Linksys Velop Mesh Home WiFi System, 6,000 Sq. ft Coverage, 60+ Devices, Speeds up to (AC2200) 2.2Gbps - WHW0303

The Linksys Velop Tri-band Mesh Network System, P/N AC6600, is a relatively uncomplicated system to set up IF you understand a little about or have previously set up basic home wi-fi networking. I don't know how easy it is for those who have no prior experience setting up a wi-fi. It may be as easy or it may not, depending on your technical acumen and how well you read up beforehand and prepare for the installation. I cannot comment since I've been fooling around with home wi-fi ever since it was mass-marketed in the late 1990s. The packaging is crisp and very well done. You open the Linksys box easily due to a magnetic flap (no tape or seals to cut), and you see three Velop wi-fi routers, and a quick install card on the left, under which are three power supplies, one for each router, and one ethernet cable for the "home" router. Note - any one of the three Velop routers can be chosen and installed as the "home" unit when you begin the installation. NOTE - BEFORE you begin the actual installation, get a notepad and pencil or whatever you want to use to take down some vital information. Turn each of the three Velop routers over and you will find five (5) unique numbers on labels on the bottom. The print (font) is microscopic so if your eyes aren't great, get a magnifying glass and be under a good bright desk lamp. I strongly suggest that at this time you choose which router is going in each of your three home locations. So for mine, I had "Office" (which is in my basement), "Living Room", and "2nd Floor". I stuck a temporary lable on the side of each router. Your names will probably be different. Leave 5 lines under each router designation on your notepad. Under each of your chosen router names, record the following numbers from its bottom labels: Name_____, Password_____, Recovery Key____, Serial No.______, and MAC (address)________. The Name and Password on the labels are from the factory and only temporary and will not be used once you have developed your unique router names (I used the room name), your wi-fi home network name and password during the installation of the first router. But the label names & passwords may be needed in the future so don't lose your notes. You will find the MAC address versus router name handy to know once your system is running so you can tell which router is which and what devices are connected to it. I had read in advance of how to transition from my existing Apple Time Capsule/Airport Wi-Fi network to the new Linksys network. My previous Wi-Fi using the Apple Time Capsule router included a separate Arris cable modem that I was using to connect to my Comcast broadband cable internet service. The modem was not changed for this new system, it works just fine. Just connect the modem ethernet output to the first Velop router (either one of the two bottom ethernet ports on the Velop). But if you're not familiar with your existing network, fear not! Just follow the installation app instructions that you will be using - see my next paragraph. - and you should do fine. Linksys requires you to install their Velop app on your smartphone in order to install the system. You DON'T use your pc. The app is available on Apple's App Store and I assume from elsewhere if you're not an Apple user as I am. The app is free and installs easily. Once it installs, start following it's step-by-step instructions. I found it handy to pre-read the instructions from the Linksys website (using my laptop browser) before downloading the smartphone app and beginning the actual installation. It's just a suggestion. Also, if you've turned off your old wi-fi router, using the smartphone app is handy because that can communicate with Linksys via your cellular connection until your first Velop router (and its wi-fi signal) is up and running. The app requires you to establish a username and password which becomes your Admin credentials for modifying or customizing the Linksys settings if you want to use features other than the standard default settings. I won't go into those details because it's well-covered in many websites online if you search on "how to setup Linksys velop mesh wi-fi system". So once I started the linksys app and connected the first Velop router to my modem, it took about 10-15 minutes for that to recognize the internet signal from my modem and indicate it was ready (a light on the top goes to purple when its ready to install, and when all is done it turns solid blue). I followed the sequential instructions on the smartphone app; at one point I had to register for the Linksys Cloud account (needed for some optional features) and you have to have a home network name (SSID) and a password ready to