TP-Link Deco M5 Whole Home Wi-Fi System Review

Do you have Wi-Fi in your home where there are dead spots? Perhaps your Wi-Fi signal between floors is sparse or even non-existent? What if you could use one product that could cover up to 4,500 square feet in Wi-Fi coverage instead of multiple products that you hope will talk to each other seamlessly? Or perhaps you have kids in the house and you want to ensure they are protected from the seedier side of the Internet?

Well, TP-Link Deco M5 whole home Wi-Fi system has you covered for both those concerns and so much more.

An Easy Introduction to Mesh Networks

Does your home span multiple floors? Getting the Internet to those floors can be quite the ordeal. You can pick a Wi-Fi router and a couple of repeaters in hopes of covering those floors and pray that they can constantly communicate with each other, but you may end up with multiple SSIDs and/or a fragmented network.

Ensuring you have the same brand of Wi-Fi equipment can help, but it isn’t always ideal. You could also run powerline adapters between the floors, but that can cause some issues for some older wiring in homes. The appeal of mesh systems like the TP-Link Deco M5 is that they are easy to set up, easy to maintain, and they help to ensure your home stays connected no matter what its configuration is like. And it comes loaded with great parental controls, including monitoring, too.

We have previously looked at a few of TP-Link’s networking products and the Deco M5 is their newest offering allowing consumers to set up their own Wi-Fi mesh network without breaking the bank. With a mesh setup, you can blanket your home with a Wi-Fi signal between multiple points.
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In the case of the TP-Link Deco M5, there are 3 base stations in the standard package that can be placed around your home to help cover up to 4,500 square feet. You could cover 2 floors and your backyard if you have strategically placed the units. I live in a three-story home, so I would love to see if I can cover all floors evenly with the three units that come in this particular setup.

You can also add more units (sold separately) to cover even more square footage.

First Impressions and What’s in the Box?

When I received the package from the courier, I was taken back by the weight. It is heavier than other Wi-Fi products we have looked at but after opening up the package, it was the actual retail package that was the heavy part.

When you first open the box, you are presented with the 3 Deco units.

The packaging is pretty clean and minimal. Right off the bat, they mention to download the TP-Link Deco app. This is the only way you can set up the Wi-Fi system, so you better have an iOS or Android device with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Windows Phone users are out of luck at the moment, as there does not seem to be a way for them to access the units, but there probably aren’t too many of those people around anymore.

The bottom layer of the box is where the power adapters and Ethernet cable are hidden. There is a quick start guide too, but downloading the app is really all you need. It will walk you through placement and setup of the initial device, as well as the two additional ones.

The TP-Link Deco M5 units themselves are fairly simple in design. Well, at least the exterior is; I am sure the interior is as advanced and complex as it gets.

The individual units are circular in design in a white plastic shell. Their footprint is fairly small for what they can do, about the size of a standard smoke detector. A small footprint is nice when trying to find a location to put them. Their white shell finish also helps them blend more into nearly any home’s decor.

Along the back, there are 2 Gigabit networking ports, plus a single USB-C port. What’s great is that both Ethernet ports are dual purpose. You can plug in the cable from your modem into either port and the other can be used for a switch, a computer, or any other hard wired device.

The USB-C connector is for the AC power adapter. This is actually the first time I’ve used a USB-C device and I cannot believe how long it took the computer industry to come up with a USB port that did not care about which way you plugged it in. Reminds me of a reversed Apple Lighting connector (only a little bigger).

Underneath each TP-Link Deco M5 unit is the recessed reset button, as well as ventilation holes. Also located on the underside of each unit is the serial number and MAC address.

Spec and Feature Highlights

Each TP-Link Deco M5 unit is packed with features:

• Quad-core CPU
• AC1300 – 400Mbps at 2.4 GHz and 867 Mbps on 5 GHz
• 4 Internal antennas per Deco unit (MU-MIMO)
• 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports per Deco unit
• 1 USB-C port per Deco Unit
• Compatible with IPv6
• Bluetooth 4.2
• ART – Adaptive Routing Technology
• Up to 4,500 square feet of Wi-Fi coverage
• Beamforming
• Band steering
• QoS – Quality of Service (by device and/or application)
• 3-Years of HomeCare service provided by Trend Micro (antivirus)
• Parental controls – time restrictive, URL and app filtering
• Internet usage and health report
• 24/7 unlimited lifetime support

Do not let the list of features overwhelm you though. Setting up and maintaining the TP-Link Deco M5 units is much easier than I first expected.

