Linksys Velop AX Tri-Band Mesh WiFi System (MX4200)

Intro - Setting up this device was a very straight forward. Turn it on, download an app, follow the guide and you're online. Obviously being a WiFi 6 (AX) device there is plenty to talk about when it comes to it's coverage and speed. To give a quick caveat, I'm sure this device could achieve much faster speeds with purely WiFi 6 clients. There are not many available so these tests were performed in a mixed environment. From a Apple Watch Series 3 (2.4Ghz WiFi 4 N standard) to an iPhone 11 (5Ghz WiFi 6 AX standard) and a couple of AC WiFi 5 standard laptops. Testing - when my iPhone 11 is in the same room as the Velop router it gets 705Mbps, a Lenovo laptop with an AC wifi adapter I get 866Mbps. Further away on the ground floor my iPhone gets 300-400Mbps on average, the laptop gets 400-700Mbps. The WiFi signal barely manages to go beyond our outer house walls. I am certain this is because our house is made of traditional stone on the outside and pretty solid masonry on the ground floor between rooms. Explains the above speed drop off for the iPhone. So I'll likely need a second device in/or near our conservatory to get garden WiFi. As a baseline reference; with an older Asus RT68U AC router this is significantly better coverage for a single router. Overall I am very impressed. Device Management - is a different kettle of fish. You can use a web browser and login to it. However, it's very keen you use the Linksys App instead. The app does it's job well. It's geared towards novice users who just want to set it up. Speaking of which the app device setup flow was a piece of cake. Very simple UI with minor user input, it's impressive how things have changed. The apps main purpose seems to be more about current status and info, than making any significant change to its operation. It does lack information on device connectivity speed (I had to use a separate app for testing mobile to router connection speeds). It is also missing control which of the tri-bands have specific WiFi traffic on. For instance I'd like my iPhone on one 5Ghz band at WiFi 6 speeds, the other 5Ghz band in mixed mode for WiFi 4 + 5 speeds. 2.4Ghz for any device that needs to defer to it for better range. This is technically managed by the routers own algorithms as is the channel selection for each to be broadcast. I appreciate that is a selling point of this device - self management be it a mesh setup or a single node. I just like to make my own technical decisions. Ultimately for the price of the device it does give you a very technically sophisticated device that operates very effectively. For said price, I'd have expected an expert mode, allowing me to change what I want though. Summary - I think the product itself is excellent and does exactly what I needed it to do; make sure all our devices get WiFi and the router has plenty of resources in reserve to manage all the traffic we throw at it. I did originally have the Velop WHW0303 3 pack (WiFi 5 AC Tri-band version) but wanted more wired ports for our Hive, office desktop computer etc. WiFi 6 also future proofed us and because it's physically bigger allows for more antennas for each one of the three WiFi bands. I'd like to see Apple Homekit support as the cheaper WHW0303 has it advertised as 'Coming Soon'. So I'd hope that extends to their top product too. Also expose more control in the app for the routers features.

Whilst this is an expensive mesh solution, it has worked perfectly so far and done exactly what it is intended for - creating a single network that covers our house. We have an old property with a newer extension and previous BT Home Hub had areas it would not reach, and we had to use two networks to get coverage downstairs, and upstairs was always extremely patchy. The Linksys app worked really well and guided the set up using our Home Hub 4 as the modem. When plugging in the parent node, the app says use any port on your modem, but it actually has to be an ethernet port - the WAN port will not work. It just took a minute or two to connect, choose a new network name and it was a simple as that. The second node connected without a problem and the app helped check that the position upstairs was suitable. The third node for our extension has a wired connection, as we put in a Cat 5 cable during the extension build. Again, this was simple to set up - just switch on the node (close to the parent) and add it to the network as a wireless node. Move it to your desired location and use your Cat 5 cable to attach one of the the node's ethernet ports to a parent node ethernet port. It's a simple as that, as the system automatically will switch the new child node to wired set up. All 3 nodes now cover our 4 bed house and single story extension in a unified network, which is great for mobile wifi calling (very poor mobile network), shifting where you work, wireless printing etc. The speed of the wifi has noticeably improved with the tri-band too, which is a bonus, though it wasn't that bad previously. One final adjustment was to change the Home Hub configuration via the online Home Hub Manager to disable its wifi, just so there was no contention with two networks. It's now just working purely as a modem and seems fine to do so. Overall, very happy with the investment in this. It may be pricier than some, but so far no complaints at all.

