Same issue here.  I may have to return this to amazon as it doesn't sound like tp link is going to do anything about this. 

@MackPhoenix62 

i am facing same issue with M4.

is there any plan for a firmware update?

@MackPhoenix62 Same issue here. Just purchased 3 Decos and heavily dissappointed that the third unit will only connect to the main unit which is furthest away.

@MackPhoenix62 

If everyone with this problem reported it in a lower-scored Amazon review or some other social media, it might finally get some fix/firmware update from TP-Link. All we have seen here (and in other threads) is a suggestion to wait for an official update.

I say this as someone who originally had the problem but eventually got my five Deco M5s working correctly. I have described what I did earlier in this thread and in another thread, so I won't repeat it here. I also not ethat some others tried my approach and it did not work for them. A real fix is needed.

My main deco is on my top floor. Then I have one positioned in the middle of my main floor, then the third is in the corner of my basement. This has the decos daisy-chaining off each other properly.

Top Floor           1

Main Floor                   2

Basement                              3

Earlier I had the same issue as described in this thread; the positions at the time were more like this:

Top Floor           1

Main Floor                              2

Basement              3

Both 2 & 3 were sourced from the 1 signal originally, but after moving them into more of a pattern that made sense, they now work like a proper mesh network, and the connection speed is better down in the basement.

Personally I would have liked to choose the source myself (like others in this thread are asking for), but the decos are built to prioritize where the connection is the strongest. It's very possible that you just aren't setting them up optimally if you're running into this problem. There's also the issue whereby if you give the customer the option, they will undoubtedly way a way to screw something up, perhaps this is the reason the feature to choose source manually is not available.

gedrick wrote

. There's also the issue whereby if you give the customer the option, they will undoubtedly way a way to screw something up, perhaps this is the reason the feature to choose source manually is not available.

 

@gedrick 

I wouldn't worry about that myself. After all, MS gives customers a zillion options to screw up Windows that are worse than just getting the routers in the wrong order. And most don't do it. They leave it to MS to screw things up.

@gedrick 

That's simply not true. The remote unit will connect to the master even if it barely sees it. The only way the remote will connect to the middle unit is if the remote is so far away it can't see the main at all. 

Jack2222 wrote

@gedrick 

That's simply not true. The remote unit will connect to the master even if it barely sees it. The only way the remote will connect to the middle unit is if the remote is so far away it can't see the main at all. 

@Jack2222 

Some people have your experience, some don't. For example, if you look at an earlier post of mine, you'll see that I started out with your situation but through a bit of rebooting, I did end up with the logical and best connections.

Also, make sure that all Deco's have the latest firmware. I found when I added a 2-pack to my 3-pack, the 2 did not automatically update their firmware so they were behind the 3 that I had previously installed.

@gedrick well, this is what I did:

have my #1 Deco in my living room. My #2 Deco is in my office. Then my #3 Deco is constantly connecting to #1, even though it is the farthest one.
what I did next: turned them all off. Positioned #3 like glued to #2 (so I thought there is no way it will connect to #1, right?). Turned them on. Surprise: #3 was still connected to #1. So distance was not the issue. What did I do that should be considered wrong? This is really annoying.

@c.h.moller 

This is what I posted in a different thread as my solution. As you can see, it did take some rebooting and unplugging, but eventually my 5 Decos were each working with the closest connection as they should.

____________________________________

Thank you, leogz. An hour and a half on Chat with two different TP-Link tech support people, trying to diagnose speed and connection problems, and no mention of any web interface.  It is very helpful to know about it.

I should also update on how the Deco connections changed last night. I was running some tests with my ISP that required me to swap out my Deco for my older TP-Link modem. I probably rebooted the main Deco a half dozen times, and unplugged it a couple of times. I also remotely (via the app) rebooted slave 2 once.

At some point (according to the app this morning, not the web interface), slave 2 started getting its signal from slave 1, which is closer than Main. The good news is that it now seems my Deco system is more like a mesh should be. The bad news is that for weeks it did not find the closer slave automatically. That required multiple reboots. Again, neither person in the Chat mentioned that I needed to try unplugging Decos in any particular order to get them functioning correctly.

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Here is how my system now looks with Deco connections all correct. This is a screen shot from a login to the Deco. Just as an aside, there are two annoying, unrelated problems with this view. First, though I have renamed all my Decos, only two of them show their names in the browser view, that is, Hallway and Kitchen. Second, I can only use Internet Explorer. The Deco says "unsupported browser" for Firefox.