Amazon.com: Customer reviews: TP-Link Deco Mesh WiFi System (Deco S4) – Up to 5,500 Sq.ft. Coverage, Replaces WiFi Router and Extender, Gigabit Ports, Works with Alexa, 3-pack

Top positive review

great wifi coverage, easy to install and use

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2020

we moved during the pandemic and all of a sudden had to accommodate 4 children and 2 adults all needing Internet access at the same time. We had around 30 connected devices. We replaced our combined router/cable modem/wifi with a separate Arris Surfboard dedicated cable modem and used this product to do meshed wifi throughout our house.

Before setup we were getting continued wifi drops which often interuppted video calls even when we were in the basement with the wifi. After setup it now works seamlessly across our 3 floors and loft in our nearly 8000 square feet house... even extending into the yard. was expecting to need more than 3 but it did the job.

I think our prior issue was a combo of mixing the wifi with the router/modem and having two many devices connected at once (I was able to connect directly via an ethernet cable and work fine before so it wasn't our Internet connection).

the app is easy to use and provides good info. I haven't toyed around with the QOS aspects or parental controls yet but was surprised it had the options. look easy to just turn a device on or off.

Install was super easy (most smart products are now though)

Highly recommend this... no need to go pricier.

317 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Eastern

Product use requires release of user's data

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2020

Read the privacy policy in the manual before you purchase. You can only install the device if you agree with the manufacturer's "privacy" policy. The policy includes the automatic download of user data, including internet use and much more. Why not just allow the customer the option to use the product without having to give their use data to the manufacturer? I did not install and sent it back. I will find another router.

1,549 people found this helpful

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Eastern

Product use requires release of user's data

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2020

Style: 3-5 Bedrooms,3-packVerified Purchase

1,549 people found this helpful

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notrhj

SECURITY

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2020

Style: 3-5 Bedrooms,3-packVerified Purchase

This mesh unit is great, covers our whole house.
However Security Encryption is POOR
In a environment where everyone in our development is on WiFi, I don’t want them in OUR WiFi
It does NOT support WPA AES encryption only the weaker TKIP which is broken.
It does NOT support WP3 which is a 2020 standard.

As for Support another flaw is you CANNOT select the 2.4 or 5 GHz channels.
The Deco picks and if it picks poorly and there is interference from neighbors it CANNOT be changed.
Support has known about this AND THE AES issue since 2019 and has done NOTHING.

The answer for Every Engineering issue is “We will pass the information along”
As a router it CANNOT be configured locally or through a Web interface only with an IOS app.

The latest Apple updates (iOS 14) and MacOS will now flags this product as having Weak Security
The whole DECO line regardless of model is an orphan product.
If your looking for coverage it’s great
Product security and support look elsewhere.

847 people found this helpful

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madmikeee

Not Secure at all and no way to make it so.

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2020

Style: 3-5 Bedrooms,3-packVerified Purchase

Bought this item under the assumption that it was not necessary to use the app and sign up for the tp link cloud and that I could just use a web interface like every other router and access point on the planet. Nope. There is no way around signing up for their app and cloud BS and the web interface is a joke. It's little more than a status display. It may sound tinfoil hat'ish but I am an IT guy so I am always concerned about my network security at home and this cloud service is likely based in China meaning that they have access to any information I put in which is not my idea of secure. This is unfortunate because I liked the idea of using "desktop" style mesh access points in my home but I will just have to install other wireless access points instead or buy a competitors product that doesn't require me to sign up for anything to be able to use it.

621 people found this helpful

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Kurt White

Don't Buy if you don't like being the family IT support

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2020

Style: Mesh WiFi for Thick Wall,3-packVerified Purchase

It's decent, when it works. But most of the time it's not decent. I bought this with the intent that this might be overkill for my small-ish house (~1600 sq ft). The app is fine, pretty dumbed down, but fine. Having deployed dozens of firetide mesh networks, I like a bit more IT focused control (seeing signal strength and QOS across bands and seeing how the power line back line haul is working), but for the average consumer it is fine. But I don't like being IT support when I am at home. I just want stuff that works so I don't have to hear "the internet is not working", and I heard that the internet was not working plenty. I had one mesh node consistently loose signal (<30ft from the base and tertiary unit) and I constantly had chromecast devices drop off as well as laptops and other devices. I have one Android TV unit 3' from the base unit that routinely (every 30 minutes or so) had to have the wifi cycled on/off to maintain service. It's a headache. Just don't buy it.