type in. PS - CREATE YOUR NEW NETWORK NAME (SSID) AND NEW NETWORK PASSWORD BEFORE YOU START** SO YOU DON'T GET CONFUSED DURING THE PROCEDURE - HAVE THEM WRITTEN DOWN IN FRONT OF YOU. **I used a free website called Random Strong Passwords to generate a very strong 16 character password for my network since i live in a neighborhood where houses are on 1/8 acre lots and relatively close to each other. Everyone sees everyone else's SSIDs (I can see about 8 other people's SSID's inside my house) so its best to name my wi-fi network using nothing that gives away that it's my network and a password that no one other than NSA with their supercomputer can crack. After the first router setup was complete, the next two were so easy it was ridiculous. I simply took the second Velop router to the first floor, plugged it, waited until the light on the top turned purple, then followed the prompts on the smartphone app to "Add another node". It went much faster and easier now that the network had been created by the first router. Just had to name it "Living Room". That was easy. The third Velop router went on the second floor, again, setup for the added router was fast. Named that one "2nd Floor". Easy peasy. Coming back down to the basement, I could see that my new Velop mesh network was up and running fine, and we have strong wi-fi (5/5 or 4/5) throughout our house. All that remained was to go around and re-program every device that connects to wi-fi with the new SSID and new password. Two smart TV's, one home stereo, a security camera, one smart thermostat, two Apple TV boxes, 3 laptops, 2 wi-fi printers, four iPads, and two more iPhones. After entering the 16 digit password so many times, I was grateful this only needs doing once or (hopefully) *very* seldom. Whew! Everything works! MUCH better signal & speed than before when I had only a single router. Today is 3 days after installation and the system has remained rock solid with no dropouts. I'm impressed.

Okay, so there are a mixed bag of reviews on the Linksys Velop. I was a pretty early adopter of the technology. My Apple Time Capsule (which was great in that it just plain worked and NEVER needed maintenance) had just died and I was hard pressed to find a solution that would replace it since Apple had long ago declared the death of the Time Capsule anyway. I had just moved into a larger house too, which meant whatever solution I chose had to have great wireless distance. I settled on the Linksys Velop Tri-Band and bought a three unit set. Setup was SO EASY. Then I hooked up all my wireless devices (I have a few...AKA 30+ devices). This is where the Linksys fails to impress. Speeds are average but far from great and when you have a lot of wireless devices attached, all hogging the 2.4 and 5 GHz wireless, things slow down or stop working altogether. I finally figured out that where I had my Linksys Velop devices (one in my office, one in the living room and one in the Master Bedroom) and they provided excellent wireless coverage, if too many wireless devices are attached, they slow to a crawl. I was rebooting the Linksys Velops constantly and it only temporarily fixed the problems. It was like all wireless routers I had used in the past (except for that Apple Time Capsule!). Then I wised up and purchased switches for each of my Linksys Velop. I know what many of you are probably thinking at this point. Wait a second...he bought a fancy wireless mesh solution and then added on wired switches?!?! Why yes...that is exactly what I did. The office has a larger switch attached since there are more devices in the office. And the living room and master bedroom have a smaller, 8 port switch, which only manages connectivity for my TV, Tivo and any miscellaneous devices. If you take some of the wireless load off your network (even if they are still running through the shared wireless band that the Linksys Velop uses to establish the wireless mesh) the Linksys Velop performs very well. It never needs a reboot anymore and much like my old Apple Time Capsule it just plain works. Maybe asking you to spend money on a fancy wireless mesh solution AND physical switches to offload some of your traffic is asking a lot, and you would be right...it is...but if you do, the Linksys Velop is a pretty decent solution to cover a lot of square footage. Love: Reliability, ease of setup and ZERO maintenance (other the occassional firmware upgrade) Don't Love: You can't attach a lot of high traffic wireless to the Velop without it locking up. Don't even THINK about wirelessly backing up a machine over a home network using the Linksys Velop (a feature that my Apple Time Capsule never even blinked at). If you're going to send a constant string of a large amount of data over the Linksys Velop, it will lock up.

