandwidth can be prioritized to what you think is most important to you. Update: After changing from Wave modem to Netgears CM700 Modem, the speed near the primary router reached 485 Mbps download and from a floor away connected to a secondary mesh router yield 445 Mbpd downloads. This mesh router is good to go for a 500Mbps Internet plan. Not sure if it can go even faster.

I recently read an article that cautioned that routers should now be running the latest security protocol WPA3 in order to have a current and secure home WiFi network. I had a 5 year old Orbi with a satellite that has been doing a good job as my router but did not offer WPA3. After shopping around, reading reviews and articles I decided on this TP Link Deco X20 router as my upgrade. It offers the security features I was looking for, access to my network via the app even when Im not home, and the coverage for my size home that I need at what I consider to be a very reasonable price at $200. Setup was indeed very easy using the TP Link Deco app. Once I created an account, I followed the clear instructions and was able to get both units up and running in under 10 minutes. It obviously took more time to connect each of my devices, smart plugs, TVs etc. to the new network. The mesh technology sends out a strong uniform signal through my house with no slow or dead zones. The download speeds on my devices has shown considerable improvement as well. Also, the two units are much smaller and less noticeable than my Orbi units were which is a nice added bonus. A note of caution to some users: Each unit comes with only 2 ethernet cable connections in the back, which means you have only one available connection on the main unit after connecting the cable modem in one ethernet port. This may pose a problem for some who have more items they wish to have a wired connection. I am very happy with the way this purchase has worked out for me. It was very simple to setup, easy to maintain via the nicely designed app, and provides me exactly what I was looking for in an upgraded router. I highly recommend the TP Link Deco for anyone looking for a quality, user friendly mesh home WiFi router.