This is a review for TP-Link Deco M9 Plus. The product name on Amazon does not include "Deco M9 Plus" and I initially didn't know M9 Plus was available on Amazon and considered to buy it from Best Buy or Walmart. Anyway, I'm very happy with this! The major points that I decided to buy Deco M9 Plus are: 1) it supports WiFi 5 (but not WiFi 6). My home has Spectrum with 200MB (or maybe 300MB, but it's definitely not 1GB) of speed. So, I didn't think WiFi 6 would increase the network speed dramatically, compared with WiFi 5. The existing router supports WiFi 4 (802.11n) only, so I would definitely need to upgrade to at least WiFi 5. 2) It includes one router & two satellites (these three are identical). My home is relatively small, one floor at around 1500 square feet. So, you wouldn't think you need three devices. However, there were reasons to get three devices. First, in this pandemic era, my wife and I work at home and my son take remote classes where all of us sit at different places. It often happens that three of us are online with video at the same time and I frequently experience my online meeting showing "connection unstable" and being cut off. So, I thought I would need at least two devices one of which would be placed next to the modem in the master bedroom and the other be in the living room where I sometimes work. Also, I recently replaced the old, outdoor deck with a walled deck (though it's not counted as a room as it does not have AC/heater). The deck is located furthest from the existing 5-years-old router and the wifi network didn't reach. So, I thought I would need another satellite placed closest to the deck so that we can watch streaming videos etc on the walled deck! 3) It is a tri-band router. I read a lot of online reviews and I learned the tri-band router would provide faster and more stable network than the dual-band one. 4) It provides nice parental controls. While many mesh routers advertise on parental controls, the features and depth of the controls vary. For example, a mesh router from another brand supports only the filtering by URLs at the network level. Another product supports basic features for free but need to pay a subscription fee for advanced features. Deco M9 Plus provides a reasonable set of features for free. You can register each of family members and choose one of the pre-set filtering rules (e.g. Kid, Pre-teen, Teen etc), which define what services / contents / web sites will be blocked, and adjust the rules if necessary. Then, assign the device(s) to the family members. You can also set length of time to be online and "bed time". So, this is the device-level controls, which I thought is good enough for my family. While most of the mesh routers currently on sale satisfy #1 and #2 but the selections get fewer when combined with #3 AND #4 at a reasonable price. Or you would have to buy a very expensive mesh router at $400 or more (and you may need to pay a subscription fee for parental controls). Deco M9 Plus covers all 4 points at less than $250 and TP-Link products receive many good reviews. So it was a natural choice for me. I knew that TP-Link would release another product (X90?) soon that supports WiFi 6 with all other decision points of mine covered. But again, I don't think I would need Wifi 6 at least for a near future. I bought this a week ago (the beginning of March 2021) and set it up very easily. The mobile app was very nice and easy to follow. There were no complicated settings. Just plug it in and wait until the device is found. The important tip for the setup is that you better write down the existing network's SSID (network name) and password before shutting it down. Then, while you set up Deco M9 Plus, you can enter the same network name and password so that your devices (laptops, smartphones etc) do not need to change the wifi network and enter the password to re-connect. After Deco M9 Plus is set up, I compared the WiFi network speed using an online performance test site. Good news is that at every corner of my house, the connection speed is around 200Mbps, which is around 150% faster than the old router! Even on the walled deck, the speed is close to 200Mbps, around 150 ~ 190 Mbps. So, I'm very happy to choose Deco M9 Plus. It provides everything I need at a reasonable price. The network speed is amazing, the parental controls provide features good enough for my family's needs, the mobile app is very user-friendly and even the packaging is very nice, impressing me that it would be an expensive product! While this produce is highly recommended, I have a couple of requests for future improvements. I wanted to have three Ethernet ports at least on the main