Initial thoughts. Setup was easy and very straightforward. However, if you are looking for advanced configuration options for your network, this is probably not the best option. While I am overall pleased with the performance of the system, I am a little disappointed that it does not perform exactly as advertised. Your connection to the network is drastically simplified because it is unnecessary to switch between the primary router, extensions or even frequencies. The support from Tenda is almost non-existent, the phone number listed for US support was "unavailable" when I called, and live chat is not available 24 hours a day. The most significant challenge I am having is that when connected to the primary node, I am getting full throughput from my ISP, I have a 250Mbps connection with Xfinity, but when connected to either of the secondary nodes, the performance drops in half. The performance of the Tenda Nova system is still a dramatic improvement over my previous setup which consisted of a Linksys WRT3200ACM router and Linksys AC1900 Extender but, is again not performing as advertised. I have submitted two requests, through email, to Tenda and have not heard back as of yet. Overall, I am pleased with the system, but wish it performed as advertised.
3 days into use and I like it. Helps with the WiFi around my house. I'm getting about 100mbs speed all over the house. At times having a single router and one access point I would have hiccups and speeds as slow at 5kb. It was definitely time to get a mesh system. I reviewed almost every option. Almost purchased Google, orbi, and a few others, but for the price, I thought I would give it a shot. Purchased for $150, and 3 days later they are now $99 on Amazon. Hopefully I'll get a credit instead of wasting time to return and repurchase.
I had an issue setting this up initially and found that if it doesn't connect, perform the following from the app on your phone.
From the main WiFi menu on the app, delete the devices that are not connecting. Hold the reset on the bottom of the devices until the light turns white, then release. After the additional devices power up, you should have no issues connecting them. The app will even prompt that it found a new device.
The support at tenda walked me through this. They were super helpful. They even answered the phone almost immediately and there were no prompts to press when calling. Awesome!
I work in IT, but don't see the need to buy $400 plus routers if I can get even 80% of the performance from this device. And litterally, I'm getting much better performance and range.
House size is 2500 sq ft, finished basement and second floor. Coverage is consistent throughout. I used a WiFi analyzer to track signal and it all seems consistent.
If anything changes, I'll update this post.
I have been using this product for a week and no issues. Prior to my purchase, I had purchased a router from a big box store that was a pain in the rear to set up. When I was unable to make a small change I returned it a few days after the purchase. I have gone through a few routers in the past and they were a HUGE HASSLE to set up. WOW is all I can say. I was impressed from the moment I opened the Amazon box and saw the silhouette of the Tenda MW6. The device(s) or elegant cubes as my wife calls them came in a handsome box that is not typical for what the Netgear and Linksys giants offer. Upon opening the well crafted black box you find the three "elegant cubes" positioned equally in foam along with the power adapters. I have to admit I watched a youtube video to make sure the install went smoothly. You are directed to download the app to set up the device. WOW WOW WOW, Super Easy and efficient! I am shocked that my prior Netgear routers were not this easy. This is a great product that helps spread and balance the bandwidth stress from all of the computers. phones, tablets, and smart tv's in my home. The guest wifi was a snap. The hardest part was creating a password. I give this product 10 stars due to its price. It may not be the fastest but I now have a strong signal in parts of my house that were dead zone, Great Product, Great Value! By this before you consider buying an over priced mesh wifi system.
I'm really happy with this product. I added it to my 2,100 sq ft 2 story house and now I have reliable wifi inside and outside wherever I go.
I am using an Xfinity cable modem/router that like all routers hands out internal IP addresses. When I first added the Tenda, I found that it is also configured to act as a DHCP server resulting in double-NAT.
I found that when I set the Tenda to Bridge mode, it made the wifi connections much quicker since it eliminates the double -NAT.
I'd also recommend that if you are connecting the Tenda to an existing wifi router, that you disable the original router's wifi. Otherwise you will cause interference between the old router's wireless signal and the Tenda's signal.
It's only been a day but so far, I really like it. The system comes in an attractive box (big deal). The printed documentation is adequate. It might be helpful to note that the doco says to download the "Tenda WiFi" app from Google (not 'the TendaApp' as some have said). After rebooting the modem and powering on, it was easy to log in with the SSID and password on the bottom of the box and then change the SSID and password to match our old system. Adding nodes was a bit confusing. The "Add Nova" option (to add nodes) produced an error message saying something like "No new Nova Detected." Graphically, it then "added" the second and eventually the third nodes by turning them from orange to green. I guess what they're saying is that these were already paired at the factory so they're not "new." You probably could just plug them in and wait for them to be added.
