I’ve been a happy customer of the Amplifi Alien routers since they were released in December 2019. However, they haven’t received an upgrade since then; that means they have no support for Wifi 6E or Wifi 7. So when one of my alien units broke, I decided it was time to invest in an entirely new mesh system now that I own Wifi 7 capable devices. If you’re looking for a used router on the cheap, though, I would strongly advise keeping an eye out for Amplifi Alien units. As early adopters like me begin to upgrade, I would expect to see a lot of perfectly good Wifi6 mesh router systems going for bargain prices. The app is decently accessible, they make sounds when they reboot or lose connection, and they’re rock solid once you get them going. The thing that kills them is the fan. My routers go in a corner somewhere and get forgotten. So as the fans got clogged with dust, I failed to notice until the router overheated and stopped working. If you’re a better owner than I am, the fan openings are obvious and easy to clean.

But the Alien isn’t the subject of this article. Let’s move on to actually talking about what the title promises. In order to replace the Amplifi Routers, I did consider the Ubiquity Dream Machine. However, I’ve heard a lot of criticism of the controller app for being inaccessible with screen readers. Also, Ubiquity stuff requires a lot more setup and management. While I’m certain I’m capable of it, network access is absolutely critical to everyone in this house. With two blind people living here, we’ve invested heavily into the smart-home, if only to get devices that we can at least use via an app. So our network is extremely busy, with tons of devices active at once, and when the network goes down, we can’t control everything from the oven to the furnace. I decided against building my own router with FreeBSD for similar reasons.

So I went looking for routers with an accessible interface that supported Wifi7 mesh, and required as little on-going management as possible. A review on Applevis suggested that the TP-Link Deco app might meet my accessibility requirements. Researching TP-Link’s product offerings, it looked like the Deco BE95 would provide everything I was looking for.

After owning the units for a month now, I can say that I was correct! Before talking about all the good things, though, let’s start off with the bad. First, the price. These are not cheap routers! The hardware itself is more expensive than either Amplifi or Ubiquity gear with similar specs. Plus, on top of the purchase price, there’s also a monthly subscription if you want some of the advanced security features. I obviously paid the early adopter tax here. While I’m fine with paying for routers that will last six or seven years without me ever having to touch them, be aware that there are cheaper ways to get the same features if you’re willing to put in the work.

Second, the out of the box setup experience could be better. While the app is, in fact, accessible, you do need to get someone to look at lights for you to know when the first router is ready for pairing. But once you’ve got the first one up, the app will notify you when your mesh unit is ready to be added. I also disliked the default DHCP settings, and found changing them was a fiddley process that required modifying things in two separate sections of the settings. Even after changing the DHCP settings to work with my network, the router requires a different netmask, so I had to go and modify all of my static devices that weren’t using DHCP. If none of that meant anything to you, don’t worry about it; the router should just work out of the box for you.

Lastly, the paid security features. If having to pay a monthly router subscription isn’t bad enough, the features just aren’t as useful as they should be for the price. They do include a dynamically updated blocklist, to block phishing and other security issues at the router. I have some older folks who sometimes use my network, so the feature is appreciated. Unfortunately, though, the router provides no whitelist. If the security blocks a false positive, your only option is to turn it off entirely. The router also provides an EOT protection feature. But nowhere that I can find does it explain what the feature actually does. I can say that in my setup it didn’t break anything, so that’s good. But what is it actually protecting me against? Who knows! As part of this feature, the router provides weekly and monthly reports on my network. Once again, though, this feature isn’t as useful as I would like it to be. It does include threats blocked, but even when I have the security features turned on, it constantly reminds me to scan my network and turn them on. It also reports on number of new devices connected, though it seems to struggle with naming them. But what it doesn’t do is provide me with a network speed report for the week or month. That means I still have to keep my fingbox. As I pay a subscription to Fing already, it would have been nice if the Deco could have replaced those functions entirely. It’s really close, but just not quite there. Perhaps software updates will add the missing features.

With the bad stuff out of the way, let’s talk about the good! First, just as Applevis indicated, the app is pretty much fully accessible. There are a few places where the back button is missing a label, and one spot where the graphs are hard to read. But that aside, everything works perfectly. The settings include everything from QoS to port forwarding and VLANs, and they’re all logically laid out and easy to find. I tripped over updating the DHCP range, because I had to change the router’s LAN IP first, but it all made sense; I just wasn’t expecting it. The Deco’s also provide a web-based user interface, though not all settings are available there.

My ISP offers a 3.5 gig fiber connection. However, in an oddity, it requires PPPOE. One issue I often run into is that a lot of routers aren’t well enough equipped with CPU and RAM to handle the PPPOE overhead while giving me full speed on both wired and wifi. I can say with pleasure that’s not the case for Deco. I get my full speed, with lots of CPU and RAM to spare. That also means that while the units themselves get warm, the fans never have to run.

The routers have been managing my entire network for a month now, and they’ve only crashed twice. The first time was because I made a silly mistake and plugged a switch into itself. Then, thanks to Sonos, I got a packetstorm that took down my entire network. The second time was when I ignored the router’s warnings, and prioritized five times more than the recommended number of devices using QoS. That caused the routers to become unstable and crash every few hours. However, removing some devices from QoS fixed that right up.

The backhaul between the mesh units is highly configurable. You can have it use wired backhaul, or pick the frequency band it should save for wifi backhaul, and you can make different choices for each unit. This is the first mesh system I’ve had where speeds on the mesh units are exactly as fast as the wireless speeds when connected to the primary router. The wifi range is also as good as advertised, and I have no problem covering the entire property (both indoors and outdoors) with full-speed wifi and no dead zones or drop outs.

This is also the first router I’ve had that makes sensible frequency decisions, without me having to intervene and set channels and bandwidths manually. It avoids interfering with the cordless phones and Bluetooth devices, and doesn’t sometimes drop when the microwave is running. I’ve also had reports from hearing aid users that their wireless hearing aids no longer break up like they used to.

In the time I’ve had the routers, I had one firmware update. The process was smooth, with the routers handling everything by themselves. They can also back-up your settings to the cloud, just in case.

In conclusion, if you’re looking for stable, fast wifi, with quick set-up and almost no on-going maintenance, and you’re okay with paying a high price for it, the Deco’s are an excellent option. They’re accessible, never need rebooting, and compatible with everything I threw at them. However, if you don’t need Wifi7 and/or are willing to set up and maintain everything yourself, you could do just as well and spend less money if you put the extra time and effort into it.