Regarding The Deco BE11000 Mesh Router (Costco)
Despite its promising specifications, the TP-Link Deco BE11000 Mesh Router falls short in several critical areas.
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Connection Stability: One of the most significant issues is the frequent connection drops, including the inability to maintain stable connections with the Deco satellites. This undermines the core function of a mesh router.
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App and Satellite Indicators: Although the app often indicates that satellites are connected, the physical devices frequently show a red light, signaling a disconnect. This discrepancy causes confusion and frustration.
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Setup Experience: Despite extensive experience with WiFi and network setups, I found the initial setup process notably difficult. The device struggled to connect to the internet for initial setup, hindering account authentication and further configuration.
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Configuration Limitations: The router does not support setup or configuration through a web interface, requiring the use of a mobile app. This app is overly simplistic, lacking advanced settings such as band channel selections, which many users expect.
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Wired vs. Wireless Backhaul: Even with a Cat 6A cable connection, the satellites default to a wireless backhaul with no option to force a wired connection. This limitation can negatively impact network performance and reliability.
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Customer Service: TP-Link's customer service is notably unhelpful. The support provided is subpar, making resolving issues a cumbersome and time-consuming process.
Overall, the TP-Link Deco BE11000 Mesh Router may appeal to some due to its price. Still, it fails to meet the needs of most users, offering poor reliability, limited configuration options, and inadequate customer support.
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@Joshvu72 You can revert back to any of the firmware. Just go to the TP Link Firmware Download site. You will find all the different versions of the firmware there.
Here are some suggestions you might want to try to isolate the issue:
1. Shut down one satellite to see if the problem persists.
2. Shut down the second satellite and power up the first satellite
3. Swap the positions of both satellites and repeat steps 1 and 2.
I found that swapping out the satellites appears to have fixed nearly all of my connectivity issues so far.
I find that firmware 1.06 is more stable than 1.04 and1.05 is the worst in my environment. YMMV.
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@FM-305 Quick update - I keep testing as I don't like the fact that I have to have a switch between my router and the satellite deco's to utilize the wired backhaul feature. So, this morning I removed the switch and played with the NAT forwarding settings in particular the UPNP. I found that if the UPNP setting is 'on', the satellite deco's will not connect via a Cat6 or MoCA adapters. However, if the UPNP setting is 'off' all works as expected and without issues.
Note, my kids have PS4 and PS5 and both working fine with the UPNP setting off.
ISP, Fiber Adtran - Main Deco (router) - satellite Deco (via cat/6 or MoCA 2.5 adapters).
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Well....turns out that the real issue is 2.4ghz channel width selection and the inability to move to 20mhz. TPlink doesn't allow it on these decos so the 3 x BE95 and 3 x BE11000 will be returned. That's too bad. I spent over $2k on the set up and worked on it for a couple weeks. The speeds were great and the app was pretty good but the 2.4ghz network is pretty much unusable which explains all the random disconnects, Ring device dropoffs and general instability. 5ghz and 6ghz was great but 2.4 which is all IoT, some of the Arc Sonos and Ring was junk. May try Asus or Netgear next if they have usable 2.4 at 20.
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I'm hating these Decos. Satellites will randomly show offline although their status lights are green. I can't connect my iPhone when any of the satellites show offline nor can other family members in the house. The connections are so unstable.
I've tried several different set ups. First was main into a switch that the 2 satellites then connect to. Second I tried the satellites connected directing into the main and also the main into a switch for whole house Ethernet.
Both set ups show Ethernet backhaul working but as I've stated, the satellites randomly go offline and wifi connections break.
I've turned off uPnP, beamforming and QOS. Regardless of simplifying things bother brings stability to the system.
Anyone with suggestions?
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Approximately one week ago, a beta software update was released that addresses the issue where the Deco app incorrectly displays a Deco unit as offline when it is, in fact, online. However, this update has not yet been made available for your specific model. I currently do not have information regarding the release date of the beta version for your model. Please refer to the list of compatible models below for further details.
https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/697580
Please ensure that your network is configured according to either the first or second examples in this image: https://static.tp-link.com/upload/faq/image-20240329074344-12_20240329144345n.png.