Our home is a 2100 square foot ranch/rambler that is probably 60+ feet from end to end (built in 1957). On the back is a 14 X 26 foot family room (1992) addition. In the main part of the house, the walls are wet plaster with rock lath and chicken wire, almost like a Faraday cage. RF doesn't pass easily between rooms. The main unit/gateway was placed in my "radio room" at the far end of the house. The 2nd node was placed in the living room (about 30 feet away) and the 3rd node went on the floor of the family room (another 30 feet away). All units show the friendly blue light indicating excellent connection. The main unit is connected with a 5 port Netgear switch to wire in two Windows 10 PCs and a Flex Radio 6300 (essentially a radio server that is accessible by other PCs in the house). I also use both Ethernet ports on the 3rd node and they work fine for streaming audio to our AVR and video to a tired dual core Windows PC.
As advertised, you can walk throughout the home with a WiFi device and see no differentiation between nodes or the band being used. Our ISP is Comcast which advertises speeds of up to 100 MBPS down. This morning, I saw 120 MBPS through both wired PCs and my Amazon Kindle (which does have 5 GHz WiFi). Walking to the far end of the house, I have seen as high as 85 MBPS via WiFi. Most of the time, speed tests show 50-60 MBPS at the far end. Just now, I got 120 MBPS down hard wired and 48+ at the far end (peak evening time) on my $99 Android cell phone which does not have 5 GHz WiFi. So, is it screaming fast, no. Is it adequate for what we're going to do with it (including streaming Amazon Prime Video, which works fine via WiFi on the 3rd or farthest node), yes very much so.
Our previous WiFi setup was an Asus AC 1300 dual band router that almost covered the main part of the house. One it the Asus' ports was connected to a TP-Link Ethernet over Powerline device that placed another dual band WiFi hotspot in our family room. It was rated at 1200 MBPS. PConnected to our former Wowway 30 MBPS internet service, it delivered 14 MBPS on a good day. The Powerline device also spewed all kinds of garbage on every ham radio band 40 meters and above. Soooooo... it had to go. The Tenda provides far better coverage (RF) and throughput than the Asus/TP-Link combo (that was temporarily connected to the 100 MBPS Comcast feed and didn't do much better).
IMHO, mesh networking is the way to go. The Tenda Nova MW6 provides reasonable service to our almost RF proof house. It doesn't interfere with other devices.
Feature Product
- Real mesh network: supports mandatory mesh Wi-Fi technical Protocol 802.11S, making it the next-gen wireless router built for your smart home.
- Router & extender replacement: replace the old router + extender setup with a mesh wireless-access point system, fit for major modems and sip's. (Tat, Comcast, time Warner, Verizon, spectrum, etc.)
- High user capacity & No dead zones: a seamless mesh Wi-Fi environment for high volume network demands and supports up to 90 devices simultaneously, with each Node covering Up to 2, 000 sq. Ft of living space to eliminate dead zones.
- Seamless roaming for all: each unit works together to form a real mesh Wi-Fi network to create a truly seamless online experience. Phones, laptops and most Wi-Fi devices instantly connect to the strongest access point when moving around your home.
- Quick & easy-setup & monitoring: Tenda Wi-Fi App guides you through the setup, monitoring and management of your mesh Wi-Fi network and includes built-in parental controls to oversee internet access for your children. For 5 GHz, the speed is up to 867Mbps and for 2.4 GHz, the speed is up to 300Mbps
- 3 year product warranty
Description
The ultimate Wi-Fi experience: The mesh Wi-Fi System comes with 3-Pack Nova MW6, they constitute powerful latticed Wi-Fi coverage to eliminate dead zones and buffering. + real mesh tech ensure smooth streaming, gaming, downloading, and uninterrupted video chat at the same time. easy and fast setup with pre-configuration makes you go from burden of cabling Wi-Fi App system requirements: android 4.0+ or iOS 8+package contents(3-pack): 3 identical mesh nodes 3 power adapters 1 quick install guide1 Ethernet Cable. Power - Input - 100-240V—50/60Hz, 0.6A, Output -DC 12V==1.5A
This is excellent! We previously had several dead WiFi spots in the house and now we have full coverage. Set up was super easy via the Tenda WiFi App (which can be downloaded from Play or the Apple Store). It will walk you thru all the steps.
Unplug your modem. Hook up any of the Tenda "cubes" to the modem. Plug in the Tenda to the power outlet. Turn the modem on. Follow the prompts on your phone and they will connect. Setting up each cube is simple. Just plug them into a power outlet. Our first one is in th edining room by the modem. The second one in the living room behind the TV. The third one is in the bedrooms. Before my daughter could not stream movies on her TV and now she can with no issues whatsoever. I cannot figure out why some people are having issues with this item as it was almost too easy to set up and it took me longer to unhook the old router and old WiFi extender than it did to get this up and running.
