As A Spectrum Internet CustomerI had a Spectrum Advanced WiFi router that does 2G and 5G on the same WiFi network. There is not a way to split the networks in two. If you have a cell phone that is compatible with device steering and you use to connect your 2G devices to, you can call or chat with their Internet Repair support team to set up a feature on your cell phone that may allow the 2G devices to connect but it can be a hit or a miss and it’s too much of a hassle to keep calling/chatting to set this up with as the feature is enabled for only sixty minutes. If the 2G device is connected before the hour is over, it will remain connected but if it’s not, you’ll need to reach back out to try again and you’ll also need to reach back out for other new 2G devices only that don’t automatically connect to the 2G network.This is a major flaw for an “Advanced” WiFi router. Customers paying a monthly $5 fee to lease their routers should be able to either split the networks in two or leave them as a single network for band steering. Outside of this, the Spectrum routers are fine. However, it’s just better to get your own router.It would be great if they offered more advanced routers with more features such as VPN’s, hiding network SSID, splitting the 2G and 5G networks, guest network and more. I’d pay $5 more a month on top of the already $5 charge for this. This way customers can select which router they need for their home and still get customer support for it.As A New Customer For Echo Dot’sThis is the reason why I purchased my own router. I purchased four Echo Dot’s, 5th generation, ’22 release. All of them connected to the Spectrum WiFi router without issue and individually they operated great. However, the Echo Dot’s have a “multi-room audio” feature where you can play music all throughout your home. This was my entire reason for getting these in the first place. This feature was a hit or miss. Sometimes it would work but most of the time only one or two would work and trying to get them all re-paired so I could say, “Alexa, play Discover Weekly from Spotify everywhere,” was a huge inconvenience and took too much time.After going online and reviewing forums such as Quora and Reddit, I could see what the issue was. The Spectrum WiFi router would switch them between 2G and 5G based off of interference and signal strength throughout the day and if even just one Echo Dot was on a different network than the others, it would throw off the multi-room audio so that it wouldn’t work. So the hunt for a dual band router began.TP-Link AX1800 WiFi 6 Router (Archer AX21) ReviewThe TP-Link AX1800 Router has been amazing so far. It arrived on the same day that I ordered (Thank you Amazon and of course, most of all, the delivery drivers). When it first came in, the first thing I noticed was how ridiculously light it was which kind of made me nervous about the purchase. The router itself came very nicely packaged, nothing was damaged.I followed the instructions to the letter but the router was not showing any lights on there after plugging it in once the Internet modem came back online. I re-read the steps again and re-checked the power connections and tried unplugging from both ends but not luck. I honestly thought I got a dud. I looked on the back of the router and saw a button and pressed it in; all the lights began to show and I could begin the setup process.I use an iPhone and when I pulled up the TP-Link App to set up the router I couldn’t help but notice its low star rating so I opted not to download the app and instead login using the IP address (the instructions provide you with this information and how-to as well). This is my first time ever logging into a WiFi router without the use of a mobile app and I have to say, it is significantly better and heavily preferred. I was able to turn off TP-Link Smart Connect so that I could have two separate SSID’s for the 2G and 5G network. I could also see there was a whole new host of features that I did not have prior such as hiding your WiFi networks from neighbors and having a guest network.I also did a speed test and they all came back higher than normal and my computer noticeably moves faster when browsing the Internet and streaming video despite being roughly around the same speeds (before it was around 310mbps download/9mbps upload; now it is at around 360mbps/13mbps upload). Maybe the 50mbps DL and 4mbps UL makes a huge difference. I’m not entirely sure. I believe the difference really comes from the router provider a more stable/stronger connection than the Spectrum router. The signals itself are just healthier now.I also like that the TP-Link router has antennas, four of them to be exact, that you can see. The Spectrum routers don’t have these and if they do, they’re within the router itself. I believe routers with antennas that you can visibly see operate better and send stronger signals.Did This Resolve My Issue With The Echo Dot’s?It absolutely did. I re-connected all four Echo Dot’s to the 2G network, which was kind of a pain as well to do (but well worth the time and effort; it would’ve been significantly easier to do if I originally connected them to a dual band router in the first place) and ever since then I have had no issues with multi-room audio. Anytime I want to play music from all four Echo Dot’s at the same time, they all play without issue. Which is great because I plan on purchasing more for a more surround system environment.Final NotesIf you need a dual band WiFi router that is able to split the networks in two so that you can sign into them separately, this is it. And honestly, if you have a Spectrum router, this is a major upgrade for a fraction of the cost. Just make sure you keep it clean of dust, and keep it in a well-ventilated and cool area of the home and this will easily last you 2+ years. It saves you money and it works better. It’s honestly a no-brainer.There is also a common misconception with spotty/slow Internet speeds. The majority of signal issues do not come from cable lines (confirm with your ISP provider first though that the signal levels look healthy coming into and from your Internet modem) but come from the equipment itself (modem and/or router) or from the devices you are using (assuming it is only occurring on one or two devices). Which is why upgrading your WiFi router and/or Internet modem can resolve the issues.I honestly don’t have any issues with the Spectrum Internet modems. I think they’re fine. They all come pre-built, meaning, you can’t change any settings on them. Not a deal breaker for me. However, honestly, if I didn’t have a Landline service with them, I would’ve purchased my own modem as well and long-term wise I will definitely consider it. The Spectrum Internet equipment are fine for the majority of homes. However, there is no one size fits all and if you’re having issues with your equipment whether due to the lack of features available or signal issues (and confirmed with their Internet Repair team that there are no signal issues coming from the lines), this TP-Link router is an exceptional purchase.

Solid router. Works well with my PfSense box I setup. I am using it as an access point, no fuss, it just works. Looks great and it’s fast, exactly what I wanted.

Easy to set up, only took minutes. Simple, easy understand directions. Quality of it seems good. Picks up way out from my house, so the range is really good on it. Downloaded the app to use the features of it and to set up security features and such.

