I simply can't understand the reasoning behind this, almost 2 years........

Sure " We believe in our excelent product wich is awsome" " Best user experience" .............

I understand the product is made as a plug and play easy setup and forget type of device.

But as a general practice all high end products almost always have some kind of admin/advanced function with a big warning.

We need manual channel selection for the rare cases the product isn't choosing the "best possible" (although its a awsome product).

Give advanced users a way to manually change the channel to a more better suited one if they know a channel is way to crowded.

TP-Link_Deco wrote

Hello all, sorry to respond late.

 

We have already noted all of your requests about choosing the wireless channels manually on the Deco system and they have been forwarded to the developers, they will publish new official firmware in the near future, not too long to wait, which will optimize the current channeling picking mechanism, it is suggested to wait for the new updates and confirm if that will help address any of your concerns.

 

I will try to explain why we don't give the Deco administrator the permission to manually choose a channel on the current Deco system, which may not precise but I will try my best:

 

Firstly, we need to clarify that the wireless channels on the current Deco firmware are not manually configurable as Deco automatically selects a 2.4GHz channel to use based on what it sees around it, selecting the channel that has the least interference. The 5GHz channel appears to be configured based on the region the device was manufactured for use in and they are apparently not auto-selected and are definitely not manually configurable.

 

Secondly, we need to reiterate what is the point of having a whole mesh Wi-Fi system in your network. The whole point of mesh networks is to give a seamless, unfettered, and performant experience for wireless networking, and thus a mesh network is "self-configuring" and "self-healing", the network automatically incorporates a new node into the existing structure without needing any adjustments manually by a network administrator and it automatically finds the fastest and most reliable paths to send data. If you change the wireless channel on the Deco nodes manually, it may give you the risk of losing the other Deco nodes and thus ruin your Deco system, you may need to start over again to reconfigure them.

 

What's more, it is not always easy to choose a clear wireless channel in your networks, you may need to test with all of them in order to find one that may be usable. Most importantly, crowded isn’t the same as busy, even though some channel scanning apps tell you one specific channel is busy, they don’t always measure other sources of congestion and interference. Non-Wi-Fi signals (like those from microwaves, Bluetooth devices, cordless phones, garage door openers, baby monitors, etc.) can all congest a channel but may not show up in a scan. So it’s possible that a channel can appear empty, while it is, in fact, saturated with other kinds of interference. 

 

Last but not least, other mesh systems such as Google Wi-Fi mesh (update here that Netgear Orbi is not the same mesh as Deco, Orbi is more like a router + an RE, so if we misunderstood it previously, we are sorry for that), don't allow users to change the channel manually either, which means when developing a mesh system, our developers have already taken all factors into serious consideration and choose the current one, the current Deco mesh system may not be perfect or even good, but we don't think it's just that awful or nonusable as some of you thought. If we need or we must do this change to allow you to change the channel, it will require a lot of research in the market and it is not that easy just like you said "just open the option", I think most users like you guys should understand it.

 

Hopefully, that answers your question but let us know if you need more details.

@TP-Link_Deco I've reported this comment as "Inappropriate Content" to make a point. Much of what is said here has been proven incorrect and you've marked it as the solution but yet this is far away from being a fix for this bug. 

I just wish TP-Link would fess up and tell the truth. Why .... WHY???? string along the users, community and owners along when TP-Link is not taking this serious and it will not be looked into. I'd rather for the company to be up front and tell the user base that this bug will not be fixed and that these models will never see channel control. Be up front, please stop string it along. 

STOP making adjustments to optimize the current channeling picking mechanism. This is NOT what is wanted. No matter the brand of router/mesh network out there nothing can be optimized to pick the proper channel. The only proper way to do so is to manually set it which TP-Link has already decided users will not get control of. 

This has been a dead promise from day one! There are only two responses that TP-Link can have for this and they're

1. Due to the complexity of the device and it's firmware we can't alter and and fix this bug and add channel control
2. TP-Link no longer wants to support the M5 & M9 devices and we're not altering the firmware to correct this bug. 

@TP-Link once again please stop stringing users along with false hope. The company can patch and correct security issues with in days/weeks yet an issues that's been on going for year should not take so long to correct.  

@TP-Link_Deco    i have to disagree as a computer technician I find it very upsetting that i can not set the channel for which I use. If Cisco can do it so can you. It would be nice to have the option. If i change channels and that causes issues thats on me not you, but not having the option is on you not me. 

