Hi sifu's.

My unifi speed was recently upgraded to 300mpbs from 100 mbps.

Unfortunately my existing setup below is unable to capture the full potential of the speed.

Existing setup for a double storey terrace house;

Main router (connected to Unifi modem) is a Tenda TX2 pro.
TX2 pro has wired connection to primary Tenda MW3 mesh node, transmitting data to 2 other nodes in the house.
All wifi devices in the house will connect to the Tenda MW3 mesh network

Limitation of existing setup: MW3 unfortunately only has a 100mb WAN/LAN port, hence the input to my mesh network is capped at 100 mbps.

Would like to get some suggestions from sifu's here on the most economical way to update my network configuration. I was thinking of 2 options below;

Option 1) Buy 1 MW6 node attach it to TX2 via wired connection (replacing the primary MW3 node), can the remaining MW3 nodes now enjoy the higher speeds as I read reviews that MW3, MW5 and MW6 are all cross compatible

Option 2) Purchase 1 more unit of Tenda TX2 pro to act as a mesh.

Does anybody have experience doing this as well or a more optimized and economical solution?

Thank you and sorry for the long post

Bump and open to seek advice from anyone who has done something similar before

You have 4 routers for a double storey terrace house?

Usually 2 routers as mesh is more than enough even for a normal semi-D house.

My house is split level unfortunately. So in theory 2 levels split into 4. So at this moment i use main router and 3 MW3.

However MW3 WAN port unable to take more than 100 MBPS, so bottleneck there. Was thinking get 1 MW6 to connect to the main, not sure if that will help the other nodes.

If it is wireless mesh then just try one first.

If it is ethernet mesh then you need to replace all.

assuming that once you get mw6, you wired it. on your subsequent mesh which is mw3, even if you place in a clear line of sight from mw6 to mw3, i can assure you wont be getting more than 150mbps.

why? one wireless hop will halve its speed ,is the answer . doesn't matter how close you place it.

so if you were to ask me whether is economical or practical to just buy 1 mw6, the answer is no, as you dont stand to gain more even if you change one of it just to overcome the 100mbps bottleneck... just for a mere 50mbps or 80mbps increase, nah...might as well continue using it as long the whole house gets full 100mbps.

best suggestion is to entirely change the topology equipment or get rid of the mw3 while it still has fair value for it.

go for minimum ax1500/1800 rated and for sure you'll be getting close to near subscribed speed.

This post has been edited by Omochao: Jan 8 2024, 10:10 PM

oh and a side note, tenda mesh system only supports protocol k/v , no r...i wonder why they choose to only leave it out same like fiberhome.

as I do know the r protocol is heavily dependent on our devices.

as such, since you are already going to fork out 200+ just to get either 2 pack or 3 pack mesh, just go for good ones like tplink or mercusys. never dlink though , you will cry along the way.

Thank you for the suggestion. In that case, what are your thoughts on getting a 2nd Tenda TX2 pro, which is a wifi 6 router and put it into AP mode, or will that still see a speed drop of 50% because it is wireless instead of wired?

Also, is there any issues if my main router is tenda, and hook up to another mesh system from diff company such as TP Link Deco?

depends on how big of an area that you intend to cover...since you mentioned you got two mw3 right now, so I'm not sure how big your house is currently .

House is about 1500 sq ft, split level double storey.

Current setup with 3 MW3 gets 90+ Mbps for phone anywhere in the house.

Unfortunately its now bottleneck once speed got upgraded

Then I suggest to get a better router than your current router, you don't need mesh, as I'm confident your current TX2 pro is able to cover the ground floor of your house from front to back of the house, just that speed will compromise a bit.

Get another equivalent or slightly higher than your current router, then set it either at AP or wisp mode for the top floor. But again, you are going to lose out on the speed, as each wireless hop halve the speed.