For those who missed 3 pack deals last night ($123 per unit), this pricing is still very competitive, $129.5 per unit.
Delivery is slightly cheaper too.
https://www.mydeal.com.au/tp-link-deco-x60-ax3000-whole-home…
also available from JW Computers @ MyDeal, don’t forget to use the $10 sign up discount via app.
My place is long, ~200m², and I've got this kit. Probably overkill, but it works flawlessly. Great speeds everywhere on our 250mbps connection.
Wow, big single storey home!
I’d say you do, a single AC68U won’t cover every corner. With a mesh setup, you can have the house plus front and back yard covered with 3 nodes.
Sacrifice yard for house 😂
Thanks
this is better than the 3 pack in my opinion. I have a very large home with granny flat & large backyard, so looking for good coverage - thinking I'll buy 2 packs and have 4 units running.
I have FTTC NBN and currently plug one Deco M5 into it; for whole house mesh but coverage is a bit low. I have the granny flat airbnb so don't like them using our home internet so I plug a separate modem into one of the Deco's and then only give them the ssid/password for that - is it possible to split the NBN NCD straight into a switch so I can have two modems directly plugged into it, rather than using an ethernet port on the TP Links?
Why is the 2-pack better than the 3-pack?
Cheaper if you need more than 3, in my case 4 would be ideal.
Right, only if you need 4.
So if you need 6, then the 3-pack is better again.
You can't plug the NBN device into a switch and have two routers plug into the switch. You'll end up with two routers trying to talk to the upstream internet service provider. Your internet service provider should only see one router.
Your current set up is correct and working - effectively you have one router behind another router. What is the issue that you are trying to solve? If you are just trying to get more ethernet ports, then have the switch plug into the LAN side of the main router (Deco M5 that's plugged into the NBN device), and then all the other wireless broadcasting devices plug into the switch. ie. put the switch between your main Deco M5 and the guest Deco.
The other possible alternative is to have the guest Deco set up as a satellite (so it doesn't have routing function). And set up the Deco to broadcast a guest wifi. But this approach means you can only have one guest wifi where as your existing setup allows two distinct separate guest wifis.
Just realised that I have 2 Ethernet ports on my decos and also if I bought this one it would be the same. So I can wire it with Ethernet as wired backhaul, and use the second Ethernet port on one to attach to the secondary modem.
I’ve been using guest wifi on the m5 for 2.4ghz and main for 5ghz rather than have them combined as some devices aren’t cooperating well if it’s combined.
@dammit See if your premises is ready to swap from FTTC to FTTP. If not keep checking throughout 2023. This way you get your own connection for your home on a port and the airbnb gets it's own separate connection on another port from the same nbn NTD. Pay for two nbn plans. Use two Deco's plugged to the nbn NTD. All you need to give them is the Wi-Fi password. The most you can get is Gigabit for yourself and the max in the airbnb can be 250/25.
mydeal had a popup for $10 off code if spending more than $100, by providing your email FYI
I’m a noob so please be gentle :)
Does this support wired back haul?
Does this support vlan tagging? For some reason It doesn’t work without vlan tag. I have FTTP.
Thanks in advance!
Works with wire back haul, I’m currently on it.
Not sure about vlan tagging, sorry.
The unit has two gigabit port - one's taken up by WAN, and another by the wired backhaul to the satellite unit. Do you use a switch for other wired devices or do you just make do without anything else on wired ethernet? just curious on how people use these two port units
m5 has two but the x60 has three.
You can always add a hub if needed, just looks annoying and untidy.
All Deco's support VLAN ID for ISPs that use it.
Is this good or should I go for Deco X68 AX3600?
Currently using a router that is AC1200 and single unit that covers the whole house. Don't think I have an issue with the coverage, just speed improvement would be better.
Is there a much difference between the Deco X60 AX3000 vs Deco X68 AX3600?
Don't get a mesh setup if a single router is enough. What router are you using?
Currently using Optus branded Huwai router/modem, can't really tell the actual model number.
+1 for Twix's comment.
For speed, first check what is the channel width used on your 5GHz radio. Try higher channel-width (say 40MHz or 80MHz) should give you a boost on throughput for as long as interference is not an issue. The 2.4GHz radio just leave it at 20MHz - it's usually crowded if you have neighbours.
802.11ax radio doesn't necessarily give much improvement over 802.11ac for the same channel-width. 802.11ax is useful for high density use cases, say if you have 30+ wifi devices connected to one AP.
X68 has two radios on the 5GHz - so one of them is dedicated for wireless backhaul.