I have been an IT Systems Engineer for over 14 years and have dealt with technology for quite some time longer, particularly in the areas of networking and gadget. I am going to write this review as non-technical as possible, then dive deeper into the more technical aspects later. Like many of you, you probably considered buying something like this Linksys Velop (or Eero Pro, Google WiFi, Orb, etc) because you have dead spots in your house where WiFi signal is either weak or non-existent. I have had that problem at my house where my outdoor security cameras would often freeze due to loss of signal, requiring a manual reboot every other week, and most importantly: I did NOT get enough WiFi in my bathroom to read my news! Nearly every man here reading this probably agrees that this is IMPORTANT! PREVIOUS SOLUTIONS So, I tried improving coverage by setting up an additional WiFi router on the other side of the house, but that would require us to manually switch to the appropriate WiFi name (SSID) that gives us the best signal wherever we are. This worked well for years, but for some reason I had to often reboot my router/modem from time to time when the internet connection broke. I had also tried a WiFi Extender, but that only worked well for a month or so before I gave up on it entirely. Next, I bought one of the "Editor's Choice" Asus routers -- it was quite expensive, but it was very powerful. It has advanced firewall/protection capabilities, parental controls, antivirus filtering, and what not. It really has a LOT of advanced options that I was looking for. But, it still could not cover the whole house. WHAT'S A MESH WIFI? In comes the Mesh WiFi system that popped up in recent years. The enterprise/business world has had this technology in use for a very long time that allowed employees to roam between floors and buildings seamlessly. However, they were quite expensive. Eero was the first company I heard of that tried to bring this technology to the average consumer in a friendly, easy-to-use way. What is a Mesh WiFi system? First, a mesh network requires 2 or more devices to talk to one another. These devices are in constant communication with one another, relaying information from one to the other and vice versa. You can add more devices to that system, and each one of them can pass information to the nearest device. So, what does that mean? Imagine you're standing in your living room and you are trying to tell your children upstairs to come down for dinner -- no matter how loud you shout, they can't hear you. (That's a dead WiFi spot -- the signal can't reach them or it's too low to be heard.) Now, what if you could have your husband (or wife) be standing at the stairs? Now you tell your husband to tell the kids that dinner is ready. The husband tells the kids to come down. The kids tell your husband that they heard it and are coming. Your husband now tells you that the kids are joining soon. That's a mesh... kind of. Let's take this example further. You're in a big park. You are trying to tell your children to come join for the birthday cake cutting, but no matter how hard you shout, they can't hear you. So, you ask every parent near you if they can tell the other parents that you're looking for your children. From parent to parent to parent, your word travels until it reaches the children. They have received your message and are now telling parents nearest them that they are coming, and those parents now pass the message on to their nearest parent until it reaches you. That's a mesh network. It's a spiderweb where the WiFi signal travels freely from neighbor to neighbor to the farthest reach of your house. Each parent in the spiderweb is represented by one of these Linksys nodes. The more you have, the larger area it can cover. In my home of 4 bedrooms and 2 stories, I have 3 nodes set up -- one in the family room, one near my stairs, and another upstairs. I now have a strong WiFi signal throughout my entire house AND I can stream videos and read my news perfectly well in my bathroom! Miracles do exist! A Mesh network also is designed to provide you with just a single WiFi name (SSID) so you don't have to keep switching between different WiFi as you travel through the house. All the major mesh systems also promise automated updates/upgrades of your system to add functionality and reliability. EERO PRO or LINKSYS VELOP? I started my research by reading reviews on Google WiFi, Orbi, Linksys Velop, and the Eero Pro. I had certain criteria in mind: 1. Great performance 2. Great reliability 3. Advanced configuration settings (DHCP, DNS, Separate SSIDs - more on that later, Guest WiFi network, parental controls, Firewall/Port forwarding) 4. Price 5. Ease of use and at-a-glance monitoring (via an Android/iOS Apple app) After reading a lot of reviews, it ultimately came down to the Linksys Velop and the Eero Pro. Eero was praised for its performance and ease-of-use, and Velop was regarded as the best bang for your buck. I chose the Eero Pro. Then I ran into issues with my Yi/Kuna security cameras AND my Honeywell thermostat would not connect to the Eero. This issue is