I am unsure how to address the other issues you are experiencing; however, I want to inform you that I have been in communication with two senior engineers from TP-Link regarding this matter. I have made them aware of this post as well as two additional posts related to issues with the Deco BE11000.
Please note that I do not work for TP-Link. I am assisting in order to better understand how these Deco systems function, as they are quite distinct from traditional routers.
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@Joshvu72 Try using only one satellite and see if that works. Using Wi-Fi only i.e. not using ethernet, what is the distance between all the satellites? The DECO starts weakening at about 40-60 feet, depending on how manyu walls and windows are between devices.
Are you using Allow List Mode (Security/Wi-Fi Access Contro/Allow Access mode)? If you are enabling that, you need to change your Apple devices setup. Go to Wi-fi, select your network and tap on the (i) next to the network name. Scroll down to Private Wi-Fi Address and deselect it. When enabled, the Apple device will use random MAC addresses to connect to the network. The changed MAC address will be refused by the DECO. This issue also happens with ASUS routers as well and they do not have a fix for it. I disabled this on the Apples if you are enabling this option, otherwise use Block List Mode.
Netgear devices seem to get around this but I have issues with Netgear's reliability. I went through three Orbis in six years. The main unit always fail after two years (I see this is a common issue with Netgear Orbis).
I read this:
the 2.4 band is restricted to channel width of 20mhz, the wired backhaul doesn't work, and as others have mentioned is stuck in a loop back effectively, the DFS channels are unusable, unless you trick the system by removing a satellite- then it will allow you to select 240mhz channel width for 5Ghz - this whole this is a mess as others have said.
I also read this for ethernet connections between DEC units:
1. Please set up the Deco units on the same network via Wi-Fi at first through the Deco app before you wire them together.
2. Place the satellite Deco in the ideal location for the best coverage and then wire Deco units together with Ethernet cables, the Ethernet backhaul will take effect automatically.
Read this for more on ethernet backhaul.
Also, before using QoS, test your network speed using the app and remember the values. go to More/Advanced/QoS and edit the total bandwidth with your values. I found out that this is extremely important for a stable connection.
I find Beamforming is useless so I disabled it.
Hope this helps.
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Well I tried several things and continued to get slow to no wifi connection when one of the satellites randomly switch to wifi backhaul from Ethernet.
i had seen issues with guest network before so i decided to turn off guest network and for the past 2 days, everything has been stable. Very odd and I'm not sure why having guest network on would cause stability issues.0
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It's been over a week without guest network on and the system has been stable ever since.
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So I recently purchased the BE11000 system from Costco to replace my AXE5300 system. The 5300 kept dropping my Internet connection from a Hitron CODA 56 modem connected through Comcast (more here).
During my time with the 5300 I noticed that IoT connectiventity was spotty at best. The 2.4ghz IoT band would randomly drop for 3-5 seconds before coming back online. I also noticed that if I had my main WiFi network, IoT network, and Guest network enabled, the whole system would be come extremely unstable and drop random wireless devices at random times. This would also cause the whole system to go offline, requiring a manually reboot of each Deco.
I had high hopes that the BE11000 would solve / correct some of these issues, but that does not seem to be the case. My IoT network is still spotty (I wasnt able to add two Homekit smart bulbs the other night because the IoT network wouldn't stay online long enough for Homekit to finish the setup) even after a full system rebbot. I have kept my Guest network turned off as I am reading here that the bug from 5300 is present on this system as well.
The one thing my 5300 did much better than the current BE11000 is Ethernet backhual. I never had an issue connecting all of my Decos via Ethernet with the 5300. However, the 11000 randomly connects to the farther Deco unit via WiFi instead of Ethernet. Even when the wireless signal from the main Deco to the farthest satelite is "weak" according to the app. I have also turned off UPNP but that only temoprarily solves the issue.
Before the 5300 unites I had the X20 system and it was great. I wish I would have kept that system instead of trying to get the latest WiFi standards as it seems, recently, that TP-Link is not able to re-create the stability and reliabilty of their older products.
I guess I will be looking at other mesh systems come BF to replace these units (I will return them to Costco).
BE11000 firmware 1.06 Build 20240724 Rel. 12326
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