router that is connected to the modem. I work at home now and brought my work PC at home. So, I have two desktop PCs that I want to wire-connect to the main router. Because each router has only two ports (remember the main router uses one of the two ports to connect to the modem), I can't do that. Instead, my home desktop is connected wirelessly, which is OK but not ideal. Another request is that I want to know the details of filtering rules. I would choose "Kid" level for my son's device that he uses for remote learning. The Kid level blocks "Online Communication", "Social Networking" and "Media" along with others. But there is no detailed information on what services / web sites are actually blocked, so I wonder if I choose this level, the app he uses for the remote learning may be blocked and the web sites including Youtube.com that he needs to access to do homework may be blocked, too. I'm asking this on the TP-Link's user forum but I haven't gotten a clear answer yet. So, for now, I chose "Pre-teen" level for my son. Also, the filtering control may better have a feature for "whitelist" in addition to "blacklist", so you can add particular services / web sites to be allowed. That being said, again, I'm very pleased with the quality of Deco M9 Plus!! UPDATE: I was able to turn the previous router as a switch. So, now my two desktop PCs are wire-connected to the switch which is wire-connected to Deco M9 Plus that works as the main router to the modem. So, the connection looks like: Two PCs -> Switch -> Deco router -> Modem -> Internet (all wire-connected) There were a couple of settings I needed to apply to the previous LinkSys router but main setting was to choose "Bridge Mode".

This is an absolute game changer for me - full signal strength and 85-100% download speeds everywhere now! Some background: Purchased to replace a single Nighthawk AC1900 Router in our Condo (~1000 sq feet) for a 200Mbps speed internet plan. While Wi-Fi signal was "good/great" in most areas, the download speeds dropped to about 50% (!00 Mbps or less) as you moved away from the Router. It had to penetrate a bathroom (lots of pipes), utility closet (furnace, washer/dryer, water heater, etc) and other walls to get to the rest of the place. Performance: I placed the main Deco in our master bedroom (where the old single router was), 1 in the second bedroom and 1 in the main living room. Signal strength is now almost always 100% in each area of our place now and download/upload speeds are nearly 100% (full 200Mbps) constantly. The furthest area in our kitchen does drop a tad (around 170-180 Mbps), but I will take it! Each deco has 2x1Gig ethernet ports on it for hardwired connections, which work wonderfully, but aren't really needed as the Wi-Fi works wonderfully so far, with 15+ devices connected so far, including 4 phones, 3 gaming systems, 2 PC's, and 3 Fire Sticks I have ZERO complaints from the family with streaming/gaming/working, etc now. Network has been very stable Setup: Easy as can be, I had zero issues with setup once I downloaded the App and setup a TP-Link account. I have seen some other reviews where people had issues, but I followed the App's instructions step-by=step and was up and running with the first Deco in less than 5 minutes. Adding the other 2 units took less than 2 mins/each. The App itself makes it easy to setup profiles with parental controls (adding individual devices to each profile and limiting things like steaming, social media, adult content, time limits, etc). You can rename each device on the network to give you a better idea of what each one actually is and you can see what actual Deco it is connected to. You can also see a list of websites visited and block specific ones if needed. While it is not the most complex set of options, it works as intended and should suffice for most. Not sure how in-depth or effective the anti-virus portion is, but time will tell. I believe the Tri-band feature of this Mesh system is what makes this work so well. While it does not support Wi-Fi 6 (many devices don't support this yet), the Wi-Fi signals it does support work very well (5 and below). One last thing - it does not clearly state this in any of the advertisements or description, but this is a Deco M9+ system - not to be confused with the Deco M5 which pops up in searches frequently. It was almost impossible to find this on Amazon, but I am glad that I did. It's well worth it for the price and 3 units. I would definitely recommend this Mesh System for improving coverage, while maintaining speeds, in apartments/condos. I cannot speak for the claim that it will work for 4000+ square feet though. It has drastically improved our Wi-Fi situation

