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

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

I work as a data network technician, and these routers are awesome. I bought two 3-unit kits to build a WiFi mesh network for a customer on a large, multi-million dollar mountain property with four buildings including the main house. I was expecting to have to run network cables and utilize long-range point-to-point transceiver antennas to get WiFi to the farther outbuildings, but the Deco routers were pushing strong enough signal and automatically connected to each other in a such a way that cable runs and extra antennas weren't necessary. The routers were extremely easy to configure using the Deco app, and deploying them across the property was a breeze. The range on the units is impressive, easily covering 70+ feet and going through dense log-cabin walls. I was extremely impressed when one particular router which was too far away to communicate with the main unit had its traffic automatically routed through the next closest unit in a nearby building, daisy-chaining itself so that it could be connected and without any additional setup or configuration on my part. Speeds at all units were well within acceptable ranges, with all except one Deco getting over 100mbps download speeds. The mesh capabilities of the devices are very efficient and effective, with my mobile device automatically switching to the router with the best signal strength as I moved around the property. The Deco app made setup and management of the network very easy, with details like a network map, device heartbeat info, parental controls, and more. Adding all 6 routers to the network was easy and fast. This system ended up saving me time and materials, and saving my customer money because of how easy and effective it was at providing WiFi coverage around his property without the need for extra hardware or equipment.

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.

Tired of dead zones Took 5 minutes to set up Very simple Beat part it works like a router and I got to return the router the internet company provided for 10 bucks a month So it actually saves me money Amazing Btw I wrote this review without being asked

I live in a 1970s two-story brick house with plaster walls that eat WiFi for breakfast. My old ASUS router + extender setup left me with zero bars in the master bedroom, garage, and back patio. After fighting it for years, I grabbed this Deco S4 3-pack on a Prime Day deal for $119 and it’s been flawless for the last 14 months. Coverage & speed Placed one in the basement office, one on the main floor, one upstairs hallway Full bars everywhere now – even the detached garage 70 ft away pulls 180 Mbps down on 5 GHz Real-world speeds: 450-550 Mbps next to a node, 220-300 Mbps in the farthest corners (on a 500 Mbps fiber plan) Zero buffering on four 4K TVs streaming at once + two kids on Fortnite + my WFH Zoom calls Dead-simple setup Took 12 minutes total with the Deco app (literally plug in, scan QR code, done) Seamless roaming – phone/laptop walks from basement to backyard without dropping a single YouTube frame Guest network, parental controls, and QoS actually work and don’t require a PhD Reliability 14 months uptime, zero reboots needed Survived two 4-hour power outages (units just come back online when power returns) Runs cool and silent (no fans) Only two tiny gripes No dedicated backhaul band (it’s AC1900 tri-band in name only – shares 5 GHz for clients and backhaul), but with wired backhaul option or good node placement it’s never been an issue No USB port or fancy features, but I don’t care when it just works For $119-140 the 3-pack is stupid cheap compared to Eero or Nest (which I tried and returned). If you have a big house, thick walls, and just want rock-solid WiFi that you never have to think about again, buy these before the price goes back up. Already convinced three neighbors and my parents to ditch their old routers for the exact same kit. 10/10 – best money I’ve ever spent on networking. My WiFi problems are officially dead and buried.

