How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology

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How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology
How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology
2020-12-17 11:53:23
Model: Deco M9 Plus  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: 1.4.3 Build 20200921 Rel. 42500

Dear all,

 

I'm just a new user of a 3pack Deco M9 Plus system. Which works just great but it has a noticeable issue, which hopefully it's just a configuration problem that I can't find how to fix.

The issue is that the additional Deco units connect all to the Main unit, creating a star topology rather than a real mesh topology. In such configuration, it happens that one of the additional units, which is installed in the 2nd floor at home can barely get signal from the Main unit installed in the ground floor, close to the ISP fiber router. WIth the other unit installed in the 1st floor, there is no problem. If the unit in the 2nd floor would connect to the unit in the 1st floor, everything would be just perfect.

Is there anyway to change this configuration? Anyone with the same issue?

I would be something like this image from the product page at www.tp-link.com, so I guess it's just a configuration problem.

Thanks,

/Guillermo

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#1
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6 Reply
Re:How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology
2020-12-17 16:30:14

@gnino 

 

There is no configuration setting to tell Satellite Deco which Deco to connect to.

 

You may need to move Satellite Decos around, to find sweet spot, or try to create additional signal interference between 2nd floor Deco and Main Deco, if possible.

 

Are your Decos placed just like on that picture you copied, or they actually sit on top of each other, each on its own floor and another one right below/above it?

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#2
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Re:How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology
2020-12-17 16:39:55

@Alexandre. 

 

Thanks for your reply, Alexandre, and for the tips. I've tried to install them as show in the picture (more or less) and also almost in vertical (more or less) and the result is always the same. It looks like the Main Deco takes precedence and, even though, the signal that the one in the 2nd floor receives from the Deco in the 1st floor is stronger than the signal from the Deco in the ground floor (Main Deco) it always chooses to connect to the Main Deco, which degrades the overall quality of the connection, I believe.

What I've not tried is to power off the Main Deco and check if the other connect to each other and then power up the Main one. But I suspect that won't change much...

 

Maybe that would be a nice feature to implement, allowing the user (maybe under advanced settings) to tell each Deco to which one make the backhaul connection. @TP-Link 

 

Best,

Guillermo

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#3
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Re:How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology
2020-12-17 16:59:08

@gnino 

 

Yes, that would be useful feature, and if you check this forum it were discussed few times. Hopefully, TP-Link will implement it eventually. Till then, there are only workarounds. 

 

You've got one, with powering off Main Deco temporarily. Here are two more, from me:

 

1. Place Main Deco and 1st floor Deco like on that picture. Place 2nd floor Deco right above 1st floor Deco - perhaps, signal to Main Deco will be too weak at the 2nd floor where 2nd floor Deco is, and it'll connect ot 1st floor Deco.

 

2. Place all three Deco exactly like on that picture, and try to place 2nd floor Deco on its floor as much as possible on top of Main Deco - ideally, exactly like on that picture where straight vertical line can be drawn between them.

After that, put few layers of aluminum foil under 2nd floor Deco - that should interfere with its signal in direction to Main Deco. If not enough, add few more layers. If not enough, you can experiment instead with metal screen material from hardware store or just small metal plate you can put 2nd floor Deco on. Perhaps, maybe a regular metal tray can do. 

The point of this is to force degradation of WiFi signal in the direction between 2nd floor Deco and Main Deco. 

Do not wrap Deco in foil - that would be wrong approach. 

 

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#4
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Re:How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology
2020-12-17 17:42:20
It worked! I just needed a piece of aluminium foil folded 3-4 times on top of main Deco and another piece just below the Deco in 2nd floor and it switched to the Deco in the 1st floor. Now let's see how stable it is or whether it falls back to connect to the main Deco. In a way it's a nice feature that the system tries to configure to the most favourable setup (in theory) but I think signal strength should be considered as well in the reconfiguration algorithm for the backhaul. Or I need a bigger house so Main and 2nd floor Decos are further away! (just joking hahah!) Thanks for the hint! Best /Guillermo
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#5
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Re:How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology
2021-02-05 03:31:05

@gnino any luck on having the deco connected??  Any Suggestions? Im having the same issue.

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#6
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Re:How to connect the Decos between them in a real mesh and not star topology
2021-02-05 05:18:17

Hi @Mrn91

 

well, the trick in this thread works. Also the signal between the Decos eventually got stronger. And I observe that the mesh is sometimes changing the connection for this Deco between the two others. In any case I'm not having connectivity or bandwidth issues with the devices connected to this Deco, so I'm not worried anymore.

Observe the behavior during a few days and also try to force the connection to the particular Deco that you want by using the metallic paper film trick or simply disconnecting the main Deco.

Hope this would help for you.

I also got an email from TP-Link support that they might consider adding in the future an option to configure the topology of the mesh network manually.

 

best!

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#7
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