@W2020 

 

You will need 3-pack minimum, with one Deco on each floor.

 

Which type of Deco from these two to choose will depend from:

 

1. All units wired with Ethernet cable - M5 for all.

2. Some units wired with Ethernet cable - M5 for those, rest - continue reading.

3. Not wired Satellite Deco having strong 5 GHz signal from Main Deco - M9 Plus, otherwise - M5.

 

Mixing Deco units of different types is possible, I bough two-pack of M9 Plus for 1st and 2nd floor and added M5 which will be Ethernet wired in the basement office. In case of mixing M5 and M9 Plus Decos, your Main Deco must be M9 Plus.

 

If price difference between M5 and M9 Plus is not significant for you, go for all M9 Plus for sure.

I only went for third Deco as M5 because M9 Plus are only sold in in 2-pack and 3-pack, and I made a mistake buying just 2-pack of M9 Plus - found later would be nice to have 3rd Deco unit.

 

A little more details on how to choose location for not wired satellite Deco and why strong 5 Ghz signal matters when spending on M9 Plus is here: https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/234228?replyId=510688

 

Thanks for the advice for a novice user like me. My only wired unit is on the 3rd floor (the main station). So for the best solution based on your advice, I should grab a 3-pack Deco M9 Plus. I will replace my old Unifi router with one unit of Deco on the 3rd floor and the rest will be for other floors. A sales person was telling me at a store the other day I should just grab M5 because I am on 500Mbps. M9 Plus works best for those on 800Mbps.

@W2020 

 

Mesh systems are hit or miss. I am happy user of TP-Link Deco M9 Plus mesh, but as you can see on this forum some people have complains and legit issues. I would recommend buying Deco at a store (or online) with good return policy. Just in case.

Yes, thanks to Alexandre for the professional advice. I bought a 3-pack Deco M9 Plus finally. I managed to install it and all working OK. My coverage has improved in most areas. I placed the Deco units on each floor. I'm on 500Mbps. My real problem is the speed issue. My download and upload speed based on TM speedtest (wireless) are around 80-90Mbps on the 3rd floor where my main Deco unit is stationed. I connected cable from main Deco to my notebook and there was not much improvement. Never goes above 100Mbps. The speed would drop further on the 2nd floor and lowest on the 1st or ground floor. In the evening, the speed could get much, much slower. I could see lots of complaints about the speed in this forum. As I am a novice on this, can Alexandre who has been a happy user or others advise me in layman terms on how to fix this speed problem. I really appreciate the help. Thanks.

@W2020 

 

I would suggest the following troubleshooting steps.

 

1. Turn off all Decos but Main, to focus on Main Deco at first. 

 

2. Configure Deco to run in AP mode. That would eliminate unlikely but possible issues with QoS configuration and such in Deco. In AP mode, Deco will just pass through data to your modem/router. This is the simplest setup for troubleshooting. AP mode can be set under More/Advanced/Operating Mode in app.

 

3. Also, I am assuming you've turned off WiFi on your modem/router, leaving just Deco to provide WiFi. If you haven't done it - please do. Running WiFi on both may create interference with WiFi signal if Deco and modem/router are near each other.

 

4. After you've done that, also please ensure you connected Main Deco to your modem/router with Deco supplied Ethernet cable. Then, run "Test Internet Speed" from Deco app on smartphone - this will test Internet speed between Main Deco and your ISP modem/router, through their Ethernet cable. If you can get 500Mbps or close on that test, this will eliminate Main Deco as a problematic hardware.

 

5. If test was successful and reported high download speed above 300-400MBit, disable 2.4Ghz for Main and Guest networks, leaving just 5 GHz. It is under More/WiFi in Deco app. I never saw downloads better than 80-90Mbit when my smartphone was connected through 2.4Ghz WiFi, but was always getting 300Mbit on 5GHz, which is my Internet connection speed from ISP. This will eliminate possibility of notebook or other devices you use connecting on 2.4Ghz.

After disabling 2.4Ghz network, in close proximity to Main Deco reconnect your notebook to Deco WiFi (do not use Ethernet cable) and run speedtest again on notebook. For clean test, you might wish to reboot notebook first, even if it is not, technically speaking, necessary. I usually run speedtest by opening URL www.fast.com in a browser, this is web site for testing download speed provided by Netflix. Suggest you try the same.

Ideally, after that you should see speedtest on notebook reporting download speed in excess of 300MBit, perhaps even close to 500Mbit. 

 

Also, note that on some (many, by the way) notebooks the Ethernet port is just 100MBit. If yours is of that type, it might explain why you are not getting more than 100Mbit when connected by cable to Main Deco. 

If your notebook has 1Gbit port, than it is something else - but run tests I gave you, first.

Hi, thanks for the prompt reply. While I'm digesting your instruction and will follow it, my main Deco is set up and connected directly to the Unifi modem. So my Deco is providing Wifi. I did step 4 early this morning. I ran the test on Deco app via my iPhone and it was around 90Mbps. I had used TM speedtest and www.fast.com as well. It is around the same range or slightly lower. Thanks.