TP-Link Deco Mesh WiFi Router

First off, I'd recommend getting the 3-pack unit as it's only $20 more than the two pack. If you don't need all 3 you have a spare. The product description says "WiFi Router/Extender," and I should have been more careful in selecting this product, as I had in my mind that it would allow me to extend an existing wifi signal (an existing SSID). It does not. I should have read the details more carefully. I saw “Wifi” and “Extender” and good reviews and bought it. It was the first Wifi Extender that didn't have a ton of bad reviews that I could find. And it does provide whole house coverage nicely; it just doesn't extend your existing wifi signals / SSIDs. This is a mesh wireless network kit. One of the units MUST be hard wired into your network via RJ45 cable (included). The default mode for the unit is as a wifi router (yes, it does DHCP). Once you've set it up you can go back into the config and change it to Wireless Access Point (WAP) mode. This is what I did. A few notes: Setup requires a Smartphone/Tablet. Requirements: iOS 9.0 or later, Android 4.4 or later AND Bluetooth 4.0 or later. You cannot have two separate SSID names for your 2.4 and 5 GHz networks. Whatever name you give the wireless network is used for both. I did not like this. You can selectively turn off either of the two frequencies. This unit IS A ROUTER by default. It has a Quad-core CPU and includes 2 LAN/WAN Gigabit Ethernet Ports. It includes TP-Link Mesh Technology: MU-MIMO, Auto Path Selection, Self-Healing, AP Steering, Band Steering, and Beamforming. You can get a cable modem and plug these units in as your only router and it will do DHCP and hand out IP addresses. It also comes with some malware protection. That being said, for those of us who already have a router doing DHCP you really need to put the Deco in WAP mode or have two DHCP devices on your network, which is BAD. There's an interesting 11-page TP-LINK forum thread (topic 160293) about a feature in the DECOs where if your router stops answering DHCP requests (say you're rebooting it or upgrading firmware) the DECO will detect that DHCP requests are not being answered and start handing out IP addresses. And apparently there is no way to turn this off. This “feature” has made lots of people very angry. It seems like if you set it up to use the same subnet for the Deco DHCP as your main router, but carved out a DHCP range for the DECO that is in your main router's static range that you never use you might be able to avoid this issue. YMMV. Firmware updates take about 5 minutes per WAP. I set up the unit yesterday and updated the firmware. There's already another update today. Not sure if this is the status quo or not. Since it is a router, I guess that's reasonable. There are fixed timers in the app so the hard-wired units are up long before the timer on the app runs out. ☹ The wireless slave units on the other hand take longer than the app timers, so it freaks out when the timer runs out and it's not done. It shows a HUGE number of a true remaining time. The good news is that it eventually updates successfully. Patience, young padawan. 😉 Updating the firmware on a second unit is a little glitchy. It keeps asking over and over it I want to update it. There's another button behind to Update Firmware. I eventually chose “Later” and was then able to select the Update Firmware button. Sigh ... You'll want the manual if you're going to use the router mode; you can find it at the TP-LINK website. Note that the Advanced features that allow you to configure the router disappear off the screen when you switch it to AP mode. I got these units to increase the wireless coverage in one room in my house where there's a ROKU and a TABLO. The performance on the TABLO was unacceptable. I setup the units, and then plugged both the TABLO and the ROKU into the Deco with RJ45 cables. Worked like a champ. Side note - you can turn off the LED completely or put it in 'night mode' and specify a time range for the light to be off. Nice. Overall, the app needs work. The ability to disable DHCP completely really needs to be added; it does not have this feature. The ease of setup was okay. The throughput was great.