I’ve used the tplink xe75 pro in a more industrial situation over 3 floors and a fairly large area Mesh systems in general are very good and well worth while.Nice review and very nicely explained.
I found the BT gear to be an absolute nightmare when using at someone else's house, the house was massive so mesh was a great way to cover it all. Ended up replacing with a Deco system that worked brilliantly for a few years. When doing a CCTV upgrade he finally agreed for me to go full unifi which has been rock solid.
Deco seems great value. I like the unifi kit but it is priced quite high hence why I selected eero as a more wallet friendly option. You get what you pay for though so I have to live with features being behind a paywall.
I have 3 TP Link Deco X55 units set up in Access Point mode from my router. The router provides ethernet to hard wired devices and the wifi radios are disabled. The Deco provides the wifi. All three units are linked by ethernet cable. Perfect coverage in the entire house. The system works flawlessly. The wifi speed is ALMOST as fast as the hardwired ethernet speed. If you have smart devices to connect that only use 2.4 wifi, set the wifi radio to 5.0 only and set up the guest wifi to 2.4 only with a different ssid. That way, pairing the devices wont have trouble selecting 2.4. You just select the guest 2.4 ssid.
We've just gone through this, previously had BT complete system with 2 discs, which was perfect in our house (2 discs which ran around 300bps) - switched to Vodafone, but the single router wasn't enough to covery whole house, got a mercusys 3 box mesh system off amazon at £70, set it up using my old BT SSID & Password, and plugged it into the back of the new vodafone router, voila everything in the house just reconnected to the new mercusys routers , which rocksoild wifi all over house (took about 10 mins to set up from start to finish & didn't need to retype the password / SSID on any devices on the old wifi)
I love my Eeros. I upgraded from 3x Eero 5 to 3x Eero 6s. I wish I didn’t have to bridge it to my Sky router, but it is very reliable. Waiting for the 7 to come down in price. It will be interesting to see when wifi 7 comes devices. My auto update has never worked. I have always done my manually.
I bought a 3 node Mercusys AX3000 last August to replace a powerline network that was proving unreliable. Added three further nodes I bought afterwards from eBay. Mercusys is the cheaper version of Tp-link Deco. Even though it uses the same 2.4/5GhZ for wifi backhaul I’ve had absolutely no issues with it at all. Solid and fast wifi absolutely everywhere in the house and garden. No paywall or additional subscription options on it either 👍 Only thing it doesn’t do is separate SSID eg for IOT devices, although there is a separate guest network I could turn on if I wanted to use it for that. Price up and down all the time on Amazon, typically £160. Recommended. And there’s a HA integration as well 😊
Nice! Yeah Amazon appear to be the only ones offering a subscription for basic functionality(although Netgear and Asus offer one for advanced cloud services like family protection which is sort of justified) I hope they don’t start a trend!
I bought my first Eero in 2020, and it has been fine, but I wanted to expand the reach. Therefore upgraded to the Eero 6+. I set that one up as the wired primary that speaks to the older original Eero wirelessly. It works as described. Only strange issue is on an Apple iPhone, there is no separate Eero SSID. On my Android, I can visibly see the Primary and Remote Eero. Not sure how to set it to only show the single on my Android, but regardless, I love the Eero ecosystem as a whole. especially when having guests over. They simply scan the QR code and it automatically connects their phones. ❤❤
I’m pretty certain that it’s supposed to only look like one single network to both your iPhone and Android phones and they would automatically get pushed between eero nodes without your knowledge. However admittedly I have never used older eero kit so I don’t have first hand experience of that.
Thanks for that video. Good review at a great time because I am looking at getting a mesh system set up in my apartment. I have been using the ASUS you mentioned for a few years at my house and once I got the settings right (and there are a lot!) it was faultless and has been for over a year now (touch wood). All the advanced features are freely available, although you do need a web browser to access them which was very daunting for someone that’s not experienced with these things. That’s basically why I’m leaning towards the TP Link for the apartment. Everything accessible through the app and no pay wall. But the features are very similar and it has the 6 GHz band for wireless backhaul (I hate cables!). Also, both integrate well into HA! I was surprised you didn’t include that into your review by the way. 👍🏻
Thanks! And please click my Amazon links if you plan to buy (any product, just click through and then find what you’re really after!) because I get a bit of commission! I decided not to cover Home Assistant in this video because it was already quite long. I had a play with the eero sensors in HA which are provided by upnp and they weren’t that interesting. I know Asus had a lot more but I never really used them. It’s on the list for the future if I can figure out something useful to do with them!