I would consider myself a novice when it comes to routers and networking. I can do simple tasks (network set up) adding removing devices..etc changing passwords etc. For the past few months, i have been on the fence about replacing my ISP provided router, so i took the plunge and orderd this model (archer ax21).my old netgear router (supplied by my ISP (charter spectrum) died back in november and I called customer service and they sent me a new “advanced wifi” router. that router was complete garbage, ISP’s don’t even let customers go in and modify their own home wi-fi networks. if you type the ip address for the router, it directs you to a page that says “login using the spectrum app”. well, their app only allows you to change the SSID name and password..NOTHING ELSE. very frustrating. ISP provided routers now combine the 2.5ghz and 5ghz bands, and many of my devices are older and ONLY use the 2.5 ghz band. so, natrually there were conflicts and frequent disconnects. I also own a accurite iris 5 and 1 weather station. in all my years of using a pc and wireless networks.. I have never seen or had a device that is so tempermental. I needed to be able to isolate the 2.5ghz and 5ghz bands so that i could assign specific devices to each band. the older things go on the 2.5ghz, and newer things like ipad, smart tv, xbox one..go on the 5ghz band.setting this up was very straight forward. simply power down your ISP modem, and reboot. wait for everything to reboot and ensure you have internet connectivity through the modem. then plug ethernet cable from back of modem into the WAN port on the Archer X21 router. then power up the router and wait for all the lights to turn green. takes about 1-3 minutes tops.you can set up either via APP (which is what i did), or you can set up using pc with ethernet cable.I have a chromebook, so it has no eithernet jack. i actually ordered one on amazon, it’s a usb to ethernet adapter. works like champ. but for most people you should be able to set up just using the app.. if you want to do more advanced things (dchp customizations, etc) i would set it up on the webpage through the ethernet connection.simply follow the instructions from the app, enter your new network name and new password and you will be good to go.the app shows each device connected on each network as well as real time uploads/downloads so you can see if there is a issue with a particular device. if you are having issues with devices disconnecting/reconnecting/slow speeds etc. i would suggest at the start that you DISABLE the 5ghz band. after you get everything connected and confirm that the devices are working, then go ahead and re-enable the 5ghz band. for some reason, (not sure why) on inital setup there can be conflicts.there are tons of options for this router, far to many to get into much detail for this review. go ahead and download the manual prior to purchase, so you can read up on what this router can/can’t do before you purchase.you can actually update the firmware over the air by hitting the update button, or you can speciify a certain time of day for the updates to be installed. a good rule of thumb would be set it to sometime after midnight that way, you will be asleep more than likely when the updates happen. out of the box, mine needed a firmware update. took less than 5 minutes.i’ve had/currently have other tp-link products (smart bulbs/cameras) and they all work as expected.the app is very intuitive and straight forward. i didn’t have to have any special settings from my ISP, i just plugged in the router, went through the setup, and everything connnected flawslessly on the FIRST attempt. no errors/timeouts etc that i was getting with my ISP supplied router.the router is sleek and has 4 antennas. my range is about the same as with my previous isp supplied router. currently have a linksys re6300 extender out here in the living room to boost the 5ghz band. my house isn’t that big but is very old. (its a single wide from early 70’s with A-Frame roof). so i think my signal loss has alot to do with the aluminum siding on my house. your range/results will obviously vary.I currently have 16 devices on my network and all are staying connected flawlessly and seem faster than with the ISP supplied router.there is also a option for guest network. I’m using that for guests and my accurite weather station.hoping this will help me troubleshoot the accurite when the inevitable disconnects start.also wanted to mention that the accurite iris 5-1 weather stations are full of problems. if your considering one, go with another brand. it’s not worth the headache.the only reason i took a star off was becase the antennas on the back of the router were wrapped in plastic that was hard to take off. other than that, i think this router is perfect. it’s affordable, has tons of options and doesn’t have performance issues that ISP supplied routers do. pick one up today, i’m sure glad I did.***update 9/24/24*** 1 year and 8 months later, router still performs PERFECTLY! no issues at all, adding static ip addresses to devices is very easy, and great connectivty. never had one single issue with this router. i have multiple devices across both bands (2.5ghz and 5ghz) and i haven’t had any problems, even my nightmare accurite weather station works perfectly. the key to that device, was connecting it to the 2.5ghz guest network by itself. may want to keep this in mind for devices that are giving you trouble, i have found by isolating troublesome devices, they tend to stay connected when connected by themselves. this router offers many options, lots of them i don’t even use. even after multiple power/interent outages, once power/service returns, everything reconnects in less than a minute. every tp link product ive ever owned has performed perfectly. great job tp-link!update 3/27/25*** so nice, i bought it twice! my nephew has moved in next door to assist me in caregiving for my 77 year old mother with dementia. they have charter spectrum service over there just like I do at my house.the charter spectrum supplied routers, continue to be complete trash. I needed to be able to assign security cameras and other devices to the 2.4GHZ network, and for some stupid reason, charter spectrum doesn’t allow you to do that with their equipment. not sure why but it is what it is. so i got another one of these routers 2nd hand. plugged it in, added to tether app, no problem. however, it would only stay connected for about 8-12 hours and then drop the connection. turned out, charter spectrums POS supplied modem was the issue, technician came out and replaced the modem. for some reason, if your router is set to FASTER bandwith speed, then charter spectrum modem will just randomly disconnect. looking around on some forums, i found that i could adjust the bandwith settings on the router. I changed the settings to 100mpbs (the speed tier plan on the account). that, in combination with the new modem seems to have worked. i never had this issue with the 1st router i set up at my house, and it’s the same ISP. very weird, but in the end, it all worked out.

I was half expecting to return this, because I didn’t fully expect it to make much of a difference. But it was immediately apparent that our Wi-Fi Speeds were enhanced with this router.With my prior setup (including a Wi-Fi 6 router), I was getting roughly 300-400 Mbps on my Pixel 6a when testing in the same room as the router (on the 5 GHz band). With this new router, it usually tests between 1100 and 1400! I was pretty shocked at the difference. Upload speeds even increased a little bit, going from about 34 to 38 Mbps.Real-works differences aren’t amazing, but I think web pages are loading more quickly, and video game downloads happen more quickly. I don’t have any Wi-Fi 6 devices, which was partially why I wasn’t expecting a huge difference. But this router doesn’t utilize the 6 GHz band, which was another reason that I chose this one (not expecting to have any Wi-Fi 7 devices other than phones in the near future). Part of Wi-Fi 7 is the aggregation of all of the bands, which makes higher speeds possible.I was already using the tp-link tether app, and setup was pretty easy (though I had to go through all of my iot devices and re-add those, which was a bit annoying). There are no dead spots in my 2600-ish square feet home, even though the router is simply hanging on a wall behind the TV on the first floor (not in the center of the house, it hanging high on the wall).I’d say this is a no-brainer if you already need a new router and don’t care about the 6 GHz band. Even if you don’t need a new router, but want higher speeds, it is very compelling.

Sometimes, it’s difficult to get your mind around the tech jargon and wifi routers and modems can be the worst. I tried to keep it simple and to just buy a newer model that provides some tech longevity. I asked my internet service provider for some makes and models they know works with their internet service and TP-Link was recommended. I wanted to buy a system where I could extend the wifi range and bought the Tri-Band BE 9700 Wifi 7 Router. Firstly, it is quite big so make sure you have a space to put it. The set up was very simple but it’s always best to download the manual before you buy to ensure you can understand the setup instructions before you commit the money. I have been running this router for a few weeks now and it works very well. No setup issues and, coupled with a TP-Link range extender, reaches all of my property. Very happy with the product from both an operation perspective and build quality. I certainly recommend the TP-Link BE9700.

Highly recommend. Unit arrived well-packaged, was extremely easy to configure and get all of my devices talking to it, and has performed flawlessly. This is a great value for the money.

Update June/25/2025I bought a dual 120mm fan usb 5V, placed underneath the router, it does help tons with the performance and never disconnects, i think when it’s overheating, the router disconnects from the main router wifi, so highly recommended to buy a cooling fanWhy did you pick this product vs others?:I am using it for an easymesh wireless backhaul connected to my main router Tp link ge800 which is very expensive and advanced router with 5 gigabytes fiber optic speed. The be400 is a perfect choice for easymesh. If you have 2-3 bedroom apartment, with few phones, tvs, laptops and a ring doorbell 10-15 clients you should be fine. Where i live (2 floors house) , i have 25-30 clients connected to WiFi, i dont think be400 by itself can handle that much. The range is perfect for 2-3 bedroom, not ideal for gaming since it doesn’t have any gaming features. It has 2.5gbs wan and lan ports, it’s perfect for who have 1-2 gigabytes speed. I recommend BE400 over BE230 since it has lower speed and less antennas to cover. Signal strength:It covers 3 bedrooms floor, and ideally 2-3 bedrooms. Ease of setup:It took 5 mins to set it up, very easy and convenient Reliability:i have noticed it that it gets disconnected for few mins and it comes back, but that happened few times nothing really concerns me so farWifi signal:Since it is connected to my main router i get 700mb next to router to 250mb to the farthest spot on the same floor.