UPDATE: So I went with another home mesh system and after having installed that new system with a node in the same location as the one that kept dropping off with the TP-Link, I notice even more how bad the TP-Link and software really are. The new system has a similarly simplified interface, but does tell me how the signal strength is doing and its 2-node system has excellent signal strength even in the position with the node that kept dropping off with the TP_link. The one device that I kept having to restart the wifi on (and that I thought might be the device malfunctioning), no longer has any issues. And I now get the full speed 400Mbs symmetrical over wifi throughout the house with the new system too, where the TP_link topped out at 100Mbs (actually closer to 90-ish download only....). And the new system took me about 15 minutes to set up and forget about, because it just works.

188 people found this helpful

Helpful

red_dog007

No 20MHz

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2020

Style: 3-5 Bedrooms,3-packVerified Purchase

The main thing I don't like about it is you can't change the WiFi channels nor how wide they are. 2.4GHz is a 40MHz channel. This is typically a huge no-no especially in congested areas. On top of this, the center channel is 8 which I can not change! This is 110% redicuolous and shows that they didn't have anyone who knows networking create the UI! I am contending for unused capacity across the ENTIRE 2.4GHz range!!!

It's' counter intuitive but because of WiFi congestion a 20MHz channel centered on 1, 6, or 11 is going to be significantly faster for me. Best I can get because of congestion is 30~45Mbps on a 20MHz channel. Because this Deco S4 is 40MHz on Channel 8 it has a hard time breaking 10Mbps. Shoot, even a 40MHz channel on 1, 6, or 11 would be faster.

Im giving it one star because of this. Once an update gives us an "advance wifi settings" page that lets us tweak these settings I'd give it a solid 4 stars.

Also, if you use it in router mode, Im still not sure what CPU is in the thing, but it seems pretty weak. I'd be concerned with it bogging down if you have too many sessions going on.

Luckily my client doesn't have neighboring wifi so 40MHz on whatever channel doesn't matter. The coverage is pretty solid too.

157 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Bad Option - Beware

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2020

Style: 3-5 Bedrooms,3-packVerified Purchase

So sorry to say, I had to return this with in hours. I came across issues with its set up. It did not let me proceed with the setup saying that it could not connect to the Deco device, although i see the wifi name as Deco. I tried calling the tech support. Although they mentioned a 24/7 support with their technical support info, my call was turned down saying that there is no tech support available at the moment. Then I thought its better to say sorry to them as well and started my return process and disposed it immediately.

109 people found this helpful

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Spoonman

BEWARE of power outages. Have to reset EVERYTHING!

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2020

Style: 3-5 Bedrooms,3-packVerified Purchase

The unit worked decently until a simple power outage. My power went out this morning for less than 2 minutes. When it powered back on the S4 light stayed red. I had to manually reset the whole unit and start fresh. This caused all of my wifi devices to need to be re-configured back to the unit. I chatted with an agent from TP-Link that stated this is normal and you have to re-configure the router when this happens. I asked if I have another power outage, would I have to this every time and they said yes. Who has time for this? I returned the unit and bought the Google Nest. Works fine so far. I turned off my main breaker at the house and it booted back no problem. The price was right on this model but it fails on reliability.

58 people found this helpful

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Brent Cox

Extreamly POOR app and even worse customer service! DONT BUY!