@TP-Link_Deco 

Are there any news yet?

@TP-Link_Deco 

TP-Link_Deco wrote

The 5GHz channel appears to be configured based on the region the device was manufactured for use in and they are apparently not auto-selected and are definitely not manually configurable.

So the M9 doesn't even attempt to choose the best 5Ghz channel? Your so-called 'seamless, unfettered, and performant experience for wireless networking' only serves to congest channel 36 and make the experience worse for everyone.

Perhaps this should be clarified on the product page no?

TP-Link_Deco wrote

which means when developing a mesh system, our developers have already taken all factors into serious consideration and choose the current one, the current Deco mesh system may not be perfect or even good, but we don't think it's just that awful or nonusable as some of you thought. If we need or we must do this change to allow you to change the channel, it will require a lot of research in the market and it is not that easy just like you said "just open the option", I think most users like you guys should understand it

Your so-called engineers and developers took all factors into serious consideration and thought that using sub-par weak wifi security was the best option? Would the wireless security issue even have been addressed if Apple did not take the step to highlight security concerns in their latest OS?

The security issue already disproves your claim that tp-link engineers know what is "best" for their customers.

Given that 1) people have requested the channel selection feature for years, and 2) your engineers seem rather incompetent, I take it that tp-link is probably not intending to make provisions for channel selection in the near future. Anyway, this is the last tp-link product I'll be getting, and I'll be sure to advise people to stay away from tp-link.

@TP-Link_Deco

Btw, my download speeds on 5Ghz on the M9 is <200Mbps beside the router. My other netgear router which is 6 years old gives me download speeds of 400-500Mbps, close to the maximum of my internet connection, because I can choose an uncongested wifi channel.

Could you clarify if having worse performance than an old router is what you meant by "performant experience for wireless networking"?

This is getting incredibly unprofessinal @tplink @TP-Link @TP-Link_Deco 

https://twitter.com/GetCart3rCA/status/1311685187961524227

@TP-Link_Deco 

Hello

just another person joining the chorus to request broadcast channel manual selection for Deco's: in short, what I have experienced so far in scanning and picking least crowded and least interference prone channel by main Deco is not good enough, really. Too many different network topology scenarios out there, I'm afraid and hence too many exceptions to the rule.

I realize your engineers have thought it over and have valid reasons to go full "auto" route but my rationale is following (real life scenario follows): being dependent on a single device scanning capabilities for channel selection for whole network may cover some scenarios (even majority) fine but isn't universally applicable.

For example, in my network topology approx. half of devices connect to satellite M3W which is placed in more network wise "congested" location. I assume (please prove me wrong) my M4R main Deco unit is not able to detect network interferences faced by other units (M3W). Therefore even if main Deco would select a channel, it is based on its surroundings only i.e. what overall conditions it faces in its location.

I already face some issues but let's imagine more complex topologies, like 3+ devices where main Deco sits in the corner on one side where it's "quiet" (it cannot be moved more in the middle for some reason, say fiber optic modem connection is in the corner) and 3 satellites placed in opposite direction of the building where there's much more network congestion and overall interference. Now, is it possible to pick all signal patterns from satellites by main Deco to properly assess whole network congestion (than can be hundreds of square meters)? I guess not (though I would really like that). Unless that happens and Deco scanning logic passes through all units, overall good idea of automation is somehow flawed because environment with Deco units quite far away from each other (even linked in daisy chain, what is a recognized Deco scenario) cannot be currently fully scanned by main Deco. It may happen the channel which is selected based on sampling single location signal patterns is not best for whole network. Improvement opportunity could be "good old" trial and error channel change to find middle ground but unfortunatelly as of now this route is closed.

I really like the product but the feature is seriously on my wish list. It would be great if engineering team would have a look at this again, for above or other reasons. Rooting for this!

Thanks.

P.S. Other issues the team could hopefully look at (I've seen them requested and are on my wish list, in order of personal importance):

* scheduled device reboot (both M4R and M3W, no problem if M3W not changeable from M4R schedule) - periodic device auto reboot to keep best network performance

* changeable DHCP lease time (main Deco)

* more config. options via web interface (main Deco)

@TP-Link_Deco 

ETA for new firmware to change WiFi channel?