TP-Link Deco M9 Plus Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi with Built-in Smart Home Hub, Up to 4500 sq ft Coverage, Works with Amazon Echo/Alexa, Wi-Fi Booster, Antivirus and Parental Controls, Pack of 2

Let’s get things straight from the outset- this is a great piece of kit! I live in a standard new build of 1300 sq ft which has concrete walls and floors. The walls had proven impenetrable to my previous sky router and my current virgin v4 router. I had tried the usual WiFi extender but it had been unable to pick up the signal to extend! With 2kids homeschooling and 2adults working from home, we were at times on three simultaneous video calls which all had to be taken within the confines of living room and kitchen. This situation proved untenable and I decided to research various types of mesh system, my original idea being to go with the Amazon Eeos package (I had thought of Google but, in true “1984” style, I’m still wary of placing listening devices in my home). However, upon further research, I discovered that the Deco M9 was much faster and, since we are signed up to 600meg broadband, it made sense to invest in a product that could handle the speeds. I also reckoned that, for the next few years at least, I could live without WIFI 6.The product arrived 48 hrs later and, upon unboxing, first impressions were of well-built, solid units that, for a mesh system, were aesthetically pleasing enough. I also liked the fact that they sat low on the cabinet and were pretty unobtrusive. Setting up was really straightforward- download the app to mobile device, change virgin router to modem mode (dead easy- instructions are even on the Virgin website), plug modem into deco router, plug deco router into virgin tv box, power up and wait for the system to show a green light. All in all, took about 10 minutes and downstairs WiFi sorted.Next, take deco unit 2 upstairs (my house only required two units- a useful money saver) and follow instructions on app. Once plugged in, the unit finds the base unit and sets itself up. No hassle, no fuss. I set mine up in the upstairs landing. I also bought one of the plastic cradles for sale separately and now the unit is supported by its plug and sits against the wall, no trailing cables and nothing for young hands to curiously pull or prod.Speeds are brilliant. I have a full 600 meg coming in everywhere downstairs while upstairs comes in very slightly less at 592meg. There’s no noticeable difference in practice. I also made good use of the app to prioritise our work laptops, to turn the leds off in the evening, and to turn on the parental controls for all of the kids’ devices. Again, the interface is really user friendly and the app is intuitive.So, all in all, I can thoroughly recommend the deco m9. Our internet now fills the house (even the garage which is useful for me) and the speeds allow us to work from home with ease. So far, it has handled everything our internet hungry house has thrown at it: homeschooling, working from home, playstations, tablets, phones and WiFi tv all take place concurrently and the speeds remain high, consistent and secure.For around £260, this is a no-brainier investment if you suffer WiFi deserts upstairs and would prefer reliable WiFi to envelop your home!

Having been using the bt home hub for several months with fibre 150mb, I decided to purchase the Deco M9. The primary reason for this is because whilst the signal was strong in the room where my home hub was placed, the signal and speed upstairs suffered drop outs.I had initially used an Asus extender and then a nighthawk mesh and neither resolved my issue.Installing the Deco M9 (2 disc) was a doddle and all my devices connected pretty seamlessly (for example smart tvs/devices, cctv printer and more.The one key consideration which must be made is if you have Sky Q and Mini boxes. I have 1 main Sky Q box and 2 minis. Initially after connecting my sky to the Deco M9 (my setup is further below) I was experiencing a picture freeze (going yellow/purple) and messages about unsupported picture format. This occurred on all 3 boxes at different times.Further research allowed me to establish that as the sky q setup used a mesh network too, this conflicts with the deco m9 mesh setup. There were recommendations that the deco m9 is therefore best to setup as AP mode rather than as a router, however there is a really simple fix that worked to address this...Once your sky boxes are connected to the deco m9 router, go into the app, click on each of the sky devices shown in the connected network devices section, hit the cog icon in the top right for settings and turn off mesh technology. This then ensures the sky q and minis do not attempt to use the deco m9 mesh technology and use there own. Once done, problem was fixed.The way my bt hub and sky is setup is as follows:1) Bt hub 2 has WiFi disabled (both 2 and 5) within the default gateway router config. You'll read online that this isn't recommended due to double NAT and may see recommendations for a dedicated modem as the bt home hub 2 cannot be but into modem only mode, however disabling the WiFi works fine)2) My deco m9 has an ethernet cable from the the deco to the bt home hub 2.3) The deco is setup as a mesh network in router mode (not AP).4) As mentioned above, mesh technology was then disabled if you have sky q, as this uses its own mesh network to connect minis together (to note, if you have as many deco m9 discs as you do sky boxes, you could hard cable each into the deco by Ethernet and deactivate the wireless on each sky device as an alternative solution to disabling mesh technology- if you do this the app will pick up each sky device as hard wired.5) The additional disc was then connected in an alternative location as desired.Overall I'm really pleased with this solution. Just be advised that if you do use sky, you will need to use one of the two solutions above to get sky to work correctly! I have 23 devices connected to my deco m9 and the only issue was with sky due to their use of a mesh network.