*Have updated again at the bottom* *Have now returned it, updated with reasons why below* Let me preface this by saying that I know my way around technology, I know my spanning tree from from my VLAN's, my preferred way to configure a router is via a command line, I've built Linux servers from source code (Linux From Scratch) and have been an IT specialist for over 20 years, in other words I generally know what I'm doing and am not usually beaten by technology. These devices made me want to throw them at the wall and then put the remains back into the box and ship them back to Amazon. The first node configured without a hitch, the app saw it, I configured it, the firmware updated, everything was good in the world. The second node kept getting as far as having joined the network, then the app would say it was testing to see if the location was optimal, then the whole thing would finally fail and ask me to restart the process. I tried again about 4 times, then I factory reset the second node and tried again, then I moved the node so that it was only about a foot away from the first node and tried again, every time I had the same issue. Then I thought that maybe the second node was faulty and tried to configure the third node. The third node did exactly the same and would fail when it was detecting if the location was optimal. I then factory reset the third node and reconfigured it as if it was a brand new setup, this worked fine and allowed me to update the firmware. I then factory reset it (thinking that now it had the latest firmware maybe that would fix the problems), this time it failed at roughly the same point but with a different message and the light on top was red. I tried to add it again and then had the same issue. I then tried turning off every node and restarting just the master node again. This rebooted fine just as expected. I then tried powering on the third node and adding it again, it worked! I then moved the third node to it's proper location and it still seemed to work. I then tried to add the second node again and it again failed where it did the other times, however I did note the light on top was solid blue which the things I could find online said meant it was working fine. At this time I was tired and frustrated and decided I would pick it up again in the morning. Two hours later just before I was about to go to bed, on a whim I decided to check the Linksys app, and was surprised to see all the nodes were listed, all were shown as being updated to the latest firmware and all said they were working fine. I've now done some tests and can say that the speed and coverage is awesome. 4K direct rip content streams perfectly from my plex server, I'm getting at least 200mbits from every device when testing my internet connection, local network transfers are blindingly fast, I'm getting no drop outs anywhere. Basically, setting these devices up is one of the most frustrating technology experiences I've ever had, but once you actually get them working they are truly superb. *Update 19/12/17* Other than providing whole house WiFi, one of my other requirements was to be able to wire in certain devices such as my NAS for home media serving. I kept noticing that may connections to my media server would keep disconnecting with no seeming reason, so on the assumption that maybe the node serving the top of the house was maybe having signal issues, I then purchased an additional two node Velop system so that I could place one node in the center of the house and use the other node at a future point. Unfortunately this didn't make any difference, and infact, although initially the two furthest nodes would show as connected to the new mid point node, after a few hours they would go back to being connected to the master node. After some more investigation, I kept noticing that the network connection on my media server would every now and then (a few times an hour) show "Link Disconnected" and then a minute or so later "Link Connected" on the Ethernet connection. Thinking that maybe it was the ethernet cable, I switched it out for a brand new one with no difference. I then tried it connected to a gigabit managed switch, with no difference, I then swapped the satellite node with another one to see if maybe it was the node that was faulty, no difference. I also noticed that once I disconnected the Ethernet connection from the Xbox in the living room from the node in there and configured it to just use the WiFi, suddenly the intermittent lags and drop outs in online games disappeared. I spent about 5 hours on the phone with Linksys technical support and they could barely actually understand what the problem I was trying to convey was, let alone fix it. In the end I was forced to return this product and have now installed a 3 node Netgear Orbi RK50. The Orbi isn't as fast on the WiFi, but it was literally up and running in under 30 minutes and everything just works. *Update 23/03/19* After a friend of mine deploying a three node Velop system and swearing by it with the more recent firmware updates, when I moved recently I decide to give it another try. It now is superb. I've deployed a four node mesh in my new home and it's been working awesomely. Deployment was an ease, adding a repeater node out of range of the primary node worked without a hitch and the whole system flies.