I’m not technically savvy, so I called the help line and got Roezelle Ubalde. She was great. She walked me through the whole process of setting up my new router. I was up and running in no time. The Wifi speed is great and the signal strength is fantastic, no longer need to use wifi extenders. The router is compatible with my existing modem and all my streaming apps are faster than ever. If you are not technically savvy, I recommend you call for help and you will be amazed how easy it is to set up. Thanks again Roezella.

Good wifi router. Three channels – 2.5, 5, and 6 ghz. Allows for both regular network, guest network, and separate IoT network. Cell phone app good for basic configuration, but you need to log into the router itself to do more detailed settings, like change SSIDs, etc.

This is a grwst wifi router and vastly expanded its reach to outside our home. I have quicker networking and apps download with great speed and websites load with no hesitation. I am thoroughly impressed at its capabilities and am enjoying our new router!

Our RS500 replaces a Netgear XR500 that is no longer supported. WiFi connections to the XR500 were also beginning to exhibit connection issues and performance degradation. These problems have cleaned up with the RS500, which has no trouble delivering our ISP’s 500Mbps up/down over WiFi and wired connections. Ping latency is 7ms with a wired connection and 9ms with a WiFi connection. Installation and setup was easy, and I preferred to use a web browser instead of the smartphone app. The RS500 supports 2.4Ghz, 5GHz and 6GHz WiFi channels, WiFi 7, and has a 2.5Gbps WAN port, one 2.5Gbps LAN port and three Gigabit LAN ports.One minor issue occurred during setup when it checked for a firmware update and reported that I had the latest firmware. After completing setup and signing in as admin, I found that the router firmware was not the most recent and needed an update. We’ve only been running the router for a few days now, but so far everything is stable and working well, with no hints of any functional or performance issues.I would definitely recommend the RS500, particularly at the currently available 25% discount price.

Incredible router for the price. Just note that if you want Wifi 7 anything, just due to the physics of how that wavelength works you should not expect it to penetrate any walls. I am currently using the 6e and I am genuinely impressed. My download speed is definitely impacted from wifi 6 but latency is much better. This guy has pretty awesome range for stuff like the 2.5 ghz bands and penetrates a lot more than my tp-link routers. The routers ip point access is fairly simple and you can set it up without an app by clicking bottom of the screen which is a plus. There isnt a bunch of visual clutter inside and it integrated instantly with my pfsense server. The shape is nicer since I wanted to use this in a rack with a 3d printed housing. It doesnt get hot from what I have noticed and is completely silent. I took a gander looking at all the one stars that were on this device and from what I have seen is most people just don’t understand how a lot of these machines work or the capabilities of the bands they are using. Dont expect wifi 7 to go through walls ever. 6e will significantly struggle so if you need distance/walls, you should lower your settings for the network you are adding in the configs.

Bought this to replace the router I had for 10 years. If its not broke then you dont need to fix it or replace it is why I waited to buy a new router. Started to have issues with the old router. After some research and looking at reviews I chose this router.Instaltion was almost easy, I chose to do setup through the computer based on reviews. Had to refresh microsoft edge a couple times to finish set up. Easy other then thatHaving this router fixed alot of issues I thought was related to software. One example is a game I played would not display information in some windows. With this router I had no problems with the gameThe backward compatability, the two ghz ranges allows my older security cameras to connect to router.The range is good also. Live in an apartment and this router now covers entire apartment so I can use internet on any device in any room with barely any slowdowns.Even the app is pretty good. Combines other apps i use into one such as an app that shows whats on your network and speedtest. As well as all the othet functions you need.Over all great router so far.

Recently purchased and set up this router for my home, and here are some thoughts.First of all, on the specs themselves, I thought this was a steal at $188, compared to the RS300 at $280. I did a lot of research and these are practically identical routers, the only difference being the 2.4Ghz band does not support WiFi 7, so it’s 500Mbps instead of 600Mbps, which seems completely trivial. Anything you need high speed for should be using the 5Ghz or 6Ghz band anyways.Setup: I did run into an issue when setting it up. After it asked me to name the network, it then needed a firmware update. The firmware update completed fine but the network name reverted back to the default name, even though in the Nighthawk app it still showed the new name I gave it. The only way to fix this was to turn off the smart connect feature that merges all the SSIDs into one, and once there were three different SSIDs, the names showed up correctly.Performance: So far the performance is good, but hasn’t blown me away. The range for the 2.4/5Ghz bands is pretty much the same as the cheap TP-Link AX1800 that this replaced. The 6Ghz band range is terrible. There’s no other way to put it. It pretty much only works in the same room. I was sort of expecting it to be worse based on what I’ve read online, but it’s worse than I thought. Additionally, it’s actually a littler slower than the 5Ghz band on the one device I have that currently can use the 6Ghz band, which is my new phone I just got that has Wifi6E. I tested both bands while standing right in front of it and the 5Ghz band outperformed the 6Ghz band by about 5-10%. I bought this for future proofing, so we’ll see if Wifi7 devices will work better with it in the future. My desktop PC has a wireless AC card in it and was able to max out my internet’s bandwidth at 800Mbps on the 5Ghz band no problem, so that was great (I upgraded my modem at the same time, which was previously bottlenecking me to 130Mbps no matter the device or band).Other: I have noticed at times that my phone will connect to the 2.4Ghz band instead of the 5Ghz band, so I made my phone forget the 2.4Ghz SSID to force it to always use the 5Ghz band. I suppose if the smart connect feature had worked, it would have fixed this (but I can’t say since I never got to test it out).Conclusion: Definitely not perfect, but still good overall for the 2.4/5Ghz bands. For the price, I think it’s a good deal and hopefully will work well with Wifi7 devices in the future.

Works well out the boxHassle free set up with clear instructions and a well made app. Good security and a free month vpn! Did wish it said how to set it up with a bridged modem. Other than that works great and can control everything from the app even turns access to WiFi on and off in the app! No more MAC address filtering so nice!

This product is approved the speed of my Internet. It was very easy to install. A very reliable product.

I needed a way to hardwire my work computer when WiFi was the only thing available. This was perfect! I’m so happy that I found this! It was everything I needed. Simple to use, easy setup, did not require often reboots or anything else. It was easy to take from one place to another.

The router performance is about the same as the Tenda AC1200 AC8 it replaced. It does that with MUCH smaller antenna and only two of them compared with 4 antennae of the AC8. Prepare for very small fonts in the start up instructions! I did have an issue and needed to go online to the site for clarification. Possibly due to language differences there was confusion as to which password to enter into the router once it rebooted. Either the new router password or the host password. That was resolved and the router has run smoothly since 12/11/24. It was setup in our house but it will be transferred to an office environment shortly where its host and password will again be changed before it settles into service at that location. Based on its performance we ordered three more.This router was approved for use by our national organization. We also bought the carry cases for them as Amazon offered a case designed for this router. We do need a case to protect the router when not in use. If you use “WISP” mode to connect to the host wirelessly this router does not have one. Its equivalent mode is “Repeater” and it works the same as WISP as it connects to the host and on to the Internet in our case. We have not used the router in any other mode, however we expect that it will meet our expectations. There are two LAN and one WAN port along with a 2.0 USB port. With its small size we may use a switch for allowing access to other devices. A four port switch device is very light and won’t interfere with portability this router affords. The color blends in very well with our office surroundings. The AC8 was only offered in black or white colors and with 4 large antennae it did not blend in very well. Packing it for travel or storage was very annoying. This Opal router works well and has side benefits. The antennae design worked well in a TP-Link access point we used several years ago. The Internet speed test we ran did not differ very much from the AC8 design so we expect about the same performance from this smaller unit as compared to the larger Tenda AC8 design. I also bought one for our house. A nice touch was the power supply and cord. Both match the unit color and the plug has a unique design. The cord is a flat design that FOLDS very nice within itself. I am NOT going to purchase round cords any longer. When one coils (folds) this cord just follow the contours that you see when you first look at the unit in the box. You can then fold it back into the same size. I took a photo of it so I could refold it correctly and it DID! A nice small package without using an elastic. Its funny how the little things add up to a nice design. The Gli folks have a nice design throughout the product. Even the box design is very well done. BTW the route unit takes up about 1/2 the box and the cord and power supply take up the other half. The router is in a soft sleeve and one will realize it is only 1/2 of the box size. The plug of the power cord will need a 10 second assembly.It seems to be a universal plug that allows the unit to adapt to US, EU and other electrical systems. The contacts assembly are separate from the remainder of the cord assembly. The instructions indicate how to connect the contacts to assemble it to the cord unit by aligning the contact unit with the cord unit and then clicking the two into place with a slight twist of the wrist. Sounds complicated BUT it is like aligning an aspirin bottle top with the bottle edge and slightly twisting the top on. The U.S. model has a standard U.S. plug contacts. The units going to the EU probably have the EU type contact assembly. Slick!We do not need speed greater than the AC1200 standard right now. However, if we need more speed or more features the GLi company will be the first place we will look. GLi put a lot of thought into their design and it makes me confident that their electronics are designed with the same care and detail.