Wired backhaul is usually better for lower latency so X60 with wired backhaul is the better choice IMHO. Also should be cheaper.
when you say "speed improvement" are you talking about the speed between devices on your LAN, or are you talking about speed for your WAN? And what is your internet connection speed?
Speed over the LAN.
I was on 100/40 and have just signed up to 1000/50 plan.
Generic ISP provided devices are usually not suitable to max out 1000 down. I'd guess single thread CPU likely maxes out at somewhere between 300~600 Mbps. Probably look at x86 based mini systems.
Depending on budget maybe consider things like this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xExmvIHEQao
On the LAN side wifi clients are usually limited to 2x2 radio so even at close distance (say less than 5m) that would top out at 800-900mbps for WiFi6. If you need anything faster you'll need Ethernet wires.
@CoronavirusVaccine: Ok, Thank you for your advice.
As long as I get more than 300-400mbps over WiFi that would be enough for now. That youtube video is bit interesting, thank you for the link.
@bluehalk: I'd guess with 80MHz channel-width and no significant interference and obstruction 300-400mbps should be achievable within 10 meters.
@CoronavirusVaccine: I had a look at the above video and I am actually doing something similar.
I have been using a router and a mesh router as an access point for wifi on my old plan for 100/40 and had been running well.
I changed that setup in last week to my old Optus branded router as it was lot easier to try it out and keep the old config as is till I get the new Access point (or router).
Router: https://shop.netgate.com/products/1100-pfsense (Something similar to what you posted above on the youtube link) running pfsense and managing DHCP, DNS, and router duties.
WiFi Access point: Netgear Orbi RBR20 AC1200, configured as an access point just to serve Wifi.
Initially, when I added the WiFi Access point, it caused quite few headaches with DHCP server conflict, and different network segments (Both were running on different network subnet).
Given the connection was only 100/40, the above setup was fine. At one stage, I had pfsense VM running on powerful ESXi server as a router but with only 100/40 connection, there was no point having all that extra CPU/RAM power, and ended up getting the little pfsense box as router.
Now with this new connection of 1000/50, I just want to simplify and have just one box managing all that and have faster speed.
Do you think, it would be better speed wise to just swap the Access point (with AX3600 mesh router) and still keep the pfsense box as the main router? or just use the Deco X68 as single device managing both?
@bluehalk: Use the Netgate pfsense box and pair it with a Wi-Fi 6 access point from Ubiquiti.
Asus have the RT-AX86U and RT-AX3000 that perform well on Gigabit for a single router.
@Twix: +1 for Twix's first part of the comment, again.
To give it a little bit more context, the Deco product line is consumer grade so they don't give you the ability to choose channel-width. As I understand it the Deco will "automatically optimise" channel selection and channel-width selection and often will default to 20MHz. You can't override it manually even though the market materials will say they support 80MHz width.
In contrast, the commercial APs such as Ubiquiti's will give you manual control on the channel-width and so you're more likely to be able to attain higher throughput with the commercial AP products.
But do note higher channel width is a trade-off against shorter distance range. And most automatic systems tend to prefer narrower width to maximise distance range - and assuming most use cases don't actually require higher speed. Most people have a coverage problem rather than a speed problem.
For 802.11ac a 2x2 client will have max theoretical throughput 866mbps at 80MHz channel-width. At 20MHz channel-width the throughput would be 1/4 of that at 216mbps. For context 4K Netflix needs about 15~20mbps.
@bluehalk: Netgate SG-1100 can route at gigabit on standard config without additional firewall rules. But if you have Orbi RBR20 then I don't understand why you need a SG-1100 since Orbi can act as a router anyway (and will be more than enough for the 100/40).
DHCP server conflict means your Orbi was not configured in access point mode so something's not quite right there….
SG-1100 being an ARM chip can idle at <5W. You'd only want pfSense running on a powerful server if you could find other use for extra CPU/RAM like you said. No point paying for the power that you aren't using. bad for the environment to say the least. Do you know what the idle power usage was for the ESXi server?
In short, for 1000/50 definitely don't want ISP-provided hardware. SG-1100 will suffice and keeping power consumption low if you aren't doing complicated firewalling. But if you need to do more than simple LAN-WAN routing then get a small x86 based box. The Lenovo Tiny / Dell Optiplex Micro can idle at around 10~12W and provide sufficient processing power for 1000mbps connection with a bit more firewalling and possibly deep packet inspection.
Sorry I can't really answer your question because I can't understand which bottleneck you are trying to solve. All these devices have gigabit wired interface so changing to X68 isn't going to help with the wired department. For the wireless part, unless you have large number of wifi devices and/or high wifi bandwidth utilisation, then moving from Orbi (802.11ac) to X68 (WiFi 6) isn't going to make significant improvement on the throughput.
