A fat 160MHz channel width helps the Deco system overcome physical obstacles and interference from other networks. There’s no web interface to speak of, just a lightweight status page, with setup carried out via the smartphone app. Eliminate weak signal areas with a single Wi-Fi network that covers every corner of your home with seamless roaming, adaptive routing and self-healing. For many homes, though, the basic free service will suffice, offering on-demand network security scans, plus simple per-device web filtering and bedtime settings.

The Deco app also works as a smart-home hub, offering one-touch controls for TP-Link’s Kasa appliances, plus integrations with Philips Hue and Samsung SmartThings. That may sound bad compared to the likes of the Eero 6 Plus, but I’m testing here with just the router.This makes the system a lot more affordable than tri-band systems such as TP-Link’s Deco X90 but it also means there’s less bandwidth available overall. Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year. Keep your family safe online with one-touch security settings that block content based on age-appropriateness. Easily create a profile for each family member and set custom time limits and online time allowances. As a Deco product, it needs to be part of a mesh system, and then it has all of the same security and parental control features of other Deco devices.

This swiftly detects the Deco units and prompts you to choose a name and security settings for your new mesh. The compact TP-Link Deco X50-PoE is much smaller than other members of the X50 family and, indeed, other Deco products that I have reviewed in the past.Spin the X50 units around and, at the rear of each one, you’ll find a stack of three gigabit Ethernet ports and a power socket. HomeShield examines your network by scanning and identifying potential risks, stopping them in their tracks before they harm your network. Subsequently, the same app handles basic network management tasks such as setting QoS to prioritise specific clients and setting up port forwarding, to make individual devices reachable over the internet.

We’ve put this to the test, assessing its performance and how useful features such as parental controls are.This will work with SIM cards from any network, running over 4G or 5G, depending on what the signal is like where you live. Unlike other sites, we test every wireless router we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. Mesh systems might be the best way to get a strong Wi-Fi signal where you need it, but the boxes can look ugly strewn around the house.

I quite like the way that the charges for parental controls and security are split, as you can choose the services that apply to you. Sophisticated algorithms account for various factors so that Deco X50provides ideal mesh WiFi, unique to your home.Actual wireless data throughput and wireless coverage, and quantity of connected devices are not guaranteed and will vary as a result of network conditions, client limitations, and environmental factors, including building materials, obstacles, volume and density of traffic, and client location. Traditional broadband or cable installation is expensive and time-consuming for your vacation home, farm, or suburban warehouse.