People in the comments are defending TPLink for how 'solid' their products are. As someone who just switched to UniFi APs from a Deco Mesh (wired), I have to admit that the difference is deep dark hole and bright sunshine day. Maybe people are comparing to spectrum charter modem combos but I definitely don't see how a router that loses firmware updates in a year can be praised. And it needs reboots so frequently. The Deco has an option now to reboot 'everyday'. This sounds something maybe needed for rare cases where the ISP expects a reboot, but the fact that your routers have that as a feature to keep it stable is a big red flag.
I was so used to this that when I started looking for this setting in UniFi OS I had forgotten the part 'networks are not supposed to be rebooted frequently!'.
First, all of the TP-Link devices I use still have firmware updates regularly. I can't talk about Deco series, which I don't own.
Second, mesh capabilities are not consistent across different brands, that's true. On the other hand, comparing TP-Link, which is a home/SOHO brand to UniFi, which is essentially a prosumer/enterprise offering is not fair. I have a small mesh (three devices) at one of the places I run these devices, and it hands-off nicely, extends coverage, and gives me the speeds written on the tin.
Do I expect it to compare to a UniFi or Aruba mesh where the smallest element has more processing power than my router? Of course not. Do I expect it to run on a 300 sqm house with 10+ devices? Again, no. But as long as my network runs, I can access the devices with good connections and speeds they advertise, I'm golden.
Lastly, "restart everyday at this time" setting is present since forever on many devices. The feature is to help home-downloaders / data hoarders to renew their IP periodically. Heck, even JDownloader has a feature to reset your modem remotely if your modem supports to renew IPs (since 2004?). Assumptions don't help here.
I never had to automatically restart any of the routers/modems I used regardless of the manufacturer sans a couple Cisco/Linksys devices. E4200 which had two processors, one for the switch and one for the router. The router one stopped responding randomly to cut whole network off from internet, and my E900's processor crashed flooding whole home network with packets basically paralyzing it. Oh, that same E900 failed to negotiate with the on board RTL8139 Ethernet controller, so I had to buy another "Cisco/Linksys" RTL8139 card.
TP-Links I had never done anything remote. They even have the best latencies and WAN recovery when things go south on ISP side. My TP-Link 802.11AX extender works flawlessly with my ISP supplied WiFi6 modem, and despite having no mesh communication going on, running on the same SSID and handing off pretty reliably.
Yes, a home product with a dedicated controller unit, Fx networking support, cloud based management with ability to self-host, traffic shaping and SDN capabilities.
People can dedicate a small cabinet to UniFi rack-mountable gear plus the network center of their house. TP-Link has none of those, and not aiming for that market, even.
It's comparing a Peugeot 3008 with a Mercedes-Benz G Class and adding that, Mercedes has serious off-road trucks like Unimog, but G Class is their end-user product.
Apples to Pineapples.
BTW, it's not hard for me to install and manage a high capacity UniFi network in any way. I don't use their devices, because I don't want to manage yet another network.
A 3 pack WiFi 7 BE65 mesh from TPLink at launch costed 1500$. They seem to have done their usual hardware switching to now sell a similar BE63 for 500$. But if you are going to compare the two compare the actual hardware equivalent product. For 500$ You can get a controller and a couple of APs from UniFi, the setup will be far better than a 3pack BE63.
From what I see, Deco BE series have multiple models, with slightly different port configuration. Looks like BE65 comes with 4x 2.5gbE and BE65 comes with 2x5gbE + 1x2.5gbE. Moreover the site has multiple other Deco BE models. Both BE63 and BE65 is on sale and can be purchased.
From my experience, TP-Link makes hardware changes with "H/W versioning" in their model numbers. I have many RE220 extenders with different hardware revisions, earlier ones doesn't supporting OneMesh. However, I don't find later versions performing worse w.r.t. earlier ones.
However, $500/unit, the backbone of the devices doesn't look underpowered, esp. when looking to both wireless and wired specs. Considering my RE700X is saying what's written on the tin, and being rock-solid despite working with a non TP-link device and and being behind two 30cm walls.
I expect these Deco devices to live up to their specs.
I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my WiFi. Turns out all I had to do is power restart it. All my problems went away after setting up weekly reboots. It is stupid that it works and it is stupid that it is the only solution for stable WiFi. Shame on tplink
its usually either low memory which basically crashes the devices or buggy software which works until you hit the bug at which point it requires a restart to get it working again. Most common is memory problems though because these devices have just enough memory to make it work.
I have not used the Deco access points but the Omada ones have web rock solid for me for about 4.5 years now and I used UniFi before that with no real issues either.
> I definitely don't see how a router that loses firmware updates in a year can be praised
My Deco M4 mesh units from 2019 are still receiving regular firmware updates (to be fair, I think more to bring compatibility with new features than for security updates, but regardless).
The Ubiquity hardware might be good, but the firmware is so shit, especially for IPv6, that I had to replace it with OpenWRT to get it to work (offer IPv6 prefixes for delegation).
I was so used to this that when I started looking for this setting in UniFi OS I had forgotten the part 'networks are not supposed to be rebooted frequently!'.