I spent three years with a single router in my apartment and somehow convinced myself that was fine.
It was not fine. The bedroom got one bar. The kitchen dropped calls on WhatsApp. The office, which is ten meters and two walls from the router, was a dead zone.
Then I bought a mesh kit. Two boxes, twenty minutes, and I have not thought about WiFi since.
Why a Single Router Fails in Any Real Apartment
A single router broadcasts from one point. Every wall, door, and bookshelf between you and that point eats signal. Concrete walls are especially bad, and Montevideo apartments are mostly concrete.
My place is 80 square meters. Not huge. But the router sits in the living room corner where the fiber enters, and the signal has to reach across the whole flat. Two interior walls and a kitchen counter later, the signal is garbage.
A mesh system fixes this by placing multiple access points around the apartment. Each node talks to the others, and your phone connects to whichever is closest. Same network name, same password, no manual switching.
What I Actually Bought ( And What I'd Skip )
I got a two-pack of TP-Link Deco X20. WiFi 6, Ethernet backhaul option, about 90 USD on sale at Mercado Libre.
Not the fanciest option. Not the cheapest either. It sits in the middle and does everything I need without a subscription.
Here is what I checked before buying:
WiFi 6 support ( future-proofing, even if my phone does not use it yet )
At least one Ethernet port per node ( for backhaul or wired devices )
No mandatory cloud account ( some brands lock features behind login )
Tri-band is nice but unnecessary for a 2-node setup in a small flat
The Setup Process, Step by Step
I am not going to pretend this was complicated. It was twenty minutes.
Here are the steps:
1. Unplug the old router. Plug the main Deco node into the fiber ONT directly.
2. Download the Deco app. Create an account ( yes, I know I said no mandatory cloud — this one is optional but setup is easier with it ).
3. The app finds the node, updates firmware, and walks you through naming the network and setting a password.
4. Plug the second node in the bedroom, halfway through the apartment. Wait two minutes. The app confirms it is connected.
5. That is it. Devices reconnect automatically to the new network name.
( I also ran an Ethernet cable from the main node to the second node for backhaul. Optional but it makes the connection between nodes rock solid. )
Speed Comparison, Before and After
I ran speed tests on my phone in every room. Same server, same time of day. Here are the numbers:
# Before: single router ( 300 Mbps plan )
Living room: 285 Mbps ( 2 ms ping )
Kitchen: 45 Mbps ( 18 ms ping )
Bedroom: 12 Mbps ( 45 ms ping )
Office: 8 Mbps ( 62 ms ping )
# After: mesh ( 2 nodes, wireless backhaul )
Living room: 295 Mbps ( 2 ms ping )
Kitchen: 180 Mbps ( 4 ms ping )
Bedroom: 210 Mbps ( 3 ms ping )
Office: 165 Mbps ( 5 ms ping )The office went from 8 Mbps to 165 Mbps. That is a 20x improvement. I could finally take video calls without freezing.
With Ethernet backhaul, the bedroom and office numbers went up another 30-40 Mbps. Worth doing if you already have cables in the walls.
What I Do Not Like
The app pushes firmware updates automatically. Usually fine, but one update broke my port forwarding rules at 3 AM. I woke up to a dead home server.
The parental controls are basic. If you want real filtering, run a DNS resolver like Pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi and point the mesh DNS to it. The Deco app gives you a custom DNS field.
Also, the nodes are ugly. White plastic pucks. They look like ashtrays. I hide one behind a plant and the other on a shelf behind some books. Function over form, but still.
Should You Bother
If you live in a studio with line-of-sight to your router, no. Save your money.
If you have more than two rooms, concrete walls, or a dead spot where you actually spend time, yes. The difference is not subtle.
I paid 90 USD for the pair. That is less than one month of the internet plan it sits behind. Best money I spent on the apartment all year.
:)