due to the compatibility issues between the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio frequencies, but I'll write more about those technical details later. I ended up returning the Eero Pro. I now have the Linksys Velop (3 nodes), and it resolved the issues I had with the Eero Pro after doing some advanced configuration. To summarize in layman's terms, both the Eero Pro and Linksys Velop are designed to be simple to use and set up. They both are here to help you strengthen your WiFi signal throughout your whole house and beyond. However, compatibility issues with the Eero Pro made me decide to keep the Velop instead. WHY VELOP OVER EERO? To understand why I chose the Velop, I have to dive into the technical details. WiFi today operates on 2 major radio frequencies: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The 2.4 GHz gives you the largest coverage in terms of distance AND gives you the best compatibility because it's an older standard. The 5 GHz gives you the best WiFi speed BUT at the expense of distance -- your WiFi signal gets weaker faster than 2.4 GHz. Most newer devices, especially computers, phones, and tablets support the 5 GHz standard just fine. Both the Eero and the Velop combine the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios into a single WiFi name (SSID) to simplify things for the user -- to allow you to move around the house freely without having to worry about which node you are connected to. The mesh system would automatically choose the best node for you to connect to at either the 2.4 or 5 GHz frequencies. At least that's in theory. None of the systems will choose the "best" (closest) node at this time, but that will surely improve over time as the manufacturer fleshes out the calculations/programming to give you the most optimized connection. So, with both radio frequencies now presented to WiFi devices via a single SSID, it is now up to the device to choose the appropriate radio frequency to connect to. With laptops, phones, and tablets, that is not a problem. Where the problem lies is with devices designed to ONLY work with the 2.4 GHz frequency, such as my Yi and Kuna security cameras and the Honeywell thermostat. The Yi and Kuna cameras both had difficulty staying reliably connected to the Eero Pro, and the Honeywell thermostat flat out refused to connect at all. A search on the internet revealed that many others had the same problem. One workaround would be to separate the SSID into two: one for the 2.4 and another for the 5 GHz bands, such as "HomeWifi" and "HomeWifi-5G" where the latter indicates it's the 5 GHz frequency. Then you would assign the problem device to connect to the "HomeWifi" SSID (running the 2.4 GHz frequency), and the rest of the house could run on the "HomeWifi-5G" for the best speeds. The Linksys Velop allows you to set up separate SSIDs for the 2.4 and 5 GHz via a hidden method that I will detail later. The Linksys Velop app does not provide that option. Once I separated my networks into two SSIDs, all the compatibility issues I had with the Honeywell thermostat went away (as I forced it to connect to the 2.4 GHz SSID). The Eero system does NOT allow you to separate the SSID -- in fact, their customer support forum questions why there's a need for it, cites that the Eero is not designed for it, and said to buy another system if you want to have separate SSIDs. That is exactly why I decided to go with the Velop. It works exactly how I want. ISSUES - Once in a while, I see one of my nodes show as being Disconnected. I then go to the Devices view to see if there are any devices connected to that specific node (and there are), and when I go back to Velop Administration, that node shows as Connected again. It's an odd behavior. - When I connect a network cable to the remote Velop nodes (not the parent one), that node stops working until I disconnect the cable. I have absolutely no idea why. The way my network is set up is as follows: Internet <-> Modem <-> Asus Router with Wifi disabled <-> Velop 1 (Parent in Router mode + DHCP server) <-> Netgear ProSafe GSS108E 8-port switch <-> Netgear ProSafe GSS116E 16-port switch <-> Wired devices that are throughout the house. If I connect the remote Velops to any of the Netgear switches, that Velop no longer works and blinks a red light until the cable is disconnected. I haven't engaged Linksys tech support for it yet. [EDIT 8/4/2018: I have been in touch with Support to diagnose this issue. It is being escalated all the way up to their Engineering team. Support has also been very proactive in reaching out to me. This assures me I have made the right decision to go with Linksys. UPDATE 10/10/18: Escalation support has determined that my Netgear switches are Managed ones. As such, I'd have to disable Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and, if possible, enable LLDP on the Netgears. Velop may work without LLDP, but Linksys can't guarantee that. I have not yet found out how to disable STP/enable LLDP on the Netgears, and so the Wired option won't be available to me with the Velops at this time. Support has found that turning off STP and