Setup with the Mobile App

Setup is really simple and straightforward. This is hands down the easiest Wi-Fi product I have ever had to set up. You do require an iOS or Android device, as there is no web-based user interface whatsoever (a pity really) and it seems that there is no Windows Phone support either.

Find a spot you want to have as your main location for the first of three Deco units. This will need to be next to where you put your ISP’s modem. Plug in the Ethernet cable from the modem then plug in the USB-C power adapter. Once the power is plugged in, the Deco unit’s single LED will begin to flash blue. That’s where the TP-Link Deco mobile app comes into play. Load it up and allow it to discover the Deco unit. It does so via Bluetooth.

When you are ready to configure the device for first time use, it will go out and try to connect to the Internet. Setup is done via TP-Link’s Cloud services. Once that is done, you will be presented with the screen to set the Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password.

Once that is done, your TP-Link Deco M5 unit is ready for use!

Chances are, though, you will need to do a firmware update. Don’t worry; the TP-Link Deco M5 has automatic updates. You just have to click to accept.

What I found out is if one unit needs to be updated, the other two units will also need to be updated. That doesn’t happen automatically after the first unit has been updated. When you add the other two units and sync them with the first, you will be prompted in the same fashion to update the others as you were with the first. The updates took about five minutes in total from download to install and reboot. There doesn’t seem to be a way to decline the update and do it later. Either way, it’s usually best to keep up-to-date with the latest firmware.

Congratulations, you’re ready to tweak the settings of your new mesh network!

Configuration Settings

Once you have completed the initial setup of the first device, you can either choose to add the other two units or continue on with modifying the configuration to suit your home’s needs.

The TP-Link Deco M5 is not an overly complicated device to manage. You have the following menu options available through the mobile app:

• Wi-Fi Setup
  • Main Network SSID
  • Guest Network SSID
• Parental Controls
  • Profiles
• Antivirus
• QoS (Quality of Service)
• Advanced
  • IPV4 (Static and Dynamic IP settings)
  • IPV6 (Static and Dynamic IP settings)
  • LED Control (On/Off for Night Mode)
  • Notifications (Smartphone Notifications)
• Update Deco
• Managers

If you are looking for an easy-setup, no-hassle solution to your home network, then the TP-Link Deco M5 would be a great place to look. You get the basic settings that the majority of users would need to configure like Network Name, Parental Controls, and Quality of Service.

There is not a lot in the sense of an advanced setup (yet?). You cannot do port forwarding or port filtering. You cannot specify Wi-Fi signal power or what Wi-Fi channels are being used. There are no on-device diagnostics, such as ping or trace route. TP-Link has made it a really simple and uncomplicated solution for home users.

The Nitty Gritty Details

There are not a lot of advanced settings that you can tweak or toggle here. TP-Link has taken away the more advanced options that typical Wi-Fi routers have, a lot of options that I bet most users never even look at. The options they do include though can be very helpful to the home. Let’s take a look at those with the first up being the parental controls.

Parental Controls

This is something that I find myself more and more interested with over time, especially being a new parent with two growing children. Right now, they are too young to make use of smartphones or surf the Internet, but I will look at ensuring I keep them safe online as much as possible. The TP-Link Deco M5 have some pretty useful parental controls to keep that all in check.

Profiles: You can set up profiles for your family members. This allows you to assign devices to them and tailor their Internet privileges while at home. I set myself up (as an admin) and a co-worker of mine to test out the profile-based protections.

Filtered Content

When you first create a profile, you can set the filter Level. This allows or disallows content based on how TP-Link categorizes incoming or outgoing traffic. You can also add apps or URLs directly to the profile.

For a little test, I added google.com and Instagram to my Filtered Content list. Let us see what happens when I try and access Google.com first.

Oops, I don’t have access to google.com anymore! Let’s try to see what happens when I try and access my Instagram app.

