Tenda MW6 Nova Whole Home Mesh WiFi System Reviewed

[thiggins]

Tenda's Nova Whole Home Mesh WiFi System is the least expensive three-node Wi-Fi System you can buy. And it works.

Read on SmallNetBuilder

 

[Mikefromnj]

In the review it says that the Tenda MW6 supports ethernet backhaul. In the list of cons it says it does not. Does anyone know which is correct? Thanks

Tenda's Nova Whole Home Mesh WiFi System is the least expensive three-node Wi-Fi System you can buy. And it works.

Read on SmallNetBuilder

 

[thiggins]

In the review it says that the Tenda MW6 supports ethernet backhaul. In the list of cons it says it does not. Does anyone know which is correct? Thanks

My error. Ethernet backhaul is supported. I've corrected the review.

 

[Razor512]

For the 5GHz results, I always wonder how some devices are able to break away from the pack and maintain a high throughput even with a weaker signal. Are they configured to simply force a higher PHY rate and balance retransmissions with overall throughput as long as the data is not corrupt, or is there something more going on?

 

[thiggins]

For the 5GHz results, I always wonder how some devices are able to break away from the pack and maintain a high throughput even with a weaker signal. Are they configured to simply force a higher PHY rate and balance retransmissions with overall throughput as long as the data is not corrupt, or is there something more going on?

You can force MCS rate higher more aggressively at the risk of causing TCP/IP retransmissions, which will reduce throughput.

I'm not sure what is going on here.

 

[Razor512]

It is just one of the weird things with WiFi. For example if monitoring the throughput on a second by second basis, some file transfers may start off at a higher speed and then slowly level off at a lower rate, and the same behavior can be seen if doing a basic throughput benchmark. In the case of WiFi, if I start a transfer and for the first 4 seconds, it is transferring at 70MB/s and then gradually drops down to around 65MB/s, what was the router and client doing to get that initial higher speed? Why couldn't it just keep doing whatever it was doing to hold the initial 70MB/s since the first few MB of the resulting file did not get corrupt?

There is obviously something that the AP and client does not like about the transfer rate being used, if can manage a higher transfer rate for a few seconds, then why not just keep that speed.

 

[thiggins]

Drag and drop file transfers are not a good tool to look at second-by-second throughput. Windows, for instance, has a lot happening behind the scenes, such as using multiple threads, changing TCP/IP paramaters and other things that will affect throughput during tranfers.

Before you use a tool to look at Wi-Fi performance, you should baseline it using Ethernet first.

 

[Razor512]

It is something that I have noticed on a number of routers reviewed in the past, where some would be very consistent, but some others will have a few seconds of a higher throughput, then it will drop slightly over the course of a few seconds, and then level off for the remainder of the test. (back when you used to post graphs from ixchariot).

 

[redz2489]

My error. Ethernet backhaul is supported. I've corrected the review.

I just installed mine. Couldn't get Ethernet backhaul to work. I called their tech support and was told it is not supported.
Is there anything special to get it to work?

 

[PaulKemp]

I am in the market for a mesh solution to upgrade my single ASUS RT_N66U. This rouuter has been an extreamly good performer, and not once since I got it (in 2011/12), have I had to reboot my router due to network issues. A stable IPS with fiber helps, but none the less, this is the way I want my home network to perform.

Due to low coverage in livingroom and poor performance on sonos devices, I want a future proof mesh network. The Asus AIMesh route is one option (customizable and upgradable), another one is a complete solution like this one from Tenda (setup and forget, less customization).

So, my question. How does this Tenda solution compare to Asus AIMesh?

 

[thiggins]

I just installed mine. Couldn't get Ethernet backhaul to work. I called their tech support and was told it is not supported.
Is there anything special to get it to work?

The tech support person gave wrong information. Tenda confirms Ethernet backhaul is supported. You first need to get all nodes connected via wireless, then connect the desired nodes via Ethernet.

 

[Chairman007]

Hey Tim ... taking a reprieve from my orbi system and trying the Tenda Nova ... so far, so good. Very impressed for the mesh performance at $139/set ... thank you for testing it out and bringing it to my attention. The Maintenance window provides a setting where you can enable the system to reboot at a specific time and on specified days of the week? Worth enabling or leave it off unless there’s a need? My orbi system did not have this enabled, but I had to do quite a bit of manual reboots as of late due to instability issues which I had not seen previously.

