Deco S4 Whole Home Mesh WiFi System - Up to 3,800 Sq.ft. Coverage, AC1900 WiFi Router and Extender Replacement, Parental Controls, Deco S4(2-Pack)

Absolutely Reliable! This mesh is seriously a tank. Always works. Never drops out. Comes back smoothly after power outages. She is not fancy, she is not expensive, her app is intuative and easy to use. She is super easy to set up. Has a very strong signal. Works on 2 level homes. I have 3 sets in 3 different houses and I 100% recommend this brand.

Excellent!!! Easy to set up. My house is two levels, and work Excellent. Is wireless. Reply the good signal of my model. Love it

The price is worth it. I used to have to reroute my old router at least once a week. TP-Link has only needed to be rerouted because the modem have been updated or issues with the service provider. I love how fast everything is working. Before there was a lagging in the bedroom far east away from the modem more than 100 Feet coverage. But since I changed it to the TP-Link I can even close the door to the room and there has been no shortage in coverage at all. Love the way it looks, easy to install and no interruptions have been experienced, I have it for more than a year, this is one I highly recommend. I bought three to cover all weak coverage. One in the office near the modem, one in the living room and one in the far east of the apartment with brick walls. Keeping me logged from every angle with no LAN issues. And this was recommended to me by my internet provider installation man. He had come out to service their router more than it should.

