I really want to set up my 3 node network with each node connected to ethernet. I have 2 switches and neither of them supports backhaul it seems, and neither does my fibre modem.

But I can't help wondering why deco has set things up so we need backhaul. A node can easily detect if it is connected directly to the internet. Why does it need to go through the main node? It can also communicate with the main node either through ethernet or through wifi to give it information like statistics on bytes sent/received, conneted devices, etc.

It seems like a choice has been made by deco to force people to buy a backhaul switch simply because that is the way they chose to allow their nodes to communicate. That is not a very customer friendly choice when there are so many other ways they could have done this in software.

Looking at forums it's not even easy to figure out which switches on amazon will work with deco. And a lot of those that are listed in forums I can't find anywhere in my country, and ordering from abroad is costly due to customs tax.

Why do companies like deco make life so hard for customers for no reason?

Please Deco reconsider this need for backhaul and let each node detect (or be configured from the app) to tell it whether it can directly connect to the internet through ethernet. it can stil communicate with the main node through wifi, but should not route traffic through the main node when on ethernet with a direct internet access.