It is finally time for Wi-Fi 7, but
probably not for the reasons that you'd think. See, TP-Link sponsored this video
to show off their Deco BE67 3-pack, and
one of the headline features, like any Wi-Fi 7 setup, IS OF COURSE THE BLAZING
FAST WI-FI speeds of up to 14 gigabit
per second thanks to multi-link operation.
But, I offer an alternative reason to go
Wi-Fi 7, and that is
nowhere on the front of the box, not on the top.
No. No, no, no.
Ah, there it is. I have to go all the way to the side of the box to find it.
Support for up to 6 GHz Wi-Fi. And look
at that, and up to 320 MHz channel widths. Although, that has
the same issue as a lot of the conversation around multi-link
operation, in that a lot of clients, especially things like
iPhones, don't necessarily support it. But, what they do support is 6 GHz, and
as we actually showed recently over in a video on LTT, moving to 6 GHz can be a
huge benefit to both the speed, and especially the latency of your network.
And, it is now getting to the point where it is quite broadly supported.
Even the MacBook Neo, Apple's new $600
laptop that I've been daily driving lately, and not going to lie,
absolutely loving, has support for 6 GHz, and offers huge real-world
benefits, especially in congested environments like apartment buildings or
campuses. Let's come back to the BE67 3-pack,
though. This is not designed to run a campus, but TP-Link says it should be
good for up to an 8,100 square foot house.
Um, yeah, I'd say if you have a house that big, then the $700 cost of this
3-pack should be no big deal for you. And, it's got a lot of great features to
justify that price. It has three Ethernet ports on board, a 1 gigabit per
second port, a 2 and 1/2 gigabit per second port, and a 10 gigabit per second
port. This gives you options in terms of how you want to deploy it. Say for
example, I had a home server. I might plug that into the 2 and 1/2 gigabit per
second port, then [music] I might grab a 10 gigabit per second uplink switch, and
then run this port out to that to connect all of my client devices. Or if
I had super fast internet, I might plug that into a high-speed uplink, and then
use the 10 gigabit per second port to run a backhaul connection to one of my
other base stations. I could do that wirelessly, but a wire is never a bad
idea, even when I'm doing a sponsored video for a Wi-Fi solution. It's wired
where you can, and Wi-Fi where you can't in my [music] life.
Wi-Fi, you can't live with it, can't live without it.
Wi-Fi, not wife. Wife.
You gone? We're good. Uh let's have a look at what we've got in terms of accessories here.
Power.
Power. And just to mix it up,
an Ethernet cable. And power.
Hey, that's fun. In a world where hardware reset buttons seem to be going
away, TP-Link includes a little poker for it.
>> [music] >> You love to see it. Boop. Oh, I missed something before.
It's got a USB 3 type A port. Paint your home in Wi-Fi.
>> [snorts] >> This is actually a really important point. I like that TP-Link points out
what size of square footage these kits
are designed to cover, and [music] you really do need to take their word
for it. If you have a, you know, 2,000 square foot house, just get one.
Don't buy three kits, unless your walls are made of lead or something like that,
because more Wi-Fi is not necessarily better, and more Wi-Fi is a huge part of
why we've ended up in the awful mess that we're in today around 2.4 and even
to a degree 5 GHz. So, if we just
judiciously apply our 6 GHz Wi-Fi, hopefully we won't need to keep
frequency creeping. Looking for Deco.
Okay, blue light. Oh, look, there it is. It's found. It's solid blue. Yes.
Fine, I'm fine, everything's fine. I got it. I got it.
Okay, I'm going to put I'm going to put this one here so you guys can see what's going on.
Set up a Deco. Connect with an Ethernet cable. Don't mind if I do.
Where do you place this Deco? >> [music] >> ShortCircuit. This app-based setup
process has gotten better. Got to give TP-Link credit for that.
That was uh That was very painless. Oh, placement
guide. Okay, single floor, do it like this.
Two floors, do it like that. Three floors, do it like that. That's
some >> [music] >> good simple advice. So, you don't want
them right above each other. They do a really good job of covering that off.
And you want to spread them out across your various floors as much as you can.
Place out in the open. Away from large appliances.
Love it. Okay, uh BRB.
