zacster wrote

My wife was complaining about an inconsistent connection and I just checked and she is connected to the third floor router even though the 2nd floor router is on her desk right next to her.  All of the other devices seem to just be randomly connected, not based on proximity.  

@zacster 

This is only workaround, but it could make your Deco mesh experience more tolerable till 1.6 firmware released.

Turn off 2.4GHz in Deco Wi-Fi Settings, for Main network. If you have older and low bandwidth devices that need 2.4GHz, connect them to Guest network.

Why would it make the difference?

This is how my smartphone sees 2.4GHz signal from all three Deco nodes in my house:

It can decide to connect to any of them, they all look good. Which is when you may see device connected not to the closest Deco node.

Same place, but 5GHz signal:

Device can choose the closest node easily here. In fact, if it does not, there is definitely something wrong with people who designed it, or they did it before WiFi mesh became the thing.

Does anyone know when 1.6 is coming. I feel like we are Going to be waiting for a long time

is the p7 ever gonna see 1.5 or even 1.6? 

@TP-Link_Deco 

Just to add another voice to this.  I've been using my Deco M5's for well over a year but it wasn't until my ISP upgraded my speed that it really highlighted this problem.

Please add the feature to connect devices to a default/specific Deco...I've got static devices which are connecting to a slower (and not closer) Deco.  I've tried turning off Mesh for that whilst it's connected to the Deco I prefer then for some reason when I look at a later time/date it's moved from the main deco (to a different one).

I add my voice to this request, this feature is a must have.
It's frustrating...

@Kevin_Z 

Actually i have 3 Deco M4R units. 

Plan of internet is 200 MBPS.

1. Main Router outputs 197 MBPS (all day long)

2. Main Deco wired viz cat6e cable to Main router outputs 196 MBPS (distance b/w main router and the main deco is 15 meters away)

3. Second Deco is place at 7 meters away from this Main Deco unit. and connects to this main deco seamlessly and outputs almost 180-196 MBPS

4. Now here comes the issue. My Third Deco is placed just 5 meters away from Second Deco and 10 meters away from first deco and the 3rd deco always connects to the Main Deco and i was expecting it to connect to Second Deco.

Note: One of the TP Link support person has told a suggestion to move the 3rd Deco little farther from main deco so it can fetch from Second Deco and i tried this it worked. and Speed on Third Deco ( now gave 140 MBPS than 50 MBPS when connecting to main deco) So the computation is done internally not only with Distance apart from some other metrics as well. Atleast if TP Link can provide a option to choose which Deco it can connect to that would really help.

Fingers crossed on the next firmware update.:(

@Kevin_Z I may have figured a way of doing this. I prefer my ring devices to run on 2.4ghz do i set up a different password for the guest network, then disabled the 5 ghz option on said network. Seems to do the trick :) or am i missing something

Just to add to the requests, I'd also like to force a particular client to connect to a particular node.

I have an E4R in the kitchen to provide wifi in the garden, and an M5 as my main Deco, connected directly to a 900Mps line via PPPoe.   I also have a NAS connected to the M5.

I want my main MacMini (2 floors higher up) to connect to the M5 to obtain fast internet and fast access to the NAS, however it ALWAYS connects to the E4R as it's closer, despite being slower and a node away from the internet/NAS.

Connected to the E4R I get around 80Mbs, but through the M5 I get around 400Mps from the same Macmini.  However I've tried the "no mesh" trick lots of time and it still always connects to the slower E4R after a few hours.

I'd like to be able to force my MacMini to connect to the M5 to get the best internet speed and best NAS connectivity.

We really need the ability to force a device to connect to a specific mesh node.

I've got 2 security camera's which somehow prefer connecting through 2 reinforced concrete floors on the opposite side of the building, rather than the mesh device 10 feet away. It makes no sense.