@RGaskell 

With what you have, you should be getting up to 500Mbps from Main Deco and about half of that, 200-250Mbps, from Satellite Deco.

You said all three your Devo deliver speeds expected from Satellite Deco. Are you sure when you ran speed tests for Main Deco your device was actually connected to Main and not to Satellite Deco?

  @Alexandre. 
 

ok Wi-Fi test on main deco is good around 450+ and I've checked I'm hooked into that one. So the other two are less than half. 
 

I can't hardwire the other two to the main one due to distance. Is there another solution to get the 500 into the other two or do I need to look at different hardware?

  @RGaskell 

Your Deco mesh works as expected. Main Deco delivers close to Internet link speed, Satellite Deco delivers about half of that. It will be the same with WiFi mesh from any other brand. Satellite units in WiFi mesh work on the same principles as WiFi range extenders. Google "WiFi range extender cuts bandwidth by half" and you'll find plenty of articles covering that topic.

To reiterate: this is applicable to any brand of WiFi mesh. This is by design.

The only exception is so-called tri-band WiFi mesh. Your Deco M4 are dual band: one band is 2.4GHz and one is 5GHz. In tri-band WiFi mesh, each unit has additional band that is only used for WiFi backhaul. That improves Satellite unit speed. You won't get 500Mbps anyway. In my test I've done on dual-band and tri-band Deco units, and considering speed of your Internet link, you should expect up to 400Mbps on Satellite unit, unlikely more.

If you want to take that route, you'll have to replace all three Deco M4 with tri-band units. If staying with TP-Link brand, the recommended replacement would be Deco M9 Plus. Check local prices for 3-pack Deco M9 Plus and decide if you can justify for yourself spending that amount to improve Satellite Deco speeds to about 350-400Mbps from the current 240Mbps you have.

To get same speeds on Satellite units as on Main unit you will have to hardwire Satellites. There is no other way.

If Ethernet cable is not an option, do you have TV (coax) cables that terminate near Main and Satellite units? If you do, I can give you more info on what adapters to buy that will pass Ethernet over coax, which will let you hardwire Satellite Deco. I tested that at my house with Satellite Deco and am very pleased with results.

Another hardwiring option, in general, is powerline adapters, but I would not recommend those. For powerline adapter to reach 500Mbps your house electrical wiring must be in top condition and with little interference from whatever is plugged to it. Still, if you want to try that option I can give you pointers of which adapters to buy. Not every powerline adapter is compatible with Deco backhaul protocols.

Alexandre. wrote

  @RGaskell 

 

Your Deco mesh works as expected. Main Deco delivers close to Internet link speed, Satellite Deco delivers about half of that. It will be the same with WiFi mesh from any other brand. Satellite units in WiFi mesh work on the same principles as WiFi range extenders. Google "WiFi range extender cuts bandwidth by half" and you'll find plenty of articles covering that topic.

To reiterate: this is applicable to any brand of WiFi mesh. This is by design.

 powerline adapter is compatible with Deco backhaul protocols.

 

 

It's wrong to say that the speed drop due to relaying wireless communications is the case with any other brand of mesh wifi.

At the very least you need to specify that this is the only alternative with dual band devices (such as the one here) since there is no other radio that can be used for dedicated backhaul.

 

In fact it is common for mesh providers to include a radio that's used  as a dedicated backhaul, for example Orbi has an extra 5 GHz wireless on many models, ASUS AiMesh uses the second 5GHz radio, if there is one on each of the mesh nodes.

 

Attention to the way in which mesh nodes communicate is part of what should be looked at with mesh devices initially and those that have additional hardware that is used for dedicated backhaul is generally somewhat more expensive.

raven-au wrote

Alexandre. wrote

  @RGaskell 

 

It's wrong to say that the speed drop due to relaying wireless communications is the case with any other brand of mesh wifi.

At the very least you need to specify that this is the only alternative with dual band devices (such as the one here) since there is no other radio that can be used for dedicated backhaul.

 

 

  @raven-au 

The second paragraph of my reply, the one which starts with "The only exception is so-called tri-band WiFi mesh," discusses this topic in sufficient detail. Thanks for pointing that tri-band WiFi mesh hardware is usually more expensive, I didn't mention it in my reply. I am sure OP will find that when researching prices for M9 Plus, but it is always nice to get expectations right.

  @Alexandre. 

If Ethernet cable is not an option, do you have TV (coax) cables that terminate near Main and Satellite units? If you do, I can give you more info on what adapters to buy that will pass Ethernet over coax, which will let you hardwire Satellite Deco. I tested that at my house with Satellite Deco and am very pleased with results.

Sadly not.

The M9 plus is 190 quid on Amazon. will have to decide

  @RGaskell 

Deco M9 Plus is quite a good choice. I went with that for my Deco mesh when I had 300Mbps Internet link, then upgraded to 500Mbps and later to gigabit. While M9 Plus can't deliver gigabit speeds, it is more than capable for 500Mbps Internet.

With gigabit Internet link, my Main Deco M9 Plus WiFi speed peaks at 635Mbps.

  @RGaskell 

I thought about one other thing you could try with your Deco M4 mesh.

Your Main Deco is connected to the router (not modem). That means, you can switch Deco mesh to run in Access Point mode. In that mode all Deco mesh bandwidth control and management features are disabled. This is the test to see if there is, perhaps, something in Deco configuration settings that throttles speeds.

In addition, AP mode reduces Main Deco overhead. Main Deco should use less CPU and memory resources in AP mode, which might improve performance and stability of Deco mesh.

I do not expect dramatic improvements in your Deco mesh speeds, but this configuration change is worth to try. If nothing else, it might bring more stable speeds. This is how to make that configuration change: Switching a Deco to Access Point (AP) Mode

In general, I would recommend running Deco mesh in AP mode when it is connected to the router. If you don't want to or need Deco mesh features only available in its Router mode, you can easily rollback that configuration change after you've evaluated Deco mesh performance in AP mode.

  @Alexandre. 

thanks I'll give it a try

Alexandre. wrote

  @raven-au 

 

 

The second paragraph of my reply, the one which starts with "The only exception is so-called tri-band WiFi mesh," discusses this topic in sufficient detail. Thanks for pointing that tri-band WiFi mesh hardware is usually more expensive, I didn't mention it in my reply. I am sure OP will find that when researching prices for M9 Plus, but it is always nice to get expectations right.

  @Alexandre. 

Argh!, sorry, I missed that for some unknown reason.