Bought these to replace a google wifi mesh system with 4 points in my house. Note the google wifi mesh system I'm comparing it to is the first generation still in use, NOT the NEST system they sell now. The GOOD about these Deco M9's: 1. Customer support is only available overnight US hours. Due to the current COVID pandemic, they are operating a reduced schedule but fortunately (at least for me), the hours are extremely suitable for someone who needs to work during the day and can only deal with things like this late in the evenings US time. 2. Speed - excellent. These are AC2200 I believe (the google wifi's are only AC1200), and the performance difference showed. The architectural design seems well thought out -- they have a dedicated backhaul between the units and can use upto 50% of an extra unused channel for more bandwidth as well. That gives the system a theoretical max of over 1.5Gbs which is way more than you'll need. It all showed in a great wifi performance with multiple devices no matter where I moved around the house. 3. Ability to turn on or off the guest wifi using the app. Able to remotely control your system from outside the house 5. "Good enough" bridge mode -- they call it AP mode and effectively allow you to utilize an external DHCP server. In my case I have a DHCP server running on my main (non-wifi capable) router so simply wanted a bridge network using the TP-Links. Worked really well. Note that using AP mode turns off some of the value-add features they offer -- it basically becomes a basic wifi mesh. But that's all I needed so high marks there. 6. VLAN support -- I didn't use this so cannot comment on it. But saw the option in the app and impressed they had it. I don't recall if the VLAN options were still available in AP mode -- if that's important to you please check. 7. Some limited AP steering that seemed to work (basically pushes devices to the closest & most effective AP point as you move around the house). I think they call it "fast disconnect". The manual warns that this may cause issues with some older wifi devices, but I had no issues with it. I do have some old wifi (2.4only) type devices but they tend to be static in one location and presumably were never kicked off an AP to see a difference. 8. Ethernet backhaul that automatically kicks in if it sees another directly connected AP -- a really nice feature. The BAD about these Deco M9's: 1. Customer support fairly clueless. Couldn't help me add a fourth unit and eventually ended up dropping me from a chat by giving me wrong advice. I questioned their advice when they offered it and they assured me I could go in and out of the support session to check the settings without fear of losing my place in line. When I came back, the connection to support had dropped. I couldn't be bothered to go through the whole thing again so tried everything under the sun, googled every option and eventually gave up. 2. Cannot add extra units for some reason -- see above. I bought multiple units and tried multiple devices, but couldn't create a mesh of more than 3. I suspect it's because I created the first 3 and updated the firmware first. Then a few days later when I went to add the next set of units, the firmware mismatch likely lead to a compatibility issue, and I couldn't get the new units to update their firmware by themselves. 3. Cannot turn off WPA. In today's day and age, at least give people the option of using WPA2 only and turning off WPA. There is a forum article where TP-Link support assure their readers it's under consideration. Shouldn't be under consideration -- should have been done by now. If you are a security conscious person, this should rule out this product for you. 4. No option for WPA3 (though most other systems don't offer it either so not really a knock on TP-Link) 5. No band steering from what I could tell -- i.e. no way for the APs to push clients from 2.4Ghz (crowded) bands onto freer 5Ghz bands. --- Overall for the average consumer this was really excellent. The problem I ran into was that I couldn't add a fourth unit (but the basic pack of 3 units is meant to cover ~6,500 sq ft, so you might be OK with it). In my case I have a lot of dead spots so wanted to have five units for full coverage. However, after the first 3 it just wouldn't work. Tried everything -- directly connected the fourth AP, tried it close and far from other units - absolutely no luck. So if you think you can do with 3 units and are not too bothered with the WPA encryption always on, it's a great product with excellent coverage. However if you're a power user who likes to configure their network a bit too much, I'd go another way.

