4.8.2018

First off I have to declare that for the price this is a great piece of kit. It does what it says on the tin very well and with probably the easiest setup of any network device I've ever come across. However for some, there are a few areas in which this lets itself down - mostly these are probably things that could be fixed in a future firmware release - so Fingers crossed!So the good bits !:1) the wifi range and penetration of these devices is spectacular! For background I live in a detached victorian Slate built house over 3 stories. Before I fetted the tenda I was having to use 3 APs and a further 3 range extenders and still had too many dead-spots around the house - and frankly t was becoming a bit of a nightmare reliability wise.As soon as I plugged in the 1st Tenda, I had about 80% coverage! I could probably get away with just two to cover the whole house to be honest - but Heck I bought 3 so I'll use them all! I even have good coverage out into my garden and Garage.2) Setup - absolutely a piece of cake! I defy anybody not to be able to set this up. Only downside is that you MUST use the Tenda App on an iOS or Android device to do this. There is no Web Console as yet.3)PPPoE works out of the box - so if you have a separate modem and router you can just plug it into the modem and potentially ditch your existing router altogether - (though if you read on you might not want to ...)For me that's great because it means I don't need to use the awful BT Home Hub - just plug into an openreach VDSL modem (you can pick them up for a tenner off ebay) and let te tenda do the rest.4) Backhaul over Wifi or Cabled/powerline. Because all units are identical and have 2 x 1GB Etehernet ports you can backhaul between the units over a wired connection. This might be desirable as the units are dual-band only so no dedicated back-haul wifi channel. I've not trried this - but others say it works :-)5) It just works! I now have 50+Mb/s internet bandwidth anywhere in the house. LAN bandwidth I haven't measured and if you look online it isn't going to break any records here - but is certainly enough for me to have multiple HD streams running from my NAS to various Displays around the house - so practically it seems fine. If you have a lot of 4K content to chuck around your network though you might be better looking for tri-band units instead.6)Configurable Device groups and scheduled access/parental controls seem good and easy to configure - though not personally tried this.7) Remote management - if you sign up to an online account you can administer your settings remotely. This is alost too easy so is also a cause for concernBad Bits: Well you weren't expecting perfection at this price were you ? Despite all of the above the units do have some hefty shortcomings. For some , some of these will be important, for others less so.1) Firewall (or Lack of) - Now I'm not stating that these units Don't have any firewalling - but if they do it's not in evidence. There are no firewall settings available and I can't find any documentation about any firewalling. This in itself should be enough to make most users want to stick this behind a more competent router - but that is going to run a horse and cart through the simplicity of setup and use of your home wifi - which is a shame.UPDATE: having now run a number of port scans and pen tests I'm pretty satisfied that in the configuration I've used that the Tenda is pretty secure. The only open ports found are those specifically port forwarded. The only vulnerability found is a ping response , which isn't great as does reveal that you do exist as a potential target.https://www.grc.com2) DHCP Server - it has one - but it is VERY basic - allowing you to choose your subnet and router address only. YOU CANNOT SPECIFY A RESTRICTED RANGE OF ADDRESSES. Unfortunately it doesn't even seem to allocate addresses sequentially from bottom-up or top-down, just seemingly randomly scattering them throughout the subnet.This is a serious omission and I would hope it would be rectified in a firmware release. Because there is no ability to place reservations either this effectively means you can't have any fixed IP devices on your home network.3) DNS Settings - Good and bad here - I was pleased to find that it does act as a local DNS Proxy rather than passing on your ISPs (or other providers) DNS servers directly to clients - however there is no possibility to configure DDNS which is a massive shame. So the unit has port forwarding capabilities but unless you have a static External IP address its not going to be practically very useful without being able to update your DDNS provider.So - all in all - these are great units for providing strong Wi-Fi coverage across a wide area and with great wall penetration, However - all the shortcomings listed above will mean that for most people you would still need a competent router to do the basics of DHCP, DNS, Firewalling etc.I can see that it really hits the mark for quick, easy setup for those with simplistic needs - but just feels like each configuration page on the app needs an 'advanced' tab to configure extra settings for those who want a little more control over their home network.Finally though - I must stress that at this pricepoint they do represent excellent value for money.

