The D-Link M60 drifts between meshed and enmeshed

If you’re a fan of first-person shooters, you’ll likely be familiar with the Vietnam War-era M60 machine gun, which is a faithful companion for creating digital enemy dead spots. As far as the D-Link M60 mesh WiFi system is concerned, it’s more reliable machine than fully automatic ‘gun’ but it’ll tackle wireless dead spots if you use a pair or trio. Ultimately, there’s still a lot more to like about it than there is to dislike once you’re up and running.

If you want to go all out, you can easily spend thousands of dollars on a three-pack mesh WiFi system in Australia, so it’s refreshing that D-Link has created something comparatively affordable. The D-Link M60 by itself cost $399.95 RRP but you’re better off considering a two-pack ($699.95 RRP) or three-pack ($999.95 RRP) for larger or interference-prone homes.

Admittedly, those RRPs aren’t the cheapest mesh options available but, at the time of writing, Amazon had an M60 three-pack listed for $599, which is a great price to pay for whole-home mesh. Still, if you are looking at RRPs, you can get the TP-Link Deco BE11000 three-pack for $100 more and it’s got WiFi 7. Alternatively, the Netgear Orbi RBK763s and Amazon Eero 6E compete around the same three-pack RRP.

If you’re in the market for an NBN plan to pair with a mesh WiFi system, check out the popular picks below.

Initial setup for the D-Link M60 was a mostly trouble-free affair. The physical part of setup is very straightforward, with a clearly marked yellow internet port for the included per-device Ethernet cable and only one logical spot for the power. Those power cables are, admittedly, a bit flimsy and I wish they had a wee bit more length, but they weren’t so short I had to rearrange things just to reach the typical power outlet.

I did have issues with my Exetel username and password not being accepted—something I haven’t been asked for in recent networking gear reviews—but that eventually resolved itself. I was then prompted to name the device, create a password and set a wireless network name with a username and password, which is a great user-friendly initial experience. The M60 did automatically restart after the initial configuration, which took a couple of minutes, but I liked the video guides in the Aquila Pro AI companion app to guide users through the basic features.

You’ll find most of what you need in that Aquila Pro AI app, separated into logical categories. The only category that isn’t initially useful is ‘Client Priority’, which is the M60’s Quality of Service (QoS) feature that needs to be manually enabled in the web portal. You can get to the web portal easily enough by using the ‘Advanced Mode’ link in the app side menu, and while it was strange that QoS wasn’t enabled by default, some of my later tests may be indicative of why that’s the case.

I highly recommend disabling the LED operating light, especially while you’re sleeping, as it’s so bright it could potentially summon Batman. Note that you only have to disable the LED for the main M60 unit and the others will follow suit. Alternatively, switch off the LED switches on any M60 unit you don’t want illuminated.

Band steering is enabled by default with the D-Link M60, which means your devices should automatically switch between longer-range but slower 2.4GHz and shorter-range but faster 5GHz bands. Admittedly, my tests suggest that the M60 leans a bit too heavily on its 5GHz band, but I didn’t have any connectivity issues once I had the full three-unit mesh network up and running.

All of my router internet speed tests are conducted with an Exetel NBN 100/20 FTTC apartment connection, using Ethernet for the first test then a Google Pixel 7 Pro for the WiFi tests (via WiFi 6). All of the tests below were done in the afternoon. Lower numbers are best for latency (measured in milliseconds), while larger numbers are better for download and upload speeds (both measured in megabits-per-second). Use the top line of results in the tables as an idea of best-case speeds at that time of day, then every line below as comparative. Signal strength according to Google is ranked from best to worst as excellent, good, fair and poor.

Here's how the Synology RT6600ax performed ahead of my D-Link M60 tests. Note that I performed a firmware update since my last round of testing that seems to have impacted speeds in certain test locations.

And here are the D-Link M60 results for a single unit, a two-pack configuration, and then a three-unit mesh WiFi system.

Even used as a single-device router, the M60 has decent results inside my apartment. The worst of the in-home tests is the study, but the back room of my apartment has the most interference and is good at catching out networking gear that’s lax on the wireless penetration front. Things started to slow down once I tested in my building lobby and deteriorated further outside the building. While the slowest of the single-unit results, the garage speeds show surprisingly good penetration of the building’s exterior wall, which is a test that my go-to RT6600ax consistently fails.

WiFi test results improved when I connected the second M60 node, with improved speeds in the study and outside the building. Well, except for the garage results and some of those upload speeds, but we’ll get to why I think that is in the next section. As you’d hope, the best results came from a three-unit mesh configuration, most notably inside the home. Those garage results, too, are very usable via the faster 5GHz band, but the slower upload speeds for the study, deck and at the property fence were still less than stellar.

If you have WiFi dead spots in your home, the best solution is either more powerful networking gear with greater penetration or adding extra compatible units to a mesh WiFi system. D-Link sent me a three-pack version of the M60, and that’s typically a great solution for taming the typical dead spots in the back half of my apartment (not to mention outside). There is a catch, though.

I’m used to QoS almost exclusively being a net positive, but I have to wonder if D-Link’s left it off by default in the M60 because it’s not yet up to snuff. On the second day of testing, I was experiencing slow browsing, web dropouts and very slow overall internet speeds on a wired PC. Initially, I thought it was an Ethernet issue, but as soon as I disabled the AI-assisted QoS, the issues went away. If you have similar issues with the M60, leave QoS off until the feature has been updated because it’s clearly not performing as it should.

The other issue was the more units I added to the M60 mesh WiFi system, the more it wanted to hang onto the 5GHz band. I get it—that’s a faster band than 2.4GHz—but it’s mostly overkill for my NBN 100 plan, and I feel like the M60 would’ve scored better in some of those outside-my-building tests had the mesh network been more willing to switch to 2.4GHz over 5GHz.

There was a similar clinginess when it came to moving devices around the apartment, where my phone specifically was seemingly relegated to the main M60 at the other end of the apartment, instead of the other two extenders that were closer. Still, I only had one extremely short WiFi dropout in all of my testing, and it was otherwise smooth sailing for all web tasks, including video and voice calls, online gaming, downloading and uploading files, and dozens of hours of streaming video.

If you can grab a D-Link M60 two-pack or three-pack for a discounted price, which seemed very achievable even at launch, this is a mesh WiFi system that’s well worth considering. Expect some WiFi issues with a single unit and/or if you enable the frustrating QoS feature, otherwise the M60 offers smooth sailing for any internet task you can throw at it.