I received this and installed it on the same day because I heard so much praise about it and had to see for myself. All I can say is WOW. Note that this is NOT a "wi-fi extender". It is so much better. It creates a wi-fi mesh network. Completely different technology than extenders. I live in a two story, 2000 sq ft town home. My router is in an office at the front of the second floor. The first floor had some poor areas where the signal would literally drop to near nothing. In addition to about 12 wireless devices, our home by choice has no landline phone service and our cell phones get marginal coverage, so we rely on wi-fi calling. It was frustrating when walking around to experience constantly dropped calls due to no signal or when transferring from wi-fi to wi-fi extender. This product made an incredible difference - I was blown away. And internet access and streaming is now what it should be, all over the house. Our wi-fi doorbell camera responds so much quicker as does streaming services. I tested wi-fi speed in each of the main areas and we went from 16, 39 and 78 MBPS to 188, 192 and 217 MBPS! Since our house doesn't have a basement, I only used 2 of the 3 Deco pucks and that was enough. Keep in mind, our internet plan is for 200 MBPS (measured via network connection, wireless is typically less). The Deco will only increase coverage and speeds based on what your ISP plan provides. In our case, internet speed was fine, but wi-fi coverage was poor. This will not "boost" the speed you have - it's designed to spread the coverage throughout the home. This system uses your current modem but replaces your existing wireless router, assuming they're separate (If you have a combo unit, you will need to turn off wi-fi and let Deco serve as the wireless router). I added a netgear 8 port switch to the Main Deco unit since my desktop PC, VOIP phone and printer are not wireless. Installation was easy - literally 10 minutes using their App and it guides you through everything. I installed it while my wife ran some errands and when she walked in I excitedly told her to make a call. She immediately noticed the difference (as did her mother who was frequently a dropped caller). Our wi-fi TV streaming is now smooth and consistent everywhere! It also works outside further, front and back. I am so happy with this product and would recommend it for similar use-cases. It's so gratifying to have a product work as advertised and even exceed expectations. Toss-out your old wi-fi extender. NOTE: I purchased this item on Amazon for full price and have no affiliation to the seller. I try to write helpful, unbiased and insightful reviews because I also read reviews prior to making my own buying decisions. I notice many reviews lack helpful information, are not well written or give poor reviews based on not reading directions, inexperience or failing to read the product details prior to purchasing. Writing valuable reviews helps pay it forward.

I've had the Deco Mesh for about 2 weeks now. I bought the 3-units package since we live in a 2 story townhouse and my cable network is set up in the basement. I needed something that can deliver strong wifi signals in the 2nd floor, thru the walls and floors. The Deco Mesh accomplished exactly what I needed it for. However, since I am a techie, I struggle with the lack of advanced features for me to customize. I also had to get an extra switch since I needed more ports for wired devices. Also, I currently pay for 300 Mbps and the Deco totally maximize my connection, unlike the router that my cable provider gave me. With that said, despite the $300 price tag, I would recommend getting the Deco if you are wanting to extend a stable and fast WiFi and to bring wifi connection to any dead spots. Don't use an extender, it will only cause you more headaches to set up. We have 2400 square feet house and the Deco is able to handle that without a hitch. Pros: - Easy to install - User friendly app - Notification when a new device access the network - A little pricey - Tri-band so it automatically looks for the best connection - Good signal even thru walls and outdoor - Great for streaming - Great for multi- floors - Guest wifi is completely separate network - nice, compact size. It can be attached to a wall - Really fast wifi Cons: - not intended for advanced networking users - lack of advanced, configurable features for techie users - only 2 ethernet ports, so if you have 2 or more wired devices, you need to purchase a switch - DOES NOT WORK w/ Google Cast - unable to add more than one SSIDs. You can only add a guest wifi

Amazing product. These are replacing a Cisco LinkSys router (2700 series)...and these are amazing. Just one Deco M9 Pro puck provide better coverage than my Cisco router. In fact, I considered only installing one of three. But I want to get outside patio and pool area so I installed other two. Installation is super simple. Main puck in basement, second puck in Living Room with TV hardwired to second puck, third puck in Master Bedroom with Tablo hardwired to it. Tablo streams TV broadcast to living room TV without a single buffer or skip. Absolutely trivial to set up with the App. App very nice, lets me see what devices connect to which puck. Shows what band being used too. Devices which don't move I disable Mesh Technology setting and devices that are mobile I leave it on, mobile devices switch pucks automatically and without interruptions. I have been wrestling with my Cisco router for over a year and now I wish I would have bought these sooner! Using static reserved ip adresses for some devices...seems to be working well. I am also turning off the Mesh Technology for devices that don't move...not sure what it really does but I don't see any problems so it must be working. I really like the ability to rename the devices from their discovered names. The app has a great layout and is easy to use. Most important is it's reliable, then ability to plug a device into pucks via Ethernet, 3rd is Parental option's Insights and Filter, it show sites child hit, how long, I can block specific sites, and Filter Level as a Pre-Teen user selectable set of content it will filter out (like Adult content, Social Media, Gambling, etc.) 4th is graphs, I love to see data at a quick glance!

