Tenda Buy 3 get 1 free promotion, Bonus pack will be shipped together, no redemption required
Tenda Nova MW3 3 Pack + Bonus 1 Pack $99 Delivered
Tenda Nova MW6 3 Pack + Bonus 1 Pack $188 Delivered
Tenda Beli SP3 Smart Wi-Fi Plug 3 Pack + Bonus 1 Pack $38 Delivered
There is no point in buying this if your router works fine.
Thanks
For example if you have a shed in the backyard which you want stronger wifi from, then maybe. Or a garage, places which can be notorious for having poor connectivity.
Its just a range extender.
If you get good signal everywhere, this won't help much to improve your coverage.
If you have a device that has ethernet but not wifi (eg a PC or a NAS or a media centre), you can use a pair of these to form a wifi bridge, allowing the device to connect to your home network without being wired to your router.
Can anyone comment on Tenda Nova MW6?
MW6 has a faster processor, more RAM and Gigabit ports.
Nova MW3
100Mbps WAN & LAN.
Single-core processor @ 600MHz & 64MB of RAM.
Dual band AC1200 with 2 antennas on each node.
No VLAN ID tag support for ISPs that use it.
Nova MW6
1000Mbps WAN & LAN.
Single-core processor @ 1Ghz & 128MB of RAM.
Dual band AC1200 with 2 antennas on each node.
No VLAN ID tag support for ISPs that use it.
Thanks. What I mean is any drop out and coverage reviews.
I've used both. They both provide good signal strength everywhere, and both provide quite good functionality in terms of the app and the features.
The MW3 devices gave me really poor throughput. Speedtests were often really bad, sometimes less than 1mbps upload on HFC that consistently provided 55 up and 17 down. While the download speed was pretty low at sometimes 10Mbps, it still should've been enough for most things, but the upload speed fluctuated wildly up and down, and that meant the signalling traffic back to services couldn't get through, and it caused downloads to be affected.
I tried factory resets, several times, replacing the head unit, several times, adding extra units to improve coverage, to no avail. I managed to see a few specials so ended up buying 3x2-packs.
One day I take a good look. I reset everything and started from scratch. I unplugged every node excapt the head unit, and fully wired it to the NBN router (ethernet from laptop to MW3 LAN and MW3 WAN to NBN router). Speedtest results showed the same problem, with uploads going fast and slow and fast and slow. Even in bridge mode. I tried several different units as the head unit, with no improvement.
I reckon the wifi was fine for a 50Mbps connection, but the CPU simply couldn't keep up with the packets it was passing.
Tenda support never responded. I ended up returning all 3 packs for refunds. One seller was reluctant to give a refund. I said they were not fit for purpose, and I forwarded the email I'd sent to Tenda with speedtest graphs. They gave me a refund.
Then I bought a 3-pack of the MW6 on special (a deal that came with a Tenda smart plug). They worked so much better than the MW3s. On one of the satellite nodes I plugged its LAN port into a PC that has no wifi and that works really well.
@jez: +1 Don't buy the MW3, 100 Megabit throughput is already obselete. It's not just about your isp speed but the traffic on the network. Even if you have a 100 megabit connection you may not see that throughput because it's capped by other things using bandwidth on the network, ie: wifi cameras, nas streaming.
Do yourself a favour and buy the MW6 or better to futureproof your network.
@Austrian Oak: Yeh if you dun mind paying nearly double for a MW6, then definitely get a MW6 or better.
Just having the 1000mbit Ethernet (and use it as the back-haul) makes a world of difference when moving files between your devices.
@Austrian Oak: Another cheaper way to get around the 100 megabit limit seems to be buying one mw6 to use as the primary node and using the mw3s as satellites. They’re cross compatible.
@nightelves: Using Ethernet backhaul ?
Yeh… pretty close to 100Mbit.
I could move files at over 11MBs (~90Mbit). Thats just the payload data.
So with all the overheaddata, should be pretty much 100Mbit.
I havent performance tested it with WiFI backhaul, but id imagine, it would be faster than 100Mbit (in ideal conditions).
@jez: I had similar issues with the MW3, and even spent days with tech support trying out different firmware (unsuccessfully sadly).
I found in Router mode (eg dhcp/pppoe), the download speed gets a little crippled, and the upload speed gets severely crippled (eg 20mbit down to 1mbit !). Sadly tech support couldnt figure it out either.
But if I set it to BRIDGE mode, everything worked great!
I was able to push the full 50/20mbit limit of my NBN FTTC connection.
Was also able to move files across my LAN at near full 100mbit, which was good. So the CPU definitely can handle that.
So in conclusion, DONT buy this if you plan to Replace your old router with it.
However, DO buy this if you want to Add it to an existing router (by Bridge mode). For example if your router didnt have wifi (or its wifi sucked).
The beaut thing about Mesh is the ability to auto hand-over between nodes, so if you roam around the house, your devices will pop over to the next strongest node automagically. So if your NBN connection is less than 100mbit, then the MW3 is a cheap way to upgrade to Mesh wifi.
Hi Im with TPG FTTP, how do i find out if this is compatible?
my townhouse has weak wifi at the back of the house on 1st and 2nd floor. my nbn box is the ground floor.
Do you think this or pay a bit more for deco m5?
Also each floor has an ethernet port, so if i plug each unit to the port then there is really no benefit to get m9 over m5?
thank you
Nova MW3 is compatible with TPG FTTP by selecting PPPoE. The Nova MW3 is limited to 100Mbps. If you wanted to change to 1000/50 or 250/25 you would have to purchase a new router.
Given FTTP is capable of 250-1000Mbps I reckon it's worth going for at least the Deco M5 for Wi-Fi 5 or Deco X20 for Wi-Fi 6. By using Ethernet to link up each Deco M5 there is not much benefit by going with the Deco M9.
Deco M5
1000Mbps WAN & LAN.
Quad-core processor @ 638MHz / 256MB of RAM.
Dual band AC1300 with 4 antennas on each node.
VLAN 802.1Q support for ISPs that use it.
Ethernet - around 850Mbps.
Wi-Fi 5 - up to around 460Mbps.
@Twix: I dont know where to ask so I have tpg fttc 100/40 in a 3 bedroom. Was looking at either e4 2 pack $93, s4 3 pack at $149 or m5 2 pack at $179. I have no intention of using ethernet (cant redo the wall). Can I get away with the e4 or s4?
@ripesashimi: You might get away with the E4. For best performance and Wi-Fi range go with the S4 or M5.
E4
100 Mbps Ports x 2.
Wi-Fi range = 260 m2.
S4
Gigabit Ports x 2.
Wi-Fi range = 370 m2.
need one
I need one unit or a pair of mw6… wondering if anyone in Adelaide would like to share when buying 3+1.
If my house is small and current router covers every corner and the signal is fine. guess I don't need these ? Or it has some other advantages. New to this.