Cheapest but fully functional travel router.This is a must if you are traveling for work frequently or travel with family and each person carrying a computer, tablet and phone.It is a bit slow compared to the Wi-Fi 6 or 7 routers but still very functional out of the box and with the GL.iNet app on the phone, it is very quick to setup when you checkin at a hotel.

4-1/2 stars . My first travel router is working great! I got this for occasional travel and coffee shop use.Set up is fairly easy but there are a few steps to go through and it did take a little google-ing to figure out how to set up my Surfshark VPN with the device. But now that it’s set, it’s easy to enable or disable my VPN if needed.I am using it in repeater mode in a hotel, and the family are all connected.I thought I’d be able to plug in drive and stream media through it. Read something after purchase that this was enabled via a previous software version, and may work in a beta, but not sure. Maybe user error.I am able to stream media from my Jellyfin server and that worked fine.For the price and VPN security (with separate VPN provider) this is pretty cool. Good entry level solution to see if this is something beneficial for you. You can always upgrade to a higher end model later.

Worked as expected, no disapointment as GLiNET 6 I had beeore. The only one point is the LAN speed do not reach more then 100MBPs, but good for VPN, network routing rule based, schedule network avaliability, programable side buttom function as well as DDNS capable among other smart funcions that I did not saw bedore start to use thos GLiNET tracvel routers.

What I wanted was a device that could repeat an existing wifi, connect to a VPN and then put out it’s own wifi. I have several use cases where this will be useful. One situation is where I have a device where it cannot have VPN software installed, so I can use this to achieve that. I got mixed information about this device as to whether or not it could do it. I had some difficulty with getting the settings just right, but luckily, this device has a support option where you can send a ticket directly to the support team and they can assist. Their work hours are different than mine, so this worked well. They could work on it, I would wake up and there would be the next steps to try. After a couple back and forth communications, they were able to assist me in getting it setup perfectly. The biggest issue for me was that there is a special login for some commercial VPN’s that is different then your account normal login. You have to go into your VPN account and get a special set of login information (believe it or not).I really like how small this is, the fact that you can power it with USB C, that I have access to a WAN and LAN ethernet (if desired), a USB A port for a thumb drive and the coolest feature is a programmable physical switch (on/off) that you can have do “something” from the settings. In my case, I set it to use or not use the VPN (on/off), but there are other things you can customize it to do.Thank you Barry and our Support team!

Very awesome router fast not bad to setup and works well

I recently picked up the TP-Link BE3600 Travel Router and I couldn’t be happier with it—definitely a 5-star product! It’s been amazing to have a secure connection everywhere I travel, giving me peace of mind whether I’m in a hotel, Airbnb, or airport lounge. The setup is super simple, and managing it through the Tether app makes everything a breeze.One of my favorite features is having a network-side VPN when traveling. It’s great not having to configure each device individually, since everything connected to the router is automatically protected. Plus, I love that my family and I can connect all our devices without having to log each one into hotel Wi-Fi separately—our network stays the same wherever we go.If you’re looking for a reliable, secure, and easy-to-manage travel router, the TP-Link BE3600 is a fantastic choice. Highly recommended!

Wifi 7 sortof… not a 3 band but 2 band router. It is very fast compared to the AX1800 I replaced. My last 3 setups have been TP Link products and always have had good value/performance with them. The only disappointment is to use the upgraded security features requires a subscription now. I won’t be doing that as I am using basic router security and always on a VPN whether home or away. This is a very good value if you want to insure being up to standard protocol for some time to come. My home is a ranch 1800′ and the reach upstairs and downstairs is strong. The router has performed flawlessly since being installed.

I bought this TP-Link AC1200 Gigabit Smart WiFi Route to replace a 10 year old Rosewill NLite 150 which was running DD-WRT firmware. The Rosewill was getting flakey, losing some hardwired LAN connections and the only way to remedy it was a reboot. I’m not a super heavy WiFi user but my wireless devices have increased over the past few years, with the addition of 3 Roku TV’s , so the additional 5ghz band and MIMO is a welcome feature over the old router. The biggest benefit from this TP-Link in my situation has been the Gigabit LAN/WAN ports, I’m now getting full bandwidth from my ISP and this router has doubled my wired speed connections. Wifi is an improvement, but not nearly as what I expected. If I manage to get a 5GHz connection the download speeds are fantastic but the 2.4Ghz tops out at 50mbps. This is very good and better than my old router which maxed out at 35mbps on 2.4Ghz, so I can’t fault the TP-Link AC1200 too much. The WiFi signal is “OK” in my smallish brick ranch home but not gangbusters over my old device. Setup is very easy, the interface is really dumbed-down compared to what I’m used to with DD-WRT and there’s a decent amount of setting that can be changed in the advanced section. The Android tether app is cool and you can do some basic management of the router remotely.What I don’t like? Lack of control, especially DDNS. I’ve been a user of Afraid,org DDNS for years and this TP-Link only allows DynDNS (Paid DNS), NO-IP (Free) and TP-Link (Free). I’m currently using TP-Link’s free DDNS which seems to work well, but i wasn’t very happy losing my domain name with Afraid.org and having to reconfigure several applications to use the different DDNS. There’s also several other useful techie settings in DD-WRT that are completely omitted from this router, for instance bandwidth monitoring and logging, and running a VPN in flash memory without the need for a VPN client.All in all, and for the price I’m pleased with this purchase, but not ecstatic. If this TP-Link AC1200 lasts as long as my old router I’ll be very impressed. If you’re looking for a low cost WiFi router with beamforming, MIMO and gigabit LAN ports, you can’t go wrong with this one.