*** 1 Year Review Update *** I decided to keep the system. After a few firmware updates and once TP-Link fixed the AP only mode such that the main and guest networks are truly separated I switched over from using it as a router to an AP solution. It has worked flawlessly since and without any performance degradation's. I still do not like the app-centric approach for "management" (cannot call it that honestly); insight would probably be more appropriate. But, I will be moving in the future to an enterprise grade solution (this solution purchase has just been a stop-gap until that time and I finalize my network architecture). For the average home consumer that is not very tech-savvy (which is the audience this product really targets) it is overall very simple to get up and running with very few issues, especially at this price point. I have submitted over a dozen feature requests to TP-Link and almost all of them have been discarded by the manufacturer (but at least acknowledged); of the ones that were "accepted" they were very trivial. As of today, Sep 21 20201, the system via the app is no longer able to check for updates (it receives an error). I believe this is not due to the units themselves but instead TP-Link's update portal that the units use to check for updates. Checking on the main site reveals an update published on July 15 2021 (S4 2.0_en_1.5.0 Build 20210607 Rel. 56436_US_EU_AU_JP_up.bin) that is available which is one update newer than my currently applied firmware published on September 30 2020 (S4 2.0_en_1.4.3 Build 20200918 Rel. 77820_US_EU_AU_JP_up.bin). Looks like I will have to update the units manually using the download links provided by TP-Link and by logging into the web UI (note: each unit will have its own web UI but one - the master - will show a different one by showing you the topology of the mesh; a manual firmward update can be applied using that unit). = Summary Overall this is a great product. It definitely addresses the WiFi coverage in our new home. It has only been a few days since I set them up. However, a star in my rating had to be knocked off which will become evident shortly. I may update this review after some more time has passed. But it is currently appearing I might be returning this. I operate these in access point mode and not router mode. I have a better router than what these units provide and do not need double NAT'ing on my house wide network. That, and, I will be replacing the house wide router with a substantially better one anyway in the coming months. This review, however, covers my utilization and experience in both modes. Also note that I am an IT professional and deal with network infrastructure (along with many other things) day to day for over 20 years. In this review the term “satellite” is used to denote a Deco unit that is not the main Deco unit. I have intentionally saved the worst points of my review as the last section. = Topology Setup I have fiber to the premise gateway, still with the gateways’ Wi-Fi fully enabled on both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. My home is over 2,650 sqft, single story, built this year, with gigabit Cat5e cables to each room the Deco S4 units are situated. All Deco units use the Ethernet backhaul. All Cat5e runs and cables have been tested to support gigabit speeds point-to-point (with of course the obligatory TCP/IP overhead). Placement wise each of the Deco units are almost in a straight line, a function of my floor plan and where I need Wi-Fi coverage the most. Relative distances between Deco units: - 25 linear feet between first satellite and second, main Deco unit with one interior door between. This I refer to as satellite 1. - 45 linear feet between second satellite and main Deco unit with 3 interior only walls between. This I refer to as satellite 2. = Performance The throughput performance on these is fantastic, especially at the price point. I have fiber gigabit Internet service. I use speedtest.net for all bench marks. I get the following throughput on a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (US), stock firmware, latest software and security patches. Distance is always the distance between my test device and a specific Deco unit and with line of sight between the test device and the target Deco unit. | Deco | Distance | Downstream | Upstream | Satellite 1 | 1 ft | 344 | 392 | Main | 1 ft | 446 | 389 | Satellite 2 | 1 ft | 460 | 392 | Satellite 1 | 3 ft | 279 | 422 | Main | 3 ft | 485 | 409 | Satellite 2 | 3 ft | 392 | 383 | Satellite 1 | 6 ft | 355 | 350 | Main | 6 ft | 477 | 390 | Satellite 2 | 6 ft | 483 | 461 | Satellite 1 | 9 ft | 361 | 475 | Main | 9 ft | 482 | 374 | Satellite 2 | 9 ft | 477 | 466 | Satellite 1 | 12 ft | 385 | 460 | Main | 12 ft | 451 | 458 | Satellite 2 | 12 ft | 501 | 528 | Satellite 1 | 15 ft | 445 | 389 | Main | 15 ft | 461 | 453 | Satellite 2 | 15 ft | 500 | 432 | A 15 foot distance between a Deco unit and a connected device is most likely acceptable considering average housing room sizes. However, in my house floor plan, I have an easy 25 foot line of sight from the main Deco unit to where I did a test. Results came in as 251 Mbps downstream and 117 Mbps upstream. Still, highly acceptable. At my maximum floor plan range to that same Deco unit and still maintaining line of sight of 33 feet I wind up getting an unexpectedly impressive 493 Mbps downstream and 388 Mbps upstream. While I cannot check in the app to see specifically which Deco unit my test device was connected to due to either app or overall product system issues, I am left with only one avenue of explanation: the Deco system has successfully performed link aggregation for my test device. If, in the first place, I am correct in this very poor conclusion due to the lack of data, then, this is indeed impressive and can very well be THE single most discriminator in overall product performance vs issues vs cost. I realize these performance tests are not representative of real world scenarios. Fact is, most people do not go to such lengths to test their products and relevant environments, much less describe their environments. When a little more time goes by I will update this review with more realistic real world performance tests in terms of longer distances and obstructions. = The Good I do not need parental controls, so, access point mode removes that for me, thankfully. Because I operate this in access point mode not having quality of service on the Deco's is just fine as is not having DHCP handled by the Deco's. Again, my current infrastructure handles all of these elegantly and more than sufficiently. In order to get a proper pass off while going from one end of the house to the other I had to enable fast roaming. Without enabling this resulting in unbearably long hand offs from one unit to the other based on proximity to units. The net result of this was severe performance degradation. This seems to work without issue and solved the hand off issue. The app is straightforward to use and easy to understand, ranging from initial installation to adding additional Deco's to day to day activities. The app also provides notifications of new devices when they are added to / detected on the network (both in router and access point modes). As expected you can define a main Wi-Fi network and a guest network. This is standard fare. You can select if you want both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands active or be more selective. Again, this is standard fare. You can rename connected devices in the app. Useful especially when