Deco M4 mesh- change connections and speed

Deco M4 mesh- change connections and speed

Deco M4 mesh- change connections and speed
Deco M4 mesh- change connections and speed
2024-06-15 09:10:57 - last edited 2024-07-01 03:32:32
Model: Deco M4  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version: 1.6.2

I have a 5 bedroom house and 6 M4 Deco units, which I thought would be more than enough to cover the house, although there are a couple of problems:

1) The Decos all seem to connect to the main unit, instead of chaining off each other, which is what I though would happen. Each says 'Connected to Office' (the main Deco unit), which means the units at the end of the house don't have full signal. Is there a way to force them to connect to closer units?

2) Speed - my Internet is about 900Mbps although the average connection speed is 200Mpbs on the devices connected to the Decos. Occasionally I get slightly higher than  this although this is the average. Is there any troubleshooting I can do as I would really like to get a better speed connection to the devices.

Thanks

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Re:Deco M4 mesh- change connections and speed-Solution
2024-06-15 14:00:42 - last edited 2024-07-01 03:32:32

  @Rich24 

 

Check this link to see if your Deco M4 can be upgraded to firmware that supports connection preference: https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/651248

This is the feature you need to configure how Satellite Deco connect to each other and to Main Deco.

 

Deco M4 can deliver WiFi speeds up to 600Mbps, under good conditions. It is because M4 is WiFi5. To consistently get gigabit speeds and faster, you need Deco model that supports WiFi 6 or better. Right now you have WiFi mesh that can't deliver speeds of your Internet link.

 

Satellite Deco will deliver half of the speed of Main Deco it is connected to. This is not defect of Deco, it is limitation of WiFi technology. Google "WiFi range extender cuts bandwidth by half" to see tons of articles on that topic.

 

You haven't clarified if you are getting 200Mbps from device connected to Main Deco or from device connected to Satellite Deco. From Main Deco - the speed is too low, but if it is from Satellite Deco - it is in the expected range.

 

One other thing you can do for speed testing is disable 2.4GHz band on Main Network, just to be sure device you run speed test on does not switch to slower WiFi band:

 

 

You can undo that change after you are done with speed test.

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Re:Deco M4 mesh- change connections and speed-Solution
2024-06-15 14:00:42 - last edited 2024-07-01 03:32:32

  @Rich24 

 

Check this link to see if your Deco M4 can be upgraded to firmware that supports connection preference: https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/651248

This is the feature you need to configure how Satellite Deco connect to each other and to Main Deco.

 

Deco M4 can deliver WiFi speeds up to 600Mbps, under good conditions. It is because M4 is WiFi5. To consistently get gigabit speeds and faster, you need Deco model that supports WiFi 6 or better. Right now you have WiFi mesh that can't deliver speeds of your Internet link.

 

Satellite Deco will deliver half of the speed of Main Deco it is connected to. This is not defect of Deco, it is limitation of WiFi technology. Google "WiFi range extender cuts bandwidth by half" to see tons of articles on that topic.

 

You haven't clarified if you are getting 200Mbps from device connected to Main Deco or from device connected to Satellite Deco. From Main Deco - the speed is too low, but if it is from Satellite Deco - it is in the expected range.

 

One other thing you can do for speed testing is disable 2.4GHz band on Main Network, just to be sure device you run speed test on does not switch to slower WiFi band:

 

 

You can undo that change after you are done with speed test.

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Re:Deco M4 mesh- change connections and speed
2024-06-15 17:58:54

  @Alexandre. Hi there

 

Thank you so much for a super comprehensive reply.

 

I have updated the firmware and this has helped with making the Decos connect in the correct order.

 

I have also switched on 5Ghz only and it seems to have improved slightly, although not massively.

 

To be honest I did not realise that satellites don't provide the same speed, although this is not such a big dea as the main thing the satellites do is remove all the dead spots.

 

I had thought that the M4 would support up to this speed although may have bought the wrong product - do you think they will be able to support Wifi 6 in the future?

Or will I need to get a new set in the future if this is a problem?

 

I am getting +400Mbps to the main Deco, which is absolutely fine.

 

Thanks


Rich

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Re:Deco M4 mesh- change connections and speed
2024-06-16 05:19:10

@Rich24 Deco M4 won't support Wi-Fi 6 in the future

Just a M4 (2-pack) user who regrets buying it
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