My setup was this: TP-Link Archer C9 router TP-Link TL-WA855RE range extender TP-Link RE305 range extender Netgear EX-7000 Mesh extender Netgear PLW1000 powerline extender I’m in a 2800 sq ft house that is basically a 2 story rectangle. The C9 was in the lower level at one far corner of the house and the EX-7000 was in the opposite corner upstairs. The power line extender only works well when on the same breaker as it’s paired unit so the farthest I could place it was about 14 feet from the C9 just outside of the lower level office. Of the two TP-Link extenders, one was in the garage (lower level but opposite side of the house from the C9 but connected to the Netgear power line extender since it was 14 feet closer). The other TP-Link extender was on the upper floor about midway between the C9 and EX-7000. The EX-7000 connected to it. I then have 24 IP cams spaced around the house (mostly outside but attached to the house). Several Alexa devices, tablets, smart lights, smart plugs, and laptops spaced throughout the house. The problem is about half of the IP cams are capable of sending fairly high res video to their server hardwired to the C9 but the best I could do is about 7 frames per second at 384 to 768 Kb/S (depending on their signal strength). The Netgear EX-7000 was purchased about a week before the Deco Mesh since it was also touted as a whole house mesh system (but only up to 2100 sq ft). I was hoping it could handle the opposite side of the house from the C9 and I could remove all the extenders. I previously used separate SSID’s for each extender (so 2 for each as I separated the 2.4 from the 5). I’d then log into each camera and look for the strongest signal and connect to it. This whole thing worked ok, not great but just ok. So I bought the Deco 3 pack hoping to replace everything previously mentioned and turn off the wifi on my C9 and use it just as a router. I didn’t want to use the deco as a router as my C9 works fine for that. I ran a 25ft cat5e cable from the C9 router to the first deco unit (still in the same room as the C9, but on the opposite wall). I placed a second Deco just above the first unit on the second floor. The third unit was placed on the far side of the house on the 2nd floor (so opposite from the first unit). I connected all my cams and the results were far worse than my original set up. So I decided to start adding back in the extenders. I first tried the EX-7000 but eventually re-added all the above mentioned extenders. I now can support fairly consistent (but far from perfect) IP cam video at 7fps and 768Kb/S from the cams that support it. My goal was 30fps but that just wasn’t possible. I’ve spent 5 full days configuring and moving extenders to get the best coverage. I may consider adding on a 4th or 5th deco unit in the future, but everything is working for the moment. I think it may take 6 units to fully cover the house without any additional extenders. I didn’t like the fact that I could not access the settings via a web page like all my other extenders but the app works well. It seems to be geared towards the average user and has mysterious things like ‘network optimization’ which appears to simply choose the best channel to have the wifi signal broadcast on. I’d much rather just have the ability to change that manually but I guess I’m not the normal user they are targeting with this. I also don’t like that you can’t separate the 2.4 and 5GHz signals. I have many smart plugs that simply wouldn’t work until I turned back on my wifi of my C9 (even though the Decos had the same SSID). Thankfully, they are all close enough to ‘see’ my C9 so they don’t have to connect through the decos. I did try turning off the 5GHz band on the decos to connect the smart plugs but they just weren’t having any of it. Another negative of this system is I now have all the SSID’s the same. This allows each cam to find the best signal on boot up but they are fairly stupid little devices and sometimes get hung up connecting to a farther away extender. A more sure fire approach is to have each connected to the closest unit all the time and only connect to another if the closest is offline. I was able to accomplish the first part of that by having separate SSID’s for each unit. I considered going back to that type of setup but as I’m now on day 5 of this, I really don’t have the heart for it right now. Yet another thing I don’t like about the new setup is the farthest deco from the source deco (in the far side of the house in the basement) doesn’t connect to the closest deco but to the farther away unit on a different floor. This seems inefficient. 12/2022 update Lowering my star rating from 2 down to 1 for the following reasons: In November, TP Link updated their app with several promising enhancements. These included being able to see details of the clients connected to each deco (including MAC addresses). This was great as I was finally able to tell which of my IP cameras were connected to which deco (to see if it was connected to the nearest one or not). When I found the camera connected to the closest deco, I turned off the 'mesh' button for that client so it would always connect to the closest deco. The problem is, it didn't... it would still just allow the IP Cams to connect to a random deco (usually much farther away at a very weak signal). I've had to connect all these cameras to 5 different access points I have configured around my house with unique SSID's so they'll always connect to them. When performing 'network optimization' through the app, it used to just find the least used channel and change to it. I am able to control the channels on all my other devices so now, I let deco pick a channel (usually after they reboot) and then configure all my other devices around it to keep from interfering. I wish I could set the channel on the decos in the app. As long as I'm wishing, I wish I could also give each deco a unique 2.4 name while keeping the 5GHz the same across decos. That would allow me to connect to the closest deco with all my 'smart' home devices while allowing true smart devices (phones, laptops, etc) to roam on the mesh 5GHz network. My other huge complaint is stability. Probably 5-6 times per week, I need to unplug/replug the main deco because it just lost it's connection and flashes red. Sometimes, it even requires me to go all around the house rebooting all the decos. I would also like to be able to connect a deco that is far from the main deco to a closer satellite deco rather than to the main when it can't get above a 'fair' signal. I did end up buying 2 more decos a few weeks after my original review for a total of 5. 4 probably would have been good enough as the 5th seems to be fairly redundant regardless of where I position it in the house. The original 3 units are S4's and the 2 additional are AC1200's if that matters to anyone.... I actually have one of my decos outside (under the front porch and hardwired to two cams in that area (they usually wouldn't connect via wifi to that deco even though it was by far the closest). I now have a couple other cams that were outside and struggling to maintain connections hardwired to other range extenders as well. Between this and moving the other decos around, I've been able to get most of my cams up to 10fps and 1024KB/s. Some still struggle to his 7fps at 768KB/s. All this and my wife's complaints about the laptop in her office constantly lagging when trying to browse webpages (or just disconnecting) have forced me to have to put her on the same setup she was on BEFORE I bought any of the decos (which is connecting to a TP link range extender -RE305 -which connects to the original C9 router on a 5GHz wireless connection. Since this is also not perfect, she can choose to connect a lan cable to her laptop that is connected to one of the powerline range extenders (which is connected on the other end to a Deco via another cable). In short, I now wish I would have spent a little more and bought the linksys velop.