Customer Ratings & Reviews

Overall This has been a pretty amazing product. It’s simple to setup and requires little to no maintenance from the end user. It’s a good, and “cheaper”, WiFi system than all of its name brand competitors. A good system for the less tech savvy-parents, grandparents or anyone looking for something with a less hands on approach. But first, for the sake of clarification, as I despise making any mention of competitor products or brands, I feel it is necessary in this case to further elaborate on some of its shortcomings I’ll mention further down. I have an existing 3 puck ubiquity WiFi system mounted to walls, ceilings or outside of the house making it time consuming to remove/disconnect. This makes for an environment that isn’t ideal for another WiFi system to be tested in. With that out of the way lets dive right in. Features Motorola offers some solid features with their mesh WiFi. For starters, you get a neat and simple to understand dashboard that allows for several admin settings right from the dashboard. First, there’s an active list of currently connected devices. Clicking a device shows a recent history of services that device has connected to. You have security settings, which to be fair doesn’t give you much in terms of customization, just a green bar showing the numbers of threats it is looking out for. If a threat is found; Trojans, virus, etc. The green circle shifts to red which is clearly visible from the dashboard. A simple network filter with 3 toggles for filtering of known malicious sites, ad privacy filters, and an adult filter for adult oriented websites. For health of the network, there’s a simple to read connection manager showing the current status of the network. 6 individual check mark bubbles highlighting games, web, music, HD, SD, and 4K. I can only assume, as I haven’t experienced issues, that if you had a significant speed drop some of those bubbles will become red with an X. Digging further deeper into the app you got your profiles settings, which I will add isn’t a part of the dashboard but a tab at the bottom of the screen. Setting up profiles gives you the ability to set time limits, schedules, or the aforementioned content filters (if you didn’t wish to apply those to the entire network but specific profiles). A little more hidden under the settings tab, usually settings that the average user won’t ever have to mess with. You got your port forwarding and upnp. But a little less common, and mostly exclusive to mesh systems, you got your auto optimization network settings that allows the toggle of a general location where this will be installed. The options range from “single occupant home” with a subtext that reads “few neighboring networks”, “Townhome” with “some WiFi networks”, and “apartment” with “many WiFi networks”. Basically these should tweek things such as channel width, beamforming, and transmit power but in a simple human readable format. Without having to look up the definition for every setting and having to trial and error every possible combination to find something that works for you. Although I couldn’t find any documentation about this so my assumption can be off by a bit. Cons - Features I don’t normally break these down per section but for this it seems more appropriate to detail any issues relating to the subject. It may be a fluke but during my testing I couldn’t get the network filters to function correctly. After enabling all toggles, I attempted to visit an adult page and nothing prevented my visit. Adding my phone into a profile, I enabled the toggles for that profile and tried again. Once again, nothing prevented my visit. It’s worth mentioning, during setup, I used a network switch at the top of my network topology. But shortly after getting things working it failed resulting in only 1 port having connection access. I then had to daisy-chain it to my existing network, which put a pfsense gateway at the top. It’s entirely possible my existing setup is applying a filter on the stream. Going to a certain adult orientated website showed nothing in the history logs of the Motorola. But just like my history screenshot, other sites show up just fine. Design It’s a simple design, round and fairly small, roughly the size of a hand but about 2 inches tall. 2 Ethernet jacks on the back of each puck, which act as WAN and LAN. Any of the bridge pucks will result in 2 LAN jacks so you won’t lose any because of the picture at the base of the port. A type C USB port between the 2 and a pinhole reset button to the left. It’s simple and has a subtle design that won’t stick out like a sore thumb if you cannot hide it out of sight. Performance I can’t say this area was perfect but it did well enough. Using the onboard speed test on the puck it said I was getting what the pipeline was set for. Give or take 50mbps per test. Testing from my phone through any network speed testing site gave about the same result. Any browsing or streams I tried to run through it worked perfectly well. After finalizing my thoughts, I did a survey and something seemed to be a general consensus between everyone else. These faced a slight performance drop. Nothing I can say I witnessed, but aside from my current WiFi system, I have nothing else to test against. Cons - Performance Although I mentioned it worked well enough for me, one thing that soured me was a significant range issue. As mentioned at the very start, I couldn’t test 1 system at a time by shutting it off and testing so I placed the Motorola pucks in different rooms trying to separate them from my current WiFi. That resulted in a fairly short range. The packaging rates these as good for up to a 4500 sqft area. But in a 1800 sqft location, these had significant range issues. One of the most noticeable locations I did a comparison was the backyard, where I do not have any exterior mounted WiFi devices. This was a more fair area to test both systems having interface from each other. Several feet from the back door resulted in multiple dropped connections while other times I had a false connection. WiFi showing connected but either abysmal or a non-existent internet connection. Other Considerations I didn’t realize this in the beginning, mainly because I just clicked agree to everything as I setup. But for those who are concerned about privacy, MINIM isn’t exactly a part of Motorola. MINIM is the software company that provides the app and from my research isn’t part of Motorola. My initial thoughts were that this was a software subsidiary of it but it doesn’t appear that way. After skimming through it, I can’t say with certainty if this data is shared between both entities. Conclusion This is a great system nonetheless. It makes everything simple for the end user and provides a good connection. And when compared to other mesh systems, this one comes out as a, financially, cheaper option from the big names. Just be aware of the data that's collected.

The Motorola AX1800 Mesh Wifi 6 System is no doubt a killer to other brands in the market. The reason for this is simply value and size of the units. What you get for the amount you spend is dollar for dollar the best WiFi 6 Mesh system I have tested and now use to date. Packaging was nice and easy to open, everything in its place and ready to install within the house and setup in about 15 minutes. I placed one of the routers/repeaters on each level of my home in a staggered pattern to cover the most area possible. This was a perfect layout, being able to cover all devices with ease including all the security cameras outside and even my Hue lights with perfect connection no matter what. The ease of setup utilizing the QR code on the bottom makes a quick scan and setup legitly take 2 to 3 minutes a device. The first unit is your base and then the next 1 or 2 and even more, are all setup as a repeater from the main unit. You can also wire them i to the system using a switch making each access point that much faster. I already had my home setup this way and testing speeds to my Plex server and home file server, the WiFi 6 is so fast, every test was 1gbps or faster, so setup either way will be extremey fast for WiFi 6 devices. I did test the 2 different setups for speed with older laptops and the wired through a switch is faster for older devices as there is a drop in signal quality when setup as WiFi repeaters over wired repeaters. I was honestly worried about the app not working because of the reviews on Google Play about issues with it not connecting, being able to see devices and notifications not being seen. I can report on my Samsung S21 Ultra and Samsung Tab6 Tablet, the MotoSync app works flawlessly and has many options for setting up the devices with ease and a lot more features. The features in the app include but are not limited to the following, Individual Profiles, port forwarding, speed test, home filter, connection info and speeds, along with much more. The ease of how the system works is the best and after 3 weeks solid, not one time has it shut off, reset, slowed down or anything. We have anywhere from 30 to 70 devices at any moment in this house trying to grab its WiFi signal needed. We are a family of 6, a home with tons of automation, every kid having their own TV, Nintendo Switch, XBox, Tablet, Phone and more, the WiFi systems always struggle in our home. The last Mesh system this replaced was almost 3 times the amount of money and performed about 30% of what the AX1800 setup from Motorola can do I highly recommend the Motorola AX1800 system. If your home is 2 stories or a large Ranch, buy at minimum the 2 box setup, 3 is making my home a WiFi fortress. Pros: Small Footprint Easy setup in app Many options Built in security features Looks great No noise from the units Fast WiFi 6 and normal WiFi Packaging Nice web interface with more options Cons: Not a one yet Good luck on your search for the perfect Mesh system but you should stop here, for the cost, it's really the only choice.