TLDR: I think Tom’s Hardware Guide said it best “Bringing Wi-Fi 7 to the masses… The TP-Link Archer BE3600 is cheap, but you also don’t get the full spec of features or performance of “true” Wi-Fi 7 routers”. If you’re not big into gaming and just want a no-frills router to support your 1 Gbps or lower internet connection, there’s nothing wrong with the Archer BE3600. I personally, am very happy with my purchase and it’s probably the best solution for 85% of people out there/ non-enthusiasts. NOTE: I paid $83 for this Wifi router using an Amazon coupon. Which I think is a very fair price for something I only plan to upgrade every 5-7 years, and only if I have to. I also live in a townhouse, so it’s not like the signal has to go 60+ft.Details:Upgrading from a TPLINK AC1750 (Archer A7) [release ~2018], using Comcast internet (Fast plan; up to 600 mbps down) and a Netgear AC1200 WiFi USB Adapter 802.11ac Dual Band, USB 3.0 (on my computer but in a USB 2.0 port) which was about 7 feet away from the wireless router and I saw a measurable increase in my download speeds (~45% from ~260mbps to ~380 mbps using Ookla speed test).Purportedly the TP-Link BE3600 which was released in the 2024/2025 timeframe uses the same frequency bands (5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands) as the older TPLINK AC1750 (Archer A7), but uses the newer and faster WIFI 7 (802.11be) vs the older WIFI 5 (802.11ac) protocols. The TP-Link BE3600 advertises up to 3.57 Gbps (aka 3570 Mbps; 2882 Mbps in 5 GHz band + 688 Mbps in 2.4 GHz band) whereas the Archer A7 only 1.75 Gbps (1300 Mbps in 5GHz + 450 Mbps in 2.4 GHz bands).Practically speaking the internet says anything above 100 Mbps should be able to run multiple devices pretty well streaming. But I’m upgrading anyway, because my mother needs a new router so she doesn’t have to pay $10/mo for one from the cable company.I have no complaints. Easy to setup and connect to. I realize I’m now probably being gated by my older Netgear AC1200 WiFi USB Adapter which is using a USB 2.0 port (max speed 480 mbps) but my speeds are enough for me; my newer gaming PC which sits about 10 ft away from the router and uses a built-in WIFI card (Wi-Fi 6E 802.11ax) manages ~500 mbps down.CAVEAT: I do want to note my older Netis WF2120 Wireless N150 Nano USB Dongle 802.11 b/g/n (aka WIFI 1/3/4) on an older computer was not able to see the 2.4 GHz signal from the BE3600 whereas it could from the AC1750; so I replaced it. I ended up using a spare Wavlink 600M dual-band connectivity (2.4GHz and 5GHz) USB WiFi adapter which uses 802.11ac WIFI 5; and had to update the drivers on my older windows PC in the process (to recognize the Wavlink adapter).

This is my second TP Link router, my first router being wi-fi 5. Wanting to take advantage of the increased speed with Spectrum, I decided I buy a wi- fi 6 router. My previous TP router had given me a great internet experience, so it was an easy choice to buy another router from TP Link.Setting it up was simple using the TP Link app, and the performance had exceeded my expectations. I’m getting Ethernet speeds wirelessly. I currently have 14 devices connected to my router and haven’t had any performance issues, every device is running perfectly.With this router, I know that I’m getting the internet speed I’m paying for.I’d highly recommend this, or any other router that TP Link manufacturers. It’s a quality company that makes high quality products.

This router is no joke. IYKYKTplink really changed the game. Couple years ago a router this nice cost hundreds of dollars.I love clean design. Signal is strong! Setup is super simple. Seriously. The people complaining that it’s complicated – if they couldn’t figure this out idk how they figured out how to write a review on Amazon.I also love the web interface to setup the router. The design is clean and intuitive and very pleasant to use. Also the performance is quite fast compared to all the routers out there with slow as heck web interface!The reason I got this router is because xfinity gave me a gateway that kept dropping the WiFi on my pc. I tried every trick I found online, but nothing worked. Xfinity support was completely clueless!So I decided to try my own router. I threw the xfinity gateway into bridge mode, connected it to this router and set it up – now my internet is really nice!Another thing I really like about using your own router is being able to use the best dns servers rather than the crap your IsP throws at you!10/10 – best router ever!As for coverage I hear this router is good enough for a 3000 square feet house and you want to put it in the middle of the house as much as possible so the whole house gets even coverage. I don’t like using mesh systems because at each node your internet gets 50% slower! So this is the best way to go!

[updated]I updated from a TP-Link Archer C7. I have an Arris SB8200 modem. Here are a few notes.The AX55 signal strength seems a little better, especially in the 5 GHz band. It also adds 802.11ax and WPA3 security as well as “Smart Connect” which allows you to combine 2.4G and 5G bands under a single SSID and have the router decide which to use with each client. You could just give the separate bands the same SSID with any router. In that case each client would decide which band to use. The router login no longer uses a username, only a password.I have now tried “Smart Connect” with 2 TP-Link routers in 2 different houses and I am not impressed. On both I eventually had to separate the 2 bands. It was especially dysfunctional on mobile devices (phones, laptops, etc.). It doesn’t seem to switch bands very easily as you move around. Even stationarydevices seem to bounce inexplicably between the two bands, which can have very different signal strengths.The wi-fi encryption settings can be a problem depending on your equipment. The options are:NoneWPA2-PSK[AES]WPA2-PSK[AES]+WPA-PSK[TKIP]WPA3-PersonalWPA3-Personal+WPA2-PSK[AES]WPA2-EnterpriseWPA/WPA2-EnterpriseI wouldn’t touch either WPA or TKIP. Previously I used only WPA2-PSK[AES]. I would have liked to have used WPA3-Personal+WPA2-PSK[AES] here, but I have an older 2.4G printer with WPA/WPA2[AES or TKIP]. It would not connect unless the router was set to WPA2-PSK[AES] or WPA2-PSK[AES]+WPA-PSK[TKIP]. In the end, I set the 2.4G band to WPA2 (only) and the 5G band to WPA2+WPA3.Configuration and Installation———————————–Installing the router was pretty straightforward. I turned off wi-fi on my laptop, wired it (DHCP) to one of the router’s client ports, browsed to 192.168.0.1, and logged in (password is on the bottom of the router). Alternatively, you could leave your wi-fi enabled and connect to the router’s default SSID, also on the bottom. Doing it over wi-fi is just a bit more risky.I configured it entirely through the web interface using the Advanced menus. I changed the password and IPv4 address and left it with a temporary SSID while walking through all the other settings. After that was done, I shut down my old router, changed the temporary SSID and passcode on the new router to the permanent ones, shut down the new router, and connected it to my modem.I have not as yet found anything I can do with the Tether app that I can’t do, and more easily, with the web interface.The router would not connect to the internet when I powered it on until I remembered that the modem has to be rebooted to pick up the router’s MAC address. It won’t connect to a new router until then. I powered off both, powered up the modem, waited until it was fully up, and then powered up the router. It connected immediately and has been running fine since then.Once connected, I reviewed the internet (IPv4 and IPv6) status and settings. For Comcast, at least in this area, the IPv6 WAN connection type is Dynamic IP(SLAAC/DHCPv6) with DHCPv6 and prefix delegation selected. The LAN type is SLAAC+Stateless DHCP. I prefer to use Google’s public DNS servers (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, 2001:4860:4860::8888, and 2001:4860:4860::8844), I’ve set those to override the Comcast-provided defaults.Performance—————I have 400 Mbps Comcast service with an Arris SB8200 modem. The modem indicates DOCSIS 3.1 service on the downstream side, but not on the upstream side. My laptop wireless NIC is an Intel AC7265 dual-band b/g/n/ac adapter.On a wired connection to the router, I get download speeds of 475+ Mbps. 480 would be the most I would expect given Comcast’s typical practice of over-provisioning by 20%.On 5G wi-fi with 40 MHz channels, I get 475 Mbps next to the router and about 20′ away in the same room. I get 355 Mbps in the next room, which is 73% faster than with the Archer C7.On 2.4G wi-fi with 20 MHz channels, I get 100 Mbs in the next room and 45 Mbs 2 floors up on the opposite side of the house. That’s 25% and 80% faster than with my Archer C7.Those who have unexpectedly slow wi-fi performance and who have “Smart Connect” enabled may be connected via the 2.4 GHz band without realizing it. Another reason not to use that feature.I live in a crowded wi-fi neighborhood with people who think it’s a good idea to use 40 or 80 MHzchannels in the 2.4 GHz band. Don’t do that. It makes all your neighbors’ performance worse anddoesn’t really help yours.