enabling LLDP with switches they had tested, including their own Linksys ones, would fix the issue with Velop.] VELOP TIPS - Each Velop node supposedly can cover up to 2,000 sq ft. Of course, the further out you are from the node, the weaker the signal. The closer the Velop nodes are to one another, the stronger it is able to amplify the signal to the other nodes throughout the house. So, if you have a two-story house with 4+ bedrooms, Linksys suggests having 3 nodes: one for downstairs, upstairs, and another somewhere in-between. Place it like a Zig-zag pattern (Z) or a sideways V (>) - I set up a Guest WiFi network to put all my smart home devices on (Yi and Kuna security cameras and electrical outlets). What is a Guest WiFi? It's a separate network that's isolated from your main one to prevent unauthorized access to your home/main network. That way, if the security cameras get hacked, the hackers won't easily be able to enter my main network where all my laptops, computers, and so on are connected to. - The Guest network cannot have its 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands separate into two SSIDs. There's a single SSID for both. Oddly, the Yi, Kuna, and Honeywell devices are able to connect to this Guest network fine (whereas the Honeywell completely failed to connect with the Eero) - Advanced: To create a separate SSID, you will have to use a computer browser (like Internet Explorer or Google Chrome) (or request the "Desktop site" option on your mobile browser) and go to https (colon slash slash) 192 (dot) 168 (dot) 1.1 (the IP address of the parent node -- you can find it in the Velop app under "Velop Administration". I can't post the link since Amazon blocks it). From there, go to Router Settings > Wifi Settings > "Separate Wifi Settings" > "Show more". Provide a name for the 2.4 GHz and another for the 5 GHz (such as "HomeWifi" and "HomeWifi-5G"). You will be warned about setting up different Wifi names. Click on "Use different names". The Velop will restart, and you will now have two SSIDs - In the Advanced configuration specified above, you can also modify the DHCP and Firewall settings - Diagnostic page: you can enter that section via your web browser by going to http (colon slash slash) ip address of the node (slash) ca - Systems Logs page: you can enter that section via your web browser by going to http (colon slash slash) ip address of the node (slash) sysinfo (dot) cgi. Username is "admin" I am very happy with the performance, advanced configuration option, and price of the Velop and recommend this system a lot. Coverage is so strong, I'm able to walk 3 homes away and still have signal (although a very weak one). It has also been very reliable and hasn't needed a reboot. Hope you found this Helpful!

I have a collection of expensive, useless modems. I have a 6,000 sq ft home and have had trouble keeping all my tech connected all the time. I used to have three modems each providing coverage to my three floors. But the whole thing was ugly (lots of wires and antennas), and required the use of three different logins. This would have been ok, but I have maybe 20 devices that access the network (several computers, Alexa devices, smart plugs, TVs, printers, phones, etc.), and I was constantly having problems with some of the devices being dropped from one of the networks. In fact, it seemed that at least twice a week, I had to reboot one of the modems to get the network working again. I tried port replicators and wifi extenders and found noticeable slowing and even worse device dropping. I had put off getting the VELOP system because of some reviews that claimed poor coverage or speeds. But fate intervened when my $400 Asus AC5300 modem just up and died. I purchased the velop, and got it the very next day thanks to Amazon's awesome next day delivery. Installation was a snap - I downloaded the app on my phone, and just followed the directions, first installing the base, then each satellite in sequence. The whole thing took less than 30 minutes. The best part was the instant coverage of the mesh network. It blanketed my home in a single wireless network. The phone app provides status of my network, and allows me to quickly see which devices are covered. My ring cameras work now without delay, both inside and outside the house, and all the wiring and cabling and ugliness of three mult-antenna'd modems are gone. Instead, I have three unobtrusive white pillars that are rougly the size of a can of tennis balls, that sit quietly and just work like they should. I wish I had done this upgrade a year ago! Follow-up: I have not experienced a single problem with the system in over two weeks of ownership. My neighborhood has had several power outtages in that time, and each time the power comes back on, the system resets and reconnects automatically. I couldn't be happier. Also, some have written that the system does not have WPS (the automatic button that you push on a modem to connect other WPS devices to your network). Turns out the WPS feature is in the phone app, and you don't need to go hunting for the little button. This is engineering done right!