I’ve had 1Gb fiber Internet for about a year now and tried a number of routers to get the most performance and reliability out of it. I have over 30 Wi-Fi devices and at least a dozen wired devices. I have yet to find the perfect router or mesh system that offers both, the fastest performance and a reliable connection. I had an opportunity to try the Motorola MH7603 Mesh Wi-Fi 6 system which I;ve been using for over a week now. You must use the MotoSync App to set it all up and manage a somewhat limited set of features. I have not been able to find a web-based management console which I would prefer for more advanced/granular settings. The App is easy to use, it walks you step by step through the initial setup of the first unit that will act as the router, followed by adding the mesh extender units. It takes 5-10 minutes to pair each extender with the main router node. That includes upgrading the firmware that is one of the very first steps that happens and takes about 2 minutes to complete. My main interest was in the WiFi 6 vs. 5 performance and range coverage compared to my ISP provided router. For my main tests I used a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra running the latest patch level of Android 12. Here are my test results: In the same room as the main router: 5 GHz 476 Mbps down / 249 Mbps up One floor above and about 20 feet over from the router, but only a few feet away from one of the extenders 5 GHz 176 Mbps down / 128 Mbps up I also tried similar speedtest.net tests from a Samsung Galaxy Chromebook with WiFi 6 support which rendered similar results, but a bit slower and weaker signal than my phone. Now these are by no means precise measurements but it gave me some idea of how capable this router is. I'm still trying to find the best placement for the Mesh Extenders to maximize coverage and performance around the house and the yard. If the house is too small, your devices may not switch to the nearest mesh extender, even if it has a much stronger signal than the main router. The Motosync App will show you what devices are connected to what extender/router and also if they’re on the 2.4 ot 5 GHz bands. From a security perspective, it does not support WPA 3, but it does have Web Filtering capabilities that can be toggled on and off for 3 categories - malicious websites, ad privacy and adult website blocking. Another feature that’s missing is a USB port that is normally present on other more expensive routers, which would allow you to share files from an external USB hard drive or thumb drive to other devices on your home network. In conclusion, this Motorola Mesh router system is a solid and affordable unit, with a very easy to use smart phone App, though missing some features that are common in other comparable routers. It offers 5000-6000sqft Wi-Fi coverage, depending on construction materials, obstructions and elevation/placement of extenders. Wi-Fi throughput does go down considerably the further away you are from any extender, even though it still says Wi-Fi 6, you may get speeds as low as 30 Mbps.

I've used the Motorola MH7603 WiFi 6 Mesh system for 2 weeks now. I originally come from a Linksys Velop Tri-Band Mesh System (WiFi 5). In my time running the system I have experienced some hiccups with the operation, but overall it has worked well. My house is 1700 sqft split between 2 stories, and an attached garage. I setup the system first as a wired router with 2 wireless mesh extenders, and then as the wired router with 2 wired backhaul nodes. MH7603 Mesh System (3 pack) The system comes with 3 separate nodes – all are MH7601 router nodes. Each node is an AX1800 router (1200 Mbps @ 5GHz, 574 Mbps @ 2.4GHz) with dual band radios and MU-MIMO. Each node has 2 ethernet ports (for WAN or LAN use). Along with the nodes the pack comes with a single ethernet cable (Cat5e) and USB-C power adapters. Setup is pretty straightforward. You need an Android or IOS device to download the Motosync app to do the setup. You CANNOT complete the setup without the app. I initially setup the system with all wireless nodes, except for the wired router node. The app instructions were very easy to follow. I ran into a couple of minor issues/weird things with each wireless node. Setting up the second node I placed it where I intended it to live. The app actually tells you to power it on and have it sit next to the wired router for initial setup. I didn’t do this on the first one, and I found out why. The wireless setup involves the nodes communicating and the wired router configuring the wireless node. Apparently, they can’t do that if they are more than a few feet apart, which is honestly kind of weird requirement for a wireless mesh system. These should be able to send all that data back and forth since that’s their function once up and running. With the devices too far apart the setup fails to complete. Moving the node closer allows the connection to complete. The other issue I ran into was after setup completed it asked about an update. I tried the updated and it failed to complete, so I had to skip it until later. The next step was to unplug the new node and put it where I wanted it to reside and power it back on. Setup for the second node followed the same steps (kept it close this time though), and it also failed the firmware update. I ran with the wireless node setup for awhile and did some speed and transfer test. I ultimately have it setup as a wired backhaul system now, since that delivers the highest speeds. This isn’t a knock against the wireless mesh system, but rather I had already put the effort in 8 years ago to wire my house up. Performance I used a tool I have used in the past for testing file transfers on my network call LAN Speed test from Totusoft. I used 2 Windows 11 laptops with WiFi 6 network cards and NVME SSD drives, and a wired Windows 10 desktop with an NVME drive. I included a spreadsheet showing how the speed transfers went and how I had each one configured. The purpose of all the configurations was to determine how well each node communicated with each other in the mesh, and to determine if the mesh is routing the traffic efficiently. From my test values I can draw some conclusions. If you can set this system up with the extenders configured as a wired backhaul you will achieve consistently greater speeds (2-8x), but my fastest speeds were with the nodes acting as wireless extenders. However, its clear that the backhaul puts a greater burden on the router node as the speed gains are much more modest when interacting with just the router node (either wireless or wired). The slowest speeds I saw were when communicating with two separate nodes while the nodes were wirelessly connected. The fastest I saw was with a wired connection for both laptops and having them both connected to the same extender. What this info tells me, at least for my setup, is that my WiFi 5 devices were decently slower than my WiFi 6 devices using the same setups. The wired backhaul places some extra overhead on each of the extenders network/LAN card as my max speeds were cut down a bit when comparing wireless to backhaul. Overall, the performance hit taken by the backhaul is small and it remains consistent while the wireless setup has more variation. I believe, overall, these routers provide a fast WiFi 6 connection that benefits the newer devices in my household. It is an upgrade over the pure WiFi 5 system I had in terms of speed and throughput. However, there are a couple of tradeoffs and issues I ran into that came along with the speed upgrade. Reliability With the time I have had using this system I have been able to get a good feel for its longer-term reliability. Uptime hasn’t been 100% for all nodes, but as far as the overall system staying up it has been 100%. I have had the 2 extender nodes drop out and reconnect on their own twice while setup as wireless extenders and once while setup as a wired backhaul. In 2 instances these dropped overnight and self-corrected. Only 1 time did I power cycle the node to get it back up quicker. The nodes also reconnect and self-heal the mesh really well. Power cycling a node takes it offline for about a minute before it reconnects and joins back up with the mesh. My old system would have to be entirely power cycled to reestablish the mesh, which is why I needed them all to have a battery backup to use. Interface The app interface is simple and easy to navigate. Support for the app is contracted out by Motorola to a company named Minim. For basic routing and network info it does a good job of showing relevant info. Health/status of nodes, speed test tool, connected devices, filtering tools, and profile controls. The profiles are kind of a cool thing to implement if you have multiple users in the house. You can assign the devices a person normally use – e.g. your kid’s phone, gaming system, etc. You can choose to pause the devices of a profile, and easily cut their access. This seems like a bit different approach then my other router systems where each device to cutoff had to be individually paused and unpaused. There are some advance routing tools available, but they are pretty limited. There’s port forwarding control UPnP, and IP controls. This is more than most people would need, but I can image some network/IT pros having an issue with the limitations. There is one major caveat to this system, and it has to do with privacy and data sharing. The app allows you to opt out of data sharing with Minim. I wasn’t full aware of what all, and for what purposes the data was being used. I read a couple of comment threads and review articles that touched on the info being generated via your network, and what Minim does with it. I would say that there are some red flags to toss up with how its handled, but that may not be the same for everyone. In the end make yourself aware of what is being shared and how it affects you. Issues I came across a couple of issues while using the system. I had to reach out to support to get help with my backhaul setup. I configured everything correctly but none of my devices were connecting to the satellite nodes. Instead everything was connecting directly to the router, and some devices couldn’t connect at all due to poor signal. I got into a support chat, and the rep helped me out pretty quickly. He had an engineer login to my system and reset some things to get it to communicate properly with my devices. That was a good support interaction, but its unfortunate that it was necessary (and it seems to be an issue for others as well). I’ve also noticed some device connection issues. My bedroom has the weakest connection in my house for whatever reason. I notice my Lenovo Smart Clock regularly having to reestablish its network connection. It’s never had to do this before with my previous mesh system. I also see some range issues when I am outside. My old system I could reliably connect and transmit from my street, and now I have to be 20ft closer to my house to get the same transfer rates. However, I can connect to this network from another house or 2 further down than my old system. It has range, but its throughput is nonexistent at that distance so it doesn’t really matter. I’ve also noticed while moving around my house the handoff from one node to the next is poor. I’m talking about my phone drops WiFi, picks up data, and then reconnects to the WiFi. I can see in the app that this basically happens when jumping from one node to the next. Part of the issue is the node steering is slow to react. My connection quality drops so low before it finally switches over to a closer node. Again, this is an issue I didn’t experience with my previous system. In order to reliably switch between nodes for testing I had to kill my devices WiFi and then turn it back on when I was next to the node I wanted to connect to. Overall, the system makes a good argument for itself. Its low price point combined with its ease of install and WiFi 6 speeds makes for a good setup. The reliability and self-healing mesh are certainly highlights, and an improvement over my old system. However, the shaky node steering and inconsistent signal strength give me some concern. The node steering can be addressed with firmware, but the signal drops/reconnections of my IOT devices are worrying. It could be my old system had stronger 2.4GHz radios than what this system has, but I really don’t know. I need to continue testing things, and see if I can make some improvements.

