Best upgrade to add to my M5 network
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Whats the best way of improving both the speed and coverage of my M5 network? I have 6 node spread over the three floors of my home. Each floor is quite large ~2000 square feet, and I am only getting 17M in some rooms. A speed test at the primary node is 600M a second.
Am I better getting a M9 plus on each floor then using the M5's to spread outwards
or moving to a P9 powerline model on each floor then fanning out with the M5's?
Cost is less of an issue then making it fast and reliable!
There is no universal solution, so you'll need to do a bit of assessment what will work for you.
1. Check your Satellite M5 Decos - do they connect to the correct (nearest) to them Deco? Because, you know, if they all try to connect to Main Deco, and some through multiple floors, that would impact their performance. This you'll see in Satellite Deco page on Deco app, and it is Signal Source. Example:
Tell you that this specific Satellite Deco is connected to Deco named "Living Room."
Then, decide what is the best connection between Decos, based on your house layout. If what you see with Satellite Decos is different, install Deco M5 firmware 1.6 beta, which will let you configure where Satellite Deco will connect. See if performance is improved after.
2. If that is not enough, now that you have tool to connect Satellite Deco to where it should, perhaps adding more M5s and pointing them to the right Decos will be enough.
Example: if your Main Deco is in the center of first floor, put Satellite Decos in the center of second and third floors. Connect third floor Satellite Deco to second floor and second floor Satellite Deco to Main Deco. Add two more M5s on each floor, each half way between center Deco and corner of the floor. Connect these M5s to the M5 in the center of the floor.
3. Deco M9 works well in pairs. If you connect M5 to M9, overall WiFi performance of that M5 will not be much different from connecting M5 to M5. Replacing all M5 by all M9 will improve your WiFi home network performance, but M9 doesn't have firmware yet to be configured like M5s, which means they might not connect optimally.
If you could wait (undetermined amount of time) till firmware 1.6 is available for M9, it would make sense to replace all M5 by M9, deploy and connect them as I described above.
4. Powerline P9 is an option, but it'll only work reliably if you have good quality electric wiring with little noise. A single dimmable light bulb will severely impact powerline performance. For more information, google powerline adapters and best practices of their deployments, because P9 is Deco unit with embedded powerline adapter, everything you'll find about powerline adapters will be applicable to P9.
5. You'll get substantial performance improvement of your home WiFi network if you could wire some or all M5 with Ethernet cables. There is also an alternative: Ethernet over TV cable, and if you have TV cables on each floor you could get adapters, it is called MoCA. Almost as good as Ethernet cable and you could connect M5 to such adapter to make it wired. This is an example:
With M5, you'll need minimum one M5 on each floor wired to Ethernet cable (or through MoCA) and others on the same floor connect to that wired M5. Of course, having more than one wired per floor is better.
If you can run Deco mesh in Access Point mode, you can wire M5 any way you want to, including connecting them all to ISP Router. In Deco Router mode, which is default mode, you can not connect M5 to ISP Router. You will have to daisy chain them, or you can put Main Deco side by side with ISP Router, attach networking switch to second port of Main Deco and connect all other wired Deco to that switch.
More about Deco Ethernet backhaul: General questions about Ethernet Backhaul feature on your Deco.
Deco mesh mode can be set up in Deco app, under More/Advanced:
