@AlbertH999 

I run Deco mesh with M9 Plus, I can assist you with tuning your WiFi mesh if you are interested.

But, first, aligning expectations.

When everything is set right, expect Main Deco M9 Plus deliver up to 630Mbps on gigabit Internet link, with average WiFi speeds of 400-500Mbps. Satellite M9 Plus using Ethernet link (backhaul) should deliver same speed.

6500 sq.ft. coverage is marketing claim. I am not going to call it a lie, but considering how it is calculated for real life cases it is exaggeration. If you want, I'll give you more detailed explanation. This exaggeration is common marketing practice for any WiFi mesh brand.

WiFi speed will drop rapidly as you move away from Deco unit. With WiFi mesh, you start with placing one WiFi unit per floor and then expand by adding more units on each floor where necessary. When you have bungalow, you just place WiFi mesh units on reasonable distance from each other so that they can provide good overall WiFi coverage.

Any obstacle, such as wall or ceiling, negatively impacts WiFi speed. If there is ceiling between Deco unit and mobile device, don't expect to see top speeds.

Which also means, you might need to buy more Deco units, and this is applicable to any WiFi mesh so even if you decide to try different brand, my recommendations still apply.

In summary:

1. I can help you tune what you have; I can't promise you my WiFi speeds, but you will have the best setup for what Deco can deliver at your place;

and

2. You will have to figure how more Deco units you will need to provide good coverage over bungalow.

Alternatively, you can just pack Deco mesh, send it back, try different brand.

--------------

If you want to stay with Deco mesh, I'll need the following from you to start:

1. What is the speed of Internet connection you have from your ISP?

2. Brand and model of gigabit switch;

3. If you to add more Deco units, can you also hardwire these additional units? Note that they don't need to be connected through the switch, you can daisy chain them with Ethernet cables.

  @Alexandre. 

Thanks for that, I am getting about 600Mbps + on a wired connection from the ISP Router (measured on Xbox) and about 340Mbps wireless speed from same.

The gigabit switch is TP-LINK TL-SG1008D.

And yes I can do a wired connection I have 2 ports spare in the ISP Router and 6 free on the switch, this is from the deco main unit and not directly from the ISP Router.

Alexandre. wrote

  @AlbertH999 

 

I run Deco mesh with M9 Plus, I can assist you with tuning your WiFi mesh if you are interested.

 

But, first, aligning expectations.

 

When everything is set right, expect Main Deco M9 Plus deliver up to 630Mbps on gigabit Internet link, with average WiFi speeds of 400-500Mbps. Satellite M9 Plus using Ethernet link (backhaul) should deliver same speed.

 

6500 sq.ft. coverage is marketing claim. I am not going to call it a lie, but considering how it is calculated for real life cases it is exaggeration. If you want, I'll give you more detailed explanation. This exaggeration is common marketing practice for any WiFi mesh brand.

 

WiFi speed will drop rapidly as you move away from Deco unit. With WiFi mesh, you start with placing one WiFi unit per floor and then expand by adding more units on each floor where necessary. When you have bungalow, you just place WiFi mesh units on reasonable distance from each other so that they can provide good overall WiFi coverage.

 

Any obstacle, such as wall or ceiling, negatively impacts WiFi speed. If there is ceiling between Deco unit and mobile device, don't expect to see top speeds.

 

Which also means, you might need to buy more Deco units, and this is applicable to any WiFi mesh so even if you decide to try different brand, my recommendations still apply.

 

In summary:

 

1. I can help you tune what you have; I can't promise you my WiFi speeds, but you will have the best setup for what Deco can deliver at your place;

and

2. You will have to figure how more Deco units you will need to provide good coverage over bungalow.

 

Alternatively, you can just pack Deco mesh, send it back, try different brand.

 

--------------

If you want to stay with Deco mesh, I'll need the following from you to start:

 

1. What is the speed of Internet connection you have from your ISP?

2. Brand and model of gigabit switch;

3. If you to add more Deco units, can you also hardwire these additional units? Note that they don't need to be connected through the switch, you can daisy chain them with Ethernet cables.

  @AlbertH999 

OK, let's start with checking your Deco mesh. For today:

1. In Deco app, there is large "Test Internet Speed" button on main screen. It'll open another page with "Test Speed" in it. Please run that test 2-3 times. It'll tell you the speed of Internet link from Main Deco. Let me know what numbers you are getting there. This is to make sure there are no issues in Main Deco wired connectivity to ISP router.

2. Your switch is compatible with Deco Ethernet backhaul, but we should check that to be sure. For each of Satellite Deco open its info page in Deco app and check how they connect. If they use Ethernet cable for backhaul, you should see similar to the following:

If they can't use Ethernet cable, even if hardwired, they will automatically switch to WiFi backhaul and you'll see similar to this:

Please confirm that both your Satellite Deco use Ethernet for backhaul.

------------------------

This is the end of checking your Deco mesh. When you reply, next steps will be tuning your Deco mesh performance. This process may take multiple iterations.

  @Alexandre. 

Thanks again Alexandre,

each of the satellite units are showing ethernet connectivity backhaul to the main unit. Regarding the speed from the ISP Router to the main Deco unit, I am getting an average of 859Mbps. I have attached a screenshot of the results for tonight.

  @AlbertH999 When you ran your speed test, are you doing it via a wired connection? WiFi tends to be slower.

  @coolspot18 

It was done through the Deco app via wirless connection from my phone. 

  @AlbertH999 

These speed test results mean, you have Internet link with 900Mbps download and 100Mbps upload.

Deco M9 Plus is WiFi5, it can't deliver these fast speeds. If you want to hit gigabit download speeds on WiFi, you will need WiFi6 capable mesh. Note, that just like with WiFi5 maximum speeds will be reached only in close proximity to WiFi mesh nodes.

Still, tuning your Deco mesh makes sense even if you replace M9 Plus with faster Deco mesh later. For myself, my Internet link is just like yours, but I decided not to upgrade from M9 Plus. For my needs they do just fine.

Now, tuning steps.

1. Turn off WiFi on ISP Router. Not only it is unnecessary now that you have WiFi mesh, but keeping it on will create WiFi interference, especially if ISP Router and Main Deco are close to each other. 

Your home network should be getting WiFi from Deco mesh only.

2. Switch Deco mesh to Access Point mode: Switching a Deco to Access Point (AP) Mode

In that mode, Deco mesh provides maximim possible WiFi performance it can, by offloading LAN network management functions (IP address allocation, etc.) to ISP Router. You do have ISP Router, so it does make sense to share CPU load between it and Main Deco: Deco will do WiFi, ISP Router will do LAN.

--------------------------------

If you got to that point successfully, now is time for the first speed test. We will measure Main Deco WiFi performance at your place. For that test, please do these two changes which you can undo right after the test ended:

1. Configure Deco Main Network to broadcast on 5GHz band only:

2. Power off all Satellite Deco, leaving just Main Deco up and running.

At this point, you only have Main Deco broadcasting WiFi, as you turned off WiFi in ISP Router and powered off Satellite Deco. Bring mobile device (such as smartphone) to about 1-2 meter (3-6 feet) distance from Main Deco, in plain view from it with no obstacles between. 

Run 4-5 speed tests on mobile device, back to back with minimum pause between them.

My expectations: speed test results should reach up to 600Mbps on download, and on average between all tests it should be 400Mbps download. Upload will max at 100Mbps as this is upload speed of your Internet link.

If numbers are what I expect, you are getting maximum WiFi performance from Main Deco M9 Plus. We'll talk next what else to tune in Deco mesh.

If they are much less, we'll focus on that before doing other improvements to Deco mesh.

  @Alexandre. 

Again many thanks for your help. I have carried out the last set of instructions and the speed tests were very good too.  Should I leave the deco in AP mode and I have switched back to dual band as I have some older devices (Amazon Alexas) that might not have the 5GHz function, is this correct?

The speeds between the Deco tests and a generic speed test were different though the Deco showing about 200MBps faster, is this an issue as the installer tests were more in line with the generic results. I have screenshots of both below the Deco being in white.

  @AlbertH999 

I would recommend leaving Deco mesh in AP mode. Way less settings to configure and maximum WiFi performance it can deliver at your place.

Just note, there is a bug it Test Internet Speed in Deco app when Deco mesh runs in AP mode: it will not report speeds faster than 500-550Mbps, even if you have faster Internet link. It is just reporting bug.

If you are happy with WiFi speeds, it is great. Now what's left for you is to decide how far from each other you need to place Deco nodes and if you need to buy more to provide good WiFi coverage at your place.

If you find you do need to buy more, I would recommend buying additional M9 Plus. It is better to have consistent hardware when running WiFi mesh, not a requirement but good recommndation.

  @Alexandre. 

Thanks for your help with this Alexandre. Apart from the placement of the satellite units is there any settings that be tweaked to maximise the coverage of the entire mesh. I think I will need one more unit to make the coverage complete. It's a bit disappointing in they fall far shout of the advertised coverage area. My house is a 230sqm bungalow with the units wired in an open attic and yet I need a 4th unit.