Thank you looking forward to more reviews of routers. My concern will be for wifi as most of my devices are in WiFi.

I just wondering why no recommendation for Asus Blue Cave router, it is newer with fast processor. Most experts still recommending AC86, which is much older and more expensive.

I like the look, and will jump to buy with good recommendation and discounts.

My 1st choice currently is still the asus blue cave for use on my 3 storey house now served with tp a 1200 on 2nd floor and got many dead ones.

However I am tempted by the mesh system. From the reviews both deco m5 and m9 do not support hypptv. Any mesh that support hypptv directly?

Else I am about experiment with tp link easy smart switch to see whether it can work. The article on blacktubi seems easy enough for dinosour like me, but comments on the article make me confused.

Or can I connect directly to the Huawei 2840 for hypptv?

No fan of antennas so that is another reason for me to get rid of tplink ac1200

Thank you. Just that price of Asus blue cave is more expensive then tp link deco. Therefore to make a mesh of blue cave will be out of budget.

I tried to use homeplug before, however fails miserably as my house on 3 phase and got so many extension here and there.

Try to use my old D850 (V1- not supplied by TM) as AP combined with TPLink1200. But got stability issues (TPLink) and security concern (D850).

Recommended to use bluecave, but out of budget. After reading some reviews (and I don't like antennas), really want to go for mesh solutions, tplink deco, but found out that no support for hypptv. So that's also out of picture.

Found another mesh solution, Nova MW6, which claims to support unifi fully including hypptv. As this is also the cheapest Mesh option, I take the plunge and got the 3 box solution. Now:

The Good
1) No more 'deadspot' in the house (3-storey). Also in the gardens etc. Full bar all the way, concrete wall or not. Battery life of devices improved considerably.
2) Everything seems to faster on the web,... opening pages, streaming, downloads etc.
3) Bloody easy to set-up for basic use. Just plug in everything, and the app is so easy to use.

The Not-so Good
1) Disconnection of streaming services (radio mostly), not frequent but happens on the good songs.
2) No documentation for hypptv. I found out that you need to switch on iptv in the app then just plug in the ethernet cable. Hypptv just works.
3) Speedtest only shows 100++MBps although the download seems to faster.
4) No advanced features (on the setting app). There is no web-setup either. So to advance users who require special setting etc, then this boxes are not recommended.

No 3 make me worried, although as of now I frequently have 4-5 devices streaming from different channel, with different resolutions and sources, satisfactorily. Apart from some disconnection (1), may be once every 3-4 hours the rest is ok.


Really want to go with mesh

This post has been edited by biggie: Dec 25 2018, 10:27 AM

As a user of Tenda MW6, I will not recommend it. I bought those boxes as at the time only Tenda MW6 is the only one that supported hyppTV.

Speed is limited, since it uses the same chipset as their lower end router. So you are stuck with the same speed no matter the firmware as it is due to hardware limitation.

But if you use for light browsing and soc-med, the coverage is great at acceptable speed.

Mesh option strongly recommended. Me even with lousy tenda mw6 able have multiple streaming connection (kids having their online classes now) and able to move around the house on video call with no dropped connection.

On a 3 floor house with brick walls this is heaven sent

I a mesh convert, even with lousy tenda mw6 I got consistent coverage for whole house. 3 floors with lots of brick walls.

Most probably will update in few years time as new standards become more affordable.