I am frustrated with my TP-Liink Products.  I tried to use my DECO XE75 in MESH mode in my high rise apartment of ~5000 Sq Ft.  It has metal studs in all the walls, and WiFi signals do not go far.  When I set up four XE75s with one as the Router centrally, it worked, but was very slow in performance.  and I have one room 8 floors aways serviced by an ethernet connection.  MESH doesn't connect to the remote room.  My 1Gb Ethernet speed falls down to ~75Mb over the WiFi MESH network, even with a strong WiFi signal. 

I have ethernet cable to every room, so the next move was to switch to Access Point mode for the DECO units, using my Archer XE75 as the central router.

When following the directions for "AP" mode, the DECO units require you to first create a separate network where the other DECO units connect to the "Main DECO", but they will not connect to the central Archer 75 router for the functions typically associated with a router.

Well, that is not "access point" mode as the term is generally used.

I need the Archer 75 separate router for some of the features it provides for remote access, such as NAT access with port forwarding, and a specific set of IP definitions of the network (10.x.x.x) to support some devices which used fixed IP addresses on the network, and several devices which must be accessed from outside the network.  If I tried to use one of the DECO units as a router, these features do not appear to be available.

So it appears that the DECO units will only support their own proprietary version of "access point" which will only function if you use a DECO unit as the primary router.

Or am I missing how to configure a DECO as a router with a specific IP range and NAT access and port forwarding from outside the network?

What am I missing in this?

Any help appreciated.....