I am very disappointed that I have to provide a 1 star rating for this product. I paid £250 for the 3 node set and for this I had high hopes, trying to follow the rule of 'buy cheap, buy twice'. I was massively wrong. I have Virgin media, 200mbps connection download and 20 mbps upload. The Linksys Velop system is broken IMO, it doesn't seamlessly handoff when roaming around the house, it doesn't handle well when one node goes offline which I still have no idea why this was happening. I accessed the Linksys 'award winning CS' which is anything but, they were getting me to switch off node steering then client steering and separating the three bands. For a £250 piece of kit I don't expect to be switching off these features that made me buy the product in the first place. I still couldn't get the system working in a stable manner even when following the tech support they would not even escalate. So for me its been returned and its Amazons problem now, this product should not be on sale in its current state. Speeds achieved right next to either of the nodes were useless, try using multiple devices and the slow down was way too noticeable. - I couldn't even use the signal in my garden even though a node was more than capable of flooding the area with a decent signal. Another feature that was useless is the 'channel finder', which sadly crashed my system every time I tried to run it. The idea behind this is great as it aims to find overcrowded channels and change the channels on the bands and therefore the nodes overall, and improve performance. However, I was never able to achieve a successful channel scan due to it either reporting as being unavailable, and then resulting in a crash of the system and a manual reboot of the entire system to try to get it up and running again (easier said than done). I had my Hub 3 in modem mode, main node in router mode, and 2 further nodes as satellites. One further point I would make is that many may see that Apple now stock this piece of cr*p, well be careful that this doesn't sway you're decision. I think as Linksys have announced Homekit support is in the works, Apple may be prioritising this product in their own stores because of the advantage to them having a router available to claim is Homekit compatible I believe this will just over complicate the system further. Also, Linksys are trying to push a 'new' feature where the nodes can detect motion, this seems to have caused many of the speed issues. See the Linksys community forums for further real world reports... The only thing I liked about this system was that the nodes were plain and simple with just one light to provide a status, but the LED can sometimes show 'Blue' - Connected, but in fact should be 'Red' - Disconnected. This doesn't help you understand if or how the performance of the system is running, its very strange! I hope this helps somebody, a router/mesh should be install and forget, this in my experience isn't like that one bit. If Linksys are reading this review I welcome you to bring a triple set and an engineer to my home environment and you can show me what I did wrong, until then I shall always blame Linksys for overpricing this device and also for not managing bugs etc. You have all been warned...

WHW0303 Whole Home Started off by watching a couple of YouTube videos re the set-up of the Velop system; download the Linksys App, IoS in my case, connect the first node to your modem or router, power on follow the app instructions, set-up the other 2 nodes in the same app session, in the same room then relocate them around the home as required. Worked pretty much flawlessly (app did hang when finalizing node 2, had seen this mentioned online so closed the app, restarted app and it carried on from where it left off). Point to note, be fairly patient it does take a couple of minutes for the setup to c I used WiFi Sweetspots app to measure the device to node WiFi speed; most other apps I have tried check the broadband speed so this app was very useful. Quick note I have both IoS and Android phones; on the Android app the WiFi signal strength in dBm is displayed, not on the IoS version. My setup has Node 1 as router into BT fibre modem, node 2 hardwired via ethernet via a couple of switches Node 3 pure wireless. I now have excellent coverage over a 2 storey house; Node 1 centrally upstairs 2 nodes downstairs. In the same room as a node I now get about 480Mbps, to lowest of about 180Mbps furthest from any node. A great improvement over my previous 2.4GHz only AP. Nodes are proving to be very reliable / stable after a couple of months use. Linksys app is very good allowing you to see what is connected, rename devices so you can readily see what is connected. You can choose 3 devices to have priority; I have chosen my BT small cell, Google hub and an iPad. Also have 13+ Meross plugs and switches attached (2.4GHz only) swapped straight over no issues (I called my new network the same as the previous BT hub, and same password). Have subsequently added more and connected straight away no issues. I also used the Linksys wall mounts, a bit pricey but work well and match the units. On the back of this experience I purchased another for my son; 3 story house, Sky router and Q on the ground floor, seemless setup (1 room at the same time) then distributed 1 per floor; top floor went from 2Gbps, 20s responses to internet queries to 450Gbps, instant responses. Top floor node also connected to network switch and PCs, printer, laptops etc. Turned the Sky WiFi off, but kept the sky router as DHCP controller (easily sorted during app set-up). Works a treat. Recommended; easy setup; ethernet or bridge WiFi; 5Ghz backbone; stable; excellent throughput; good app.