Darn, none of the content loads! The loading spinner spins for a bit and then the “Cannot access data” or some similar message shows up. The TP-Link Deco M5 really does block the content you choose to have blocked. I thought URL blocking was neat, but the fact you can block app usage is pretty awesome.

Insights: Monitoring Network Traffic

Now, I love to monitor network traffic. I’ve done it at a big corporate level down to just seeing what sort of traffic my local home network is up to. But for a parent to look into what is being accessed on their children’s devices is a pretty useful thing. Some might disagree with it, but in this digital age, I would recommend more parents look at monitoring what their kids are doing online with their connected devices.

When you select a profile and that profile has devices associated to it, you can check out their Insights. This is where you can see what a particular device is trying to access.

You can see the variety of URLs my phone accesses within a few minutes. If you see a URL that you want to block, it is as easy and tapping the URL and selecting “Block for Tyler.” This will block the device from trying to access that URL ever again. Again, this is only for when the device is accessing the Internet via the TP-Link Deco M5 network. The device will of course still be able to access the blocked content outside of the home network, like at school or via a public hotspot.

Time Controls: Limiting How Much Internet

Another great Parental Control feature is the ability to set usage limits per profile. You can set how many hours a day a person can access the Internet to when their bedtime is so the Internet does not keep them up at night. When testing this feature out, I might have locked myself out of the Deco units as I specified my bedtime was from 1300 hrs to 1400 hrs, which is the time in which I was testing out the feature.

When you set a “Hours per Day” restriction, the TP-Link Deco M5 will keep track of how long a Profile accesses the Internet. For testing purposes, I set my profile to 30 minutes per day.

Now I would have thought that perhaps the TP-Link would have tracked actual usage of time, but being a smartphone, I guess it is always generating some sort of traffic, so the 30 minutes was used up quickly. I could see this being an issue. If your phone is sitting idle somewhere, it really isn’t sitting idle according to TP-Link’s system. All those background processes are grabbing emails and social media updates for you.

If you put your phone down to have dinner with the family, you might come back to your phone being locked out, even though you haven’t physically used it in the past 30 or 60 minutes. The downside of my testing was I had to turn off Wi-Fi so that I could access the app and remove the hour usage on my profile.

Next up, bedtime. Now for testing purposes I set my bedtime to be 1300 to 0700 so that I could check to see if Internet was truly blocked.

Well, it seems that I am locked out during my “bedtime” as well. Again, I had to disable Wi-Fi so that I could access the Deco unit and remove the bedtime restriction.

Overall the parental controls are pretty well thought-out and easy to manage. There is a monthly report that is sent out too, providing a useful overview of Internet usage for each profile. I would highly recommend other Wi-Fi manufacturers implement this sort of Internet scheduling too if they have not done so.

Antivirus Protection from Day 1

Another great feature is the built in antivirus protection. It’s for a three year period and is a part of the HomeCare system. The built in antivirus and malware protection is powered by TrendMicro, and along with a SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) firewall, they will keep you and your connected devices safe from many online threats.

While it is debatable whether this is a suitable replacement for similar protection on your desktop, laptop or smartphone, you get the peace of mind that malicious threats are being blocked at the router level even before they get to your device. It’s one less thing to worry about.

Being able to stop virus threats before getting onto your own home network, that is a pretty nice feature I think. Though if an email contains a virus, I am curious as to what it would do. I naturally did not test this, but I suspect the attachment is rejected at the router level.

Network Performance Tests

The setup was really easy and straight-forward. The TP-Link Deco M5 Mesh Wi-Fi is the easiest Wi-Fi setup I have had to setup. You deploy the Deco units where you want, set up the initial device and voila. You are all set within minutes of plugging in the first unit. What of the performance though? Something so easy and quick to setup must not perform well under a household environment, right? Wrong!

I took the TP-Link Deco M5 into two different environments: a corporate office space and my own home.

At the office, I placed one Deco Unit at my cubicle, then a second Deco unit across the building to a co-worker’s cubicle. Internet access between the two office spaces was seamless as we walked around the building’s floor. In the office, we are cluttered with Wi-Fi devices too (a minimum 45 different access points can be seen). This means there is a lot of Wi-Fi noise to filter out and that can interfere with Wi-Fi performance. The TP-Link has the smarts to ensure your experience is not hindered by other nearby networks.

