I bought the BE11000 (BE65) and sent them back within a few days. I also tried the XE75's. In total I've used four different deco models from the cheapest up to thebmid range and my honest opinion is that they are pure trash. Here's a few reasons why I sent the last lot back:
- Shockingly poor signal. With a single device placed next to my current Amplifi HD I would get no signal in the next room (5m away, stud wall). Amplifi got full signal.
Dumb test gives dumb result? Putting two devices next to each other like that is just going to lead to a horrible experience for one or both.
- Speed drop off. I had to be literally sat next to the unit to get anywhere near advertised speeds. Speeds would drop by up to 90% walking away.
The whole reason I got Deco was when having the bottom floor gutted, my structured cabling would be removed, I wasn't going to run fresh external cable for 2 months of build, so grabbed a pair of X20s and effectively ran them in bridge mode from my router to the switch on the floor above. The first thing I did was run Iperf3 and pulled near enough 800mbit node to node through a wooden floor, they didn't put a foot wrong, so much so that I actually bought more to test further.
- Unstable speeds. Graphs monitoring speed are like a rollercoaster. Compare to my amplifi which is solid as a rock and flat. Granted for most people they'd never notice, but to me that's unforgivable. (Wired or wireless 6ghz backhaul).
My iperf says otherwise, as does smoke ping, I can use something else, but the results probably aren't going to change.
- Lack of features. They are Noddy Noddy Noddy devices built for those with no knowledge at all. There's nothing other than ssid and a couple of pointless features that could be changed.
This one has some truth to it, but I think the term you are looking for is 'idiot-resistant' as there's very little an end user can do, they simply work and for the most part work well. I must have bought at least a dozen x20/x50's and deployed them in multiple properties and for friends/family as they give me near zero instances of 'the wifi is slow/not working/down', just the same way as I throw Roku's at people for the same reason. I can give you similar stats on my Ubiquiti deployments over a longer period with more issues and after nye on three decades of doing what I do, i'd like to think I had some awareness of the subject
- In-built DHCP server that cannot be disabled. Seriously. Who thought this was a good idea?
Don't be silly, 'Advanced' settings, turn off Smart DHCP, can't say I have looked in router mode.
- Three floor house with one device on each floor had dead spots. Two amplifi HD's covered the entire house, garage, and garden without skipping a beat for the past 5 years.
A 'device on each floor' doesn't mean you'd done a survey and picked appropriate locations for each device or that the locations that work for one device will work for a different device, I have a Deco on each floor of a three floor property, all are wired - because what reasonable person would use on radio backhaul? - and with sensible positioning (eg I allow for the supporting wall running up the middle of the property) I get at least as good, if not better coverage, than my previous or current Unifi set-up.
- MLO - box the Be65's came in shows MLO on all three bands. Reality is it can only use 5/6ghz.
Can't comment, I haven't bothered to roll any W7 AP/nodes yet, let alone tested clients on them, but the phrase 'non event' springs to mind, unless i'm missing something?
For the lowest range ones, I've installed two deco's at the MIL's. Her internet is only 30mb and she's on her own, so thankfully it is good enough for her.
I have them in properties ranging from 200Mbit-1.2Gb WAN, no complaints, but then again I treat wifi as a convenience for mobile devices and IoT, everything else runs on copper or fibre/DAC's for the servers.
I've just helped another friend with theirs this weekend too. Three wifi6 deco's (forget the model) that have full line of site together but won't stay connected over a wireless backhaul - ended up going wired, which is always better, but kind of defeats the object of these devices.
Wifi 6 will be x20 or above, frankly that just doesn't sound right, other than wired being the minimum i'd have expected anyway.
Seriously, there's better solutions out there for the price. Unifi is where I'm going next (cloud gateway max & 2 u7 pro's - fingers crossed they're as good as their amplifi range). I absolutely would have gone amplifi mesh if they had a 6e/7 option. If you're not bothered about 6e, then I'd look at the amplifi alien routers - should be a step up from my HD's and will be rock solid.
I wouldn't recommend the Amplifi range to anyone personally, but if you're that bothered about keeping it, then you could have just added two u7's anyway and run your own controller. The u7 Pro is a whole other conversation.
The reviews and ratings out there are generally glowing for deco and I just don't get it. I'm assuming this is folk who don't know how to properly test that they're getting what tplink claim, or know what a good stable network should look like. With lower internet speeds, the deco's aren't a bottleneck. With proper fibre, they are through dog turd stability. Avoid avoid avoid.
Because - for everyone who isn't you, or close to you - they pretty much do what they claim with minimal fuss, I wish I could say that about Ero, Nest, Velop or any of the other major mesh players, but they all have caveats. What I find odd is after all the points you've just made (rightly or wrongly), we get all the way to the end and now suddenly stability is an issue? It's also not possible for me to take anyone seriously who repeats the same word three times in a row, and without punctuation, as if it somehow adds credibility to the opinion expressed, this is networks, not politics.