 

[PaulKemp]

The Tenda Nova system is actually branded as Jensen Omni here in Scandinavia (and maybe EU?), and as a bonus, prized significantly higher (although cheaper than Google x3 and the other 3x mesh node systems).

https://www.elkjop.no/product/data/nettverk-og-routere/JENALOMNI3PAC/jensen-omni-mesh-sett-3-pakning

 

[Mikefromnj]

The tech support person gave wrong information. Tenda confirms Ethernet backhaul is supported. You first need to get all nodes connected via wireless, then connect the desired nodes via Ethernet.

I can confirm that wired backhaul works and works well. I have tried the Deco M5 aiMesh, Velop, and Lyra. I find the Tenda to be the most stable and band steering seems to work better than the others. So far I am very happy with the Tenda system.

 

[anacondatp]

I am in the market for a mesh solution to upgrade my single ASUS RT_N66U. This rouuter has been an extreamly good performer, and not once since I got it (in 2011/12), have I had to reboot my router due to network issues. A stable IPS with fiber helps, but none the less, this is the way I want my home network to perform.

Due to low coverage in livingroom and poor performance on sonos devices, I want a future proof mesh network. The Asus AIMesh route is one option (customizable and upgradable), another one is a complete solution like this one from Tenda (setup and forget, less customization).

So, my question. How does this Tenda solution compare to Asus AIMesh?

I have not used aimesh so cannot comment on stability and other stuff but I did look into aimesh as an alternative solution.

Price:
Asus routers are expensive unless you can find the refurbished ones or the T-Mobile renamed AC68U and flash firmware to regular AC68U.
Tenda Nova price is very affordable. $150 for 3 nodes in US, $130 sometimes when on sale

Ease of use:
You need to have some basic knowledge in flashing firmware for the Asus routers if you want to go the cheaper route. If buying regular Asus routers, some settings in aimesh needs to be disabled to make it stable
Tenda Nova is setup like in 10 minutes and then really just forget it

It does support Ethernet backhaul and you can check it by looking at the little icon next to each node. I have 2 on wire and 1 wireless. Range is very good. The system is very stable so far. I had TP Link Deco prior to this and it sucks. Deco would disconnect a few times a day and the firewall blocks a few websites and access.

The only bad side I see for now is speed decreases the further you are away from the node especially the one connecting on wireless. I am 1 room away from the node and I get 65-80 compared to 118 being in the same room as the node.

 

[Guillaume]

Hi,

The product is available at 139€ in France today. I just have one concern on this product : there is no release note available of the embedded FW.
Do you know if the product is updated frequently ?

 

[anacondatp]

The same thing happens with AiMesh, to fix it, I have to turn off and on the node.
Tenda MW6 Nova works without problem.

It looks like Asus caught up to the fact that people bought the TMobile routers and turned them into AC68U for Aimesh so they released a firmware today disabling Aimesh on these cheap TMobile routers. This makes Tenda Nova the best bang for your buck mesh system now.

 

[Guillaume]

Hi,

The product is available at 139€ in France today. I just have one concern on this product : there is no release note available of the embedded FW.
Do you know if the product is updated frequently ?

FYI, I've received the product.
- Ethernet Backhauling works after configuring nodes using Wireless first.
- Performances are very good (500/91)
- I had a firmware upgrade : V1.0.0.14(4258) : even after ugrade, the app continue to tell me that a new firmware is available.
- I still don't know where I can find Release Notes.
Last point, WiFi country code is US and I don't know how to change it to EU.

 

[Guillaume]

One comment : Fast Roaming feature can cause some connectivity issue. My Sony TV can't connect to the mesh network after activating this option.

 

[Yangsheng]

Just bought a set. How do I activate the AP function? Do I have to connect the first unit to the internet to activate the whole system?
I tried just connecting via wifi to a unit without plugging in the WAN and could not get into the configuration page.

Can connect using the default SSID and password but that's all.