So this mesh system has been great once I figured out the initial issue with setup. I have had zero issues with this system and it easily handles all the devices I have connected over the 3,000 sqft house. If you have away to connect the units together (ethernet backhaul), I would do it, much better throughput. Issues with setup: Got the main unit up and running, set the password for my SSID, then you are supposed to disconnect from the main unit and connect to the SSID that the main unit is broadcasting instead of the Bluetooth connection (I believe that is what it was). When you go to connect to the main units broadcast SSID it will give you a connection error. I reset the main unit twice before I called tech support so I would try the initial setup and if you get the connection error when I did, give tech support a call and ask them for the files to upgrade the firmware (see below). If you call tech support they are going to try and tell you that you are putting in the wrong password but what you really need is the "M9Plus_2.0_upgrade_tool_v1.1.1_Windows.zip" (if you have a mac it will be a different zip file and I am assuming you would sub out Windows for Mac) and the "Deco_M9Plus_V2_1.4.3.zip" to upgrade the firmware. Follow the instructions inside the zip files to upgrade the firmware and all will be good. (see picture) I had an issue getting the tech support to give me the files and talked to 3 different guys (probably 45 minutes) before they escalated it to someone who basically got on and knew what the issue was right away and sent me the files and I haven't had an issue since.

I wanted to upgrade to a tri band mesh from a dual band traditional wifi. I tried for a few days to get the product to work. Here is the feedback. Product out of the box seems very cool. Compact design and the app looks cool. I had to work to get my six units of Deco access points setup but after a few hours and working with the application, it seemed to all be setup. I am by no means a network guru but I am fairly competent and I can get technical enough to know QoS, Mac addresses, and to know what a DNS is. I am using six units over 3000 square foot which should be under the 3 units in 4500 square feet advertised. The wireless signals don't seem to go through wall well, so I am glad that I got six units instead of settling for 3 units. Signal strength seems to be low to certain devices like my Amazon Fire. I moved the access points and it seemed somewhat stable. Maybe the access points or mesh were conflicting. But then weird issues started to happen. The entire network would just drop. Then come back. Then on all the devices, it would sometimes drop connection. Another weird issue, it wouldn't allow the user to log in with the correct password. After about six tries, it would then accept the correct password. Very frustrating. The app was pretty cool, but without anything to tune, it became a less useful product and was not an upgrade to my existing wifi. It also didn't have any easy way to access event logs so that I could understand what was working. It had a reporting mechanism that showed when devices accessed the network, but it did not update accurately. I tried chat twice, no response. I sent an email but the response time would be 24 hours. I went onto the tech support forum, and there were similar posts like mine. There seemed to be a firmware code that could be applied that was beta but you could only get it from support. I want wifi to just work. We are all working from home including multiple kids trying to school from home. I can't spend two days trying to work and without a product that looks cool but can't meet common reliability standards. I returned the product. I am disappointed because this product advertised would have been an upgrade but it was not as reliable as past Wifi products that I have used and the support was subpar in my opinion.