Firstly, this is not intuitive to set up. It is imperative that you start with a full charge on your phone as the process of frequent checking and needing the screen on requires a lot of juice. The instructions provide loads of tips but nothing answers basic beginners’ questions, online, in the system manual or anywhere else. If you want to speak to someone who knows what they are talking about you may find you may have to wait some hours for a call back. Sadly, I didn’t call them until I’d spent a day re-configuring everything because it didn’t seem to work. I called them the following day, was told to wait 4 hours for a call back, at which time I gave it one last try, and hallelujah, it worked. The whole procedure is slow and tedious. It doesn’t seem to matter if your phone goes into standby or not during the procedure, you just cannot see what is happening. You could stop your phone going into standby at all, but this will use even move battery power and anyway, the process will work or it won’t work. It seems to be a lot about luck. I also found that the app touch sensitivity can be flaky (I don’t have this problem with any other apps on my phone). Sometimes it just responds to touch very slowly, but when you give up waiting and touch twice, it moves on 2 steps (the missed one may be crucial). It takes ages to locate a node from the app (which node, who knows, but presumably the new node you are adding). This is even when the phone is directly beside the new node. To see what is happening, you must check frequently, bringing your phone back out of standby each time. I have a four-bedroom house and am glad I purchased the three-node pack, reduced in the Prime sale on 11 June. Previously, over the last 7 years I have used Wi-Fi booster plug ins from TP Link and later from BT and Netgear when the TP Link ones proved to have a short life. I still use the wired versions for two TVs and my husband’s PC for a fast and reliable connection, rather than using the Wi-Fi unnecessarily. I would still recommend the latter for devices that are permanent fixtures. You do need the app to set up the system and add nodes, but you can also log in with the same username and password to the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi where there is much more information and, from a desktop PC, the system is much easier to administer. I have shown a couple of illustrations for this. Click any of the icons on the left to open the corresponding popup window, one of which is shown. Click the big left pointing chevron > to close the popup. In conclusion, this is expensive and, contrary to the blurb, is certainly not easy to set up. It takes patience and concentration, which gets tricky when you get bored stiff. Better documentation would be helpful. As a software technical author, I know I would do it differently. However, I can now walk around my house and watching the Wi-Fi indicator on my phone I can see it changing from node to node whichever provides the strongest signal unlike the Wi-Fi boosters I have used before that you need to select in relevant locations. I am glad I bought this system and if it lives a good long time, I will feel that I’ve had my money’s worth. I also don't have my husband moaning at me about having to select a different network when he's upstairs or in the den.

