TP-Link Deco X55 Mesh with Giga Hub

[rejeanc]

Hi,

I just purchased 3 Deco X55 Mesh, wanted to know what is the best way to connect it, can I or should I by pass Giga Hub, or keep it as DHCP and deactivate WIFI and used Wifi from Deco X55?

Any one already used these Mesh with Bell Giga Hub?

Thanks for any advice or suggestion.

Rejean

[BellPatricia]

Hey @rejeanc,
Welcome to the Bell Community, and thanks for your post 🙂
We hope you will let the Community know which set up you end up choosing, and how everything's working.
- Patricia

[rejeanc · Accepted solution]

Hi, so I finally got everything all setup I ended up installing them as and Access Point and everything seems to be working good so far.

Will let you know if I get any problems with this configuration.

Thanks

[LouisR]

Hi RejeanC, did u get any problem so far? How did you do the wiring between the Giga and the Top Deco?

[rejeanc]

Everything working well, family finally stopped complaining ;).
All 3 of them are wired and installed in access point.
I have a scheduled reboot once a week.

[LouisR]

Did you have to disable wifi on the Giga hub ? It yes I guess your not using the giga hub for you Télé Fibe

[LittleLamb]

I switched to Bell for full internet, TV and home phone bundle few days ago. Just want to share my experience to the community. The Bell technician installed all the equipment in my home, all worked, the Giga Hub internet speed was good; Except, the Giga Hub WIFI signal was not strong at my basement rec room and master bed room on the 2nd floor. That's a known issue, since those rooms are far away from the Hub. I used Orbi RBR 20 mesh WIFI to solve the signal strength issue with Rogers modem set as bridge mode.

Checked this Bell Forum to see how to set the Hub to bridge mode, and learned there is no bridge mode can be set in the hub and user needs to use PPPoE. I am not a tech guy, after few trials and failures, I gave up. 

I googled various sites and figured out the simplest way to a non-tech guy is to use the Orbi mesh WIFI as Access Point and connect it to the Hub's 10G (silver) port with an ethernet cable. I used a CAT 6 cable.

I can maintain 2 different SSIDs i.e. Bell2 (set by Orbi page) and Bell1 (set by Hub page, the default IP). The Orbi mesh WIFI provides very good signal over my whole house. The speed is over 400 mbps for every connection. I am not a gamer, I am happy with the speed and signal strengthen. I don't need to rent the pods, that saves me $10 per month. The speed is better than Rogers before I think that's due to the 1.5G plan.

I could set to One SSID in both Hub and Orbi, it worked, but the signal strength is not as strong as 2 SSIDs. Perhaps due to the interference or network confusion on the device. 

[Deaner_dub]

I would love more details if you get this message. 

I have an X55 and I’m struggling to get it working smoothly. I don’t know what it means to have x55 as “access points”. 

[Deaner_dub]

Ok, I now know what it means for the mesh to be in access point mode, but I’m not having luck getting the Deco app to switch over to access mode. 

[LouisR]

Here the link to configure your X55 in access point mode. Wiring and Deco app instructions. Good luck.

[rejeanc]

Hi, I disable wifi on giga hub, only DHCP and wired connections to giga hub

[Deaner_dub]

Ok, I’m having this conversation with myself. But it case someone is like me…

So, yes, access mode is like super-charged wifi extension mode. It takes your Bell network and uses the TpLink/Deco units and adds then to your BELL wifi. Clean. My decos were running their own network as was the bell home hub 3000, so I had two networks neither was effectively running. 

Found access mode for Deco. Several attempts to switch from router mode to access point mode didn’t work. Called tplink, I found the number on my Amazon order history, of all places (1.855.987.5465). The tech support was good. 

They had me swap out my units to create a new main, that worked on a second try after I hit the factory reset button underneath. Now I had one unit on access point mode. 

I would suggest getting one on AP mode. Then slowly add your other. Connect the Ethernet-in and power, then leave it alone at least 5 minutes. Then add other units, then add other things into the other Ethernet ports. My TV wouldn’t recognize the Ethernet at first, until ingot the whole system. 

Bottomline. One network at the suggested speeds. 

oh, I had to create a network through the Deco app to change the deco units to Ap mode. Later I was told to change the name of the temp network to the same name and password as my bell unit. It’s working. 

[rejeanc]

ok, so just to me clear, you have a wifi network enable on DECO and wifi enable on Bell Hub, but both with same network name and password?

[LittleLamb]

I tried that, it caused the network name confusions, poor connection and poor connection speed. Finally, I set up 2 wifi networks with slightly different names like Network1 and Network2, both networks passwords are the same. Network1 runs by Bell Hub (strong signal close to the hub, but not good coverage to the basement or deck), Network2 runs by mesh routes (good coverage at the basement and deck). The Bell Hub is the master with DHCP, the mesh router and wireless pods are access points only, not enable DHCP. The mesh router connects to the Bell hub by a Cat 6e cable to the 10G (silver) port of the Hub. My mobile devices like phones, Ipads, laptops, all set with 2 networks, they can change networks smoothly, when one's signal is way better than the others. I had this setup for almost 6 months now, no issues at all. I am satisfied with the connection and speed. 

[Deaner_dub]

Yes, TP-Link support told me to create a temporary network name and password to get DECO into access point mode. Then they told to change that name afterwards to the same network name and password as my Bell unit.  It effectively made the other network disappear.

This is not my full time home, I mention this because I may have hidden the network after the name change. I cannot quite recall. I don’t think I did hide it, I think I saw that as an option to try within the app but the system was working well so I think I left it. 

I was skeptical when Tp-link told me this but the system was instantly strong and stable.