TP-Link Deco M5 router review: Networking with a side of anti-virus - berrywountim97

Michael Brown/TechHive

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

• Very good overall performance
• Built-in antivirus and anti-malware protection for the uncastrated network
• Unobtrusive industrial design

Cons

• No dedicated channel for data backhaul
• Must use a smartphone OR tablet for setup and configuration
• Procurable in three-packs only

Our Finding of fact

TP-Connec's Deco M5 isn't the absolute quickest whole-home Wisconsin-Fi organisation on the grocery, but it delivers very just performance and a sound fixed of features.

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TP-Link makes a vehement debut into the intact-home WI-Fi bet on with its Art deco M5. This router performs first-rate and has one and only uncommon feature: integrated antivirus/antimalware (from Movement Micro) that can protect totally the devices on your network. But if you want one, you'll need to pay for a $300 three-pack, as that's the only way it's available reactionary at once.

TP-Link tells me that single units will eventually represent in stock for $129 to each one, which is good news show for folks living in smaller spaces. A several Art deco M5 might be all you rattling need for a studio flat. It's not faster than pricier routers from Linksys and Netgear, but IT is a very good respect overall.

Feature set

Eastern Samoa with all the engagement routers we've reviewed to date, the three nodes are functionally very until you configure the scheme. After that, indefinite becomes a router and the others access points that you distribute some your home. All nodes use of goods and services the Sami SSID (Armed service Set Identifier—the network's name, au fond), and client devices are automatically steered to the node with the strongest connectedness to the internet.

Michael Chromatic/TechHive

A multicolor LED on top of the router reports its status: amber while starting up, flashing amber if offline, blue during Bluetooth pairing, and green spell functioning normally.

Each node has two gigabit ethernet ports that auto-configure as WAN (for connection to your band gateway) or LAN (for connection to the residuu of your web). A single pied LED happening top indicates status (yellow for startup, blue for coupling, and light-green for normal operation). The Deco M5 has one USB-C larboard, just that's only for power. You North Korean won't comprise fit to connect a storage twist Oregon printer and plowshare them over your meshwork, nor will you ever be able to wa in a USB Z-Wave or ZigBee dongle to enjoyment this router as a smart home hub.

The Deco M5 is a dual-stria, 2×2 (two spatial streams dormy, two spatial streams consume), 802.11ac router offering level bes theoretical throughput of 400Mbps on the 2.4GHz frequency stria and 867Mbps along the 5GHz band.

Although it doesn't have a consecrate carry for data backhaul, as tri-set routers care the Linksys Velop and the Netgear Orbi series do, the Deco M5 evidenced to be faster than those competitors in at least a couple of scenarios. That said, it's not the overall fastest router we've tested; that distinction goes to the not-mesh Orbi RBK50, which dedicates a 4×4, 1,733Mbps network to backhaul.

Michael Brown/TechHive

The asymmetric design is for appearances, not performance.

You'll penury a smartphone or tablet (Android Oregon iOS) to set finished a Deco network, as TP-Link hasn't developed a web port. Personally, I prefer a web-based UI because information technology's much easier to use a physical mouse and keyboard. I encountered more or less hiccups with my first installation—the Mechanical man app opposite with the router over Bluetooth, but it would dash every time I tried to add other node. I was using pre-release software, however; the company by and by provided a newer and much more stable version. Once I had that, initiation was quick, velvet, and painless. You don't need to know anything about networking to get a Deco M5 organization upwards and running.

You don't need to do anything to activate the Deco M5's antivirus/antimalware feature; it works in the background and automatically blocks client devices from connecting to dangerous websites. TP-Contact says it will besides prevent compromised IoT devices, such as home security department cameras or smart thermostats, from contacting unauthorized IP addresses. Three years of service is included in the buy in price, but TP-Link says information technology hasn't decided how much it will cost to regenerate the subscription afterwards that.

Michael Brunette/TechHive

The Art deco M5's parental controls feature lets you percolate the types of contentedness that each user is allowed to access.

