Tenda Nova MW12 Mesh WiFi System - Whole Home Tri-Band AC2100 WiFi - 6000sq² Coverage - 3 Gigabit Ports - Easy Setup - Replaces Router & Extender - 3-Pack

I live in an old Victorian semi spread over 4 floors, basement, ground floor, first floor and attic bedrooms - and I’ve had trouble with WiFi signal for as long as I can remember. Over the past few years I’ve invested in Extenders, extra routers, power line adapters but nothing has done the trick and all have caused drop-out of signal or disconnect from the network.I spent ages reviewing tech sites for a Mesh solution and these looked straightforward and very reasonably priced.UNBOXINGThe devices are probably twice the size of Rubik’s cubes and I opted for the three-pack due to the size of my house. The devices come well packaged with Uk plugs and also comes with a thin Ethernet lead to plug into your existing router/modem.SETUPAfter a quick read through the brief instruction booklet, the first decision I needed to make was where I was going to position the devices to get the best signal throughout the house so that I could eliminate all the dead-spots. I positioned the devices in the Attic hallway, first floor hall way and ground floor hall way.I connected the first device to the router and downloaded the Tenda app from the AppStore. Setup was very easy as all the admin passwords are at the bottom of the devices - not figured out yet how to change these yet.CONNECTIVITYWithin 5 minutes all the devices were connected and my teenage kids whooped for joy when the SpeedTest app reported >100Mb wireless speeds in most of the bedrooms - nothing was less than <30mb in speed. Even the kitchen, which usually had my wife complaining as she got <2mb previously was working at around 40Mb! Result.ISSUESSince installing the devices I’ve had one instance where the routers have dropped signal or appear to slow down to <1mb throughput for some unknown reason. This appeared to be a similar problem to what some other users have reported but I then made the decision to attach my devices to the ceiling in each hallway and to be honest they don’t look out of place. Having them on the ceilings has meant that I get very little interference from other electronics nearby and so far I’ve got no complaints as signal strength is perfect for the whole household.SUPPORTThe one issue I had was the connectivity dropping and getting hold of a technical support phone number or email address is almost impossible with no contact details provided for UK or Europe. For that reason I just hope I never have to to contact them as I’ve had no reply to my support request for almost a week!RELIABILITYSo far I have very little to complain about in terms of daily operation as the devices have been working fine since I reset them (powered off and then on when I last lost connectivity).RecommendationI’d recommend to try these if you want basic Mesh WiFi and are not too bothered about fancy VPN or lots of advanced parental controls. They have cured my WiFi dead spots but time will tell how they fair over the long run for reliability.UPDATE 02 FEB 2020I’ve had the devices now for over a week and I’ve not a had a single problem with them. Speed has been stable at around 80-100Mb throughout the house - I’m hoping it stays that way. Really pleased with the WiFi devices and would highly recommendUPDATE 23 JUN 2020The router and satellites have been running flawlessly now since Feb. Even my neighbour has invested in the same model. Not a single complaint to make about these devices. Better than any range extender or power line adapter.

Due to living so far from the exchange. we cannot get a decent broadband speed, so invested in a 4g router. The only problem being that the router apparently has a very small radius when it comes to signal. Things in the room next to the router were struggling to connect, so getting signal through a wall was practically impossible.I tried various ways to improve the signal (such as placing the router in a window) as well as the speeds & had until recently invested in extenders which at the time suited our needs, but with the introduction of all things becoming smart & adding extra rooms on our home, we needed the signal to be better without the loss of speeds experienced when using an extender.So, I did some research & found that mesh wifi would solve our problems - but knowing which ones to buy without spending a fortune was also a challenge.I did my research & found the Tenda Nova mesh set should meet our needs whilst being a reasonable price, so I initially invested in the 2 cube set.Due to having the first cube located right next to the router, I decided to invest in an add-on nova to bump it up to 3. Had I had known this I would have bought the 3 piece set initially, but you live & learn.So - I got the kit & due to the router already being quite difficult to place to get the best signal, we made the decision to locate it in an outdoor building as with increased signal strength, comes also faster speeds. Our speed went from around 20 to 50 just by locating the router in our shed.I added the nova to the router using the ethernet cable & went through the set up on the app which was so quick & simple.I then named the new wifi & added the next nova cube. Really easy.Then since that was sorted, I disabled the wifi signal on the router itself & located the other cubes so they reach all the areas of the house.The biggest task was reassigning everything to the new set up - but this is something you would have to do if ever you changed router or supplier anyway, so it took me about an hour but was otherwise very easy. Everything found the right channel even though my wifi only shows as one channel in my phone. No matter whether 2.4 or 5G, everything connected & now with every room having full signal, there was no messing about hoping the signal would remain strong enough to complete set up.Now my doorbell is running at -22 instead of -70. My smart sockets can now all pick up a signal & our various echo devices are now able to connect as well. TVs, air fryers, laptops, phones, tablets etc all connect really quickly & there is also a seamless transition that allows you to roam around the house & your device will auto-connect to the closest nova cube without any interruption.We currently have 36 devices on our new set up & all are picking up 5 bars of wifi signal & running at the best speeds we have ever known - even with the decrease in speeds due to everyone being throttled due to lockdown at present. I can't wait to see what speeds we can get once life gets back to some sort of norm.This set up has quite literally changed our smart device life.One of the cubes I initially hid behind our Bose speaker in the bedroom, but I found that doing so was in fact blocking the signal to some devices - namely our Ring doorbell. I moved the cube & sat it on top of the Bose & now everything connected to it is able to connect fully & the signal to the doorbell has increased significantly. We are toying with the idea of putting one in the loft as someone else commented they have done.I am also able to turn the service light off in the app, so the cube in the bedroom now doesn't emit light. Not that it was enough to keep me awake, but it's one thing less to be causing light pollution when I'm in bed.Also, I found the app full of ways to tweak & personalise your set up. There is a function for when you have more than 30 devices on your network, an auto maintenance schedule, as well as the ability to create numerous channels such as for guests or kids - but also you can create one purely for your echo devices, so if anyone was ever able to hack them then they can't get into anything else on your network - That was also another tip I picked up from researching these mesh systems.I can see at a glance which devices are connected to which cube etc. I found it really quite interesting setting it all up & working out all the settings so we get the best possible speeds.My other half is just happy that he can now watch TV in bed without it constantly buffering as the TV couldn't pick up the signal from the router through 1 wall before. These Novas are certainly very powerful when it comes to transmitting the signal throughout the house. And because we now have the main router in an external building, we can pick up a full signal in our workshops & down the garden too, so we can listen to our dot in the workshop whilst we are down the garden which in turn enables us to hear if anyone is at the door as well as providing the ability to listen to music without it constantly dropping signal.PROS:• Easy to set up• Easy to use• Comes with a warranty for peace of mind• You can personalise the settings to your requirements• Very responsive• Good signal range• Super quick to connect• Small white boxes with a long power cable makes them easy to put around the house as they are unobtrusive• Able to roam around our home now & the devices don't lose signalCONS:• Not able to set the channels as they are preset• Can't control which items connect to which cubeVerdict:Why did I not find out about these sooner??? 5 stars - great product, Would recommend. I am very happy with this item.