connected devices do not allow you to set their DHCP host name. The units try to profile a connected device type (e.g., Phone, PC, etc) in which the result of this is also easily accessible via the app. But, when it cannot or gets it wrong you can override this in the app, very useful feature indeed. The app will also show you basic information such as allocated IP address, MAC address (wish it was in colon delimited notation and not hypen as the former is the standard representation for MAC addresses), connection type (main or guest network and frequency band) and which Deco unit the device is currently linked to. Unfortunately you cannot get the same level of information regarding devices connected to the guest network. Having visibility into this is just as important to give you another data point in your connected IoT devices. Oh, yeah, I suppose that people visiting your home is good too. Regardless, it is utterly unclear whether or not connected devices on the guest network have visibility to one another (e.g., can see each other), and much less have any reach into the main Wi-Fi or rest of your network. At a minimum, the default of any guest Wi-Fi network should be nothing can see anything else on the guest Wi-Fi , cannot see the main Wi-Fi, cannot see the rest of your network and can only see the Internet. Any Deco unit can serve as the main. In router mode, this means that the main unit has routing capabilities. Likewise, a different unit can be specified as the main via the app. = The Bad There is no white listing of devices, only a black list. Security best practice is white listing devices that are authorized for access. Having only a black list is unacceptable. It is on this ground alone these units may very well be returned. It escapes me why TP-Link would fail to include the ability to white list. Since this product seems to be targeted to the less network technologically bound than myself I can understand why only a black list is available (to prevent the less technologically adept folks from effectively locking themselves out). However, not including a white list capability does an injustice to everyone and is, security wise, shameful and puts consumers’ home networks at additional unnecessary risk of exploitation. Yes, using a white list to winds up meaning having to go through a little more trouble to allow a new device onto the network. For me, and every other IT security professional out there, white listing is an essential tool in the security posture arsenal and is one that should never be omitted. The only firmware release is the initial firmware release: Deco S4(US)_V2_191023 from December 25, 2019 (TP-Link support site). In the Deco app it reports no new updates for the firmware with a current version of 1.1.5 Build 20191023 Rel. 67285. Unzipping the firmware release on the support site shows the same firmware version as the app shows (specifically: S4 2.0_en_1.1.5 Build 20191023 Rel. 67285_US_EU_AU_JP_up.bin). Half a year later I would expect at least an additional firmware release. While not having any could be a good thing, generally, this is never the case. There are always bugs and vulnerabilities in every piece of software, and, firmware is no exception. Clearly a firmware update is needed at least to add a white list feature. There is a barely usable web UI for the Deco's beyond that of just using the Deco app. I have found a landing page for each Deco connected to my router via the IP assigned to each. All UI's require authentication. The UI is different depending on which Deco you connect to. The Deco's that are not the main Deco provide the following features: update the firmware, pull the system log or reboot. Accessing the system log allows you to save it, email it or clear it. In contrast, connecting to the UI for the main Deco yields a subset of the features compared to the app but adds visibility into the units' CPU and memory usage. Said subset of features are mainly read only via the interface, again, not very useful. Thus there is no real point in using anything but the app if one is looking for access to more robust features. Connected device presence status (online / offline) is wholly inaccurate as reported by the app. The only connected devices that are accurately reported for presence are those that have not left the Wi-Fi range and not power cycled. For example, all of my Fire TV sticks show as being online but all mobile devices that left the Wi-Fi range now show as offline despite being back within Wi-Fi range of the units for several hours. Even manually refreshing the view still yields in the app reporting these same mobile devices as being offline. More testing still needs to be performed, but, there is no reason why the device list status page in the app is this inaccurate. Bandwidth utilization by connected device in the device list is great to have. The only problem is that it too is completely inaccurate to the same degree as mentioned previously regarding connected device presence status. For those devices that actually show as being online the bandwidth utilization shown in this same view is always 0Kbps up and downstream. Since installation of the units I have yet to see this populated and have seen, once, and only once, a single connected device bandwidth utilization being reported if I select the said device in the list. There is no ability to perform a wireless site survey. There is no ability to use 802.11x. From a network management perspective there is no way to rename a specific Deco in terms of the host name that it will present to the rest of your network. All units show up simply as "deco-S4" from DHCP. Not useful. There is no way to designate the guest network LAN IP address range. = The Ugly Initial set up was in router mode, the default. Setup of main and satellite 1 Deco’s went flawlessly and took but a few minutes per. Meanwhile, satellite 2 refuses to join the mesh in router mode and always leaves me staring at a red blinking light. The app reports “Unable to add these Decos” and “Move these Decos closer to a Deco that you’ve already set up, then tap TRY AGAIN.” Why would anyone have to move a Deco unit closer to another? They have an Ethernet backhaul, and by definition, can communicate with each other! Meanwhile, the engineer within me takes a different stance: while all Deco units indeed have a gigabit Ethernet backhaul each unit must be able to verify a minimal Wi-Fi signal level from its closest neighbor. And, since I am a customer facing type of person that voice inside of me would scream: in order to assure the best possible experience please ensure all Deco units have no physical obstructions between them and that none are surrounded by things that can block radio frequencies such as metal and concrete. Point is, I have yet to get all three Deco units online in router mode at all. It is NOT an option to bring any units closer together. Satellite 2 Deco has been power cycled and reset (via the reset button on the bottom of the unit) half a dozen times per with precisely the same results. Now, putting the system into access point mode results in a perfectly usable system without any of these problems. Wish I knew why. Regardless, this is a telltale sign to me of poor engineering. Of course, switching system modes from router to access point (or vice versa) results in the system rebooting all Deco’s. The majority of most modern residential Wi-Fi capable routers do not require a reboot when making this change. This is so problematic that it is cause, alone, for me to return the product.

