Tenda Nova Mesh WiFi System (MW6)-Up to 6000 sq.ft. Whole Home Coverage, WiFi Router and Extender Replacement, Gigabit Mesh Router for Wireless…

Ok, I have only had this for a few hours running. Here is the good and the bad.

Good:
The mesh cubes connected with no interaction from me other than plugging in the power. Wonderfully easy.
This is most certainly overkill for my house. 1500 sq ft ranch. However it was built in the early 1900’s so the walls are chicken wire and plaster. Almost making my house a faraday cage all by its self lol. Every wireless router I have had could not penetrate these walls easily. Leaving dead spots every where in the house. This is supposed to cover 6,000 sq ft. It does now cover my entire house and out into my yard for 20-40ft or so.So the coverage and the switching between mesh cubes is absolutely seamless. If the hardware holds up, it does a great job of getting through my chicken wire and plaster walls. None of the cubes are what I would consider in ideal locations either.

Now this is part bad and part good. The install, if I had of known the issues below, would have been super easy. reboot modem, connect after a few minutes, set wifi id and password and you were pretty close to being done. However, because I didnt know you couldnt even set basic dhcp settings, I spent a couple hours trying to get this up and running

Unsure:
The Wifi has both 2.4ghz and 5ghz. You can not separate them or turn one of them on/off or even set separate IDs. The cubes automatically bounce you between 2.4ghz and 5 ghz depending on your signal and throughput.Its both good and bad, bad if you like to have certain devices only on 1 bandwidth. now you cant separate them

Now the bad

Bad:

The power adapters. the prongs are facing the wrong way. Instead of the adapter being out to the side of your power strip, Its going to cover at least 1 or 2 spots on your power strip unless you have an end spot open. I still dont understand why these are even an issue in 2018. Is it that hard to make it so it doesnt take up other spots on the power strip?

There is virtually no setup you can do with the Tenda network app. It will not allow you to set your own dhcp range. In fact, it gives you the option for 10.0.0.1 or the ip address from your modem, . Now here is the over the top upsetting one. It will give you a 192.168 address but… and your going to love this… 192.168.5.x address.
WTF?????? why in any sane civilized world would it select 192.168.5 for anything nor will it let you change it? Oh, all your devices that are configured with static ips are no longer even on the same freaking subnet!!!!

Here is one thats just going to make some folks laugh. It does allow you to have port forwarding but, and I cant stress how bad this is enough…. It does not allow you to set static IPs. what good is port forwarding when your ip is going to change? 99.9% useless.
There is also no web interface to get to via your computer.
I called tech support and asked about these issues. While the guy was very nice, I was basically told the current revision does not allow any of those things. Its possible it may get added in future revisions but I mean come on, this is super basic router stuff that any $20 router will have.
Another issue. This assigns a connection specific dns setting to tendrawifi.com
This causes your first 2 dns lookups to fail as its trying to resolve this tendawifi.com suffix, then it will go to your dns settings in the router. This is very bad and needs to be removed.
This has been out for at least 5 months that I can tell, and none of these features have been added in that time? Either this is currently their first actual live rev or I cant even imagine what functionality it didnt have if there are earlier revs.

There is no dynamic dns options for those of us that like to remote into our home systems either (probably a little more advanced feature)

Now with all this said, this could easily be a 4-5 star product IF and this is a huge IF they add these basic features that can be found in practically the cheapest routers known to man all over the world… This is for firmware version 1.0.0.14(4258)

Im trying to make this work but I have a feeling im going to have to send this system back.Its just lacking in so many basic needed features.I would say that if you are average joe user with almost no networking knowledge and are trying to set this up, You could do it easy enough. But if you do anything other than connect your computer and tablets to it, your not going to be able to do any configuration. This means cameras with static ips are screwed, any servers you may be running and a host of other stuff. This firmware needs serious work.

Edit note: If these features get added, I would gladly update my rating to reflect it. Like I said, this has great potential. They just need to get some basic features in and some advanced features would be nice as well, Dynamic Dns, configurable vpn so you can use the vpn settings of your favorite service. Some basic firewall settings as well.