As I walked around the floor of our office, I was able to maintain an average of 233.7 Mbps between the two devices. TP-Link has a feature they call ART or Adaptive Routing Technology that can select the best path for a device to keep the network running as fast as possible.

The second environment I wanted to test was how would the TP-Link Deco M5 handle multiple floors. In my case, I live in a 3-story home that has roughly 3,300 square feet of living space. Can the TP-Link make good on their slogan of “Paint Your Home in Wi-Fi”? The Deco, with three units, is said to handle up to 4,500 square feet. So what better way to test it than to see if the three Deco units can handle three separate floors for Wi-Fi coverage?

Placing one Deco unit on each floor, I was able to light up the entire house in Wi-Fi signal and could easily walk between the floors without losing my Wi-Fi connection. Handoffs are seamless.

I even walked outside into our backyard and kept my Wi-Fi connection. With the distance and the material of the exterior of the house, I was not getting an average of 233.7 Mbps like in other tests, but I was able to maintain a reliable connection to check my various social media feeds.

The difference with a Wi-Fi mesh network as opposed to a Wi-Fi network with multiple repeaters is that the Wi-Fi mesh network is seen as if it was just one Wi-Fi router. I could also see this in both of my walking around tests environments. When you look at what Wi-Fi signals are around, you see just the one SSID as opposed to the same SSID multiple times.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Like mentioned above, the setup and configuration of the TP-Link Deco M5 is by far the easiest Wi-Fi router that I have ever set up. This is perfect for those who just want to plug it in and go. There is no need to fiddle with obscure settings or constantly tweak things. It is like the Deco maintains itself.

The parental controls are great too. They’re easy to use and offer some pretty good ways to ensure your children’s Internet time is not only scheduled, but they also cannot access what they shouldn’t be getting at in the first place. I like how you can assign multiple devices to a single profile to ensure that little Bobby Tables cannot access the Internet late at night when he should be sleeping no matter which device he tries to use.

Did I mention the 3-year inclusion of antivirus provided by TrendMicro? There’s no real need to ensure you have an antivirus program on all your connected devices, since the viruses and other threats are taken care of at the entrance to your home network. Besides, who actually installs antivirus software on their mobile devices?

Being able to walk between three floors without dropping a Wi-Fi signal was great. One could potentially use this in a small office too, though with the lack of advanced router features might not be ideal.

The TP-Link Deco M5 mesh Wi-Fi system may seem a bit more on the expensive side compared to a single router solution and not everyone might use all three included Deco units. Even if you only have one floor of living space, you could place the units to optimize your Wi-Fi signal. Place a unit closer to an exterior portion of your home and extend your Wi-Fi signal to the outdoors. TP-Link will be offering single units too, so there is also that option. If you happen to need more than 3 units, you can always add extras!

The lack of a web interface for setup and configuration might bother some people. Aside from the need to use a mobile app to setup and maintain the Deco units, it would be nice to have a web UI. When working on a desktop or laptop computer, I like to do all my configurations via a web UI, especially if my mobile device is not near me. Perhaps TP-Link will include a web UI of sorts even if it’s via their cloud services.

Alongside the web UI (or lack of it) is the lack of the more advanced Wi-Fi router features like port filtering and port forwarding. These can be quite popular if used correctly. I make use of port filtering at home, as I need to be able to access security cameras or personal servers that are on specific ports and can only be accessed when the main router is forwarding incoming packets. Again, most people will probably not use routing features like this, but it would be nice to be able to configure under an “Advanced” setting.

Again, if you’re looking for a Wi-Fi setup that can handle a larger square footage of living space, has great (and ease to use) parental controls, and is really easy to setup and go, then I highly recommend the TP-Link Deco M5.

The TP-Link Deco M5 Whole-Home Wi-Fi System is exclusively available at Best Buy Canada with am MSRP of $444.99 (CAD) for the three-unit pack and $179.99 (CAD) for the single-unit pack. It is also available in the United State on Amazon.com for $249.99 and $129.99, respectively.