Again we have full house coverage, all bars to the top. We checked the backyard and have coverage all the way to the edge of our property and then some. Front yard - same. No issues. We decided to walk down the street and see how far we had WiFi. 4 houses away in either direction! One of my photos shows us down the street and we still have a signal in that location.
If you are not very technical and just want better WiFi coverage then this is for you. Not to mention it is one of the cheaper models out there. I looked at several for over a week and read reviews and watched interviews before deciding on this one. It does offer guest access, parental controls and you can schedule updates (one of the other brands updates at all times of the day and interferes with your WiFi). I have this one set up to look for updates at 3AM. Also, when you first connect it gives you a generic "Tenda" name. You then have the option to re-name the WiFi and change the password (the start up password is on the bottom of the cube). I renamed mine to our old network name and password and all of our devices connected including multiple phones, iPads, tablets, 2 smart TV's a BlueRay player and more. All with excellent coverage! Photos include a picture from the street several houses away where we still have coverage and a couple of the cube to give you an idea of size.
We have 3 cubes placed throughout the house.
Moved to a new house, so decided to try a MESH system to avoid having to wire the house with CAT 5. The two satellite units both show "excellent" connection in a fairly large 2-story house. All the media units (DISH HOPPER, Fire TV, etc.) work perfectly; I use one switch in an office to provide multiple RJ-45 outlets. For VoIP I get an MOS of 4.4 when connected to one of the satellites via the switch. Just so easy!
Initially, I used the product in bridging mode with another router providing DHCP, because reviews said that you could not change the DHCP IP range (and I was lazy and did not want to change static IPs on some equipment). This configuration gave me quite a high packet loss, enough to make VPN very slow -- I don't know whether the problem was with the Nova or with the other router. I then found out that the latest firmware DOES permit the DHCP range to be set by the user ... fixed this, dumped the other router, switched the Nova to DHCP mode, and zero problems since then.
Excellent product; great performance; very good value ... and SO EASY!
Wasn't expecting this to be so easy to setup. Turn off your modem. Download the Tenda WiFi app. Plug in the power to one of the Nova Cubes (doesn't matter which one). Plug in the Ethernet cable (included) into the Cube (the one with the blue globe icon) and one of the modem's Ethernet ports. Power up the modem. Give the modem time to go all green. Open the Tenda WiFi app and follow the rest of the instructions. The Cube's starting name and password are on the label on the bottom including the serial number which you use later to find and rename the Cubes by location in the app. The other two Cubes just had to be plugged in and they worked with in about a minute. I placed one at each end of my house and one in the middle. Coverage is great. Speed seems fine, no buffering on my streaming services. Just have to see how they do over time now.
The setup was quite easy. I now have the BEST wifi coverage! I could not be happier with the signal strength and speed throughout my 1600 ft2 bungalow with 1600 ft2 basement and small L shaped back yard. Maybe even next door? You need a smartphone to use the app to set up the routers which as I see it is the only minor downfall of these routers. Once everything is connected you can look at the app and see which node each device is connected to. Each router has a LAN port which is great for plugging in wired only devices like my satellite TV receiver or the My AcuRite weather station link. The system automatically assigns each device to either 2.4 or 5 GHz connection which all magically uses the same SSID. As you move around the system seems to keep everything connected perfectly. With my cable modem in my basement I previously had trouble getting a signal upstairs in places. I now have full signal strength everywhere and fast internet speeds! I totally recommend this router which was highly recommended to me by my brother in law!
PROS:
1. Easy setup, except software did not find the connection type for first cube until I restarted modem (maybe DHCP related)
2. Pretty much full speed internet across entire house, about half out on deck.
3. Additional cubes autoconnect, very easy. Just plug in.
4. Software allows you to group devices and set multiple time out periods.
CONS:
1. Software crashes every time I try to set up remote login via G+ or Facebook, etc. So no remote login for now.
2. Can't test connection speed of each device like you can with Google WiFi
OVERALL:
For $168 (tax included), this is about $100-150 cheaper than Google Mesh, and even more savings over the other top brands out there. The size is a little larger, but the 4x4 inch cubes are decent to look at, not a big deal.
The greatest bonus for me was the ability to plug the Xbox One directly into the cube, increasing it's speed to the full 5GHz speed of the cube (the XBO is only 2.4 GHz). However, I do experience a little lag sometimes when playing, so will have to monitor this. Happy one week in. If things change, I will update.
