@Rioja time to return this "mess" system back to where you purchased it. They will never remedy this issue. I'm sending my 3 M5's back to Amazon before my 30 day return policy expires. It's too bad the system doesn't perform like a true mesh system, as advertised:(

Rioja wrote

@Olafmol 

 

Could you please briefly describe how the option is implemented in the beta firmware. You cannot select which deco connects with the one chosen by the user. I have 5 decos (I just added one) and the four decos satellites are irretrievably connected to the main decode which is connected to the ISP. Thanks and best regards

 

@Rioja the beta firmware adds an new option to the Router Settings menu in the Deco app, called "Network Optimization". When pressing it, some "black magic" is happening, and then it's done. No idea what is happening, and most often there is no change/improvement in how the Deco's connect, but once in a while it connects to another closer Deco. But as another poster already mentioned, sometimes, for whatever reason, it also automatically reconnects to the main (further away) Deco. 

All in all, it's totally unclear what exactly is happening when pressing this option, and the effects are also very minimal, ie it's not really improving anything structurally. 

Before the beta firmware, I could make my Decos at least not to stupidly connect to the main deco (this is EXTREMELY frustrating!) by following these steps:

1. Switch all the units off
2. Turn the farthest one on
3. Turn the second farthest one one and wait a couple of minutes
4. Repeat until you reach the main Deco. It needs to be the very last one. 

COME ON, TpLink, manual signal source selection would make your WiFi mesh devices awesome. We rarely need to move your mesh units around, so manual source signal selection is the most sensible approach.  

And this thread that keeps on giving...
 

@TP-Link must be truly proud that just a single product is capable of inflicting disappointment on so many people...

After 25 years of having teams of electronics & software/firmware engineers, it still can't turn around a screw up like this in 1.5 years.

This thread is from Oct 2019 everyone... A disgrace...

@Olafmol I want to start by giving my word of honor that what I am telling is totally true. This morning I wrote a post, addressing OLAFMOL, saying that my decos, now there are 5 (since I added one last week) never had formed a mesh, all four were always connected to the main deco, the set (4) had it ago approximately two years.

Which is my surprise, that without touching "today" absolutely nothing, I find the decos CONNECTED IN MESH, as I had thought many times, the mesh could be formed as I have them placed and evaluating distances.

I can't find a logical explanation, and this does seem like "BLACK MAGIC".

Also say that since the last official firmware update, 1.5.1 build 20201022 Rel66804, a "Network Optimization" option had been implemented that if you touched it normally, it would change the 2.4 Ghz channel. I have used it sometime to change the channel in 2.4Ghz when I was put on 12-13 or 14 which are incompatible with my DAIKIN air conditioners. I never appreciated another function, much less the connections between decos.

I have my serious doubts that this wonderful mesh that my decos have created today, will be preserved forever, and that in the first power failure, it will disappear. I guess and wish that the next firmware fixes the situation.

@Rioja  

I answer myself.

How little happiness lasts in the poor man's house!

In my post yesterday February 17, I gave the news of the formation of a mesh network with my five decos m5, after two years of possession.

24 hours my joy lasted. Today I detected a failure in the internet signal of my ISP, I suppose it could be the reason, but the mesh network has disappeared.

I give up doing any testing and until the new firmware arrives, I will not touch anything at all.

@Rioja you should touch it... 

Touch it to return the whole lot and ask for a refund...

@ TP-LinkI don't know why, but the mesh has been recreated with my five m5 decos.

I can say that the mesh is perfect, as many times I had thought it had to be formed.

The whole set works wonderfully with extraordinary optimal performance.

The pity is that I am sure this situation is not permanent and I will lose it again and I am not convinced it can be re-formed as it is now.

I want to tell Tp Link. that gives us the possibility of permanently maintaining a configuration that works optimally once achieved and if a change occurs due to an extraordinary circumstance, to be able to recover that configuration.

I am not a computer engineer, but as a user I realize after a little more than 2 years of handling the m5 decos, that it is essential that Tp Link give the user the possibility to decide the way that the decos are linked to form the mesh, and for conformist users who do not want to complicate, an automatic form that goes in the software created by tp link.

The "Network optimization" option is not enough. We want to decide certain things ourselves

Greetings and Cheers!

@Olafmol 

Hi, 

could you please send me the link to Deco M5 beta firmware for testing.

I have the same issue and I would need to connect to another M5 as satellite as one of the M5's is too far from the main deco.

thanks