As time goes on my home keeps getting smarter, between doorbells, floodlight cams, vacuums, tvs, printers, thermostats and so on. But to stay smart all of these devices need to reliably stay online and connected. This is made harder due to the fact that all of these devices get spread all over the house, inside and outside. This is where a mesh wifi network comes in. First thing you might notice about this Motorola Mesh Router with Extenders is that it won't break the bank. As far as Mesh Routers go, this is one of the most affordable, but still features the latest in wifi technologies. The design is simple and setup couldn't be much easier. You get 3 routers/extenders, 3 power adapters and 1 ethernet cable. Making it easy is the fact that the routers/extenders are all the same, you can use any of the 3 as the main router and the other 2 as extenders. First you'll need the Minim app to get everything setup. Using the app the setup couldn't be much simpler. Set one up as your main router, then setup your network and you're good to go. After that just add each extender one at a time through the app, again a very easy and simple process to do. My previous router that this one is replacing isn't a slouch by any means either. It's only 2 years old, one of the top brands, and also features wifi 6 technology and is mesh capable, although it didn't come with any nodes/extenders. So before I added any extenders to this new router, I tested it on it's own to get a good comparison with my previous router. First up was the 'same-room' test. For these tests I used speedtest.net with my MacBook. My old router in the same room, right before I installed this new system, got 135 Mbps down and 34 up. So it was jaw-dropping to say the least when I ran the test a half hour later with this new Motorola router and achieved 566 Mbps down and 51 up!!! At this point my MacBook was the only device on the network, so I thought that might be affecting the test. So I went through all of my devices and updated the wifi credentials and then tried again, and got another 563 up/50 down result. In fact, as I'm writing this review, 1 week later, sitting in the same room as my wife is streaming netflix on the TV, my daughter streaming youtube on her iPad, my phone running a mobile game plus 18 other devices on the network, I still achieved 550 down and 50 up. Next up it was time to go into my home office that's in one of the further corners of the house. The results this time were a bit different, but not really good or bad. With my old router, again with no nodes, achieved 81 down and 36 up. This new Motorola, by itself without any extenders, basically got the same with 80 down and 33 up. I also checked a couple other rooms in other corners of the house and had similar results. Now it was time to add an extender and try these tests again for the further out areas. Back into my home office and this time my speed doubled to 171 down and 45 up. Much better although the extender could use better placement, but the layout of my house makes it tough to use the most optimal placement. This mesh router system isn't perfect though. One thing I don't like about this router is although very simple it only has 2 ethernet ports for a wired connection, 1 of which is used to connect to the modem. Where I keep my main router I have multiple devices I like to keep wired, including our main TV and gaming console, both of which benefit greatly from being wired versus using wifi. At least the wifi signal is strongest at this point but it's still something I'd prefer to have wired. On the plus side the extenders are able to use both ports for wired connections since one isn't needed for the modem. I can't write this review without including the Minim mobile app, because it's unfortunately the only option to get the routers setup and to manage your network as there is no web ui. The app is really well designed though and makes it easy to manage your network and the devices that are connected to it. It even has a very detailed breakdown of how each device uses the network including listing out ever website visited, making it really easy to monitor usage by say, younger kids in the home. But for all the positives, there is one big glaring negative. There is a LOT of data being collected, and you really don't have much say in the matter or what data they collect either. There is a couple options in the app though regarding the data collected, one to request the data itself and the other to opt-out. Both options, when selecting them, shoots off a pre-made email to Minim (company that creates the software used by Motorola) with your request. I did both and received a reply 2 days later. Starting with the data collected, it's surprising how much there is. The email reply contains links to the different datasets for you to download. Assuming the data is up to the time the links were generated, the set containing all of the connections (website visits, downloads, streaming, etc.) only had about 50 hours worth of data, but it contained over 20 THOUSAND items in that short amount of time, including urls, IP addresses, MAC addresses, DNS, and more. But there's the opt-out option so you would think that's all fine and dandy since you can put a stop to it, except that's not the case. The email reply to my opt-out request basically said that if I decide to continue with opting-out, the app would no longer work, meaning I'd have no way to manage my own network since the app is the only way to do so. It said the routers would still work, but the password, name, settings, etc. would just be whatever they were at the time of opting out. So to wrap up, the pros are affordability, great speeds, and easy setup and management with the mobile app. Negatives are minimal ethernet ports, and the large of amounts of data being collected with no way of opting out without giving up the ability to use the app and manage your network.

