Quite the day in Chez Convert, out with the 4G router and it's up and down signal and in with 900mb/s fibre broadband. Engineering drilling and doing engineer stuff (drinking tea) as I type.
We've had a tenda MW3 mesh setup of 5 nodes for a few years and it's been fine on the feeble speeds we've been able to access. But whilst the MW3s have a fast enough wifi speed, the WAN/LAN port of the primary node can only handle <100mb/s. Plan is to add some more nodes. If they are part of the Tenda Nova family they should be compatible with the existing ones (I'm covering two stone houses and a workshop, so it needs to be a big network so the extra nodes won't hurt.
But....the latest and greatest ones ( https://www.tendacn.com/uk/product/MX21Pro3-Pack) are quite expensive and the reasons they are the latest and greatest are unclear to a stupid person. There are a few models to buy between my old MW3s and the new MX21s, and you can pick them up even cheaper 2nd hand. Do you need to spend out for the top end jobbies?
I only have MW3s but colleagues with faster interweb connections tell me you ONLY need a single master unit to get the higher speeds on the mesh - connect the uprated unit to the router, then that will handle the higher speed and the "child" units will be faster by magic. I think MW6 was the unit recommended but that was a couple of years agi
I bought a box of the more expensive Tenda units a couple of years back (MW12 I think). They were dogshit of the highest order, I ended up returning them.
We gave away our Tenda after upgrading to fibre. The performance was really poor especially when you add extra nodes. Our version had no dedicated backhaul much reducing available bandwidth. As per @cougar experience, some of our neighbours bought these when they got their fibre. I couldn't make it work at any kind of decent speed (basically was throttling the 500 meg connection even tho it was connected to the 1GB port on the Tenda).
We swapped to TP-Deco and while it's not perfect, it's a heck of a lot better.
If you’re just trying to cover a large area with decent speeds, you don’t necessarily need to buy the top-end Tenda units. Often, a single upgraded master node with higher WAN/LAN throughput, connected to your fibre, is enough the child nodes will generally keep up as long as they’re compatible. The MW3s are fine for basic coverage, but if you want gigabit-level speeds consistently across multiple nodes, it’s usually worth looking at models with dedicated backhaul, or even considering a switch to a different brand like TP-Link Deco, which seems to handle multiple nodes and faster connections much better in real-world use. Essentially, don’t spend top-dollar unless you need the absolute fastest throughput on every node.
so the extra nodes won't hurt
I've found less is more. You need the absolute minimum that will give you the coverage you need. I fell into the trap of thinking "more is better", but you're just adding extra complexity and adding to the mass of radiowaves flying around. My speeds are much better now with fewer nodes. (Note mine weren't Tenda - but think this is universal advice).
Thanks all.
dedicated backhaul = good. I can make that work in my head.
in time honoured tradition I seem to have ignored the vast majority of advice and ordered a 3 pack on Tenda MX15 pros well disccounted. My twisted logic is I'll cover the main heart of our house with the 'good' backhauled stuff and the peripheries of the site (the workshop and holiday let wifi for guests) with the 'bad' no backhauled stuff with the old MW3s. And noted - I won't use more than needed. I'd imagine it doesn't work like that, but we'll see!