Update Number 1 4/20/18
They updated the wifi app and added 2 new features.
QOS
And guess what, you can now assign your ip range. Well, the starting range of the detected choices. You get a pinwheel to select your numbers. Still have a long way to go, but it appears they are listening.

Para los que tenemos hijos y estamos haciendo home office por el confinamiento, es esencial esta herramienta.
Tuve que jubilar mi router Asus porque no soporta varios dispositivos conectados al mismo tiempo.
Este Nova MW6 no pierde conexión con ningún dispositivo, satura perfectamente la velocidad que tengo contratada de 100Mbps.
Esperemos a la prueba de fuego el 24 de agosto con toda la familia usando Apps de video para las clases, además de la video juntitis Godín diaria.

Consideren esto importante:
-NO aumenta la velocidad de internet que tengan contratada
-Hacer lo posible por colocar los módulos haciendo forma de triángulo para tener mayor cobertura en casa
-Obtiene calificación de gama media (investiguen en San Google)
-NO incluye antivirus ni nada de protección de Firewall como la competencia de gama alta
-SÍ es muy fácil configurar tu nueva red, bloquear dispositivos ajenos, habilitar red de invitados y control parental; este último solo corta la señal de internet más no bloquea contenido específico.

La calificación del equipo en sí es de 5 para mis necesidades familiares. Sin embargo, la calificación que le pongo de 3 estrellas es porque A mazon no pudo encontrar la manera de venderme la póliza de plan de protección para el equipo, ni A ssurant quizo hacerse cargo. Mi opinión es que por ser importación de US y marca completamente china (Tenda) no pueden-quieren reparar.
Esepro les sirva este cometnario.

The setup for the two cube-shaped mesh routers in the box was disturbingly easy. Having set up a number of routers over the last decade or so, I’m used to needing to do a lot of work to get things up and running, and having something instantly and insistently fail.

I was able to, in the span of ten minutes, unbox one cube, shut down my existing modem and router combo, swap out the router for this little cube, install the app on a phone since that’s how they want you to set it up, and power up everything.
The in-app setup was almost too easy, as I had the network named the way I wanted, with the password we needed, all with minimal, guided effort. Getting the second cube set up 30 feet and one thick wall away was very, very easy. All that was needed was positioning the cube, and getting it power. Beyond that, it paired itself, and had a good, solid connection inside of two minutes.

I spent five minutes afterward, cursing and complaining that it was too easy to set up.

There are a number of out-of-box quirks that I’ve observed:
1. There is no web-based user interface AT ALL.
Yes, for those of you who like to manage your routers from the comfort of your desktop browser, this is well and truly not available.
It forces you to rely on your Android or iOS bearing cellphone or tablet to manage connections and see who’s connected, what IP address they have in the network, and so on. For those of us who still use Windows Phone or Windows Mobile, we’re out of luck.

2. There is no IPv6 support! This is very disappointing, given that this is hardware that supports 802.11ac, the current standard for wireless connections, made long after it’s been known that IPv4 is facing depletion.
It’s an annoyance, but NAT is a thing that’s been going on for a while. I’ll deal with it, especially since it’s possible for a future firmware update to actually add in IPv6 support.

3. The default IP range is strange, but there are a couple of other choices in the app.

4. There’s no option to set a dedicated IP for hardware that connects to the network.
This will make printing a small headache, as we have one laser printer which would fare best with a static IP.

The Tenda app is still useful, as it does help you to visually identify what is connected to your network, including the brand, operating system, or given hostname of most devices. I could identify my desktop PC immediately, along with the smart TV, my tablet, and my cellphone. As others came online, I could identify them, from the lonely Amazon Echo Dot upstairs to an HTC cellphone, and a laptop. There are handy dots running down the left side of the device page with brand logos, and info on whether a device is using a 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or wired connection in the case of the printer.
The connection to the router will attempt to auto-negotiate the fastest options first, so wired devices that can also be plugged in will go to the wired connection first. Wireless devices will attempt to latch on to the 5 GHz connection first, and only if that fails does it move down to the 2.4 GHz connection. It will start with Wireless-AC first, and then negotiates down to Wireless-N. It may go further, but I lack devices to test that far down the spectrum at the moment.