I’m a technology nut with a bachelors and masters degree in comp sci, and work in the software industry. It is with that background that I can tell you, these nodes are a pain in the butt. I was very excited to finally get WiFi mesh networking technology into my home. My house is large and meanders with lots of nooks and hidden areas, and from my professional life I knew mesh networking was the way to go. I was happy to see that Linksys had a system available for the home. Unfortunately, that’s where my enthusiasm began to end. I bought my first 3-pack six months ago. It was very easy to set up. I was disappointed to find there was no apparent way to measure signal strength and help provide an educated guess on where to place the nodes. So I positioned them to, as best as I could guess, cover my home. The three nodes said they were happy with their placement (again, you only get a happy message, no data on signal strength). But then within a day or two, nodes started losing connection. When this happens, you take your cell phone to the node. The app asks if the light is red, which it normally is not. You then have to remove and reinstall the power for the node and wait several minutes for a reset. You then have about a 50/50 shot of it coming up red, in which you press that button on the app and wait several more minutes, or it will reconnect. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to doing this step every other day… After dropping nodes all the time, I decided I would add another 2-pack of nodes to try to get better line of sight between nodes. Again, there is no signal strength or placement guidance, so you guess. Now with five nodes, it again kept dropping nodes every couple of days. So, being a stubborn technologist, I bought another 1-pack of nodes to try to cover what I thought might be a blind spot due to heavy appliances in the kitchen. But within two days I found we’re still on the reset-a-node every two days. Except now I have a total of SIX NODES, so one, two, or three are dropping every other day. So take that slow process described above, and multiply that by every down node to see what I have to do to restore the network. Ok, at this point I feel I’m committed. (Truly, I am ready to be committed over this purchase.) I have worked with mesh networking professionally, and I know it can work and can be awesome. So what do I do? I BOUGHT ANOTHER 3-pack of nodes, for now a total of NINE NODES in my home. Oh, and yes, I’m up to over $1,100 dollars in failing Linksys nodes in every corner of my home… Guess what happened with NINE nodes in a normal to slightly large home? That just means the nodes start dropping off 2, 3, and 4 at a time! Yep, you go around every other night resetting multiple nodes with the stupid app that won’t give you ANY data on how to fix the problem. Fortunately, there is a button on the app to report problems. I have now used that dozens of times. What it doesn’t tell you is that you never hear back from Linksys. I’ve stopped using that button and I just yell at the dog. It does just as much good… In summary, don’t do it! My wife thinks I’m crazy; she wants me to stop spending 30 minutes every night “babysitting my nodes” as she calls it. My son, who is also a technologist, laughs and wonders why I can’t keep reliable wifi in my home… And I am really pissed at my stubbornness that has kept me trying to make this system work for 6 months now. Please look for my auction on eBay. I’ll sell you all NINE NODES in barter for a good bottle of wine. Ops, hang on, I have to go reset a couple of nodes so I can get back online and post this review…. DON’T BUY THIS PRODUCT!

I received 4 of the Linksys Velop nodes from Amazon via Prime 3 days ago. I am replacing 4 Apple AirPort Extreme Routers in 4000ft home. The package arrived with no signs of damage. I ordered the 3 pack as well as a single. Setup was very simple /straight forward utilizing the Linksys app on an iPhone 8. Theoretically I do not need 4 nodes for a 4000ft home but it is two story with too many walls to have fewer. I started with the set of 3 nodes with two on either end of my home on the first floor and 1 on the top floor. Ended up adding the 3rd node at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor which places it approximately in the middle of the first 2 nodes and the 4th on the second floor. In this configuration with our wall placement the Linksys Velop mesh router is excellent. It definitely exceeds the performance in terms of speed and reliability of or previous Apple Airport Extreme setup. Have not clocked it but have no problems with my wife, my kids, and myself all steaming video, Playing music on sonos and still able to surf the web with no lag. I researched reviews around the internet extensively before purchasing and the deciding factor was based on quality and reliability as my wife and I both rely on fast dependable home internet access for our work. The only negatives are there is not an outdoor node for a Velop yet and I do miss the visual representation of the network with the Apple airport app but these are minor and neither are significant enough to change my five star rating. It’s expensive but well worth the investment. I would purchase this again without hesitation and I highly recommend this product if you are planning to purchase a mesh router system.

