Tenda Nova MW6

VERDICT

A great-value three-pack mesh system, which performs well, and is quick and easy to set up

- David Ludlow

ANOTHER MONTH, ANOTHER wireless mesh system, this time from Tenda, a relatively little-known router manufacturer. What the company lacks in name recognition, however, it makes up for with a high-quality and reliable mesh system that shows some of its big-name rivals how it’s done.

ROUTE ONE

The Tenda Nova MW6 ships with a three-pack of satellites, each one a neat cube that you can tuck neatly out of the way. With all three, Tenda claims that the system is capable of giving you 6,000ft2 of coverage. In other words, that’s enough to cover most UK homes, even those with thick walls that usually don’t play nicely with wireless.

As with other wireless systems, the MW6 has to have one satellite connected to your main network, using the dedicated WAN port. This can either be into your existing router, or you can replace your router entirely, as the MW6 supports PPPoE connections: you just need a router with an Ethernet port on it.

If you can, it makes sense to replace your existing router with the MW6. If you don’t, then you end up using double Network Address Translation (NAT), once on the MW6 and once on your router. In effect, you’ll have two networks, which can confuse things. However, this is normal for most mesh networks bar the BT Whole Home Wi-Fi kit (Shopper 358).