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2020

Style: 3-5 Bedrooms,3-packVerified Purchase

Rarely do I leave reviews but this one I have to warn you to stay away from. The APP is the worst excuse for a user interface that you could imagine. It started off by showing my connected devices but then only a third of them. After spending an entire day digging into the issue I settled on the following. Note I created the main wifi using only 5.0 and not 2.4 and 5.0. I wanted to keep my IoT separate on their own network so I created a guest 2.4 network. Here are the problems I had with no help from their supposed tech support people.
1. The app only showed devices connected to the main Deco router and not the two remote mesh units. This is proven because when you click on the device it shows which Deco unit it is talking to.
2. Anything on one network can NOT be seen on another network. I could not ping from 2.4 to 5.0 and I could not ping from 5.0 to Ethernet-connected devices.
3. Since I could not ping to Ethernet devices then I could not use my two printers that were on the network. One printer I switched over to WIFI since it had the capabilities for it. I selected 2.4 since it didn't have the 5.0 option on the printer. Guess what, my 5.0 connected devices could not ping the printer so they could not use it. My 2.4 devices (older PCs) connected to it okay and would print. I then switched the printer back to LAN and I could print from my Ethernet-connected PC but not the 2.4 that I could on the wireless. To be clear I NEVER had any network issues like this with my previous router.
4. Research their website and you will see lots of complaints about this problem. The App stops showing you the connected devices! I had just named all the devices in the app matching their MAC address so I could name them accurately. I have over 50 devices which were one of the reasons I chose the router. Remember though it only showed a third of them connected however all of my devices had internet connections which means the app is only showing the one on the main router and not the remote ones. The second day the app stops showing any connected devices just blank! This means all the time I put into naming a third of my network in the app was wasted! On the third day, their tech support suggested I factory reset the deco and start fresh which means if the devices could come back into the app named they would be lost after the reset.
5. Their tech support is not existing - they are not there - go into outer space and turn left, might find them there! I tried finding a USA phone number and couldn't (looked all over the website and only found Canada numbers). I decided to try the chat sessions with them and after three attempts I sent the crap back to Amazon for a refund. Their "tech support" would ask me to try different things and when I did and told them I just tried it they insisted I send a screenshot after every try and fail to "prove" I had tried it before they would move on to something else!?!?
6. To be very clear here I really like Tp-Link, when I said I have over 50 devices on my network, well about 25 of those are Tp-Link outlets and switches for lighting and things (IoT). I really like the Kasa app for those products so I thought (very wrong without much research) that this router would be the same quality. Well, the router performs well for speed, and then it ALL stops there.

Poor excuse for an APP and beyond belief they would let something like this APP out there knowing it has issues and has had issues for over a year or more. Again that my fault because I didn't review the product well enough!

Won't make that mistake again so please don't follow in my footsteps! Find something - anything - besides this brick!

41 people found this helpful

Helpful

FirePhotoGirl

Defective after 6 days

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2020

Style: 3-5 Bedrooms,3-packVerified Purchase

We really wanted to like these, because they are cool looking, and the reviews were great. So we set these up, which was easy, and we have AT&T Fiber. We knew we wouldn't get 1000 Mbps down or 1000 Mbps up on wireless (yes, Fiber is crazy fast), but 75Mbps down and 25Mbps up??? Really TPLink? So we go on chat with TPlink support, and they were pretty bad. After about 45 minutes of try this thry that, reboot your modem, now reboot the hubs, nothing worked. The firmware was up to date, but no matter what, we couldn't get anything faster. Sadly we returned these, bought the Netgear Orbi RBK50 3 unit system, and BAMMMM!!! 460Mbps down and 280 Mbps up on wireless. Sorry TPLink your units were bad, and your tech support was worse.

40 people found this helpful

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Josh

Privacy nightmare

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2022

Style: 3-5 Bedrooms,3-packVerified Purchase

The "privacy" policy is simple: you have no privacy. None. Not only do you have to setup through an app (which I wasn't fond of but expected before ordering) but they automatically obtain ALL of your data. Needless to say I'm immediately sending this back. In summary, just think about how disturbing this "policy" is coming from the company that the hardware you are buying is what flows all of your internet traffic, especially with their catch-all "For other legally permissible purposes" line :

1.2. Information We Collect Automatically

We automatically collect information about you when you access or use our Products and Services. For example, when you connect hardware devices or third-party services to your account, those hardware devices may report device usage information to the Services and the Services may read, process, and store this information(....)

We use the information collected for the following purposes:

To provide the Products and Services
Address customer inquiries or issues
Maintain customer accounts
Process customer payments
Improve the quality of our Products and Services
Improve the quality of our Sites
Personalize the Products and Services
Analyze how you use the Products and Services
To provide marketing and promotional efforts
To address, identify, and prevent fraud or illegal or improper activities
To establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim
To monitor and report compliance issues
For administrative purposes
For other legally permissible purposes

18 people found this helpful

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5 star		76%
4 star		13%
3 star		4%
2 star		2%
1 star		5%

TP-Link Deco Mesh WiFi System (Deco S4) – Up to 5,500 Sq.ft. Coverage,...

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

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