20.8.2018

I will caveat my review by saying I've tried no other mesh system, so don't know if this is worse than others such as the vastly more expensive Orbi. But having seen some good reviews and tests with this (showing performance similar to Google Wifi) I decided to take the plunge.I live in a 4 bed detached house and run BT Home Hub. (the new one called Smart Hub) The Home Hub covered the house but at the extremities it could be a bit patchy and I couldn't get wifi outside on my decking.This comes nicely packaged for a 'budget' Chinese brand.Installation was ridiculously easy. You plug one of the boxes (all identical so any) into the router LAN socket on the back of the current router (you should have a few)and the LED on the white Tenda box eventually goes blue. Then you open the App and it detects the broadband settings and gets you online (you also change network name and password).Then you just plug the others in around the house and they auto connect to the first one. All worked seamlessly. In fact from what I have read they've beaten all the competition in ease of set up- fabulous for a budget brand.Initially I was very impressed. Each box has two lan ports on it. On the box that connects into your modem (they are all identical as I say) one of the lans is taken up with the connection to the modem, so it has one left over. You can still use the lans on the modem you already have also. So I have a vpn router, and have this plugged into my home hub (which has 4 lan ports) nothing changed there- works as normal. I also have other items plugged directly int the Home Hub still.The other boxes which are now 'satellites' to the main box have two lans. So I have one in my office with my Arlo home security system and my iMac plugged directly into it. I had one upstairs under the bed with my Sonos Bridge plugged into it, again worked seamlessly.However, after a few days I noticed sometimes the wireless signal would drop off a cliff. I was getting wife and kid complaints- not good.I put in Bridge Mode, you lose some functionality such as guest network option, but I read a review above that suggested doing this. I am not convinced it solved the problem.I then thought about wireless network congestion, with this running, my BT Home Hub and my VPN router. So I went into the Home Hub and turned off the wireless for that. I think (think) this has resolved the problem as it doesn't seem to have happened again in a few days, I will report back if it does.I also note that sometimes the signal fluctuates. I believe this is because it sends the signal in the direction of the device and so it can start out slow, then drastically speed up as it channels the signal towards the device.Despite us having a full strength connections on the Xbox my son was complaining of high pings. I observed this myself- the ping would fluctuate on Fortnite from say 30 to 800 then back down again- not good - he was complaining of lag. I am no networking expert and not sure why, particularly when this wasn't happening when the Xbox was connected directly to the Home Hub with a much weaker signal on the Xbox wifi strength , but suspect it may be something to do with The Tenda not having a separate backhaul (separate channel to send the data between the units) and it slowing data transfer when other items are connected to the satellite- A guess though. Orbi has a separate backhaul channel, albeit I have seen people reporting higher pings on that also. So who knows. It may also be that the unit isn't great at prioritising traffic and there is no manual setting you can do, again unlike some of the more expensive units.We have resolved this by moving one of the satellites next to the Xbox from upstairs- and connecting in via Lan. The ping is now under 40 and often in the 20s so is fine. Fortunately the satellite positioning where the Xbox is seems to work well anyway for good wifi coverage throughout the house, so nothing lost. One to bear in mind though.Now I can get two or three bars of wifi signal all over the house including decking and it often seems to max out my connection at 40 meg.Also turn off the overnight reset. For some reason it is set up to reboot every night at 4am, you can adjust this or turn it off. I was finding all my devices disconnected overnight and logged onto my VPN router instead, so turned this function off. I also didn't want it turning off every night, and rebooting as I am running an Arlo security system.Edit, even with the Xbox connected to the Lan, Pings again went high. Thus I cannot recommend this for gaming. We had to put the Xbox on a homeplug. In other respects though it's good. Tends need to sort out the ping issue when gaming.