This is my initial review and will follow up if things change. I first bought Orbi and after 5 hours of phone calls and a few additional hours trying to connect, I repackaged and returned and bought Velop. I should have bought Velop as I have been using it at another residence without a problem, but thought I would try the latest and the Orbi reviews were generally good. Lesson is stick with what works. For now I could not be happier with Velop. I use this product in two different properties, one 2000 sq feet and I overkill it with a three pack. The other 9000 saw feet and use 6 nodes. They all connected and the wired back channel is great. I get north of 250 MPs thoughout the house and all three stories. Easy set up and no issues. When I did call customer service the first time all went well. Back to Orbi. Highly praised produce, simply not worth the pain. The connection points needed to be much closer than Velop and while Orbi talked of wired back channeling they did not work. Costumer service had be disconnect all wired back channels. I did try three units of Orbi to cover 6000 sq feet, so I may have pushed it, but the customer service was a problem and connection simply took too long. Once I did get it up and running, I moved one unit and unplugging it resulted in another setup, reset and call to service. Orbi also limits devices to 50, which is low when you start adding switches, cable boxes and family member devices. I have a family of 6 with multiple devices (phones, iPads, and computers), 11 TVs, and 12 WEMO switches. For now no problem or complaints.

I bought 6 of the Velop Tri-Band from Amazon during 2018 Black Friday thought give it a try. Before that I was running Asus aimesh with ac5300 and couple of ac68u for some time. Asus router's signal was strong and provided decent throughput. But I like the zigbee potential that's built into the Velop Tri-Band mesh despite it's unclear if Linksys will ever enable it. Not sure it's common to all mesh wifi, but Velop needs a lot of node to have the equivalent signal strength and coverage as in my case I ended up using all 6 of it to get rid of dead spot. I knew 3 nodes may not be enough but I expected 4 would cut it. Yet I found myself kept adding more to the mesh. While I was at it, I also grabbed a deal from Staples for 2 dual band Velop mini mesh node, the ac1300, but ended up returning it as its backhaul throughput is too low while wifi signal is as strong as the tri-band, so other than interference it does no good. Velop setup is relatively simple aided with its mobile app. A web admin interface is also available. Though it uses cloud the network and admin can be independent of internet. This is important as most of mesh wifi system won't operate without cloud or internet. The node connection topology is also random, seems largely a result of the sequence you turning on/off each node. But it does seem trying to optimize itself from time to time, you can also manually start the channel finder from the mobile app. Most complaints found on web seemed related to the initial setup while Velop nodes haven't yet been optimized. My experience says no less than 30 - 120 minutes usually is needed to let the nodes have peace with each other everytime you move the nodes around, unless you manually start that "channel finder" which could take 10 minutes or more each time. Probably because Velop is sold in Apple store and backed by Apple, it carries a premium marketing image. Its size and design are definitely among the best of mesh wifi systems. However performance wise it's no better or worst than the most of other wifi mesh products. For the same money there are better choices, but Velop has some potential that is yet to be seen, depending on Foxcomm the new owner of Linksys to decide what to do with it. Comparing to Netgear's Orbi mesh or traditional wifi router, it's worth noting Velop tri-band is at best the equivalent of other low priced mesh system which are sufficient for most of home use, TV streaming, mobile devices, IoT and web browsing. But not designed to sustain NAS file transfer or Xbox gaming type of intensive network activities. Copying files between computer and pull a sysinfo.cgi debug page from the node will cause it reboot itself. Sometimes too many devices joining and burst network demand will choke the mesh and left with certain node throughput grand to a halt, from 150mbps dwindled to single digit mbps until you reboot or re-scan channel. I've seen this all the time with different topology and setup. Velop customer service would not be able to fix this. It looks like its a hardware constraint when most nodes are directly connected to the main node, which appears to be under powered and becomes a bottleneck. The problem is Linksys never claimed any limitation or provided means to control maximally how many nodes should