I have the same BT Wholehome system, it did have a few issues at first but mine has been rock solid for years but i do have them all ethernet connected. Probably 50+ devices spread out over the network.
Mine were Ethernet connected, and I tried them wireless and a mixture. You have more patience than I did! I had a family screaming at me during lockdown and I was trying to work too, no time to wait for them to debug it!
I had that system also, very solid, I just remember plugging them in via ethenet to start with (in same room), left them for 1/2 hr, and then moved the discs to where needed (but on wifi only - no cable - I didn't use an app, as was on EE), all very solid it was (sadly moved to vodafone, and the router was only compatible to BT/EE/Plusnet)
I have the BT Wholehome 6 and it's very stable.... Until it's not! I happily used it without issue for years but over the past month it's factory reset itself 4 times - not fun at all!
But… subscription only for some features. I am not subscribed and whilst it annoys me they’ve done that I am not missing the features really. It keeps the price of the hardware down.
Yes you should plug it into the fibre modem because they replace your existing router ideally - you will need your ISP credentials so check their FAQs for something about "using your own router". You can plug it into your existing router instead but you either end up with reduced functionality or a situation known as double-NAT which can cause strange faults with certain devices and apps. If you can connect the eeros directly to your modem to replace your existing router then that is the best approach.
I don't think that you can do that at all even with a subscription on eero. I certainly can't find that feature myself - have you spotted it documented somewhere?
Im debating between these two. Most of my devices I believe can only utilize 5Ghz. So with that in mind, With the 6e, does it mean that most of my devices can are only utilize just the 2.4Ghz and the 5GHz (essentially wasting the 6GHz band)? Or can I set the 6GHz as a dedicated wireless backhaul?
Honestly I'm not totally certain, but one of the benefits of the Eero Pro 6E is that it's all pretty much hidden from you - it's all automatic and you can't set a specific frequency for a specific purpose.
Yes, unless your devices support the 6GHz band, everything will be connecting to the best band available, which in your case would be the 5Ghz one. However, in a mesh like the Deco, you can actually force a band to connect to for individual devices.
@@vakama94 Yeah after a little bit more research, I did discover half of my Apple devices (iphones, iPads), as well our my two main work laptops can utilize 6Ghz band now. So I think I may pull the trigger on the WiFi 6E or even WiFi 7 protocol. Looks like Apple, HP, and other manufacturers for last 2 years have been issuing out devices with 6GHz capabilities with more coming as a standard.
@@ONI1013. That is correct, just keep in mind that if it's an Apple device, it's going to ask you to name all the bands the same so you can use the 6Ghz better. Also, Wifi 7 stuff right now is super expensive, so just think it through.
Good explanation, but I always wonder why people become obsessed with bandwidth rather than connectivity. Short of having an 8k TV at home, no one devices needs more than 10-20 Mbps
I totally disagree, more bandwidth means more devices can communicate without noticeable delays. Your 30+ smart devices all sending their updates without your TV’s 10-20Mbps stream noticing. I’m also regularly transfering data back and forth between my NAS and my laptop and bandwidth is very important. Just because you have one or two devices you can visibly see not needing much bandwidth doesn’t mean them and all the others you can’t see don’t significantly benefit from there being more available.
It does seem a bit penny-pinching, and then I realised I don't actually use built-in router dynamic DNS anyway. I have a Synology NAS and I use their DDNS service, plus I use DuckDNS for Home Assistant. Both of those work extremely well. I haven't needed to use a router DDNS service in many years.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Yes, I do know England. It is a nation that aimed to suppress its colonies, undermining their self-sufficiency and extracting their wealth.
*MY* Asus CT8, as shown in the screenshot in the video has had no firmware for years which is why I ditched it, so it's totally correct info. I didn't mention other models in the lineup.