I thoroughly researched the market before buying this product, looking at improving WiFi coverage around the house and finally decided to order the set of three units (AC6600). This system is a bit unusual and as a result some people, even those with network configuration experience, may find themselves confused when they set it up. I read several reviews complaining about what you cannot do with this system, however I found that it works very well for my needs and in my opinion it can satisfy the needs of most average users. So here is how it works: First of all, this system is not a modem and has to be connected to a device that can function as a modem, connect to the internet, acquire a public (WAN) IP address and then allocate a local (LAN) IP address to the mesh network. Most, if not all, the modems/routers supplied by the usual internet providers can do this. If you are looking at buying this product, you most likely already have a modem and WiFi router at home. To connect the Velop, just follow the incredibly basic and simple instructions. Essentially the process consists of creating an account with the manufacturer, download an app to your mobile phone or tablet (I use both the Android and Apple versions and they both work seamlessly), connect one of the three bases to the modem/router with the provided network cable and follow the process as instructed. One key element is to be patient and once the first base is configured, adding the other bases to create the mesh network is straight forward. Note that the Velop will create its own WiFi network, separate to the WiFi network provided by the existing modem/router. Most likely the modem/router will create the usual LAN with a 192.168.x.x IP range, whereas the Velop will create its own LAN with a 10.120.x.x IP range. Anyone with even just a basic networking experience knows that the two networks WILL NOT communicate with each other so there is no point in keeping, for example, a printer linked to the modem/router and a computer linked to the Velop network as you won’t be able to print. For either network to work as intended all devices have to be connected to the same network. The best thing to do once everything is configured, is to switch the old modem/router’s WiFi network off and just use the Velop network – you will never look back! It goes without saying that if the Velop has to work completely wirelessly, the bases MUST be able to communicate with one another and therefore be within their WiFi range. They do not necessarily have to communicate with the unit directly plugged into the modem/router, so long as there is a path to it, such as: base 1 connected to the modem/router, base 2 connected to base 1, base 3 connected to base 2. In this case base 2 will bridge the connection between bases 3 and 1; meanwhile all three bases will provide WiFi connection locally to them and roaming from one base to the others will be seamless. The system can work even if the bases are not in each other’s wireless range so long as you can connect them via a cable or via power line adapters. Once you have configured everything, you will have a great network able to provide high speed connection (subject to your internet provider’s maximum bandwidth). This system allows a lot of settings such as various WiFi configurations and options, parental control, device bandwidth prioritisation, remote monitoring of the home network via the app and online account, DHCP or manual settings, port forwarding (single and range), uPnP, MAC filters, separate WiFi guest network, etc.. I know there are people who are not happy about creating an account or having to use an app (though in fact you can also use a browser on any computer), however all taken into account this is by far the best network I have ever had at home and I had no problems to configure it to meet my needs. So much so that I bought another two units. I am now running a mesh network with 5 units in total, which covers the whole house with no gaps, plus a sizeable area around it. A real five-star network that you'll be happy with.

If you are reasonably tech savvy this is a good solution for getting good network coverage, if you are more of a plug and play type I would suggest this is not for you. 3 stars on balance. I bought this product to extend coverage within my house as the solution I had only covered half the house. Large'ish 4 bed Detached house The units arrived promptly and were well packaged. The system was reasonably simple to setup, I setup my new Wi-Fi and Guest Wi-Fi and now have coverage through the whole house and into the back garden. All have a great signal in every room, the signal power is very good, I cannot fault the signal, however; I have had to reset a node a couple of times, a secondary node will continualy fall over and lose connection to the primary node (connected to the router), first time I thought it was totally broken, couple of web searches later found out to Reset it and re-attach back, the app was no use what-so-ever and gave no useful diagnostic help. (My Tip to get working again. Remove from the network and add it as a new one (press and hold the reset button for 10 seconds, power off, then wait until Light goes Purple)), that loses one star, three resets in 5 months with no idea why, not good enough. Second star lost because the accompaning app is not very good for fault finding and telling you what is going on, Why has this node decided to give up, why cannot the app tell me, why no log file?). I am technical so feel less techy people would probably drop this by 3 stars... My problem with this unit is how fiddly it is to get working again when it fails over, if you are not techy, I would avoid. With that said, all in all it is a good product, was going to buy a second system for my Mother-in-Law but reading the reviews it's not that I am unlucky with the faults (and secondary review I have read) all say have the issue over time with resets etc... I do not want to be a constant Tech-Support for this item with Mother-In-Law so will look for a more user friendly experience.