This will not be an in-depth review but will cover some highlights.Pros: This is small and light, which makes it easy to pack for trips. It also has decent speed and range. Now, it’s range isn’t very far — on the 5GHz band I was down a bar in strength about 20 feet away, but the range is sufficient for travel use unless you are staying in a massive room or house. It was generally easy to use and set up was straightforward if you know what you’re doing. If not, I can see it being a challenge to many people because there are no clear instructions included with it.Cons: Set up was not as easy as it could be. The Tether app helped but pulling up the captive portal never worked from within the app. I generally had to plug the router in, connect to it, add the hotel/public WiFi as the network, and then go on a different device to pull up the captive portal. If you’ve been dealing with routers and computers for some time, you’ll figure it out, but otherwise, the process is much too convoluted.Overall, the router is good. I’m hoping it lasts some years. It really should be priced lower though as a WiFi 6 device. I know competition is scarce but at the ‘normal’ price there is a better option for a travel router. At the discounted price of around $50-$60 after credits and coupons that was available recently, it’s fairly priced for the performance. I think $50 would be much more reasonable as a target price for this.

I needed to replace my aging Netgear Nighthawk router, which didn’t provide a great Wi-Fi signal at the outer limits of my home and was no longer eligible to receive firmware updates. After purchasing another a Netgear Mesh router system (and having nothing but constant connectivity issues), I returned that one. I did more research and ended up getting the TP-Link AXE5400. I had the best luck setting it up using the PC/Ethernet connection vs. the Tether phone APP that gave me trouble. The Admin via PC worked slick and I was quickly able to set up my network name & password and automatic firmware upgrades quickly.The router has been in-service for a week with no connectivity issues and great coverage throughout the house and out in the garage (where I couldn’t get Wi-Fi with my old router). I can see why this was a PC Mag Editor’s choice as this router has performed flawlessly. It’s nice to know that this router is ready to add a TP-Link range extender, but with such a strong signal, I doubt I’ll ever need it. Way to go TP-Link!

The Wi-Fi 6E is great Has about the same range as 5G because it’s not a big jump The thing is if you ever do a survey what you’ll notice is the cable companies aren’t giving anybody anything higher than five and even the tethering is outputting five in fact my iPad M4 probably outputs 5 even though it accepts the Wi-Fi 6 and 6e 60 can’t share bands It jumps down to six when I get a little further away through walls it even goes to five sometimes but because it’s all working the way it’s working it is never an issue If you have it set up right where you keep all bands on 2.4 GHz set to 20 for the bandwidth pipeline 5 GHz set to auto for the pipeline 6 gigahertz set to auto for the pipeline. Use the same broadcast SSID for all three That’s how you allow it to engage 6e and even though it maneuvers stuff around I can tell the difference that even when it’s not on 6E there’s a difference in how it handles things because of the way it works but that’s how you activate it Nobody knows and it’s okay if it’s not on it I would be getting crazy interference and and drops and spikes and all kinds of stuff or be unusable on 5 GHz on a dual band router In fact I had a dual band TP-Link you definitely want the AX that’s the other thing You want to keep all all the things set to like all the protocols You don’t want AX only but you want them all on for 5 GHz and for 6 Gigahertz Again same broadcast SSID for all of them same passwordPut it up nice and high It’s usually best to just leave all the antennas completely vertical I’ve tested all the different types of angled settings It’s best to truly leave it that way if it’s on the same floor and just put it as high as possible close to the ceiling cuz Wi-Fi branches out and then comes down. I performed Wi-Fi surveys prior to purchasing this one They’re so much default you know routers from the companies and I live in an area where nobody’s even really wise enough to like use their own modem like I do and the routers I only use the router When I want a game like down the hall and and you know through some walls and everything so it’s important you know that you don’t need a killer speed or anything but it’s important that you know you still getvirtually collision free performance and that’s what it does It might drop it down to six or well as you get further away through a door and stuff and a little for if you a little bit further than that through heavy paying glass or anything it might be on the five but it’ll still perform properly which that would be with any router really I bought this on Prime day and got it for an amazing price it was only $140 now Wi-Fi 6 came out in 2019 6e was I believe 2022 possibly 2023 I don’t see the internet providers bothering giving us Wi-Fi six devices of those stupid modem router combos and the area I live in there’s just nobody here really maybe one person but there’s really no one around me that’s even smart enough to even like do something like that They don’t care so I always hardwire my modem and just switch the wires I keep each one connected to my device I keep rubber band on each end color coded and I just swap my modem and then I only do the router I plug it in for when I want a game wherever cuz 5G also wide band is fine from the cell phone company for gaming as well but if I’m in my own place it only makes sense to use my gigabit and honestly when I’m in my room I still do the same thing because when I’m right near it it truly does give you gigabit speeds It’ll always be between like $800 and a little over a thousand you know 1,024 would be a gigabit but you’ll see it’ll peak up to like for briefly up so like in the 15 1600s you know but it’ll average just over a gigabit It’ll give me my full upstream My upstream is only 35 I don’t have fiber thousand up thousand down like I used to cuz I live in a different area but I get virtually my full upstream even in the worst conditions it’s just the worst conditions you know you’d be tinkering all the time with a 5 GHz where I live a dual band Again it’s different when it’s in 5 GHz mode when it’s set up for that Many devices don’t even support Wi-Fi 6 or 6E for example my Xbox Series X does not on the old router it was unplayable On the new one if I bring it down that way it plays like a dream and it’s only on you know the 5 GHz band and a lot of times when I go through the door into this one room based routes from Wi-Fi 6 to that and even though it’s flooded with it it has to do it the architecture of how the greenfield band works the Wi-Fi 60 and how it all works together It’s like even though it’s dropping it down there’s other parts I’m trying to explain this in layman’s other parts of the code and the ways developed where it’s still using the perks of what Wi-Fi 6 and 6E give you even if it has to drop you down to five Yeah you’ll get slower speeds but you won’t have to deal with other people’s 5 GHz connections interfering with your connection if it drops you down to five It’s still treated the same as long as your device supports it and it’s set to accept it either if it’s got an on-off switch or auto for 6E you always want to leave that on or set to auto like the iPad a lot of the newer iPad support it I guess the iPhone’s my Samsung Galaxy S 23 Ultra supports it When I go to the other room I like to do mobile gaming on my iPad M4 so it’ll start off at 6E If I leave through a door down the hall it’ll drop the six and I could walk past the area I want to go to it’ll stay on six If I go through this door with this double payne glass window it’ll traditionally drop down to five or I should say generally sometimes it does stay at 6 If you check it but if you’re not obsessed with checking it and you you know you might get first and if you forget about that you know you can tell the difference just just look at the speed test I mean there won’t be as fast but they won’t be like up and down and up and down like a traditional dual band if it’s on the five that’s the point I mean yeah if you’re downloading something you might you know if you just don’t want to use ultra wide band even though I have an excellent ulcer white band connection in this area I mean you may want to swap suit if you’re far away when you’re downloading something but gaming doesn’t go off of that it goes off of latency You can nerf your speeds down to very low and also you know how chatty it is before it releases stuff like 60/120 instead of the thousands of the set to I’m sure some people know what I’m talking about but no this router is great If you’re having trouble if you leave in a heavily congested environment that’s just full of stuff where you can’t get far away I mean you know but you’re you can still get your connection but once you get there you know then you’re constantly fiddling with channels and stuff no this is a set of forget it deal and it’s going to get down to six then the like 5 but it’s still technically operating a 6e like the benefits of it cuz like I said my series X only accepts five PS five Accepts six. But I mean just think about the fact that the series X on the dual band 5 GHz in the same area will have lots of issues but it has no issues whatsoever and it can’t even do you know it’s on five even without checking and it’s fine and generally in the worst conditions from that far away I’ll still get 30 to 100 download and 25 to my max 35 up but sustained like nice and smooth not all up and down or what pauses and breaks which means even collisions might be coming to play but it’s using because of the way it’s designed it’s using the enhancements of what having those bands unified to create a 6E Greenfield Band network can provide and that’s the whole point for buying one in the first place really And even if there’s a couple people that have Wi-Fi 6 You don’t have to worry about it especially if you have a 6e but that’s the way you do it A lot of people don’t know it but yeah do what I said about the three bands and that automatically engages 6E if you can pull it and it also has an operating in a different style Everything else is set to auto channels output frequencies like you know 2040 80 120 except you want to Nerf the 2.4 down to 20 not 2040 Hope this helps