For those who need wired connections, each cube has ONE, repeat ONE Ethernet port on it for your use. I’ve not tested whether it will let you use a switch with that port to multiplex that out.

On wireless connections, though, I’ve not had a connection this strong since moving into this house, even with a traditional repeater setup. I’m pulling 150-160 Mbps down from our ISP according to a casual SpeedTest run, which is just under our modem’s speed cap, from the far end of our house, and it is beautiful.
For comparison, prior to this installation, I would pull 30-40 Mbps from the same computer.

The short takeaway from this is simple:
If you need a mesh router system that is simple, has no bells and whistles, and is most importantly EASY to set up, Tenda has a nice piece of kit here for an easy price.

If you need additional bells and whistles, and deeper configuration, you may need to look at more traditional solutions, as it is not available in this hardware and software config.

Bien, ayer nos llegó el pack de 2 cubos tenda MW6 y os voy a comentar tras unas horas cómo van. Os pongo en situación. Tenemos fibra movistar 1GB simétrica en un piso de 110m2. El router está en el salón, junto al smart tv digamos “principal”. Desde allí hasta ayer tenía instalado unos PLC Tplink que su rendimiento ha sido más bien malo en unas zonas concretas del piso (como es lógico, las más alejadas). Aunque me dejé más de 60€ en los PLC nunca han ido como esperaba (a veces bien, a veces mal…). Lo que pasa es que con tanta clase online los críos ya se me quejaban bastante de caídas de conexión, así que opté por este sistema ya que leía buenas críticas en general (del sistema malla, me refiero).
Bueno, al lío. Los cubos son facilísimos de instalar y hacer funcionar. Uno de ellos hay que conectarlo al router por cable y el otro (u otros si son 3 o más) los colocas en zonas donde reparta la señal (que también puedes conectarlos por cable, eso ya depende de lo manitas que seas en casa… yo soy más bien comodón y con el wifi me vale).
Tras varias pruebas ayer (sobretodo a la hora de colocar el 2º cubo que reparta la señal) mis conclusiones son las siguientes:
– donde antes tenía buena cobertura con los plc (básicamente en el salón donde está el router de movistar) sigo teniendo buena conexión. He hecho tests de velocidad con los 2 portátiles y mi móvil y he llegado a 450mb de subida y casi 400 de bajada. Esto con los cubos. Con los plc antes podría pasar de los 300 sin problemas. Y de 300 a 400 creedme que para el día a día no se nota.
– lo bueno es ahora… donde antes no tenía cobertura o poca o se cortaba (habitaciones de los críos) pues me llegan en torno 150/150. En mi habitación ha llegado a pasar de los 300mb pero lo normal es que pase de los 200mb.
La verdad es que contento en ese aspecto. Lo “malo”? por decir algo, que me esperaba aún más velocidad, ya que al tener 1GB contratado pues se pierden muuuuchos por el camino, pero es lo que hay en wifi…

Lo que está claro es que a nivel doméstico con 300mb nos sobra para todo hoy día… nos llenan los ojos con velocidades absurdas a menos que tengas un negocio…

Seguiremos de pruebas, pero por el momento cumplen para lo que necesito.

Saludetes

edito 1. Han pasado ya 4 días y de momento todo en orden. No hay cuelgues, ni desconexiones ni nada por el estilo, todo funciona bien. En casa tenemos 10 dispositivos conectados por norma general y hay velocidad suficiente para todos. Como ejemplo, en la habitación donde tenemos la ps4 hemos pasado de 40mb con plc + cable ethernet a 100mb por wifi con el MW6, así que la ganancia ha sido muy significativa.

Seguiremos informando…

Edito 2. Me he encontrado con un “problema”. Resulta que en casa tenemos una impresora wifi HP pero que sólo se conecta a la red 2.4ghz, pues resulta que estos cubos no soy capaz de ponerlos en ese modo de red. Se supone que son dual (2.4 y 5ghz) pero no veo cómo poder cambiar para poder usar la impresora. Si alguien sabe que me lo haga saber, gracias.