I live in an island surrounded by mountains. My house is made of concrete re-enforced with lots of metal. Needless to say, these are not good for Wifi reception. Recently, fiber optics became available in my neighborhood, but it's rather expensive and the company does not have the best customer support. I chose instead to go with T-Mobile's little white box and added the TP-Link Deco S4, which is affordable and gets good reviews. My concern was that the box is in my bedroom, near a window, and there are several concrete walls between it and the rest of the house. The installation guide recommends a clear line of sight between the units. It's impossible to get that in my home. However, I have had no problem. Connecting this to the white box went smoothly. I did not even bother masking the original network. The system works like a charm, and the TP Link is totally compatible with my T-Mobile white box. I have strong signal in all 2100 square feet, all the way past my deep veranda, regardless of the walls between. Speed is fine. I am able to watch my streaming movies and shows with no problem.

Fué sencillo de instalar, me tardé aproximadamente 1 hora en todo el setup, los equipos se conectaron rápidamente, incluso la impresora wifi con conexión wps fué sencilla de configurar y trabaja muy bien. Equipo excelente en el área de oficina apenas me llegaban 8-9 Mbps (con un repetidor) ahora tengo de 90-100 Mbps, mi computadora principal (una viejita Asus de 2012) a cada rato se caía el wifi y ahora está estable, también pude configurar mi streaming de música desde la oficina hasta la sala dónde se encuentra el Deco router y trabaja muy bien sin cortes.

Al principio me decepcionó un poco porque después de haber configurado los DECOs y crear la red, los dispositivos cliente se conectaban intermitentemente, es decir, se salían de la red y después volvían a conectarse, ésto pasaba con televisiones, computadoras, celulares y cámaras. La red mesh tampoco servía bien, si me movía de un lugar conectado a un DECO y me movia a otro junto a otro DECO, mi celular seguía conectado al 1ero, después perdía conexión y por ultimo tardaba un par de minutos en conectarse al otro DECO (aunque estuviera junto a él). Ésto resultaba increíblemente molesto porque el objetivo de la red mesh es precisamente perder conexión de un lugar a otro. Estaba a punto de devolver el producto hasta que revisé unos foros de TP-Link y recomiendan deshabilitar la función de "Fast-Roaming" en las configuraciones avanzadas de app para resolverlo. Al parecer es un protocolo algo nuevo y no todos los dispositivos lo soportan (aunque soporten wi-fi 6) y esto puede provocar intermitencia y que la red no funcione bien. Les dejo la configuración que me funcionó perfectamente a mí y ahora de los 100MB que tengo contratados me llegan entre 98 y 100MB en toda la casa: - Fast roaming deshabilitado (configuraciones avanzadas) - Beamforming activado (esto es para que la esfera de difusión de los radios se enfoque a done se encuentran los DECOs) - Modo de operación: Access Point (no router). Ésto es mera preferencia, pero si tu proveedor de servicio de internet te da un modem con router. Lo mejor es que ese modem siga administrando las conexiones y seguridad y que los DECOs sólo te proveean del servicio de wifi. Si los DECOs los dejas en modo router, tanto tu modem como los DECOs van a querer administrar las conexiones y eso puede provocar problemas de doble NAT o ruteo de puertos (básicamente problemas con servicios de streaming, videollamadas o juegos en linea). Lo mejor es tener un sólo router, ya sea que desactives el del proveedor o los DECOs los cambies a punto de acceso. - Correr el proceso de optimización de la red que provee la applicacion. - Si conectaron algún cliente a la red antes de desactivar el fast roaming, entonces saquen al cliente de la red (olvidar) y vuelvanse a conectar. Cuando dejas las configuraciones adecuadas, los DECOs funcionan execlente. En mi casa con 2 routers inalambricos difícilmente conseguia 30MB de los 100 que tengo y con muchísimas zonas muertas. Con éstos aparatos lo solucioné, pero de nuevo, tienes que estar muy atento con las configuraciones.

Works well, covers my whole house much better than my sky max router. Be warned if you buy this from Amazon America (because it is ⅔ the cost in UK) the power supplies come with American plugs so need to buy shaver adapters.

Recently purchased the TP-Link Deco S4, and I’m seriously impressed. It delivers consistently fast Wi-Fi speeds across every corner of my 4-bedroom double story house—no more dead zones or frustrating dropouts. Setup was a breeze, and the mesh system handles multiple devices without breaking a sweat. Highly recommend if you're after reliable whole-home coverage without the hassle. Great value for performance!

El Deco TP link funciona perfecto para crear una red estable en casa. Gran cobertura