Photos and Features
So for photos of the actual Deco, well the Deco’s. I snapped a few shots so we could go over a few of the exterior features but like the instructions, there isn’t as much going on here as you might be used to seeing with a standard router. The first thing to keep in mind is that all three of the Deco’s that you get in are exactly the same. In fact, you can buy them individually as well, but you lose the whole house range by doing that. They work best together because they create a wireless mesh network. One device is going to work as a primary once you hook it up to your modem or router, but beyond that, they all do the same functions.
For those who don’t know what a mesh network is. Basically, all three devices have four antennas. Running dual band AC1300, meaning they have two running on 2.4GHz and two on 5.0GHz, this gets you 400 Mbps (2.4 GHz) and 867 Mbps (5 GHz). They also allow MU-MIMO streaming, aka Multiple In and Multiple Out to use more than one antenna as long as your device supports it. Each device syncs together using one of those bands, creating multiple connections as you add more devices. This is where the mesh parts comes in, once you add enough devices, taking one out doesn’t break the chain. This is why you see mesh networks being used to do city wide wireless.
When looking closer at the Deco’s the top of the device really just has the unique Deco shape and then in the center a small hole. This hole has an LED light behind it to show you the status of the device. Yellow means the device is starting up, pulsing blue means it is ready to setup. Solid blue is when you are in the middle of the setup process. Solid green means it is working properly. Then, of course, red means something is wrong. Basically, each color is exactly what you would expect them to be, anyone who walks by is going to know green is good and red is bad, even without any manual.
The bottom has all of the normal certification logos as well as serial number and mac addresses. Beyond that, there is a small reset button near the edge and most of the bottom is covered in small pin holes for ventilation. There are four feet to give those vents a little air gap but what is noticeably missing in my mind is any way to hang or mount the Deco’s. Now don’t get me wrong a flat orientation is going to give the best signal, but what if I wanted to mount these on the ceiling or anything like that.
Then around the edge, you will find everything all together in the tallest area of the Deco. The Type-C power connection is over on the left, then there are two ethernet ports. This was a little interesting to me at first but after thinking about it I do get it. Remember these are routers so you need to be able to hook your modem up to them. The second port allows you to also hook a single wired computer up on that same device or to hook a switch up to expand the network connections. Things get more interesting though. You can actually hard wire each of the devices altogether and they will mesh together over the wired network and save the wireless bandwidth for your devices. Another option, you can hook up other wired devices in another room. So you could have a switch and a Deco in your office and wire everything up there, then hook your modem up to one deco upstairs or downstairs, then have your third deco with a second switch, wiring up devices in your living room. The three devices would link everything together and also provide wireless through your house. Now I would always still recommend a wired network as a base but it's nice to know you could spread out your network to another area of the house without running the longest cables.