be connected to a single node. The topology is completely random when power on or in power interruption. In my case the most stable and robust topology seems to be only 3 nodes connected directly to the main node, while others connected in daisy chain. In general, Velop seems to be very sensitive to the location and distance of each node, and the experience can be drastically different from time to time depending on the luck of each power on. With some patient the mesh can come out running solid, but don't expect any help from Linksys or anyone else. There is minimum guideline or built-in information disclosure for what's going on. The idea is adorable, like Apple, you won't need know too much itself would "just works". Yet Velop is pretty far from that as far as I've experienced. In my opinion, Velop sits somewhere between Google wifi and Netgear Orbi. It's performance is better than google but less than Orbi. It provides almost the same amount of configuration ability as Orbi, e.g. Bridge mode, local admin etc., but offer mush less information than both Google and Orbi, e.g. what devices are connected, graphical topology etc. Ironically, with the least information available, Velop is hardest mesh to set up right. Not just to connect and running which is as easy as anyone else, but to achieve the most stable network and topology, Velop is much harder than Google or Orbi. But once it's done it can work pretty well. But I guess that's true for any wifi system, they all must operate minimally web in lab before out on market. I'd say if you want something turn it on and forget it, take google. If you need gaming, lots of smart home IoT, NAS etc., take Orbi or old school routers. For enchanted by attractive outfit with average performance, Velop beats everyone else.

Fácil instalación. Solamente bajar la app y te guía paso a paso de forma clara con la instalación. Funcionamiento, la cobertura llega sin problemas a la casa (3x nodos para 400 m2). La velocidad mejoró exponencialmente incluso en los puntos más alejados. Estabilidad de la red en los puntos alejados 3/5. En zonas cercanas medianamente alejadas 5/5. Definitivamente aunque caro desquita el precio. Muy recomendable si quieres olvidarte de problemas de conexión en tu casa, estabilidad y mantener la velocidad contratada !

This product is just really best Home WiFi mesh product. efficient, smart and reliable. Though before I was skeptical in buying them, as I saw some negative reviews, and the cost was considerably higher. however, I wanted to take chance to evaluate myself, and now I so happy I have done so. Yes, the product App was a bit dodgy at the setup for the first time, and had to reboot, and then use other device, which is strange for linksys, Same App work smooth with Linksys WRT AP I already have. However, once the Velops got the setup done, and place them at the right places, it has given me the best reliable connection on WiFi at home. no Matter how strong the signal is, still I got decent connection, with speedtest results tops the link from the ISP. The app has limited things to present to end-user, from advanced settings, like enable or disable the 5GHz WiFi. but honestly for the first time I didn't as the Velop designed to take care of it, and make reliable connection. comparing with other products that may have much on GUI for End-user, but less reliable and cheap hardware. To summarize I am Network Engineer with 15 years of experience. have been using Linksys WiFi products over the past 7 Years, they are a bit pricy compared with other products, but I have never regretted once the investment that I made. always worth it, peace of mind for me, and family especially with Covid-19 and online schooling....etc

Awesome device connects well in all parts of the house itself.... would recommend to get it if the house is huge✌️👌

ممتاز

Sin duda es una tecnología costosa, sin embargo funciona mejor que los repetidores individuales, por algunos años utilicé repetidores de NETGEAR y constantemente había que re-configurarlos ya que no transmitían la señal del WiFi, además que si tienes varios repetidores, contaminas con las señales de WiFi y creas interferencia con los dispositivos. Estoy contento con mi compra a pesar del elevado precio, no me ha dado problema, funciona como debe ser y tengo acceso a internet constantemente. Es importante que sepan que un nodo debe estar conectado alambricamente al modem de internet, el cual va a enviar la señal a los demás nodos de la red mesh, por lo tanto tendrás la señal de tu modem y adicional la red mesh de linksys. La aplicación de linksys es muy intuitiva y es sencillo de conectar y configurar. Con estos 3 nodos mesh, realizo la misma cobertura que 4 repetidores de wifi y mucho más estable la conexión, sin tener que estar cambiando de red cada que cambio de ubicación / habitación.