This review is for Motorola MH7603 three-piece system that comes with a router and 2 nodes/satellites/extenders. All 3 units looks identical out of the box in a classy white finish in the shape of bowl with “M” logo on the top. Currently have a leading brand Mesh system that is 4 years old and wanted to replace it with a Wi-Fi 6, MU-MIMO technology and an affordable system that is not too expensive. My SMART home is 3600 sqft single story home that had some dead spots with ORBI system where the internet was slow and was experiencing frequent network disruptions. Have over 95 devices connected to my router at any point of time and wanted a very powerful system that can deliver blazing fast speeds with Wi-Fi 6 technology. I had recently installed an outdoor high performance Wi-Fi Range Extender from Winegard to solve problems with my outdoor smart devices like Flo water detector, Rachio irrigation system and outdoor cameras but the issues inside my home was very annoying. Let’s see if this router can overcome my frustrations. What’s in the box: 1 Router, 2 Extenders, 3 AC Adapters, 1 Ethernet Cable, Quick Start Guide. This three-piece system has 2 internal dual band Wi-Fi 6 that supports IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, 2x2 MU-MIMO, with WiFi6 performance (OFDMA, Beamforming, Power boost) and can deliver up to 574Mbps at 2.4GHz and up to 1200 Mbps at 5.0GHz and supports Smart Mesh 2.0 and guest network. It also has the following device management features like band steering, smart backhaul, seamless AP roaming and wireless Airtime Fairness (ATF). It has a USB-C 5v 15W Power port at the back along with 2 LAN/WAN ports and a reset button. Setup and Installation: Setup was easy and took over 30 minutes to setup the router and 2 extenders. Downloaded the motosync app from Appstore (iOS), created a new account and set up a new device on the app. Then, it asked to scan the QR code on the bottom of router, disconnect/ unplug the old router (if any) and the modem to start the setup process. Connected the ethernet wire(included) to the internet modem and powered both devices (modem & router). LED light on the router was flashing blue, followed the onscreen instructions on the app to get it connected successfully. There was a firmware update as soon as it got connected and took few minutes to fully update. Once updated, followed the instructions to add extenders. Repeated the same process as the router by scanning the QR codes. It’s advisable to setup both extenders in proximity of router before moving to the desired location to expedite the process. Once the initial setup is completed, moved the extenders to respective rooms, clicked “optimize my Wi-Fi” on the app. I had to reset my password for SSID to more secure one and took this opportunity to do so. It was a painful process to get all devices back on network due to change of password when SSID was not changed. Had to reenter the password for all the devices but at the end it was well worth it as I had a very strong 16-digit password for additional security. LED indicator light on the front of the unit will display solid white when the router is connected to the internet or when the extender is connected to router. It will display solid amber when the extender experiences poor connection to the router, blinking white when device powers up, blinking blue when device is attempting to connect to the internet or router (for extender). LED indicator will rapidly blink blue during firmware update. There are few drawbacks with this model. It does not support the Multi-Gig ethernet ports for higher connection speeds then the Gigabit ethernet ports. It also does not support WPA3 encryption. All new high end mesh routers support these but I was okay with not having those as my internet service provider does not support a gigabit speed in my area. Also, it has only 2 LAN (10/100/1000 Gig Ethernet) ports on 2 extenders and only 1 LAN/ 1 WAN port on router. You will need a high-speed switch if you need more wired connections from the router. No USB connectivity if you need to connect your external hard drive or old NAS. No alternative to mobile app for setup nor system management. It does not allow admin access from web and lacks web management. No advanced settings or port forwarding feature. You will be out of luck if your use case has port forwarding or needs advanced setup. Mobile app: Motosync mobile app is very intuitive and does not fully replace the web management console. Supports both iOS and android devices. App when opened shows a network screen with the number of connected devices to each nodes/extender. Tapping each device like router or extender will let you see which devices are connected and to see the bandwidth usage and signal strength. You can also run the speed test to check on the download/upload speeds and to check the channel that is used for backhauling. On the network tab, you will have sections for Security to show if your network is secure, Full Home Filter where you can do filter search, security plus toggle button to block known malicious websites, Ad privacy toggle to block ads and their tracking platforms and adult block toggle to block adult websites on devices. You can filter individuals based on their profiles and their devices and apply only to those users. There is a section for connection to show what the internet speed supports with a tick mark in green for web, music, SD, Games, HD, 4k and displays the current download and upload speeds. Next to network button on the bottom are Profile, timeline, support, and settings button. Profile button lets you create a individual user profiles, assign devices to each profile and apply filters, set screentime and view reports. This is like the Circle app on Netgear devices. Very useful if you have kids and want to monitor what they are watching, set screen time and block some adult websites. After few days of usage and testing, I would say this system performs well and getting the desired speed and faster than my older unit with stronger signal coverage for my home. With the parental controls and better performance this is a good upgrade and will eventually upgrade to the next gen router with tri-band model for additional bands. Pros: Easy to setup and manage through mobile app, built in network security utilities, built in parental controls based on profile and devices, Affordable price point for a 3-unit Wi-fi system, Good Signal Coverage with less dead spot. Cons: Lack of WPA3 encryption, Lack of USB connectivity, No web management, No Port forwarding option, No multi-gig ports. Overall, this mesh router is easy to setup and capable of delivering faster consistent speeds and signal performance. For the price point, if you are in the market for an upgrade and don’t need WPA3 encryption or multi-gig ports then this will be a good investment.

It seems that I continue to add ‘smart devices’ to my home and where I once was mostly concerned about quality internet connections to my desktop and laptops, I now need a strong internet signal for outdoor security lighting, security cameras and devices on entry points, thermostats, streaming on two TVs, laptops, desktops, tablets and iPad, phones, doorbells, and smart plugs. The convenience that these devices provide to me is great, but the only caveat is that my internet system needs to stay stable and consistent, which means it needs to be upgraded as newer and more technological devices are added to the network system. My internet provider is fairly consistent in providing the speeds that I have contracted with them to provide, and I evaluate this regularly to verify. I recently migrated from a home security company that I have been a customer of for 22 years to a newer, more technical system that allows me full control of each, and every device added to the security system. With this migration came the need for a stronger, more consistent, stable internet signal. Not only did I need a router upgrade to provide a stable and consistent internet signal, but I also needed a router that could connect at both bands, 2.4 GHz, and 5 GHz, and be intelligent enough to switch as needed by the various smart devices connected to the internet system. The Motorola AX1800 seemed to be the answer to provide this, and at a very affordable price. The Motorola AX1800 is a Mesh Wi-Fi 6 router with two extenders. It comes with a two-year warranty and the company has a good US-based technical support division which was quite easy to communicate with. Each AX1800 device is equipped with two 1 Gig Ethernet ports and the system is recommended for internet plans up to 1 Gbps and 5,000 sq. foot coverage. If more coverage is needed, more AX1800 devices can be added. Each device also comes with a USB-C power adapter. Since the three devices are interchangeable of either being the router or one of the two extenders, the package only comes with one ethernet cable. Setup was super easy with the help of the Motosync app. I scanned the QR code on one of the devices and let it become the router. As it connected, it needed a firmware update and I allowed it to update. I located the first extender fairly close to the router and again scanned the QR code and updated the firmware. For the additional extender, I went to another portion of my home and scanned the QR code to add it to the system. This time the firmware did not update. I ended up taking the extender back to where the router was and scanning it again, adding it again. This time the firmware updated, and I simply moved the extender and its power cord back to the location where I needed it to be placed. The app was great for setting up the system, but I feel uncertain about security in that I could not set the system up without the app, and the app is a third-party software. I could not use the web to set the system up using my computer, and this bothered me as it relates to the security of my information. The app has excellent features. You can easily see what is connected to your system, block connections, allow guest use, track data usage, set up parental rights, etc. It is very well done. The Motorola AX1800 system provides a type of security in that it automatically updates firmware, provides malware scans, blocks unwanted ads and provides alerts of new device connections. Did the Motorola Mesh 6 AX1800 solve my initial problem? Yes, it did-- but it did not solve all of my problem completely. Everything connected well, but at first some of the entry security sensors dropped off the Wi-Fi at random times and minutes or hours later reconnected themselves. Relocating the extenders decreased the frequency of this happening, and as time has gone by it seems to have decreased further. However, it has not completely solved this initial problem. The three extenders were engineered to cover a 5,000 square foot space and I only live in 2550, so adding another extender might not solve the problem either. I would definitely recommend this as an upgrade to an older router, but the instability has not been completely erased in my situation. My signal and connections are stronger than they were and seem to be getting better with time. The product is offered at an exceptionally competitive price and has the potential to increase your internet speeds. It just has not completely solved the issue that led to me installing the Motorola AX1800 in the first place. Still, my internet consistency and stability have increased, and the number and frequency of devices falling on and off the network has decreased.