That's fair enough but the CT8 looks identical to the XT8 so there could confusion. I agree that I would be more than disappointed if my routers were no longer getting firmware but it is not across the board with Zenwifi products.
Purely down to cost. Maybe in 5 years when these are no longer viable to use I could be in a position to spend a bit more. A three node 6E tri-band mesh system from Ubiquiti is around £750 when I checked last.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I was going to post a similar comment. Skip the mesh system, you can still do Ubiquiti 'on the cheap' using just their access points, a cheap POE switch or injectors and switching off the WiFi on your ISP router. You don't need to buy their other products to benefit from their excellent access points. If you really want to go deep, add a switch and router but it is not required. TP link also do an equivalent system under the Amada branding. That said there are absolutely merits to these plug and pay systems but I 100% agree with your comments on the subscriptions, they are just yuck.
Really disappointed in the Eero app, unless you can do it with the newer hardware: can't choose the WiFi channels, transmission power, channel bandwidth. Dynamic DNS requires some sort of paid subscription. Thanks for an inferior product, Amazon.
I’ve used the tplink xe75 pro in a more industrial situation over 3 floors and a fairly large area Mesh systems in general are very good and well worth while.Nice review and very nicely explained.
Thanks! And yeah I don’t think there’s really a wrong answer when picking a mesh solution. Apart from BT, that’s a wrong answer :)
I found the BT gear to be an absolute nightmare when using at someone else's house, the house was massive so mesh was a great way to cover it all. Ended up replacing with a Deco system that worked brilliantly for a few years. When doing a CCTV upgrade he finally agreed for me to go full unifi which has been rock solid.
Deco seems great value. I like the unifi kit but it is priced quite high hence why I selected eero as a more wallet friendly option. You get what you pay for though so I have to live with features being behind a paywall.
I have 3 TP Link Deco X55 units set up in Access Point mode from my router. The router provides ethernet to hard wired devices and the wifi radios are disabled. The Deco provides the wifi. All three units are linked by ethernet cable. Perfect coverage in the entire house. The system works flawlessly. The wifi speed is ALMOST as fast as the hardwired ethernet speed. If you have smart devices to connect that only use 2.4 wifi, set the wifi radio to 5.0 only and set up the guest wifi to 2.4 only with a different ssid. That way, pairing the devices wont have trouble selecting 2.4. You just select the guest 2.4 ssid.
We've just gone through this, previously had BT complete system with 2 discs, which was perfect in our house (2 discs which ran around 300bps) - switched to Vodafone, but the single router wasn't enough to covery whole house, got a mercusys 3 box mesh system off amazon at £70, set it up using my old BT SSID & Password, and plugged it into the back of the new vodafone router, voila everything in the house just reconnected to the new mercusys routers , which rocksoild wifi all over house (took about 10 mins to set up from start to finish & didn't need to retype the password / SSID on any devices on the old wifi)
Mesh is definitely worth it!
I love my Eeros. I upgraded from 3x Eero 5 to 3x Eero 6s. I wish I didn’t have to bridge it to my Sky router, but it is very reliable. Waiting for the 7 to come down in price. It will be interesting to see when wifi 7 comes devices. My auto update has never worked. I have always done my manually.
I would have loved to try the 7 out but they were just so much more expensive. Maybe Amazon will want me to give them a test, hint hint Amazon :)
How was Eero 5 ? was it still pretty good ?
I bought a 3 node Mercusys AX3000 last August to replace a powerline network that was proving unreliable. Added three further nodes I bought afterwards from eBay.
Mercusys is the cheaper version of Tp-link Deco. Even though it uses the same 2.4/5GhZ for wifi backhaul I’ve had absolutely no issues with it at all. Solid and fast wifi absolutely everywhere in the house and garden. No paywall or additional subscription options on it either 👍
Only thing it doesn’t do is separate SSID eg for IOT devices, although there is a separate guest network I could turn on if I wanted to use it for that.
Price up and down all the time on Amazon, typically £160. Recommended.
