Bandoul wrote

  @TP-Link

 

We might as well be talking to a wall! These people are not listening to us and furthermore they don't give a rat's behind about our complaints or concerns. In fact I doubt anyone from tp-link is reading or monitoring this thread. They are perfectly satisfied to have sold this POS mesh all over the world to people who don't know how to find an ethernet port on a router without a diagram even if their life depended on it. There is also the aspect of being able to keep your private network data on their cloud servers. Has it occured to anyone what they are doing with this data? Do yourselves a favor, just return your prodcut if you are still able to do so and buy something else. I retuned mine and got this instead, has a full unrestricted web UI: ASUS ZenWiFi AX6600 Tri-Band Mesh WiFi 6 System (XT8 2PK) - Whole Home Coverage up to 5500. Yes it is a bit more expensive but for those of us who are professional network folks and want to be in control of what is installed on our network, it is well worth it. I am completely done with tp-link and free of their nonsense.

  @Bandoul 

FWIW, I had a Deco X5000 and thought I was unhappy with it because it lacked a web interface and a lot of useful features that most modern mesh systems and routers have.  So I decided to try an XT8.  It was even worse.   It had all kinds of bugs and a lot of the features like QOS and traffic monitoring had to be disabled or they would cause problems.  I also had issues with devices not being able to connect to certain nodes even if they were right next to them.  The client list was always messed up and was missing devices that were connected, and in the week and a half I had it I had to reboot the system every other day just to get it to work.

It also doesn't have a simple way to manage it remotely like you can with the Decos.  You can do it with port forwarding and ddns but a lot of people have double-nat environments which makes that almost impossible.  I like the Deco's cloud based app management.  

I took down the XT8, bought a Deco XE5300 and I'm a lot happier with it than I was with the X5000 and the XT8.  I do miss the web interface of the XT8 and features like traffic monitoring and data usage stats but it was kind of pointless since the system itself never worked right.  

With the money I'm getting back from returning the XT8 and original X5000 I bought a Firewalla to give me more control of my network.  

IMO TP Link should leave the Deco app like it is so that it's simple for most people to set up and it provides basic management remotely, then add a web interface for more advanced management locally.  

wase4711 wrote

glad to see you dumped this Deco sheet and went with a real route I warn everyone I know now about avoiding this Deco Krap, and, to anyone reading this, sell that Sheet on Ebay and move away from this worthless, overpriced sheet infested grease ball sandwich called Deco

  @wase4711 

See above.  IMO, the XT8 is not an improvement over a comparable Deco model like the AXE 5300/5400.  It has more bells and whistles but the firmware is old, buggy as hell, and not worth the extra money.   

  @SDGTR an XT8 is one of the older asus mesh setups, and I would never recommend that to anyone in mid 2024

also, you should NOT use QOS and some of the other things you didnt like unless there is an absolute need to use them, and, if you have over 500mb internet service, you can cause more problem then you solve with QOS..

Deco is fine for your 70 year old grandpa, but for anyone else who needs to be able to modify/change/improve their network, its the worst choice possible

wase4711 wrote

  @SDGTR an XT8 is one of the older asus mesh setups, and I would never recommend that to anyone in mid 2024

also, you should NOT use QOS and some of the other things you didnt like unless there is an absolute need to use them, and, if you have over 500mb internet service, you can cause more problem then you solve with QOS..

Deco is fine for your 70 year old grandpa, but for anyone else who needs to be able to modify/change/improve their network, its the worst choice possible

  @wase4711 

In your previous post you called it a "real" router. 

The XT8, XT9, XT12 all use the same web interface and probably similar firmware.  They are buggy as hell. 

I don't really need QOS on all the time but I do need the ability to monitor traffic and data usage by device.  When I enabled that on the XT8 it caused all kinds of problems in addition to the issues it already had - devices not connecting to the right nodes, devices going offline, connected devices not showing up in the device list, etc..  If they include features but you can't use them because when you turn them on everything breaks, why would they even bother including them? 