The Motorola AX1800 Mesh WiFi Router 3 Pack Kit came with 3 attractive interchangeable WiFi nodes, 3 USB-C power adapters, an ethernet cable, and a small quickstart manual. The node you connect to your cable modem becomes the main router while the other nodes will act as extenders. Setup was fairly easy but activating and updating the firmware took longer than I wanted. For me, it took about 15 or more minutes setting up each node. As with all of the newer mesh routers I’ve tried, setup is done using an app (Moto Sync) that you download to your Android or iOS phone. You are required to set up an account to use the app. There is no web interface to configure and set up the router. It’s all done with an app. To set up a node, you scan the QR Code on the bottom of each unit from the app and it will automatically activate the node to your account. I then swapped out my old router with the Motorola AX1800 Mesh WiFi router. I had to power down and restart my cable modem before the new router was able to connect to the internet. Once that happened, I was offered the opportunity to update the firmware which I did. Activating the other nodes was the same. I was instructed to activate each new node near my original main node. Once activated, I placed a node on each level of my 3 story 1400 sq ft townhouse. The main router was in the basement, an extender node was in my living room and the other extender was on the top floor. I actually got decent coverage over my whole house with just one node but having all 3 nodes gave a stronger signal on each floor and each extender allowed any non-WiFi devices access to the internet by using one of the two gigabit ethernet ports on the extender. During my week of testing, I found consistently very strong signals, fast (but not top-of-line fast) speeds, and excellent compatibility with most of my internet devices. I did experience some initial hiccups (dropped connections, slow speeds, unreachable websites etc.) with two computers that gave me a poor initial impression of the router. But the problems went away after I rebooted the devices and computers. I think remnants of the old network were causing some confusion when I swapped out my old router with the new one but was cleared up after rebooting the devices. I got the impression that the Motorola AX1800 Mesh WiFi routers are able to improve and optimize the network over time. For example, when a computer first connects to the network, I noticed that it almost always connects using the 2.4 Ghz band. The next time it connects to the network, it will use the 5 Ghz band. Computers or devices that might experience some early hiccups will later be very stable. I have a ton of internet devices (FitBit Aria Scale, Ooma Telephone, Honeywell Smart Thermostat, Kasa Smart Plugs, Amazon Echos, Google Nest Mini, Amazon Fire TV Sticks, nVidia Shield, Apple TV, TCL Smart TVs, Samsung Tablets, and multiple computers, laptops, and tablets) and I have experienced very little or no problem with any of them. The only issue that I haven’t been able to solve at this time was my Logitech remote control working with my TCL TV. The remote kept getting disconnected from the TCL. The Logitech remote seemed to work fine controlling my other devices such as the nVidia Shield, Fire TV Stick, and Apple TV. During work-at-home, I experienced no problems with my work laptop when conducting Zoom/WebEx meetings. And streaming media to my TV has experienced no problems. Using Speedtest.net, the best results I got was a ping of 14ms with a download speed of 574 Mbps and an upload speed of 10.81 Mbps from a computer connected using ethernet to the main router. On this computer, I also got a transfer speed of 60 MB/sec from my ethernet connected NAS. On another computer with a Killer Wireless-AC 1535 adapter that was wirelessly connected to the main router, I got a link speed of 400 Mbps, achieved a ping of 9ms with a download speed of 144.5 Mbps and and upload upload speed of 9.87 along with a transfer speed of about 20 MB/sec from NAS. My Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 with an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 at my third floor connected with a top link speed of 574 Mbps and achieved about 107 Mbps at Speedtest.net when wirelessly connected to an extender. Transferring large files wirelessly from my NAS at the ground floor to my third floor gave around 12 MB/s. I also really like the Motor Sync app and how information is displayed. It has a very nice and simple interface. The main screen shows the main router and any connected extender and the total number of devices connected to the network. When you click on the icon of the router or extender, it will show you the devices connected to that particular node and its IP address and firmware version. There is also a button that allows you to reboot that particular node. When you click on a device, it will display the top sites that the device has accessed (for example, clicking on my TP-Link Smart Plug shows that it has accessed tplinkcloud.com and ntp.org), the bandwidth it has used, link speed, and signal strength. Clicking on the info button for the device shows you its IP and MAC address and the manufacturer and model of the device. In general, it does a very good job at identifying devices but you can rename them if you want. There is also a button to pause internet access for any device. The main screen also displays your Network Security Status along with any threat notifications. Whenever a new device connects to the network, the app will notify you that an unknown device has been detected. You can then mark the device as “known” to remove the threat notification. The main screen also has a panel where you can apply Full Home Filtering that allows you to block known malicious websites, ads and tracking platforms, and adult websites. You can also create profiles and associate a profile with any device and only apply filtering based on the profile. I think this feature would be very appealing to any household with children. The app also has tabs at the bottom that allows you to create profiles, view a timeline of network events, contact live support (which I haven’t needed to use) and view support documents. The settings tab allows you to add additional mesh extenders and provides advanced settings for network customization. Unfortunately, the Moto Sync app doesn’t offer much advanced customization. I only see the ability to specify port forwarding and enable/disable Universal Plug and Play. I would like to see DHCP reservation added to its customization as this would be useful for the administration of my Linux computer and my NAS. It seems like this feature might be a future possibility because under each device, there is the word “Unassigned” which makes me think that we might have the ability to assign/reserve an IP address for any device on the network at some point in the future. The advanced network settings also allows you to forget all devices on the network and to forget the network itself. This is probably useful if you are upgrading your router at some point in the future and you want to regift your router to a friend or relative. Overall, I think the Motorola AX1800 Mesh WiFi Router is an excellent entry level mesh WiFi router that is a great value. The hardware itself has been rock solid, with very good compatibility with all my internet devices, and provides very strong signal strength and great (but maybe not top-of-the-line) speeds throughout my house. One thing that is a minor concern is that I never saw a link speed higher than 574 Mbps among any of my devices but I was expecting something a little higher. I don’t think this should bother most people as this speed is easily enough to stream 4K video to any point in my house but I sometimes transfer large files to my NAS and the faster the better. From my week of usage, it was very reliable where you can just set it up once and then not have to worry or think about it later. I also like the Moto Sync app for the ease with which to administer and set up the network and the intuitive way it displays information on the state of the network. The home filtering, parental and profile controls also are well thought out and should be very appealing to any household with children. I also like receiving notifications whenever a new unknown device has connected to your network. However, I would like to see more advanced customization options available in the app such as DHCP reservations. I can definitely recommend this router to anyone looking for an easy to use basic value priced mesh WiFi router.

