Help getting better performance from deco mesh
I'm struggling to understand the best way to set up my network. Please see the below. I find that the Dining Room deco frequently gets "lost" and the Kitchen Deco usually has a really weak signal. Can anyone advise?
The Office and Spare room are on the 1st floor and the others on the ground floor. I put the second P7 in the Spare Room since the Ground floor is a separate ring and I gather the powerline signal won't work across separate circuits?
The rooms are organised like this:
1st Floor
[office (main p7)] - [Bedroom (no deco)] - [spare room (p7)]
Ground floor
[lounge] - [dining room] - [kitchen]
First, assesment of what you have, then recommendations.
Assesment
You have Deco mesh consisting of three models of Deco: M9 Plus, M5 and P7. I will rank them the following way:
1. M9 Plus - the best of all three. It is the most powerful of all three and it is tri-band. Tri-band units shine when work together: deliver faster WiFi speeds on Satellite M9 when it is connected to Main M9.
2. M5 - second best. Less powerful than M9 Plus, not tri-band, but good enough especially for Satellites.
3. P7 - the problematic one. By itself, P7 is a decend Deco, but it does not work in your case. Not only it has issues with powerline link at your house as I can judge from screenshots you provided, but it also has older firmware comparing to M5 and M9. That older firmware robs your Deco mesh of very useful features M9 and M5 have.
Hence,
Recommendation
You should rebuild your Deco mesh with making M9 Plus a foundation of it, M5s around M9s, and P7s removed.
Steps
1. Promote Dining Room M9 Plus to Main Deco and replace Main Deco P7 with it. Changing the Main Unit for your Mesh Network
2. Delete all P7 from your Deco mesh. Follow "reset a Deco unit" from this document: How can I reset or reboot my Deco Whole-Home Wi-Fi System?
3. Your Lounge M9 should now be connected to your Main Deco M9 in the office. Open Lounge M9 info page in Deco app and check what it does report of connection and signal quality. Example:
Signal should be Fair or Good, all three bands (2.4 Ghz/5 GHz_1/5 GHz_2) should be listed. If you have it like that, all is good.
4. Power off Deco M5. Check WiFi coverage on both floors. It is possible you'll find it sufficient, then you are done. If not, continue.
5. Bring M5 to the dining room where M9 used to be. Power on M5. Configure it to connect to Lounge Satellite M9 Plus using Connection Preference feature you should now see in your Deco app after you removed P7s: How to select a preferred signal source on the Deco App
If done correctly, you'll see this connection between Satellite M5 and Satellite M9 reflected in Deco app "Show Map."
6. Check again WiFi coverage on ground floor. If it is good now, you'll need to repeat same on 1st floor: buy additional M5, place it in Bedroom, make it connect to Main M9 in Office if M5 does not do it by itself. Check WiFi coverage on 1st floor.
Final Thoughts
Don't delay with this if you will need additional M5. Looks like they are becoming End of Sale, and it would mean it'll be harder and harder to buy one.
Alternatively, you can ditch M5 you have and buy 2-unit M9 Plus set, and rebuild your Deco mesh with just four M9 Plus units following same setup as I outlined. M9 Plus are becoming End of Sale, too, so look around - you may be able to find a good deal on them. If you do, I would strongly recommend getting 2-unit set of M9 Plus instead of additional M5.
First, assesment of what you have, then recommendations.
Assesment
You have Deco mesh consisting of three models of Deco: M9 Plus, M5 and P7. I will rank them the following way:
1. M9 Plus - the best of all three. It is the most powerful of all three and it is tri-band. Tri-band units shine when work together: deliver faster WiFi speeds on Satellite M9 when it is connected to Main M9.
2. M5 - second best. Less powerful than M9 Plus, not tri-band, but good enough especially for Satellites.
3. P7 - the problematic one. By itself, P7 is a decend Deco, but it does not work in your case. Not only it has issues with powerline link at your house as I can judge from screenshots you provided, but it also has older firmware comparing to M5 and M9. That older firmware robs your Deco mesh of very useful features M9 and M5 have.
Hence,
Recommendation
You should rebuild your Deco mesh with making M9 Plus a foundation of it, M5s around M9s, and P7s removed.
Steps
1. Promote Dining Room M9 Plus to Main Deco and replace Main Deco P7 with it. Changing the Main Unit for your Mesh Network
2. Delete all P7 from your Deco mesh. Follow "reset a Deco unit" from this document: How can I reset or reboot my Deco Whole-Home Wi-Fi System?
3. Your Lounge M9 should now be connected to your Main Deco M9 in the office. Open Lounge M9 info page in Deco app and check what it does report of connection and signal quality. Example:
Signal should be Fair or Good, all three bands (2.4 Ghz/5 GHz_1/5 GHz_2) should be listed. If you have it like that, all is good.
4. Power off Deco M5. Check WiFi coverage on both floors. It is possible you'll find it sufficient, then you are done. If not, continue.
5. Bring M5 to the dining room where M9 used to be. Power on M5. Configure it to connect to Lounge Satellite M9 Plus using Connection Preference feature you should now see in your Deco app after you removed P7s: How to select a preferred signal source on the Deco App
If done correctly, you'll see this connection between Satellite M5 and Satellite M9 reflected in Deco app "Show Map."
6. Check again WiFi coverage on ground floor. If it is good now, you'll need to repeat same on 1st floor: buy additional M5, place it in Bedroom, make it connect to Main M9 in Office if M5 does not do it by itself. Check WiFi coverage on 1st floor.
Final Thoughts
Don't delay with this if you will need additional M5. Looks like they are becoming End of Sale, and it would mean it'll be harder and harder to buy one.
Alternatively, you can ditch M5 you have and buy 2-unit M9 Plus set, and rebuild your Deco mesh with just four M9 Plus units following same setup as I outlined. M9 Plus are becoming End of Sale, too, so look around - you may be able to find a good deal on them. If you do, I would strongly recommend getting 2-unit set of M9 Plus instead of additional M5.