Had been mulling over a mesh wifi system to replace my Apple router with one extender that provided less than stable internet speeds throughout my home. With a cable input of 200mbps, I had places inside my house as low as 17mbps even as I would see 230mbps wireless speeds closest to my router. After weeks of reading specs and reviews on all the major brands of mesh wifi systems, I decided to give this TP-Link Deco system a try. The setup for the TP-Link Deco M9 was fairly easy, requiring an app download onto my iPhone, and about 30 minutes of placing and connecting the devices, first to my modem and then to the Deco hub router wifi signal. At first, I noticed some issues, with the signal being dropped on the satellite M9s after the connection to the M9 hub router. After downloading two firmware updates that problem disappeared. I then went about testing the internet speeds in all areas of my home, indoors and out., running from room to room where I always got a signal, but speeds varied dramatically, ranging from 230mbps down to, as low as, 30mbps in the more remote areas and in my outdoor living areas furthest from the M9 hub router. After sleeping on this dilemma it occurred to me that in moving about I needed to be sure what M9 Device I was connected to; and I began to notice a slight delay in my iPhone connection shifting to the closest M9 device. Ultimately, this gave me the answer. Upon retesting, as I moved from room to room, I made sure that my iPhone wireless connection had migrated to the closest M9 before performing the internet speed tests. Once I did this, speeds in every part of my home exceeded 100mbps, with most indoor areas achieving 150mbps to 230mps. Even on my back porch and screened porch, internet speeds were upward of 150mbps. Only one area had any issues, and that was a test done outdoors on a far corner of my home wish was one floor down and 40 feet away on the other side of a stone wall to the closest M9. In selecting this system I also noted that certain devices requiring different band speeds, and that could cause issues when running multiple devices that had specific band speed requirements. While I have not tested this yet, I can see that the DECO M9 app allows you to select the band speed by device...something worthy of consideration. Overall, I give this product two thumbs up, at a very reasonable price point. Thus far very happy with this purchase.

I've installed a lot of mesh wi-fi systems. Most have been eero, Linksys Velop and Netgear Orbi, but having installed three TPLink Deco systems to date, I have to say I've become quite the fan. The main thing that most reviewers say about TPLink's Deco systems are that they provide superior value. They're never the highest-performing mesh systems, but they typically cost significantly less than their competitors, and they include a lot of features despite the budget price. However, there's something else I've noticed about TPLink Deco systems: they set up much more easily than their higher-priced competitors, and once set up, they tend to stay connected, while their competitors seem to do too much yoyo-ing. All mesh systems are intended to be set up and managed using smartphone apps. My normal setup experience with Orbi is that you follow the steps to bring an access point online, and it takes 5-10 minutes per access point, and anywhere from 3 to 5 attempts (at 5-10 minutes each). My Velop installations have gone a bit more quickly and smoothly, but still, I've had lots of false starts. My eero installations are the only ones that come close to Deco installations, because after the app tries and fails to find an eero access point, it gives you an option to find the access point by its serial number, and that usually succeeds. But all my TPLink Deco installations have gone like clockwork. Access points are found in half the time of the others, and they almost always come right up on the first attempt. Similarly, I've found that Orbi, Velop and eero access points have an annoying habit of falling offline. Getting them back online ranges in difficulty from simply power cycling the downed access point to having to reset the entire wireless network; and again, eero tends to be the most reliable of those three. But the only thing I've ever seen bring down a TPLink Deco access point is a power failure. I'm an IT consultant, and one of the many things I do is install mesh networks for clients. Time is money, and clients notice when an installation is taking too long. They also get frustrated with frequent outages. TPLink Deco has provided the smoothest installations and generated the fewest support calls, so I have become quite the Deco fan.