Motorola - AX1800 Mesh WiFi Router/Extender - 3 pack. The team that developed the Motorola AX1800 setup and install instructions actually had this product in their hands and followed their own procedures before they shipped the product out to end users. My evidence? It all worked. Easily. Reliably. Without missteps. That’s not typical, in my experience. And it adds to my score for this Motorola Mesh Wi-Fi 6 system. I’ll summarize my experience at the end, but the Motorola is a very reasonably priced mesh WiFi system for a typical home. It truly leaves you feeling you’ve entered the world of advanced networking in your own home. I’ve got some complaints, too, but they’re related to advanced uses. SETUP: Create an account in the Minim App (downloaded from App store) for your phone (I used an iPhone). The step by step instructions have you select and scan any one of the bowl-sized and shaped routers/nodes. From there, the instructions provide a foolproof series of illustrated phone screens. They culminate in a network that can be distributed across several rooms in my home. LEDs on the nodes matched the illustrations and confirmed my efforts were succeeding, The App even provides fairly accurate estimates of the time between my actions and the expected results. There were no unexplained departures from the script. No fuss. I was ready to test my efforts. It’s pretty hard to get lost. That said, a product that will appeal to naive networking users could/should do so much more handholding, defining, explaining, illustrating. If this router can’t do some things of interest to a subset off users, own up! PERFORMANCE: I connected to the newly established network quickly and with consistent speeds across my entire 2800sqft house. My house receives 1GB fiber service from Google. I measured speeds on my newly created Motorola MH7603 Mesh Wi-Fi 6 network using the App SPEED TEST, using 2.4GHz band: Down ; Up ; Recorded Wi-Fi measurements all taken from not less than 20 feet from each node. 313 ; 483 369 ; 466 336 ; 344 I’m satisfied with these speeds, but I know from my research they aren’t the fastest available. I also understand that those buyers looking for a full suite of network management tools, and the ability to fine tune band choices, or needing a USB port for devices that can be attached, or want the ability to prioritize data types, will be frustrated. But the average user is probably more like me. I’m not interested in most of that. I’m more interested in those more automated settings that sit on the Home Filter page: Security blocking, Ad Blocking and Adult Website Blocking controls. Everything else requires a deeper technical skill set which we aren’t about to achieve from Youtube “university”. Oh, and speaking of videos, all my streaming services easily display 4K, Dolby Vision, ATMOS sound without a hiccup. Various other Wi-Fi devices such as cameras and phones all connected easily to my new network. That’s what I’m talking about! The Motorola gets it done. NEGATIVES: Bare bones settings management. Instructions don’t cover anything outside of simple installation. Using the App’s full feature set requires end user (you) acceptance of significant data sharing and there are two companies in the mix. Couldn’t see any way to configure Bridge Mode. [Bridge mode enables two routers to share one Wi-Fi network.] Can’t find any info on wired back-haul. No easy way to hang these on a wall. And most frustrating, don’t bother looking for a more elaborate user manual. SUMMARY: As my few days of using the Motorola AX 1800 demonstrated, the Motorola is fairly fast, has a useful, if not complete set of features, and reaches distances that compete with the best Mesh networking products. It is everything the average non-technical person wants. It is up and running within the hour, creates a completely useful and accessible network with no fuss, and it solves the problem of blanketing a home with Wi-Fi. It even has useful and easily accessible security and content protection tools using the MINIM App on our phones. My biggest caveat concerns the technical depth of features and guidance: While I agree with the adage, “Less is more”, sometimes “less is just too little.” Still, there's a lot to like about this Mesh Wi-Fi system from Motorola. And the price is great.

My home is a smart home. I have smart lightbulbs, smart sensors, cameras, garage door openers, streaming devices all relying on a strong and stable wifi connection. About 6 months ago I replaced my 4 year old Wi-Fi 5 mesh system because it was starting to lose connection with some of my smart devices and they would go 'Not Responding' in my Home app. I pay for gigabit internet from the local fiber provider and speeds were always good throughout the house but the dropped connections were driving me crazy. I opted to go for the 'known' brand in home connection and chose the standard Wi-Fi 6 model and quickly realized that not having wired backhaul was causing my wifi speeds to crater to around 100 Mbps, though my smart home was stable. I just wasn't crazy about the speeds so I decided to give this Moto system a try when I saw that it shipped all satellites with wired backhaul. Installation was easy enough with the app. My only gripe was the length of time it took to download new firmware. Once I got everything set up I placed the two satellites in alternating areas upstairs and downstairs that also had wired backhaul. I used the same WiFi name and password as my previous system and the devices started lighting up. So far so good. I then ran a few speed tests and my heart sank. 40-80mbps unless I was standing directly in front of the main router. Yikes. I opened my Moto app and saw that every single device was trying to connect to the main router. The house isn't huge but when you're talking 60+ devices all connecting to one little puck in the far corner of the house it's not good. I reset everything, installed again, tried different WiFi name just to test. Nothing worked. The following day I reached out to Moto Customer service over chat just so that I could say that I did that before coming here to write a scathing review. My experience with these types of technical support historically have been awful from any company not named after a fruit. Well, let's add Moto to the list of amazing customer support. I chatted with Jon D, and through some testing and description of what was happening we discovered that when we unplugged the ethernet from the satellites and allowed the mesh system to work wirelessly the devices would start connecting to the strongest signal. Making progress. I started getting speeds closer to 120-150mbps throughout the house, and of course my further smart devices were now connecting to closer access points so the signal was stronger. However, I as I explained to Jon - I selected this model BECAUSE it had wired backhaul and without it I might as well have stayed with my previous system. Jon took all the notes and interacted with me consistently over the next 48 hours and worked with their engineering team to make adjustments. To this day I'm not sure what levers they pulled on their end but I get an all-clear email to plug my ethernet back in and give it a go. Success! All is well, smart devices are stable, wifi speeds consistently 300-450 Mbps depending on where I'm at in the house and my whole home music is streaming like a champ. I couldn't be more pleased. Well done Moto. You surprised and delighted me throughout the whole experience!

I recently received the Motorola - AX1800 Mesh WiFi Router/Extender to reduce the WiFi dead spots in my home. I was looking for a way to seamlessly move from room to room in my home without losing connectivity. This is where the Motorola AX1800 comes in. There are three puck shaped router/extenders in the packaging. Each one is approximately 6 inches by 3 inches and have one Cat in and one out and a USB port. Also included in the package is three power cords for the routers, one CAT6 wire and a basic instruction card. The packaging has a high end look to it. Setting up the AX-1800 is easy provided you have a smart device to download the MOTO SYNC app from the Google Store or the Apple App Store. I have Apple product and went that route. Once you have the required app on your device, you just have to follow the on-screen prompt to set up each of the pucks. Once each puck is connected the app will prompt you to continue to the next one. When all the AX-1800 extenders have been set up, you can use the app to control and do some basic customization. The app allows you to name the network and set a common password to use across the MESS network. This is the benefit of a MESS network. This gives you the ability to set your WiFi for you mobile devices and the connectivity is seamless as the routers hand off your devices between each extender as you move around your home. Then app provides some security prevention, utilities for testing speed, shows the devices that are connected and more advanced settings as well. The performance is excellent. Once my devices are connected, they are rock solid. Laptops, tablets, streaming devices and doorbell cameras all work quickly and without issue. I am able to move around the house on my tablet and not worry about losing signal. With over 5000 square feet of coverage there are no worries.

