TP-Link Deco Mesh AC1900 WiFi System (Deco S4) – Up to 5,500 Sq.ft. Coverage, Replaces WiFi Router and Extender, Gigabit Ports, Works with Alexa, 3-pack

Excellent value and use. Uses your current network name and password after setup. Very easy. Had to unplug and move to my shed and was up and running in a few minutes. Keep in mind the main unit which anyone of the 3 must be wired via Ethernet cable to modem. After that just plug in and add on the app. Super easy. I am getting full signal 75’ with some obstruction. Very happy

This is truly a GREAT system! We could not be happier with the speed, stability, coverage, and ease of setup. Unlike all the programming U used to have to do to setup a router, or heaven forbit, set of routers... this system completely takes care of itself in setup. Just follow some rather easy to follow steps and you are up and running within an hour, with a set of three, like we have.In our case we are covering two stories of a house and our TV studio/shop next door, with just three. One in the lower floor area is in eye-shot of the one in the next building, which is in eye-line of the one in our dining room upstairs. Because ours can all "see" each other, I think we get even better signal coverage that the average. However, when I first setup the system, I used two in the main house only at first, and they did a good job of seeing each other through the floor/ceiling. Then I added the third next door and the system "inserted" that unit itself as the relay unit. You can see how they arrange themselves with the app you will install on your phone to get them setup, and then afterward, can always monitor status of the system and the individual relay units.We got this system as our interface to a Starlink network, and it is by far the best solution we have encountered for use with that system to date!

After doing a lot of comparison shopping, I ended up settling on the TP-Link Deco S4. My biggest factors were price, reliability, and range. I have a three floor 4500 sq/ft house built in 2003. The Verizon Fios Gateway router worked, but it suffered considerable slow down as I got to the extremes of the house. With the new three node Deco S4, I get full speed internet at every floor and extreme. Previously, I was able to get 100mb/s maxed out at the router with minimal traffic, but dropped down to 10 mb/s at the extremes of the house, especially the basement and some bedrooms. With one of these on each floor (main on middle), I range from 95-120 upload and download (paying for 100) on all three floors depending on time of day. Interestingly enough, I haven't suffered much dropoff in signal strength with each mesh node as opposed to the main wired unit acting as the router. I've read countless time that unless I'm using a wired backhaul that there would be signal dropoff at the mesh points, but I haven't witnessed any significant drop. I also purchased this system as it had ethernet ports for backhaul (if I needed to improve speed) and accesspoint use on each node, but I don't use any other than one at the main router for my Phillips hue bridge.The design is simple and clean. I was debating on saving $10 and getting the M4 (identical internals), but figured I was already scraping the barrel on price point so may as well get one that wasn't as much of an eye sore. These are clean, simple, modern, and much better to look at then the Fios provided router.The app is simple and intuitive and makes most of the decisions for you. It ran me through the setup very easily. It has parental controls and allows me to prioritize devices as well as setting up a guest network. However, what was most essential to me was the ability to turn off 2.4 or 5ghz signals if I needed to set up a product that only worked on one (usually older products that use 2.4 only). This app is mostly for people that have basic technical skills, but not full on IT networking knowledge.I chose to replace my Fios router entirely and run ethernet from the Verizon modem (optical network terminal) instead of coax so I didn't have to run the Fios router in bridge mode. I called Fios tech support and the person switched the feed to ethernet in five minutes. Now I don't have to rent my router and have much faster internet without relying on bridge mode. If you aren't comfortable with running ethernet and swapping it out at the ONT, you can use the Fios router and connect the Deco S4 to their router instead. This also allows you to keep your cable box functionality such as guide and on-demand without a MOCA adapter. I have no such plans as I'm dropping cable for YoutubeTV.On average, my house has around 40 connected devices from Phillips hue bridge/bulbs, Ecobee thermostat, Ring products, several Nest and Echo devices, five smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Don't buy into the hype that you need wifi 6e. This supports gigabit+ speeds and the dualband is more then enough to maximize efficiency. In addition, you can add or swap out mesh points to this system at any time from any Deco system (E3, M4, M5, P9, etc.). You can literally improve on this system in the future if desired. This was one of the best purchases I've made in a while.Update 2.4.21: I recently switched to 200mb/s from my ISP (it is the lowest package they offer when only purchasing internet). With this, I've noticed download speeds at the main router at 270-300 and 300+ upload depending on network traffic. I have seen more noticeable drop-off at the mesh points with this speed, usually 170-230 download and 200+ upload on my first mesh extension node, and 160-200 download on the one in the basement. I also have the biggest variance in upload speeds with this one at 45-120 upload, depending on time of day and network traffic. However this was also the location I had the biggest issue with previous to installing my Deco S4 system. In general, I am still getting amazing speeds, far exceeding what I'm supposedly paying for, extremely stable at every location of my house including the far extremes of my yard. I have can rely on blazing fast reliable internet throughout my house and not have to have wired backhaul to achieve it. However, I can now see why some individuals suffer noticeable drop-off with higher internet speeds at the mesh points. If you figure the drop-off as a percentage and multiply it times the speed, the difference will be more noticeable at the ghz speeds. Overall, love this device, how much faster my internet is and how I am not paying my ISP for their outdated routers they try to dish on unknowing consumers. Best purchase I've made in years.