BTW, my DL is around 300Mbps, upload between 60 and 80.  And although I don't need QOS all the time, there are times when one of us will be working over Zoom or other online meeting platforms and we do need QOS for that since it's actual work and the connection quality and reliability is critical.  

The Deco mesh systems are intended for home users.  Most home networks are pretty simple.  Sure, the Decos are missing things like traffic monitoring, the ability to select wifi channels, better DHCP management (can't even see what addresses have been assigned), ability to enable or disable DFS channels,  and other features that some people might need or find useful, but aside from that the actual performance is pretty good.  And I don't know about the other Deco models but the XE5300 has a lot fewer bugs and issues than the XT8.  

Like I mentioned, I'm also adding a Firewalla for things like traffic monitoring and data usage tracking that the Deco doesn't have and I couldn't use on the XT8 anyway because it would cause problems.  

What other mesh system is full-featured and actually works?  The XT8 is pretty full-featured but sucks.  The Deco is missing a lot of features but it works well.  I'll take the one that works.  

  @SDGTR Never said the Deco was bad or it needs to be changed. It just has to please both people like you for the simplicity and people like me by adding the ability to fully be able to mange the router without delegating my config to the cloud. I am a Cyber Security Engineer and I require full control over every device on my network. That said I respect your opinion and I am happy the Deco met your needs.

  @wase4711  Making statements without citing examples is the equivalent of giving an opinion. Yes I bought the 2022 XT8 model which is a Tri-Band that uses the 2nd 5G frequency as a back-haul, a must have feature, at a discounted price! Throwing away money on toys that have better Ad campaigns is not my idea of money well spent. All 3 nodes got a firmware upgrade as soon as they connected to the internet, the setup was quick and easy as well as bugs free. The performance is solid. I don't care about shiny objects and marketing numbers.

  @Bandoul agree, and opinions are fine, after all this is the internet, but, no matter how you sugar coat it, TP Link/Deco has become a inferior company, they dont reply to issues  or fix anything if you contact them, and this thread is over TWO YEARS OLD, and they dont even have the balls to respond to ANY of these posts.

Low end, entry level, no feature junk is fine for some, but most others want more from their investment, and you just dont get it with any of this Deco Sheet

wase4711 wrote

  @Bandoul agree, and opinions are fine, after all this is the internet, but, no matter how you sugar coat it, TP Link/Deco has become a inferior company, they dont reply to issues  or fix anything if you contact them, and this thread is over TWO YEARS OLD, and they dont even have the balls to respond to ANY of these posts.

Low end, entry level, no feature junk is fine for some, but most others want more from their investment, and you just dont get it with any of this Deco Sheet

  @wase4711 

Exactly why I dumped the Deco. Yeah, I got older technology in the XT8, I must admit, but it is the same as buying last year's Samsung's or Apple's flagship phone at a steep discount and bonus I get full control, win win. BTW, the I bought the Deco for my Dad because I manage his home network and I have to manage it remotely and securely and privately. The Deco is junk and I retuned it the next day.

Bandoul wrote

  @SDGTR Never said the Deco was bad or it needs to be changed. It just has to please both people like you for the simplicity and people like me by adding the ability to fully be able to mange the router without delegating my config to the cloud. I am a Cyber Security Engineer and I require full control over every device on my network. That said I respect your opinion and I am happy the Deco met your needs.

  @Bandoul 

I agree.  I'm a sysadmin and although I don't work in the cybersecurity side of things I do appreciate having granular control over networks.  However, for my home network simplicity works fine.

That said, I do need certain features like traffic monitoring and data usage per device and occasional QOS.  The XT8 has those built in but like I said, when I tried using those features it caused all kinds of problems (in addition to the other problems it had). 

My solution was to keep the Deco XE5300 which works better than the XT8 and Deco X5000 and simply add a Firewalla in bridged mode between the Deco router and the ISP's gateway.  

But I would love to see Deco add a web interface with more control over the settings.