For the price this is one of the best values when looking at wifi 6E routers. It is simple to set up and has enough coverage for my entire home (a single wide trailer home). The 6Ghz band nearly covers the entire home as well, with occasional drops at the far corner. but stepping 3 feet closer to the router gives wifi speeds that previously could only be had right next to the old router. Through 3 (albeit thin) walls the 6ghz band provides around 600 mbps out of the 800 mbps coming from my ISP. On the 5ghz band, speeds are also around 600 mpps in the same room with the same device (Iphone 15 Pro) as mentioned before. Speeds depend both on the device used and distance to the router, so take my experience with a grain of salt. Overall: speeds and ease of use are phenomenal and provides enough bandwidth for many streaming devices and heavy downloads.

25 years ago, I installed server systems, terminals, printers, and network routers. All that networking equipment had to be set up with laptops directly connected to the routers’ ports. Nothing was autosensing. I enjoyed it, but I knew what I was doing. Fast forward to today. I had to replace my own 25-year-old router because new laptops would not connect to it due to upgraded security software. I thought, Oh boy. I bet this is going to be a trip. I had forgotten most of what I knew; besides, I knew nothing about this new stuff. I picked this TP-Link AC1200. It was inexpensive, but we didn’t need anything robust since we are not gamers. First of all, I ordered it on Amazon at about 3 pm. 8:30 pm, a car backs into my driveway. They delivered the router in less than 6 hours. Incredible! Today I went to install it. I was expecting a bit of a hassle with configuring this thing. After physically connecting the two cables —the power cord and the network cable —I powered it on. I went to my PC. The TP-Link showed up in my available networks. I click on it. Put in the password supplied. Got connected, but I had no internet connectivity. Ahh! I had to disconnect a cable from my MAIN in-house router, then reconnect it so that the router ID would be discovered. I went back out to the shop, clicked on Safari (I have an Apple MacBook). Wala, I’m IN. I could NOT believe how easy the installation went. No glitches, smooth operation, and my network is all updated. I know how networking operates, but I am clueless about all the newer equipment since I’ve been out of the field for almost 15 years. So, even a stupid person like me can set up this equipment that used to take a lot of training 25 years ago. This inexpensive wireless router is absolutely outstanding. I usually do not write such long reviews, but I could not let this pass without adding my thoughts about the TP-Link AC1200 WiFi Router. I’m so glad these routers were not around when I was in the field. If they had been, my great-paying job would not have existed. Now that I am retired, I’m happy for them, so I can still dabble on the Internet.

Since getting the Verizon Gateway “Cube” router two years ago I have been having trouble with the WiFi signal and range from this router. Numerous calls to Verizon didn’t resolve the problem and they wouldn’t replace it, because their system said it was fine. I should have purchased a replacement router back when the problem started but I was afraid it would be too complicated to install a replacement. That said, I was finally fed up with the lousy signal from the Verizon router, and even found on the internet that signal strength and range this was a common problem with their router, so I bought this router. It was super easy install and had great signal strength right from the start, it even reached my detached garage. My Verizon plan is only for the 300Mb/s and the internet usage is just for me and my wife but there was an improvement is internet speed as well. Finally I’m using the TP router in the AP mode, where I use the Ethernet signal from the Verizon router to the TP- Link router.

This is wonderful, no more router problems, easy mesh is the way to go for older houses, trailer, double wides. Use the pin number to hook up, to login to all your wifi accounts. I used this when my service providers router kept going in and out. It’s definitely worth the buy. I’ve got 2 cell phones, a laptop, and a ruku, and fire stick, and can have them running at same time no outages. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

For a pretty low price, this is a great wifi router and does exactly what I need it to. Setup is frictionless, you can just plug it in and use it as is, or configure settings on the TP-Link site to change the SSID and password, operation mode, and even set up different networks. The wireless network range is good too, covering my whole apartment with strong signal strength. My only criticism is that the internet speeds that are claimed aren’t quite the reality: the claim is 300mbps on 2.4ghz and 800mbps on 5ghz, and the reality isn’t close to that. On my phone and computer which automatically connect to the 5g band, I get at most 100mbps. That is still a fairly good speed, but only around a third of even the lower estimate.

After wasting 12 hours trying to set up the TP-Link TL-WA801N, I was nervous to try again—but the Archer A54 was a total relief. Setup took under 30 minutes with the Tether app, no typing IP addresses or dealing with PoE injectors. I easily created a 2.4 GHz IoT network for my smart plugs, bulbs, and Echo devices. Speeds aren’t huge (~20 Mbps), but for IoT it’s perfect. Simple, reliable, and stress-free. Highly recommended!

