@TP-Link I have been wondering this for a year.  I have been frustrated since I bought it and if I had known I would be locked out of doing basic functions on my router, I would never have bought it.  I can't even console into my router as an admin without authenticating with your servers???  This makes it impossible to manage if I lose connection.I had an issue with a satellite not connecting to the main unit, and I had to factory reset it to get it usable again.  It continues to drop and when it does, I can't access it to see what's going on.  What's even worse and infuriating, is when I use the web login, it's using HTTP and not HTTPS so I am sending my password in clear text, thanks for that.  There doesn't seem to be a way to turn on SSL, please let me know if I'm wrong in this because I'd really like to give away my password.

  @TP-Link Give us browser support. 

  @TP-Link What a joke, give me web panel not this dumb app!

  @TP-Link Ah yes, the joys of the app.

Be sure to add your DECO products in the following priority order or it breaks everything! By the way, even when connected to the deco's WiFI the App is unable to see what model it is! What convenience! Thank goodness for the app!

I need to add 30 ports to my firewall settings! Time to manually type them into my f*cking phone instead of copying them from this browser window! THANK GOODNESS FOR THE APP

TP-LINK support should have to type their damn responses on a phone.

Would never recommend this product to anyone. Rated it 0 on Amazon. Such a regret.

How silly of me to think that I would be able to manage my router with my computer.

Also it can't even detect the deco it's connected to, does my brother have to share his account password with me so that I can manage this router sitting in front of me? This router to which I have the administration password and am sitting in the admin panel for, able to upload my own firmware if I so choose? Maybe that's the route I should take.

Whichever stupid executive decided to make this an app disconnected from the server my router is hosting truly deserves to be fired. I will never purchase a TP-LINK product again.

  @TP-Link 

I just purchased a Deco system today, because I need to address a coverage issue and it was available locally.

I'm very disappointed to learn that the smartphone app is required for initial configuration and the the web interface is crippled.  Further, the idea that I, the owner of the system, would be required to authenticate to the manufacturer's servers to manage the system in my home is nothing less than outrageous.  How dare you?

I'm sure that the world is full of technically-challenged users who will find this arrangement convenient and adequate.  I'm not one of those users, though and I find it entirely unacceptable.

I'm going to immediately return the system and exchange it for another manufacturer's product.

  @TP-Link Purchased this product knowing that there was an app. Was expecting the normal web interface to set up. Hugely disappointed as smartphones are notoriously unsafe platforms for secure data. I do not put financial, passwords, ANY sensitive info on my smartphone. Now I need to put my most sensitive data on it just to use this system? Absolute stupidity on your part, and shows you did no consumer research before shoving the app only / cloud only approach down people's throats. This is not an improvement, but rather a regression in terms of network security. I used to love your modems. Long time customer for as long as you have been around. Fix it now!

  @TP-Link Not at all happy with the app only configuration interface, especially when my iPad would not display a keyboard to assign the SSID name.  I finally got it to work using my Android phone instead but would have purchased a competitor's product if I had known the web UI was so limited.  Strange this wasn't mentioned in any of the reviews I read.  Please task your firmware team to address this.

I'm really glad I found this thread. I was about to buy a TP-LINK Deco X25 AX1800 mesh system. The lack a web interface is a deal breaker. As others have pointed out, there's no way I trust a phone app to do this securely, especially if it requires a TP-LINK account to work. If you want to offer accounts and remote router management through an app, that's fine... but my intention would be to shut all of that off completely. The only place a router in my home should be configured is in my home and with a direct connection between a computer in my home to the router. Nowhere else. Period.