And there’s a HA integration as well 😊
Nice! Yeah Amazon appear to be the only ones offering a subscription for basic functionality(although Netgear and Asus offer one for advanced cloud services like family protection which is sort of justified) I hope they don’t start a trend!
I bought my first Eero in 2020, and it has been fine, but I wanted to expand the reach. Therefore upgraded to the Eero 6+. I set that one up as the wired primary that speaks to the older original Eero wirelessly. It works as described.
Only strange issue is on an Apple iPhone, there is no separate Eero SSID. On my Android, I can visibly see the Primary and Remote Eero. Not sure how to set it to only show the single on my Android, but regardless, I love the Eero ecosystem as a whole. especially when having guests over. They simply scan the QR code and it automatically connects their phones. ❤❤
I’m pretty certain that it’s supposed to only look like one single network to both your iPhone and Android phones and they would automatically get pushed between eero nodes without your knowledge. However admittedly I have never used older eero kit so I don’t have first hand experience of that.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech How do I know if perhaps they are too close to each other?
Thanks for that video. Good review at a great time because I am looking at getting a mesh system set up in my apartment. I have been using the ASUS you mentioned for a few years at my house and once I got the settings right (and there are a lot!) it was faultless and has been for over a year now (touch wood). All the advanced features are freely available, although you do need a web browser to access them which was very daunting for someone that’s not experienced with these things.
That’s basically why I’m leaning towards the TP Link for the apartment. Everything accessible through the app and no pay wall. But the features are very similar and it has the 6 GHz band for wireless backhaul (I hate cables!). Also, both integrate well into HA! I was surprised you didn’t include that into your review by the way. 👍🏻
Thanks! And please click my Amazon links if you plan to buy (any product, just click through and then find what you’re really after!) because I get a bit of commission! I decided not to cover Home Assistant in this video because it was already quite long. I had a play with the eero sensors in HA which are provided by upnp and they weren’t that interesting. I know Asus had a lot more but I never really used them. It’s on the list for the future if I can figure out something useful to do with them!
@@SpeakToTheGeekTechif I click your link and then click “open in Amazon app”, will you still get the commission?
I think so, Amazon referrals is a dark art!
I have the same BT Wholehome system, it did have a few issues at first but mine has been rock solid for years but i do have them all ethernet connected. Probably 50+ devices spread out over the network.
Mine were Ethernet connected, and I tried them wireless and a mixture. You have more patience than I did! I had a family screaming at me during lockdown and I was trying to work too, no time to wait for them to debug it!
I had that system also, very solid, I just remember plugging them in via ethenet to start with (in same room), left them for 1/2 hr, and then moved the discs to where needed (but on wifi only - no cable - I didn't use an app, as was on EE), all very solid it was (sadly moved to vodafone, and the router was only compatible to BT/EE/Plusnet)
I have the BT Wholehome 6 and it's very stable.... Until it's not!
I happily used it without issue for years but over the past month it's factory reset itself 4 times - not fun at all!
Mesh Wi-Fi is excellent recommend the Tenda Nova system just buy and use , no ongoing costs .
I’ve not actually heard of that brand, I’ll have to go and investigate
I would like to see a wifi coverage map, is it better in one direction rather than another? What about straight above or below etc
I’m working on something. Looking into the best software to do that for free :)
subscription, ehh, no thanks, instant no from me! Looked good before then.
But… subscription only for some features. I am not subscribed and whilst it annoys me they’ve done that I am not missing the features really. It keeps the price of the hardware down.
Just purchased 2 of these, do you plug into the router or straight into the modem where the fibre comes into the house as I’ve seen on some videos?
Yes you should plug it into the fibre modem because they replace your existing router ideally - you will need your ISP credentials so check their FAQs for something about "using your own router". You can plug it into your existing router instead but you either end up with reduced functionality or a situation known as double-NAT which can cause strange faults with certain devices and apps. If you can connect the eeros directly to your modem to replace your existing router then that is the best approach.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech thanks 👍
It’s crazy you can’t split the bands without a subscription.
I don't think that you can do that at all even with a subscription on eero. I certainly can't find that feature myself - have you spotted it documented somewhere?
Great info Sir.
