I’ve been fighting with my mesh setup for weeks and I’m starting to think I bought the wrong equipment.
Got a 600 Mbps internet connection and two TP-Link Deco X10s. Wired PC gets pretty much the full 600, but WiFi usually sits around 300–350 Mbps even when I’m right next to a Deco.
Initially figured the wireless backhaul was eating half my bandwidth, so I finally ran Ethernet between the nodes.
Guess what. Basically no improvement.
Tried different cables, updated the firmware, messed with the optimization settings in the Deco app. Same crap.
Now I’m reading that dual-band mesh systems aren’t great for speed and that I should’ve bought tri-band instead.
Am I missing something obvious here or do I actually need to replace the whole setup to get anywhere close to the speed I’m paying for?
Why would you need tri-band if both Decos are wired? The extra band is useful for wireless backhaul, which you’re not even using anymore. Before spending more money, are you sure the second Deco is actually using Ethernet backhaul?
@FuelProfessional75 Yep. Shows Ethernet in the app. I even tried connecting directly to the main Deco and got pretty much the same speeds.
Then I’d stop blaming the backhaul for now. And please don’t buy a tri-band kit just because somebody told you more bands = more speed lol.
What device are you testing with? And what channel width is your 5 GHz radio using?
@skinnythor77 Tested on my laptop and phone. Both WiFi 6, both have gotten much better speeds on other networks. Deco is using 80 MHz on 5 GHz. Doesn’t seem to let me change that. I’m in an apartment building too, so there’s probably a million other networks around me.
That last part might be worth looking into. I’d grab a WiFi analyzer before buying anything else. NetSpot is pretty good on Windows/Mac. Check what channels your Decos are actually using and how many neighboring networks are sitting on the same frequencies. Deco’s automatic optimization doesn’t necessarily mean it picked the cleanest possible channel.
@man_from_Dallas That’s another thing driving me crazy. Every time I look, the neighboring networks seem to be on different channels. How the hell are you supposed to pick a good one if everyone’s routers keep changing theirs automatically?
Check at different times and see which channels are consistently less crowded. You’re looking for something reasonably usable, not a magical channel nobody will ever touch. Also, check whether your Deco even allows manual channel selection before spending an hour finding the perfect one.
300–350 Mbps isn’t exactly broken WiFi.
Don’t assume the Deco you’re standing beside is the one your laptop is connected to. Mesh clients can be stubborn. Check which node the laptop is actually using in the Deco app.
@NodeRunnerY Oh, that’s interesting. I just assumed it would automatically connect to whichever one was closer. I’ll check that too.