30.8.2019

I bought a second hand set of these (3 x MW6) and was expecting a few issues when setting them up. Because of this my experience may not be typical, but I did manage to get them working in the end.I don't really think this system is suitable to replace an existing router as it is lacking so many features. The deal breaker for me is the failure to allow static ip addresses to be reserved by mac address, and as I have a few servers running on my network (NAS, Volumio, Home Assistant etc.) which really require a fixed ip address this would be a problem (even though there are other ways to do this). My servers are all connected by ethernet cable though.The solution to this is to run the thing in bridge mode,which can connect to an existing router and therefore become part of the router's network. If you run the system in any other mode (DHCP or static ip address), then the mesh network becomes a standalone entity and basically won't talk to the other devices attached directly to the router (such as my servers mentioned above).The confusing thing is that the Tenda wifi app won't allow you to set the system up in bridge mode - you have to choose another mode (DHCP probably easiest) and complete the setup before you can then go into internet options and change it to bridge mode. This is stupid to say the least.Also the setup guide doesn't attempt to explain the different internet connection options and the issues associated with each. Fortunately I have a lot of experience in setting up networks and routers, so already knew how I wanted things setup, but this can be very confusing for many people.Running in bridge mode also loses many features such as guest network, port forwarding, qos, parental controls etc. etc. and the reason for this is because they are really functions for the router, and when running in bridge mode we are bypassing the inbuilt router functions and relying on an existing router.To get my second hand units connected involved a great deal of pressing reset switches. I also took the opportunity to update the firmware on each unit to the latest version. It seems that updating firmware is a real problem for this system, and the only reliable way at the moment is to destroy your mesh network by removing all the units from it using the app, press the reset button on each unit in turn, then establish each unit as the primary node in turn and check for updates that way. Then remove the unit from the network using the app again, then reset it again. After all this palaver you can then add the units to the mesh network again. This is ridiculous, and hopefully a better method will become apparent. The app allows all nodes to be updated whilst the mesh is up and running, but by all accounts this just flat out does not work (yet).The other problem I have had is that the app frequently says there are no nodes available even though I'm connected to the mesh network and standing right next to one of them. Thankfully the internet still works in this situation, and eventually the app will miraculously wake up and see them.The other slightly annoying thing is that the mesh network occupies channel 6 on 2.4ghz and channel 40 on 5ghz and there is no way to change this (I don't know if it selected these channels or they are pre-determined). There is a setting in the app (congestion or something - I can't remember) which changes one of the units to channel 1 and one to channel 11 on 2.4ghz. Not sure how much use this is.My intention in writing this is not to put anyone off buying this system, just be aware that setup may not be as straightforward as advertised, and functionality is very limited.Having said all that, once set up and working the system is very good. Wireless coverage is very good, I'm getting decent speeds and the system has proved reliable (only had it for a short time though). I'm still using it in conjuction with my other wireless repeaters and access points at the moment, but I expect to be ditching those very soon.For the price I paid and despite the caveats mentioned in this review I'm very pleased with the system at the moment. If things change I'll update this review.

20.4.2019

This should be a walk in park, and it was initially and had one unit up and running in less than 5 mins. I wanted it to act as in 'bridge' mode but I never saved it as such.Changed to name a password to match my VM router as I have many Alexa devices, Hue bulbs and smart plugs so thought it would make sense. This then went wrong as I said I did not save it in bridge mode. The node then took over and killed my internet connection and everything that was connected to it so all I had was some pretty nodes with a light on top and not much else. Anyway after many reboots and resetting the nodes I managed to get my connection back.

27.8.2018

Bought this based on other reviewers and I'm certainly not disappointed. I chose tenda because it's half the price of equivalent mesh systems and gets loads of positive reviews. We have a challenging house for WiFi that's long, with brick walls all over it. I really wasn't winning with the router and range extenders solution.Firstly Set up: as promised by other reviewers, it really is a 20 minute job. Plug the first node into the router with the included Ethernet cable and download the app. Set up is self explanatory and easy. Then, simply plug in the other 2 nodes wherever is convenient in the house and they sort themselves out,

4.1.2018

I was looking at mesh wifi for some time but the cost had put me off, then I came across the Tenda Nova system at a much more reasonable price than the competition, only the BT System come any where close in terms of cost and specification and it has mixed reviews, so I took the plunge and bought the Tenda system.The system consists of three identical units, one of which you connect to your cable or fibre modem via an Ethernet cable (supplied) you then configure this unit via the app to get it online (at this point I couldn't resist testing the wifi signal and it already blew away the original ISP supplied router in terms of coverage)Once the first node is online you simply place the other two nodes in strategic points around the house,

8.4.2018

I’m used to mains networking and WiFi extenders, this mesh thing has made a huge difference, no flat spots, lagging or drops while walking about the house. Before my iPad/phone/laptop would try and hold on to a weak signal before dropping out and reconnecting, I also had to separate my WiFi into 2.4 and 5Ghz, now just one SSID which handles both and its blisteringly quick compared to before.I hate the idea of app only control panel, but actually it works well. I hated the idea of not having a dedicated backhaul channel, but to be honest I can’t tell, the reviews/comparison of mesh WiFi didn’t rate this has highly as other more expensive ones, but I’m glad I bought these.I have also noticed another great thing,

