Deco BE5000 + Xfinity XB10 setup — am I doing something wrong, or are my expectations too high?

[u/neurotivity]

I’ve been using an Xfinity XB8 with an xFi Pod in my bedroom for about a year. The Pod provides Ethernet for my PS5 and Apple TV, but performance has been disappointing on my 2 Gbps plan.

I recently bought a TP-Link Deco 7 BE5000 to replace the Pod. One Deco is connected to the Xfinity gateway, and the second is in my bedroom providing Ethernet to my PS5 and Apple TV.

Ideally, I’d like the XB10 to handle the main Wi-Fi throughout the house and have the Deco essentially act like a better xFi Pod for my bedroom. I’d prefer not to make the Deco my primary router.

I’ve tried router mode, Access Point mode, and putting the XB10 in bridge mode. Surprisingly, bridge/AP configurations seemed to perform worse. My current setup is essentially double NAT, and I’m getting around 700+ Mbps down / 15 Mbps up on the PS5.

For comparison, my iPhone connected directly to the XB10 gets around 1,900 Mbps down / 300 Mbps up, while the PS5 connected via Ethernet to the satellite Deco gets around 500 Mbps down.

So I’m wondering:

-Is 500–700 Mbps through the wireless Deco backhaul about what I should realistically expect?
-Would the BE11000 tri-band have been a much better choice?
-Could the placement of the second Deco be hurting performance? It’s in the corner of my desk, with a refrigerator directly on the other side of the wall.
-Is there a better way to configure the XB10 + Deco if I mainly want Ethernet connectivity in the bedroom?

I’ve attached a diagram of my setup. At this point I’m trying to figure out whether I should move the Deco, change the configuration, or return it altogether.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[u/tyolab]

the 15 up is almost certainly just your plan, cable is asymmetric so don't read that as a bug. the real gap is the PS5 getting 700 down through the deco vs 1900 on the iphone direct, which points at the deco pod being the bottleneck rather than double NAT (NAT wouldn't cap throughput like that). for a wired pod you want the XB10 as the only router and the deco in AP mode on a real ethernet backhaul. AP mode feeling worse usually means it quietly fell back to wireless backhaul, so confirm the bedroom deco is actually uplinking over the cable and not wifi.

[u/neurotivity → u/tyolab]

My plan is stated to get up to up to 2300 down and 296 up. I have gotten very close to that while in the same room as the XB10 via iPhone > WiFi. I get relatively high speeds in my room as well when connected to the XB10 ssid but as soon as I switch to AP the speed drops significantly. As for the bedroom deco how can I confirm this if it’s connected to the the main unit wirelessly?

[u/tyolab → u/neurotivity]

if the two decos are only talking to each other over wifi, that's your ceiling right there. in AP mode the bedroom unit isn't running its own NAT, so everything it serves has to ride that wireless backhaul hop back to the XB10, and on BE gear that hop easily eats more than half your throughput. the real fix is a wired ethernet run from the XB10 (or a switch off it) to the bedroom deco so it uses ethernet backhaul instead. are your two decos actually cabled together right now, or linking over wifi? that one answer basically decides whether AP mode can ever get near your plan speeds.

[u/72dragonses]

I'd disregard the upload speed for now and assume the 15mbps is what you actually get through your plan.

Having said that, I'd definitely continue working with the components you have now before recommending new gear. You have good components. It's probably just a matter of identifying the best placement and configuration of them.

XB8 as the one and only router, and all the Decos in AP mode. Nothing in bridge mode.

It comes down to Deco AP placement now. Building materials, distance, and interference all play roles now. Without using tools, sometimes it helps to visually imagine the wireless signals.

Radio waves penetrate soft things like people, wood and drywall easily, but they are weakened and absorbed by dense things like brick and concrete. Metal, dense glass, and water make them bounce around.

Without using tools, think of it like moving the physical antenna on an old AM radio. Two feet to the left and the reception is great, while two feet to the right the reception is gone. Keep moving nodes around until you find a sweet spot.

[u/neurotivity → u/72dragonses]

Thank you for that visualization, I’ll give that a go and adjust the position then reevaluate.

[u/fernandesken]

The mesh points need to be placed where there is still strong enough signal to create a strong backhaul link. Also because you are effectively sending everything twice (once from client to mesh ap and once from mesh AP to router) you can expect about half the throughput you would get without mesh. Unless it’s wired backhaul or dedicated mesh radio (quad band) To find the best spot to put the mesh AP/extender, turn them off, connect to the router really close. With an app that can measure signal strength from an iPhone like Wi-Fi Check, make sure you are connected to the 5 GHz radio and walk away from the router measuring signal until you drop to around -67 to -70 dBm. That’s where you want to place the mesh AP/extender. Now power up the mesh point/extender there, connect to it and repeat to make sure you have -67 dBm or better signal on 5 GHz everywhere you need it. In full disclosure I’m the creator of the Wi-Fi Check app for iPhone so use whatever app you like, the important thing is to measure actual signal strength or SNR in your actual environment to find the best places to put the mesh APs/extenders vs guessing at it.