TP-Link - Deco BE65

I have BE65 (primarily for wired backhaul ports) as my main unit and a few BE25 (all with wired backhaul) as satellites. I don’t see any difference in performance for my use.

I think I paid about 300 euros for 2 pack of BE65 ( last year, Black Friday discount).

Hardware version 2.6 has some nicer firmware. You can do quite a lot of good stuff wirelessly. I only use them as access points not router

Works very well. I have 8 BE65s linked together

Strange, I use vlan tagging on my deco system. It has allowed me to replace my ISP modem.

Be careful with these units, the WiFi 7 isn't great, they need an app to be configured, and they have a few other quirkys. It took a while for me to get them stable, but my network topology isn't exactly standard.

I caveat this by saying some of this may have been fixed with software updates. When I set it up the intention was to replace the Vodafone router in its entirety, however it wasn't great at dhcp and was doing some screwy things. I ended up using an omada 605 to replace the Vodafone router and my unraid server hosts a pihole docker that manages DHCP and using the tplink as access points. I had to turn off beam forming and fast roaming on the tplinks to ensure stable connections. Even then they need a reboot every month or two. One great feature they have is the ability to bind specific WiFi devices to specific access points, this was very handy for iot devices and stops them hanging on to weaker signals.

I'd probably go with the BE65 for 'future proofing' and possibly better performance. If your budget is tight, then the Deco XE75 is a good option (keep in mind it only has gigabit ports, so you'll be limited to gigabit speeds). Both options should offer good range. It's best to hardwire each unit if possible but should still work relatively well if meshing wirelessly. Currently using 2 Deco XE75Pro and a Deco X50-Outdoor (all hardwired to a 2.5Gb network switch) in AP mode (only way I can utilize the 2.5Gb connection at the secondary Deco XE75Pro). Setup has been holding up pretty well for our needs.

The 2.5Gb port can technically improve local network performance. This is especially useful if you have your own NAS and/or stream all sorts of things via your local network using applications/services like Plex. I think the Wi-Fi 7 feature you're referring to is Multi-Link Operation (MLO). As far as I'm aware, you'll need devices that support this feature (WiFi 7 in general). I know your living situation is different than here in the US. We've had gigabit (1Gbps down and 100Mbps up) for most of our time living in the house we moved back in late 2019. Around 2022 or 2023, I noticed our ISP offered 2Gbps speeds (2Gbps down and \~350Mbps up) for a small bump in price. Considering we had wireless cameras (Nest cameras/doorbells), and two family members worked from home, I figured it might be worth upgrading to get that improved upload speed (this was probably a few months before I upgraded to the Deco's - I was using Nest Wi-Fi (non-pro) at the time which was already beginning to experience issues). With the Deco's and speed improvements, our overall network has been running great and feels a bit more responsive than before. As for features, some features on the BE65 can't be found on the XE75/XE75Pro like adjusting the channel width for the 2.4Ghz band or channel selection (correct me if I'm wrong - I remember seeing a feature update post regarding this). This is one feature I'm hoping comes to the XE75Pro (possibly the X50-Outdoor) since my Nest cameras would be better off utilizing the 2.4GHz connection at 20MHz channel width (they experience constant dropouts since the 2.4GHz band is being utilized at 40MHz channel width). Currently have them all set to 5GHz with little to no issues. Again, this is a separate issue so no need to worry about this as much lol. When it comes to theoretical speeds, the BE65 (up to 11Gbps; 5.7Gbps at 6GHz, 4.3Gbps at 5GHz, 688Mbps at 2.4GHz) outperforms the XE75/XE75Pro (up to 5,400Mbps; 2,402Mbps at 6GHz/5Ghz, 574Mbps at 2.4GHz). Edit: The wireless mesh may be improved on the BE65 (if you plan on wirelessly connecting each node). As for the distance between nodes and other factors (wall material like brick/concrete), you might have to position them a certain way to get equal coverage throughout your home.

Have anyone mixed be25 with be65? Currently I have 2 be65s and 2 x60s. I am however unable to use Qos as I cannot set a rate more than 1 gbs (I presume it’s because of the x60 max speed as bottleneck). I am wondering if I buy 2 be25s to supplement, will I be able to set qos with max rate of 2.5g since I use ethernet backhaul on my 3gbps plan?

No I did not… went be65 all the way

I have the Deco be65 wifi 7 3 pack and i am very happy with it on my 800squ block. Can reach all areas.

I’m using 2 TP-Link Deco BE65 BE9300 mesh units in my home. It’s the consumer mesh version and doesn’t have the options and settings of the Archer but it been 100% reliable and my WiFi speeds have nearly doubled even though I don’t have any WiFi 7 devices. It was easy to migrate over from my Asus XT8 mesh network. Named the IoT network the same as my old SSID so I didn’t have re-enter the network info on all the HomeKit devices.

I recommend TP link Deco, there is s nice user friendly app and it’s an easy setup. However as someone else wrote, mesh can be difficult on different floors without some cabeling in between floors. I have set it up at one location with an outdoor deco x50 as the main point and then 8 indoor units to cover 8 apartments in two floors and that works good, so that’s an alternative solution for you to consider.

TP link Deco is fine, I have it covering my house and I’m really happy with it. Buy a 3 pack, maybe the BE65 and place one by the modem and connect it to the internet modem and the two remote units to it via Ethernet, maybe with a unmanaged switch in between if you need additional units or extended cabeling.

BE25 are good and that’s a pretty good deal. I would probably get 4 units, one for each floor if you have a little extra budget then you could get the BE65 as main router the BE25 as access points. For the best result I recommend a bit of a manual process. Setup the main Deco on the first floor and the go upstairs and do you own little speed test survey with your phone in different locations and find out where the access points is best placed on that floor. Then install the access points and move up a floor and repeat. Should be possible to get good connections through wooden floor and may you could even get it with 3 units, so you could start by getting them and adding a 4th if needed. If you setup a new Deco as main router, then you can just use the same SSID and password as the ond one and your devices will reconnect to the new router.

See if you can skip the virgin hub/router and plug your Deco right on the Ethernet coming out of the fiber box or ask that Virgin set it in bridge mode and then add your first Deco and a main router. If you have lived with a single Virgin WiFi router until now then I doubt you will need 3 x BE65, how big is your house?

Yes! I’ve got a single BE65 as main unit connected to the fiber in my basement, ethernet from basement to an unmanaged PoE switch at my office on high ground floor and PoE to a X50 mounted in the ceiling of my living room and this covers my entire 160m2 old brick house and terrace outside my living room. I’ve then got a x50-PoE Outdoor in my carport for my car and charger. Tv, Sonos, Hue, alarm system and office docking station are all on cable to a switch and I’ve got about 10 IOT on wireless. Looking at the Deco app right now I have 26 online clients. BE65 also supports NAS USB storage and I thought I was going to use it for Apple Time Machine backup but apple stopped supporting that, so now I have a 1TB NAS included in my setup. Works great! Ps. this setup replaced 5 Google Mesh gen. 2 access points and performs way better, more stable, better coverage and 2-3 times the speed.

Yeah they would work and you should be able to use the 6GHz band, if it reaches, as a dedicated backhaul between the nodes but again if you could get ethernet run around the house with a cheaper "mesh system" or access points, you would have increased speeds for less cost. I know that mightn't be an option for everyone. If you don't mind too much about the speeds from the nodes then any mesh will work well enough and will get you a decent connection around the whole house.