We're going on an adventure. 8,000 sq ft they say.
There we go. All right, fine.
Nope, not there. This is near a large appliance as well. >> That's just near a large appliance.
Um okay.
There.
All right, while we wait for that to boot up downstairs, we can take a look at some of the other features of the
app. TP-Link has a lot of smart home devices, so you can add those here. They
also have their security platform as well as parental controls. Oh, app
management. That's actually pretty useful. It is a subscription service,
but trying to keep track of whatever the heck it is that your teenagers are up to
is uh It's up to you whether that's worth it
or not. The parental controls also include things like time control as well
as analytics. Ah, and you can set up different profiles by age.
>> [music] >> Very nice. I should also probably their home shield
subscription. This includes [music] the parental stuff as well as their security
plus, which is to help with network security, derp, [music] and whole home
VPN. That could be a cool feature. Instead of installing it on your phone,
your computer, your wife's computer, you can just install it on your router, and
then it applies across your whole network. Although, it is worth noting that depending on your VPN, [music]
sometimes there can be inconveniences in
general browsing, so your mileage may vary. That out of the way, as much as I
said before that it's not the most important feature of Wi-Fi 7,
it can be pretty fast depending on your client. Theoretically, my phone supports
MLO, at least some form of it. The upload is fast. Good gravy.
Oh, I wonder if that's just people using our connection right now. [music] Our
uplink tends to not be as saturated. Not really as high as I was expecting.
Let me go into our settings here. Well, hello there. Enable MLO.
That couldn't hurt. Oh, they want to create a separate SSID for
that just in case you have legacy clients that get derped up by it. We
peaked at over a gigabit, but it's slowing down now.
And it's going back up again.
Can we get over 1 gigabit? Yeah, we can.
Again, I can't emphasize enough that over 2 gigabit per second on the upload.
Can't emphasize enough that you're not doing anything on your phone that needs
these kinds of speeds. The latency is probably going to matter more for most
of the things that you would download on a phone, but it also, you know,
doesn't hurt. Now is probably as good a time as any to
maybe I don't know. How do we want to test the roaming between the different
>> [music] >> base stations? They apparently have AI assistance, whatever that means.
So, why don't we Why don't we go between them? I mean, I could just jump on a
Teams call. I'm going to call Sven. Okay.
Okay. Sven, you can come sit here, and then we'll grab the iPhone.
Goodbye. I ShortCircuit. >> All right. Well, he's back on set. I'm
going to do everything in my power to not be connected to that access point
and see if we can save this call. Hey, Sven, how you doing? I can still hear you, chopped up a little bit, but sounds
better now. Oh, interesting. I wonder if I transitioned over already. I think you
did, yeah. I think as soon as it chopped it, you transitioned. [music] I'm on 1180. Yeah, this one's still
green. Nice. Is that a new one?
That's I believe this one. Yep. Nice.
>> Huh. Okay. Oh, yeah. Going to go >> if I go on to another one here.
I'm just, you know, >> still talking. Yeah.
Still good. >> Yeah, no. Yeah. No chop. I got my other one here.
Man, I think this one's still going to be in Oh, man, this is still in range of
the one downstairs. That's tough. But, if I like go behind things that kind of block
Wi-Fi a bit, um Yeah, no. You haven't chopped at all
throughout this. It's kind of amazing. Pretty good. Oh, no, I'm on F99E now.
Okay. So, I should be on this one right here. Bam.
And there we go. Roaming between hotspots has
gotten better. It is worth noting that some of this AP
switching behavior can be impacted by your device itself, but that was a I
mean, I don't know what more of a demo you can possibly do to show that. That
was a pretty seamless experience and they did a good job of handing off
rather than being too sticky and staying on a really far away access point um
when it would be more optimal to be on a closer one. Very cool. On the subject of having
older devices on your Wi-Fi network, it is worth noting that TP-Link has done a
pretty good job of maintaining cross-generational compatibility for
their Deco models. So, if you wanted to add, you know, one more device to your
kit for instance, then picking one up on Facebook Marketplace might not be a
terrible idea as you build out your network. And that's it. Subscribe to Short
Circuit. Thanks TP-Link again for sponsoring this video.