22.5.2018

Bought these to replace a bt whole home mesh system that never worked. The bt discs would constantly drop connection while reporting to be working fine.The tenda cubes, not only have been rock solid, but even the single cube gives better reception than the bt system.I now have WiFi in the entire house with virtually the same speed as a wired connection, and every device can access the internet via a stable connection without wires trailing all over the house.Very impressed with this one. It's about 50 quid cheaper than the bt equivalent, and is much more reliable.The app is also very easy to use, and makes it simple to see what's connected, which cube they're all connected to and their usage.

11.6.2018

My house is not particularly large, but it is single storey and L shaped. Getting a wi-fi signal from the study where the router is located to the bedroom is a real challenge. I have tried all manner of range extenders in the past with varying degrees of success. I was recently persuaded to try the mesh system sold by BT (who are my broadband provider). I tried this in various locations and tested the results using software which gives detailed reading on signal strength. I got no improvement over the standard wi fi extender.I was offered these to try and decided to do so. Set up was a breeze. Connected one unit with an ethernet cable to the router. Then set up the two other units at opposite ends of the corridor/hallway.

26.4.2020

First the good points. The WiFi range out of just one of these boxes is phenomenal. In hindsight I could of got away with less boxes.I get my full 100mbps internet in every room, I get WiFi coverage in every inch of the garden and half way down the road.I am using one of the boxes to connect my gaming pc. The ping is lower than my power line adapters. And I get my full internet speed.Now to some niggles. I have issues with devices hoping to the closest access point. When I turn fast roaming on some iOS devices fail to connect.Another contributing factor could be that I get great WiFi signal from just one box so there is no need for the device to change over.The app works fine.

19.10.2018

I bought this instead of the "Google Mesh" setup, and I haven't made a mistake in doing so. The nodes stay online and also serve the bandwidth to three 4K streams at a time and mobile phones and laptops etc... every day without any issues. Both 2.4ghz and 5ghz are stable... Although I do have the settings set to reboot at 6AM every morning to clear the cache.The application that you use to control these devices is great, nothing to complain about here. It just works and that's all there is to say about it.It's a great product, and I was lucky to find it before I shelled out a ridiculous price for the Google Mesh System.

7.1.2019

Bought this to replace a couple of Apple airport extremes that I was using in a 3000 sq ft home. I wanted a mesh so that roaming between ssids would be seamless and to have consistent wifi throughout the home.Setup was simple basically just plug it in and download an app to setup ssid name and optionally setup parental control. The only thing I'm not keen on was that registration (email address) was required which seems a bit over the top just for basic configuration.Performance is good. Roaming between the different units is seamless. The range of each unit is way stronger than the apple airport extreme - I can get strong signal as far as 30m and a weak signal at 50m.

4.8.2018

I've been using a BT signal booster which was ok but it wouldn't always have the strongest signal for no particular reason. I can only assume it was down to interferrence. The Tenda Nova is far more consistent and so far has been completely reliable and seemless. I now have an excellent signal at all points in my house.The setup is pretty straightforward and I've had no issues what so ever with. It makes you wonder why this kind of product hasn't been available at this quality and price point before.I'm very impressed with the Tenda and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

28.1.2019

Bought the M6 (3 units), unfortunately one adapter plug was faulty. Tenda replaced this without any problem dealing with their Amazon rep who kept in contact via email until everything was sorted. The system itself is very easy to set up and has fantastic coverage in 4000 sq ft house. The walls in the house are old and thick so we did wonder how well it would work. There are in excess of 20 devices using the internet and there is no drop of speed unlike our original router! The entire house is very well covered with 3 units. Would definitely recommend this product.

31.5.2018

Brilliant bit of kit. Pushes wifi to the furtherest point of my 5 bedroom house and into the garage which is some way away. However a word of caution about security. There is very little control of this system in the Tenda app. I use is as a wifi bridge so all the security is based in my business router (a Draytek). If security is your thing (as it is mine) you might want to think about how best to use this system. But in bridge mode it's fantastic - cheaper than the new router I've been buying every 18-24 months and much better as far as wifi is concerned.

Tenda Nova MW6 Whole Home Mesh Router (3 Pack) - Reviews

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