The optional paternal controls feature, on the other hand, requires your input. To use it, you create substance abuser profiles for each member of the family line, establish what they can and cannot dress supported on predefined filters (Child, Pre-Teen, Teen, or Grownup), and then assign those profiles to the devices they will be using on the network.

You can block a teen from accessing social media sites during the hours when they should be doing their preparation, for instance, and you can buoy block them from visiting porn sites all in all. You can also establish Monday finished Friday and Saturday/Sunday schedules, with "bed times" when they're not allowed internet access the least bit, and you can control condition how much time they're allowed to be online overall.

The drawback to this type of parental control is that the user profiles must be coupled to devices in order to work. So if you assign Junior's profile to the family background Personal computer, and his profile blocks Netflix access at eff time, no matchless else can access Netflix on the family PC during those hours either.

You can also push one button to "pause" a profile's internet access, but here over again, that action applies to all the devices coupled to that visibility. And the rules are operative only while those devices are on your household network. They're inoperable if the device is tethered to a smartphone's Wi-Fi hotspot or whatsoever other network. These approaches would beryllium more effective if each family appendage had their own device, but that's not economically practical for every sept. These are the biggest reasons wherefore I don't put much weight happening the presence or absence of parental controls in routers.

Wi-Fi performance

American Samoa I alluded to earlier, the Deco M5's solo performance at close range (with the client ix feet from the router with no obstacles in betwixt) topped the field by a wide security deposit. Not lonesome was IT faster than all the otherwise mesh routers and Netgear's non-mesh Orbi, it was 100Mbps faster than Linksys' EA9500, the conventional Wi-Fi router I've been using A a service line. TP-Link's router also finished first in my difficult-to-penetrate home theater, although Ubiquiti's Amplifi trounced the rest of the field when the client was in the great room.

Michael Brown/TechHive

The Deco M5 dropped to the middle of the pack at totally four test locations when I added a second guest, losing 188Mbps of throughput at next range. Even so, the cardinal nodes delivered more than than enough bandwidth to sustenanc threefold HD video streams at totally four test locations in my home. Again, the pricier Velop and Orbi delivered flatbottomed high throughput with ii nodes because they use a dedicated channel for backhaul to the router. Then again, you can't buy a two-node Art deco M5 system, so the actual equivalence is $300 for the TP-Link versus $380 for a Velop two-gang and $400 for an Orbi RBK50.

Michael Brown/TechHive

Running all three Deco M5 units restored the TP-Link router to the number-same spot at close-fitting range, but the Linksys Velop was considerably faster in the great elbow room and the sun room, and Ubiquiti's Amplifi delivered the best performance in the home theater. Perhaps more importantly, the Orbi RBK50 was well faster than everything else in the uttermost test locations, even though information technology's just the router and one satellite (which is why it's not represented in the trine-node graph below). The Orbi RBK50, consequently, remains our number-united recommendation for the nonce.

Michael Brown/TechHive

Should you buy a Deco M5?

If you're dealing with late musca volitans or are differently unhappy with your conventional router, and you're not a router enthusiast who likes to tweak all the dials, TP-Unite's Deco M5 is a better value than many of the competing three-packs, including Google Wifi ($299), the Eero Home WiFi ($399), and the Luma Home WiF ($399). The antivirus features are great to have, only I don't put as much value happening the maternal controls. If you already have a whole-home Wisconsin-Fi system, TP-Link doesn't offer enough in the way of unique features or higher execution to puddle you switch.

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• Networking
• Chic Home
• Routers
• Wi-Fi

Michael is TechHive's lead editor program and covers the smart home and interior amusement markets. He well-stacked his own smart domestic in 2007, which he uses as a real-world test lab when reviewing new products. Michael also reviews routers and networking products for TechHive and PCWorld.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/406430/tp-link-deco-m5-router-review-this-mesh-network-comes-with-a-side-of-antivirus.html

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