OK ,I have just taken on SKY Ultra Fibre broadband .BUT i have a dead spot .Will EERO Pro6 help me with this problem ?
If installed and configured correctly in appropriate locations around your home, yes.
Im debating between these two. Most of my devices I believe can only utilize 5Ghz. So with that in mind, With the 6e, does it mean that most of my devices can are only utilize just the 2.4Ghz and the 5GHz (essentially wasting the 6GHz band)? Or can I set the 6GHz as a dedicated wireless backhaul?
Honestly I'm not totally certain, but one of the benefits of the Eero Pro 6E is that it's all pretty much hidden from you - it's all automatic and you can't set a specific frequency for a specific purpose.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Thanks for the quick response. I may have to do a little bit more research.
Yes, unless your devices support the 6GHz band, everything will be connecting to the best band available, which in your case would be the 5Ghz one. However, in a mesh like the Deco, you can actually force a band to connect to for individual devices.
@@vakama94 Yeah after a little bit more research, I did discover half of my Apple devices (iphones, iPads), as well our my two main work laptops can utilize 6Ghz band now. So I think I may pull the trigger on the WiFi 6E or even WiFi 7 protocol. Looks like Apple, HP, and other manufacturers for last 2 years have been issuing out devices with 6GHz capabilities with more coming as a standard.
@@ONI1013. That is correct, just keep in mind that if it's an Apple device, it's going to ask you to name all the bands the same so you can use the 6Ghz better. Also, Wifi 7 stuff right now is super expensive, so just think it through.
Good explanation, but I always wonder why people become obsessed with bandwidth rather than connectivity. Short of having an 8k TV at home, no one devices needs more than 10-20 Mbps
I totally disagree, more bandwidth means more devices can communicate without noticeable delays. Your 30+ smart devices all sending their updates without your TV’s 10-20Mbps stream noticing. I’m also regularly transfering data back and forth between my NAS and my laptop and bandwidth is very important. Just because you have one or two devices you can visibly see not needing much bandwidth doesn’t mean them and all the others you can’t see don’t significantly benefit from there being more available.
@SpeakToTheGeekTech Indeed, but without stable connectivity then it doesn't matter how much bandwidth you've got!
Charge for dynamic DNS? Hard pass from me buying this Amazon day
It does seem a bit penny-pinching, and then I realised I don't actually use built-in router dynamic DNS anyway. I have a Synology NAS and I use their DDNS service, plus I use DuckDNS for Home Assistant. Both of those work extremely well. I haven't needed to use a router DDNS service in many years.
Rooter?
You know, like English, invented in England.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Yes, I do know England. It is a nation that aimed to suppress its colonies, undermining their self-sufficiency and extracting their wealth.
Great video but incorrect info about Zenwifi. I have XT8 and firmware from March 24
*MY* Asus CT8, as shown in the screenshot in the video has had no firmware for years which is why I ditched it, so it's totally correct info. I didn't mention other models in the lineup.
That's fair enough but the CT8 looks identical to the XT8 so there could confusion. I agree that I would be more than disappointed if my routers were no longer getting firmware but it is not across the board with Zenwifi products.
I'd have thought you'd be a Ubiquiti guy.
Purely down to cost. Maybe in 5 years when these are no longer viable to use I could be in a position to spend a bit more. A three node 6E tri-band mesh system from Ubiquiti is around £750 when I checked last.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I was going to post a similar comment. Skip the mesh system, you can still do Ubiquiti 'on the cheap' using just their access points, a cheap POE switch or injectors and switching off the WiFi on your ISP router. You don't need to buy their other products to benefit from their excellent access points. If you really want to go deep, add a switch and router but it is not required. TP link also do an equivalent system under the Amada branding.
That said there are absolutely merits to these plug and pay systems but I 100% agree with your comments on the subscriptions, they are just yuck.
Really disappointed in the Eero app, unless you can do it with the newer hardware: can't choose the WiFi channels, transmission power, channel bandwidth. Dynamic DNS requires some sort of paid subscription. Thanks for an inferior product, Amazon.
You are totally correct, you can’t change any of that. It’s a plug and leave some sort of system will very little fiddling allowed