I really tried to make this works for me, the extenders work very well, good primary and secondary coverage. But I'm replacing a previous high end router (tri-band), and I have an extensive hardwired ethernet network that has lot's of fixed IP addresses, many that I access from remote locations. I also have a smart home with at least 75 devices (not all WiFi), but many gateways, and lots of cameras. My first installation seemed to go very well. I first downloaded the MotoSync application and followed the installation instruction I upgraded the firmware of all 3x MH76001'a on my existing network before taking it down. I then installed the 3 AP's using the same 2 SSIDs my previous network used. I disconnected all of my ethernet devices until I got the WiFi up and working. The primary network used the same name my prior 5G network used (although this would now have 2.4G and 5G on the same SSID, and I installed the second network giving it the same SSID that my previous 2.4G network had, this should have allowed of my devices to connectand function BTW the second network Motorola calls an isolated network, and you must select the Work (not Home) option for this to work properly. My first network has 56 devices connect, the second had 22 devices connect. And by inspecting the second network all connected with 2.4G WiFi, the first was 90% 5G, 10% 2.4G, I suspect this was due to signal strength and signal steering built into the access points. I then connected my Ethernet devices and that brought me to just over 100 devices; about what I expected. All looked good, then I dug a little deeper, and found all devices were on a 10.10.1.x subnet, not the 192.168.1.x that I had specified in my default configuration. The only devices on my 192.168.1.x were the AP and the extenders. Strange. I knew this would not work for me and my remote access needs (not everyone has my requirements). I reset the hardware, but it kept the same configuration information (probably because all of my network info was sent to the Motorola Network Cloud). I went through all of the configuration options and I could not figure out what caused this. So I got to see how Motorola tech support would deal with such a new product. The first level tech support knew of the product, had some training on it, but ultimately could not help. I spent quite some time with a senior T/S person and finally resolved the problem, but this required them to delete my Cloud data before starting over, this finally gave me all devices on my requested 192.168.1.x subnet. This now allowed me to use port redirection for remote access (almost). It turns out that I had previously set my network up so my router would allocate IP addresses from .1 to .199, which allowed me to have fixed addresses in the .200 to .255. Well this new system does not have a provision to limit/specify the IP address range for assignment. T/S suggested I reset my network again, and bring network up with the ethernet network connected initially (most of my fixed addresses are hardwired). We we had to again reset the AP, as it wanted to use the addresses it had previously. In general this was better, but some of my Virtual Machines don't report in that quickly, and at least one of their addresses (over .200, got assigned before it reported in), after inspection there were several fixed IPs that it assigned. Not good! Given how they have designed this product they need add the ability to designate a range of IPs to be used, or allow the user designate that a IP address are to be reserved (other products offer both options), not offering either is, for me a show stopper. A few other things that they really need to add, is the ability to view the IP address assigned to the router by your ISP. They also need to add the ability to sort your devices, by name, IP, Network or network type (Ethernet/WiFi) and MAC address. The lists of devices is not in any particular order, and with 100+ devices, using a phone to scroll through 10 or so at a time, it painful. Their web site for user support, should also have this information so it can be printed from a web interface. They have some nice data available, regarding, most active devices (would be nice to set the number) and where those devices are connecting to each network. They allow you to name you network products, identify who the owner is and the type of device (list needs expansion). They should include a room name so you can organise what is where (as many others do). They seperate out the user info from the technical info (IP, MAC...) which means you have to look in 2 places, and with lots of devices this takes longer than it needs to (if a web interface had all of this - no problem, but it does not). Their advanced information does not allow you set/specify that devices use the AP or extender this is a common feature of mesh networks. I also experienced several network drop outs, where one of both of my SSID's would periodically stop reporting. Given the amount of home automation I have, this would cause some devices to report lost connections, and some would have to be reset. I'd call this a general stability problem. There are many technical questions I have, like what kind of processors do they use, the processors speed, and how much memory is available? Most sophisticated networking products allow you to compare specs like this. Then there is performance, in general, the WiFi performance is very good (especially the new 6G, where I saw numbers close to 500Mbps on WiFi. On the other hand the max performance of the AP, I never saw exceed 520Mbps, and my prior AP would peak at 960-970Mbps on my gigabyte service (running a different test (out of my control)). I also saw the two SSID's I set up have some vastly different performance differences/measurements. But the dropping of the SSID's caused me the greatest difficulties. I therefore can't recommend this product until it matures more and it provides for easier end user support.

This router set comes with 3 units, 3 power cords with USB-C connection, an Ethernet cable and easily covers my 2,200 square feet, so it is good for just about any home. The box does state that it covers around 5,000 square feet in total. This set also has the newest generation Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 6). Wi-Fi 6 is more about lots of devices on your home Wi-Fi and all of them working up to speed. I have over 35 devices on my system and have noticed a difference on how quickly things respond. There are also settings involving sharing of your internet provider speed, i.e. do you live in a rural area with few houses around you, a medium neighborhood where there are a bit more internet users or a populated internet area where others could be slowing down your internet speed? I am in a populated condo complex and chose this option and increased my internet speed by nearly double of what it was because of this WiFi6 option on the app. That is why I recommend this particular router. To set up the system, you will need to download the MotoSync app to your phone or tablet. Set up was fairly simple, but when it came to updating the individual routers, I ran into a bit of a snag. For each one, the first time I would run the update and wait about 10 minutes, for it to tell me that it couldn’t update. I would have it try again and it would update. This just made the units take a bit longer to set up. If you have a lot of different devices that need to be hooked straight to a router, you will be a bit disappointed. Unlike regular routers, these only have one Ethernet port for outgoing internet per unit. PROBLEM SOLVED: An Ethernet hub solved this problem for me. All my devices are hooked into one hub, so I don’t have to worry about having one device attached to each unit. The units themselves are small in comparison to other routers I have had over the years. They measure about 5 inches across and 2½ inches high. They can be easily placed most anywhere you need Wi-Fi and are of a simple design. They blend in with any décor. The MotoSync app not only sets up your devices, there are many other things you can do with it. You can manage screen time and filter content for the kids. You can also set up a “guest Wi-Fi” for people visiting. Testing your internet speed is a breeze, because it is built right in to the app. If you are looking for the next generation Wi-Fi 6 for a reasonable price and faster internet speed with WiFi6, this is an ideal router to get. I recommend it because it seems reliable, fairly easy to set up and very affordable. The MotoSync app explains things in more laymen terms making it easier to understand. You don’t need to be a computer geek with this router. To me this unit is worth every penny.

Motorola MH7603 is the latest Wi-Fi 6 mesh router with speeds up to 1 Gigabit. This 3-pack unit came with 3 nodes, 3 Ethernet cables, 3 USB C AC adapters. You can use one of the nodes as the main router and the other 2 nodes are set up as extenders, creating the mesh network that covers your entire house without any dead spots. The design is simple yet robust and blends in with household items as part of the decor. The first thing you need to do before you start the setup is to download the motosync app for your iOS or Android device and create an account, without which you cannot configure this router. The app is well built and does a surprisingly good job of guiding you through the process. To set up a router, you will need to scan the barcode at the bottom of the node. Once that is done, you can setup as extenders by scanning the barcodes under additional nodes. The LED light on the node represents the status during setup as well we when connected. The app is powerful enough to manage the settings for your network but could provide more options for advanced users as there is no web interface you can login for console management either. The unit supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and delivers up to 574 Mbps and 1200 Mbps, respectively. Since I do not have a Gigabit connection, I was only able to test the limits with my internet connection speed and was happy that the mesh system was able to maintain those speeds steadily throughout my house with strong signals. Each node only comes with 2 Ethernet ports, so you might want to use a switch if you have lot of wired devices. Consider investing in this if you are in the market for a budget friendly mesh router system or just getting into mesh Wi-Fi networking.

It's all about mesh systems now-a-days. If you don't have a mesh Wi-Fi yet, now is a great time to pick one up. Why, you ask? Wi-Fi extenders typically connect to your existing wireless network, broadcast a new network name, and blindly relay traffic back to your wireless router. This usually means that you'll see two network names: one network offered by your wireless router, and another network offered by the extender. That's old school and you manually have to change networks. Mesh networks broadcast the same network name throughout your location, which enables your Wi-Fi devices like phones and laptops to roam between mesh access points as they choose. That makes the handoff more seamless than extenders. That's why you need a mesh system. So - onto the Motorola AZ1800 Mesh Wi-Fi. Easy setup through an app on your phone by scanning a QR code on each device (there is no web interface for setup), fairly easy software/firmware upgrades and the standard offering of features allow you to manage your network. You can run speed tests, setup parental controls, see devices currently connected, etc. Like others, it can notify you when an unidentified device joins your network as well. Speed and range for the AX1800 is on par with the price. There are systems that offer better range and better speed (by utilizing a 3rd band for dedicated backhaul), but for most people, this system's performance is quite sufficient. Gamers and heavy internet users will likely buy higher end devices. Overall - this is a safe and solid pick when upgrading from an older WiFi system to a Wi-Fi 6 mesh system.