@CoronavirusVaccine: Yes the RBR20 would have been enough for 100/40 connection. I only got the Netgate SG-1100 as at that time I was running my own home server with cloud files and photo station and needed some fancy Firewall, NAT, VPN back with port forwarding and such.
ESXi server is basically a gaming PC without the GPU, I think I went bit over the top for this one when I built it, it served its purpose but these days with all the streaming and cloud files storage, I hardly turn it on, so no point leaving it on 24/7 just for pfsense.
Right now, I do have quite a few devices at home that connects over WiFi and that is where the bottleneck is. I think I will keep using the netgate box as a router and get a better Access point to cover the WiFi coverage.
Hi, i currently have a deco m5 but am planning to upgrade due to wifi 6. My only issue is i am moving to an estate which has opticomm as opposed to my current nbn. Will this router work for both? Heck will my current deco work with opticomm? Thanks
Deco is compatible with both. Plug in the Deco to the OptiComm NTD or nbn NTD.
Many people are 'upgrading' from 802.11ac to WiFi6. But depending on the situation the improvement may be limited - especially for throughput.
This paper explains the changes implemented in WiFi6. Worth a read: https://www.extremenetworks.com/wifi6/what-is-80211ax/
Thanks OP.
Just bought from JW.
Can anyone assist please?
I have a 4 bedroom house (26sqm) on a 500sq land.
House shape is long.
Currently with TPG NBN FTTC with both nbn box and model in the living room.
I don’t get wifi in the garage and last room.
Current workaround for last room is a TP-Link extender that does the job but not stable connection.
House shape is long (rectangle).
Will the 2 nod mesh setup do the job or do I need 3 pack?
Is your current wifi router located in the middle of the house, and is it high up? How many walls or other significant obstructions in between the wifi router and the garage and last room?
Avoid extender - it generally leads to suboptimal experience.
By your description I'd guess 2 pack should give you the coverage you need if you can place them in good strategic locations and using wired backhaul. Wired backhaul have lower latency compared to wireless backhaul. So run the cable wherever possible. If you absolutely can't run cable then probably need to get a triband system with one band dedicated to wireless backhaul
The wifi broadcasting is a bit like a lamp. If you place it high up, it has better chance of covering a larger area and also by passing tall furniture/fridge,etc.
Hi, thanks for the reply. Current wifi is the TV unit sitting low. Lots of walls and other obstructions in between wifi router and the garage. Last room only two wall obstruction.
I like your advice about keeping the unit wifi. Will try that. I only have only one wired option that is where the NbN and router box is connected. Old house, so not much help.
Regarding getting a triband, is that the router with a teiband option? Is the x60, triband?
Also, I’ll remove the extender. It is a total waste of money tbh.
The best money you can spend is not on a new wifi router. Rather get a cabler or someone else who can help put in an ethernet cable so you can relocate your current wifi router to the centre of the house and high up. Or put in a cable so you can put in an access point via wired backhaul on the other end of the house to cover the garage. But also in the process make sure any heavy media consumption device remains wired (eg TV media box). One of the biggest secret to good wifi is to minimise wifi traffic as much as possible.
Let's say it costed you $200 to do that and you'd have good wifi for the remaining life of the house no matter what happens.
A triband system with dedicated wireless backhaul will cost maybe $100 more than a dual band system. BUT that would only work well if you can have good wifi connection between and main wifi router and the satellite unit. If you put the triband wifi main router in your current wifi router location - will you be able to place the satellite unit in a (near) line of sight location relative to the main router? Also another important consideration that you share the spectrum with your neighbours. On a 500sqm land there's a good chance your neighbours' wifi will interfere with yours in some way. Top wifi throughput often relies on using wide channel-width and there aren't that many to go around before interference comes into play. Even if you are lucky enough today to not have wifi interference but tomorrow your neighbours could change their wifi router and create large interference.
Many people will keep buying new wifi router but over time they'd save more money if they spent the money to put in ethernet cables in the first place. Also they'd have much better user experience.
Draw a map of your house and plan out where the wires and wifi broadcasting device will optimise the signal coverage. Note down where the large furniture and appliances are. Go through that exercise and you'll be in a much better position to decide what's the best for you.
So if I haven't been able to convince you to put some ethernet cables in then…. Deco X60 is dual band. X68 is the triband.
@CoronavirusVaccine: Ok, this is amazing. Thank you for the details info. You have convinced me to get a data cabler come in and install cables. Will do that! Thank you!
Trying to work out if I need this. Moving into a long 250m2 home, single storey. Currently have an Asus AC68U