This is a nice solution for mesh wifi. However non technical users may have some difficulty setting this up unless they follow the directions very closely. Also you should search the web for the deco S4 product and review the information found there as well before buying. I actually set up my 3 S4 Deco mesh in access point mode. To do that I needed to first run through the app as if I were connecting the first deco to my DSL router but I did not, then I accessed the settings (under the More button on the bottom of the app) then the Advanced for the first deco and set the Operating mode to Access Point. After that setting up the other 2 was a breeze. as they automatically configured. The instructions from the app advise you to upgrade firmware for each deco if used as an accesspoint. The app prompts were easy to follow and this upgrade was easy to do. Next was the placement moment. I decided to connect my "Main Deco" (this is what the first one is named) through a ethernet cable from my DSL modem to another switch in my living room and then connected the deco to that gigabit switch. This worked great. Then I tried to connect the other two deco's using a ethernet powerline adapter however this did not work so well, at first I thought there was a problem but after experimentation I found that the best way to use these as access points is to direct wire the first deco and then use the other two wirelessly. That took off immediately and all mesh points worked fine. Wifi signal expectations. Your Deco that is direct connected to the DSL modem/router (in access point mode) will pull the same speed as your home wired connection (in my case about 67mb) the other wirelessly connected decos will pull in the High 30mb-45mb so you will expect to see about a 40% loss of bandwidth connecting as I did. However the wireless connected decos deliver a solid signal and I can still browse, and stream with multiple computers/ipads/TV's with no issue. Also I have ring cameras and their signal improved after the installation of these deco units. At first you may find many components connecting to your "main deco" but that seems to be related to the order that you power up the units. After about a day all my wifi connected components sought out the deco closest to them and connected to the mesh there. This is one nice feature about the app, it is easy to see what devices are connected to each deco. If you accidentally /(or on purpose) switch off the mesh feature for a device it will stay on the deco it is currently on. I thought I was going to have to do that but it does not seem to be an issue. I am considering running a wire to the remote units if at some point I increase my service from the 70mb it is currently at but at present everything is working fine.Regarding tech support, I did access the live chat of the tech support but they primarily feed you the same answers that you can get off the web or by reading the support pages. So I would not rate them too high, maybe 6 out of 10 for service. But they did respond and they did attempt to answer my questions.Another small point but one I like is that the LED's that show the unit state are not overly bright but they are easy to see and you can easily tell the state of the unit (yellow during reboot, Red if there is an issue, or Red blinks a few times before going to white which means its all good!) and are not distracting in anyway.The app could be a bit better, there are some not so intuitive points to it and you will need spend some time figuring it out.Overall I am quite happy with my purchase. Now I will run them for a while and if any significant discoveries pop up I will update this review.