I had this issue too, mine is Deco M4 with the latest firmware, set as AP mode, everything working fine until my router reboot, this Deco unit seems will take over the DHCP role once it found the main DHCP isn’t available, just like what Asus did, which is a good thing but it doesn’t restore unless I switch all Deco units off and on again.

It seems only occur when you have something connected on the LAN interface behind the Deco unit, I mean if I just plug in 1 LAN for Ethernet backhaul it’s ok, once I plug-in another LAN to connect eg. TV box, and the main router turned off, it will “intelligently” take over the DHCP role, and never go back.

As as an IT guy, I can confirm this is Deco’s problem, it shouldn’t have the DHCP Overriding function on, please tell your team to fix it by just turning it off, pretty simple, doesn’t take months to do it, right?

Me too, i'm trying to solve this.... What happens to the DECO in AP mode when main DHCP disapears?!

In AP mode, they have simply to follow the DHCP not replace it!

here my thread, first i tried to solve this issue by making DECO main DHCP, but discover other issues, finally came back to AP mode but allways this issues, tried with my internet BOX to be DHCP same issue, try with another router same issue.

The only "solution" i found but not really good because this is old materials (don't support high speed internet bandwith) is with a DDWRT firmware on WRT54G, the DHCP server seems to me more authoritative and erase DECO adressing when coming up....)

Hope TP link will solve this quickly, i have 6 DECO M5 at home....

Hello!

Why TP-Link don't take the problem? I've reproducied this easly in AP mode!

How to completely disable the DHCP of DECO? firmware in progress? need informations please!

Thanks 

Hello!

It's not working! Your smart DHCP is no functionnal.

I tried to disable my DHCP server and the DECO gave an adress to clients, but when DHCP returned on, the DECO still gave the adress to clients (seems to be the main deco adress as gateway)

Why it's not accessible for us to manage AP mode in manual mode, gave a static adress to the main DECO (and the slaves) and a gateway to main router to have a network to run like a charm instead of a poor automatic adressing that will not give perfect solution?

If it's possible, can you give all users the choice beetween manual mode and automatic mode?

Thanks

@Kevin_Z ,

I don't know what it takes to TP-Link to acknoledge that the firmware has a problem when so many users are complaining.. I've been working with engineers on new mesh network hardware and had issues they couldn't reproduce in their labs.. well because they are labs and possibly aren't facing configurations/environments that come up in real-life.

Recently my Deco M5 was upgraded to 1.2.8 too, and I wish I could reverse that FW version back to 1.2.4.. I noticed this morning that my iPhone 6 couldn't get any IP address on the mesh WiFi.. though my other wireless devices seemed to be fine.

I had to login to my wired computer to check if my router had again started to play fool (like stated in my OP), but nope, according to the logs, it was rebooted 16 days ago.. so not the problem. I tried manual IP assignment on my iPhone, but that would be more or less a hit or miss. After finally rebooting my iPhone, I got a valid IP (not 169.xxx) and was able to connect to the internet.

What frustrates me is that the Deco App doesn't provide you any option to reboot the AP's when the whole setup is in 'AP Mode' !! how come ? big failure. Another point of frustration in the TP-Link HW, is that you cannot access the whole configuration over the local network with a browser ? why is this so difficult to put in place ?  Other Mesh Wi-Fi system offer both, a mobile app & browser login to manage your configuration.. What's so difficult to understand ?  I get it that TP-Link wants this system to be accessible to everyone, even the most Lambda home internet user, which probably doesn't have much IT knowlege, and the mobile app is Ok for that type of users, but don't block power-users that have enough IT knowledge to setup mulitple networks at home and even mix-and-match various HW to accomodate their needs..

This Deco M5 Mesh network is trully a powerfull HW for budget-savy people and works normally pretty well. But you could do a little more on the SW side and bring it from 'Great' to 'Fabulous' ! 

My current config goes like this : 

Cable Modem => ISP Router (Zyxel EMG-2926, Wifi disabled) => 8-ports TP-Link switch (wired computers) => Master Deco M5 (in AP Mode) => Wireless => Slave Deco M5 (2x)

The average network speed on Wi-Fi is about 135Mbps when doing the Internet speed test from the Mobile app, which is on par with what I'm supposed to get from the ISP. Internatl data transfer rate is around 300-350Mbps, which could probably be better, but considering the files were stored on an external drive, it's not the speediest channel. 

This is pretty good compared to other Mesh system I tested which weren't able to get to a third of this speed. 

I understand that it's "by Design" that the Deco in AP mode only offers reduced functionality, still sad that this little powerhouse can't be more flexible when it comes to management. And it would be nice to have access to some kind of system logs, which seems to be totally absent in AP mode (not sure if that is available in Router mode).

Thanks in advance for considering the feedback.

Have great day!