Living in a two story house created issues with my gamer whose bedroom is on the 2nd floor. After installing the mesh system, by a friendly and knowledgeable tech, my gamer is streaming away!

Before trying out the Motorola AX1800 I was running a Tri-band Linksys router and a smaller range extender that worked well. A few dead spots around the house had me wondering if the solution is more of a mesh system. For the price the AX1800 with 2 extenders is worth it in my opinion. You won't find a deep dive techie features on this router however, so if you're more of an IT specialist with the need to tweak and all parts of your router, I haven't figured out how to do that yet and don't really know if it's an option. The instruction/startup "pamphlet" is pretty lacking and I couldn't really find much more on this router online. Unboxing. These router/extenders are about the size of a large cereal bowl. They don't look terrible so I actually have one of mine sitting nicely on a bookshelf and it looks like part of the decor. I wish there was a way I could hang them on the wall to conceal them. I'm sure once I have more time I will find some type of universal bracket that I could use to conceal them behind things like the TV. On to performance. I plugged it in and downloaded the app and within a half an hour it was basically setup and that's mainly because the extenders didn't want to connect the first time around. Each one timed out and asked me to try again. Second time around I got the message that "Your network looks spectatular." Cool. Ran a speed test before installing the AX1800 in about 4 different areas of my home and the AX1800 showed download speeds of 15-40 mbps higher than my Linksys. The mobile app offers several basic features such as different profiles that you can create and track, network usage that you can track sites that are visited, timeline, support and settings. You can also add full home filters for ad privacy security plus and adult block to block adult websites. I think this is a good setup for parents who want to limit and block content and put time frames on their kids web usage. I am thinking of getting one of these for my parents because it's super easy to use and they will get better coverage throughout their home vs using the modem/router they currently use that's provided by their isp. Cost vs. value is there for someone looking to get more steady coverage throughout their home, but if you're looking to have access to every part of your router and fine tune everything to a tee...I haven't figured that out yet and you may want to steer clear. Maybe more will be shared from techie users thru forums or videos at a later date on that. I would recommend this to those who fit the criteria above.

This is a Dual band - 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz system that includes 3 identical “pods” - which means any one of them can be set up as the router with the other 2 then becoming the extenders. Each pod measures 2.6” tall and 5” wide with a gigabit WAN/LAN port and a gigabit LAN port. The orb used as the router would use the WAN, with the 2 extenders having 2 LAN ports. There is a USB C port but this is strictly for power with no other USB port. There is a tiny reset “hole” on the back of the unit which I accessed with a straightened paper clip. This should return the unit to its original settings. You must download and use the motosync app provided by Minim (who also provides the software for Motorola) for setup and after, for monitoring/updating. A simple scan of the QR code on the bottom of each unit (one by one) makes for really easy setup. The connection is quick and will be confirmed within the app. The only concern for me was the placement of the units. A mesh system, with extenders, should allow you to get fast wireless throughout the home. Motorola claims the router and 2 extenders should give you strong WiFi over 2000 sq ft. When using more than one extender, they should be evenly spaced within the home. I had another router with 1 extender that this replaced. That one was tri-band with only one extender. My connectivity and speed was acceptable but not top notch, thus the change. I hooked up this router upstairs. It immediately connected and did an update. I placed the 2 extenders downstairs, 1 on each end of the 1400sq ft house. I used the same SSID and password to make setup easier but for some reason I still had to reset each of my 25+ devices to reconnect to the WiFi. Time consuming, but necessary. So, how is the WiFi? To be honest, even with 2 extenders, the coverage isn’t as good as my prior setup - not as fast and the WiFi will occasionally drop. I can say customer service was excellent when needed. Still, I have a slower weaker WiFi setup with this system. This may be the system that works for you - all situations are different and you really can’t know what will work for you until you try it.

Had the Velop mesh network from several years ago, and two of the three pillars basically stopped working after 5 years. My range was severely affected. Got these cute buggers and My wifi connects better than ever. I have a range that covers from my street to the park behind my house… easily a couple hundred feet in all directions. Also of note is that I can have a dozen devices going at once with no noticeable slowdown. I can stream a YouTube video while playing Xbox online while my wife surfs the internet on her iPhone…. No slowdown. I currently have 40 devices on my wifi and no issues. No bottlenecking or drops. My wife prefers these due to the better design. These look like smoke detectors. It’s easy to hide them on a shelf or behind a tv, especially compared to the tower modules of competitors. Because they have a wider footprint, these are less likely to get knocked over by a cat or fall during an earthquake as well. Overall, definitely a fantastic mesh system. The app took seconds to launch, the devices set up in less that 15 minutes and it all worked seamlessly. I really couldn’t have asked for a better install. No need for professionals costing $$$ to install. Literally all you need is a cellphone, eyes, and fingers.

Bottom line up front: 3 stars is due to inconsistent signal from extenders and lack of coverage in my 3 story house - 2,500 sq ft living space first level, 1,000 sq ft second level, 2,100 sq ft basement. This is compared to the performance of a 2018 tri-band model mesh (router + 2 extenders) system I replaced with the Motorola Mesh AX1800. The product description says the device covers 2,000 sq ft, however, with the router and two extenders it should cover 5,000 sq ft. I currently have the fist extender 30' (good signal strength) with a direct line of sight to the router supporting both garage and doorbell cameras, and the second extender upstairs, over 50' (ok signal strength) away with 2 walls between extender and router. Based on multiple placement attempts, including the same exact placement as the older tri-band system, I cannot find any configuration that gets a good quality signal both upstairs and to the garage / front door cameras and I've given up on any coverage to the basement. I estimate this product, with extenders, to cover no more than 2,500 sq ft for a multi level house that is not an open floor plan. Installation and setup: In the box are the router, two extenders, ethernet cable, AC plugs for each unit and a user guide. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time for setup, as it takes an extended period of time. First install the motosync app, once the app is running, scan the QR code on the router to get started. It took approximately 10 minutes for the router set up and then another 15 minutes for each extender. Unfortunately the extenders took multiple attempts to connect and update, meaning I spent almost two full hours from unboxing to being up and running. Then another hour to move all devices (~40) from old mesh to the Motorola. Functionality: The app shows the router/extender performance and devices connected to each. When selecting one of the extenders, the app brings up the device, a reboot option, signal strength, speed test, bandwidth, and connected devices. I'm using the router with a fixed wireless internet service that typically runs 150+ mbps up / 30+ mbps down with devices running on both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. Unfortunately the speed test within the app would never run successfully, so I cannot confirm that speeds were equivalent. The app also provides the ability to pause / unpause devices, creating profiles for multiple users, and network usage by time and data. There is an event log that shows if/when the network goes offline and configuration history. A customer service tab, and a settings tab, allowing for web filters / parental controls, user editing, network settings, and adding in additional mesh extenders. Over the past two weeks the extenders had to be reset every few days due to going offline or not having a decent signal, even when they show good speeds after each reboot. I'm in a very rural area, so I do have a secondary cellular internet network. Thinking there may be interference, I changed the app settings to allow for optimization when multiple networks are present (this is for apartments / city buildings where there are many networks) unfortunately I didn't see any change in performance. When the mesh system was up and running, I found that devices within 40' line of sight or 25' with obstructions connected and performed well. I was disappointed with the extenders inconsistent connection and lack of range, especially upstairs, in comparison to the older tri-band mesh system performance. In summary, while the Wi-Fi 6 seems attractive, I didn't find the few devices that utilized these speeds to outweigh the lack of range and lack of consistent performance from the Motorola mesh network. I do think this may be a great product for select floor plans, but advise to look at other options for larger floor plans and/or outdoor cameras.