I bought this to use while at a program with multiple “modes” of wifi available to me that I could test with. This little router is nice for the price, and as I have TP-Link’s higher end routers at home with mesh wifi at my house, I figured this would be good since it would have a similar interface and features. It turns out that it has some interesting features but also some quirks. OOTB, the firmware needed an update which was painless. I don’t like using the phone app for configuration, but it is handy. The web interface is functional and responsive, although I don’t like how the pages load templates and then fill in the “settings” after the page loads. The “Internet” page in the web interface has a password field for networks with passwords, but it is plain text so passwords aren’t hidden, even if you refresh the page for instance.Wifi tethering was the reason I bought this router. When you look at available networks, it doesn’t just show available SSIDs, but lists explicitly the available SSIDs, network frequency, and MAC address. There is a lock feature, so networks with multiple APs can be explicitly connected to. In early wifi systems where the mesh standard wasn’t implemented yet, this alleviates issues where some devices don’t connect to APs properly. You can also specify a specific band to connect to. In the building I’m in, the wifi system has a problem on the 5GHz band, so I can lock the connection to a specific 2.4GHz AP with the right mac address and although the connection is a bit slow, it functions. There was no possible way for me to get wifi on a 3 year old laptop by changing the wifi hardware settings in the driver, which seems odd. A bit of a fluke for Windows? Anyway, there are other reasons to carry a travel router.The VPN function was a breeze to setup. I linked the router to my VPS and had Wireguard running easily. Turns out that unlike my home system, this router allows you to toggle specific devices to use the VPN. There is also a server option which could be handy if you have multiple routers and want to link networks without running a separate machine.I tested the guest network with some friends and it works great. Able to specify bands and have both guest and primary network on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously unlike my Orbic hotspot. The guest network does not allow access to the web interface for configuration.Number of devices appears to be significant… You can specify subnet mask and DHCP server settings. By default you get 254 devices, which should be enough.DNS can be overridden for wifi tethering, including using DoT and DoH encrypted DNS without requiring a separate forwarding agent for systems that don’t support encrypted DNS. The only disadvantage to messing with DNS is that on some networks, you may run into issues connecting to networks if they use web based login pages that can’t be accessed when DNS is overridden, so be careful with that. I was able to setup my router to connect to NextDNS with DoH but not DoT. DoT wouldn’t work for some reason; the server was detected but NextDNS reported that it wasn’t using a profile. This wasn’t the case with DoH. One feature request I have would be the ability to have advanced DNS configuration settings by device or at least by network, so the guest network could use a different DNS configuration or perhaps the default DNS from the wifi.The last feature I like about the router is QoS. My Verizon Orbic has a very high speed connection before I use up my data when I have a decent signal, however sometimes QoS is a good feature to have to ensure you don’t abuse your own data caps if you’re going to be out a while and need to conserve data. It’s also useful if you’re sharing a hotspot through a travel router without QoS like the Orbic, and want to make sure nobody uses all the data.NAT can be disabled, which might be interesting to try with the VPN feature.The MAC address of the wifi tether connection is completely changeable, and with the web interface can autodetect the devices’ MAC address you login from and clone it. This is useful for instance, if you pay for wifi access from another device but later want to tether that wifi through the router without paying again or signing in again.I haven’t tested router mode, usb mode or any of the others. Router mode would actually be useful from the Verizon Orbic or a hotspot with an ethernet port on it with the IP passthrough mode enabled and a short ethernet cable to cut down on wifi interference.The biggest most major quirk the AX1502 has is the 12volt USB-C power. I bought a USB battery, but with the router connected while my laptop is, it slows down the laptop charge rate. Same with my wall adapter. Both of these are Anker chargers. The next model up of this travel router supports USB-C 5V, but it’s 3A which is also not really great for standard adapters. Don’t lose the stock power adapter, which ironically enough is a 12volt USB A plug! I hope it’s safe. The router itself literally draws about 3 watts of power max, so it’s probably fine to get another small battery for it if I need, but I’d rather not have to carry yet another thing in my bag of tricks.Wifi range is decent, but obviously don’t expect miracles. There are no external antenna connectors or even antennas. Literally just plugin and go. Works best for short range applications, but the signal will go through a wall or two.Performance is decent, but not my main consideration with this router. Most hotspots are not fast or even reliable to begin with so when tethering it’s not really a consideration. VPN performance was identical to running Wireguard software on my laptop, which is a plus. One quirk is, IPv6 is not supported for Wireguard clients on the router. Why this is the case makes sense, but I don’t have faith that this travel router is really IPv6 compatible to begin with.Size is fine, just feels a bit plasticy and cheap. Hopefully the chassis won’t break.

I’m currently on a vacation trip and have been using this device nightly when I’m in my hotel rooms. I’ve been to five hotels in six days and I’ve had this router set up each night. While I was still at home I practiced both using the router in both tethering and router modes, but tethering is the preferred method I use in my hotels. This is also what I’d suggest users utilize if they are in public spaces such as a cafe/coffee shop, in school, or a public library.Tethering runs the local Wi-Fi signal through the router, but the user connects devices like computers and tablets to the router’s SSID, not the available public Wi-Fi signal. An app on my iPhone (there is also an android app) guided me through the setup steps. Each new local Wi-Fi network is scanned by the router, the local password is entered, and the router then allows me to connect to that signal through the router SSID.The router uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and given the proximity of all of my devices to the routers, I’ve been able to use either band with similar results. The router rarely drops the signal and thus far I’ve not had any issues. I’m logged into the 5 GHz band as I type this review.TP Link has a winner with this product. It is simple to setup, easy to use, reliable, and affordable. I believe I paid $39.99 USD for my device, though it may go on sale during various Amazon sales events throughout the year. I purchased my router just a couple of weeks prior to my trip, so I didn’t have the luxury of watching price fluctuations.The router is lightweight. I don’t have the exact weight, but it’s just a few ounces. It easily fits into my computer bag, and takes of very little room. It has a USB A slot on the back which can be used to access USB flash drives, but I mostly use that port as a passthrough charging station for my tablet. I had used a competitor’s travel router for a few years prior to purchasing this device, and I found that other router more difficult to use and less user-friendly. Maybe I’m biased towards TP Link as I’ve used other networking devices made by them and am partial to the TP Link brand.In days when hackers can be anywhere, having a travel router is a simple step to keeping private data private; TP Link offers a safe, reliable, and affordable option for basic computer users to protect themselves while using public or unsecured networks.

So far it’s been absolutely perfect!Set up was easy. It seems to run pretty fast, although I haven’t run extensive speed tests. That said I’m running RDP over VPN with the travel router connected to my phone hotspot, and I’m getting near zero lag.Very impressive!I am using the full capabilities, including the VPN features linked directly back to my home router. This allows me to keep my development servers at home on LAN lockdown, while still being able to access them seamlessly from anywhere.The only reason it’s not getting five stars is that I wish it didn’t require such high voltage to power. That’s a very minor quibble, but it does mean that you do need to have a good PD power source, or use the wall wart that came with it.I’ll update this review in a few months when I can speak to its reliability.

UPDATE, JUNE 6, 2025: I’ve had this router for 3 months now with my Spectrum (Cable) Internet service. I currently have the 1000 Mbps-Down/40 Mbps Up speeds. I get consistent speeds on WiFi equal to what I subscribed to the 1 Gig service from Spectrum Internet. Very happy with the router. See attached speed test picture.. Note: Also the security subscriptions on this router are not needed. They are optional enhancements. The router will work without them. The router firmware is up to date……..****Recommended settings for TP Link Wi-Fi routers and access points, which could potentially take care of all the negative reviews****For the best security, performance and reliability, these are the recommended settings for any Wi-Fi routers, base stations or access points.The information in this article is primarily for network administrators and others who manage their own network.About Wi-Fi privacy and security warningsIf your devices shows a privacy warning or weak-security warning about a Wi-Fi network, such as a warning about a private Wi-Fi address, that network could expose information about your device. If you administer the Wi-Fi network, we recommend you update the settings of your Wi-Fi router to meet or exceed the security standards in this article. If you don’t administer the Wi-Fi network, bring these settings to the attention of the network administrator.Router settingsTo change your router’s settings, update its firmware or change the Wi-Fi password, use the configuration web page or app provided by the router’s manufacturer. For help, consult the router’s documentation, its manufacturer or your network administrator.Before changing settings, back up your router’s existing settings in case you need to restore them. Also make sure your router’s firmware is up to date, and install the latest software updates for your devices. After changing settings, you may need to forget the network on each device that previously joined the network. The device then uses the router’s new settings when rejoining the network.To help ensure your devices can connect securely and reliably to your network, apply these settings consistently to each Wi-Fi router and access point, and to each band of a dual-band, tri-band or other multiband router:SecurityNetwork name (SSID)Hidden networkMAC address filteringAutomatic firmware updatesRadio modeBandsChannelChannel widthDHCPDHCP lease timeNATWMMDNS serverSecuritySet to WPA3 Personal for better security, or set to WPA2/WPA3 Transitional for compatibility with older devices.The security setting defines the type of authentication and encryption used by your router, and the level of privacy protection for data transmitted over its network. Whichever setting you choose, always set a strong password for joining the network.WPA3 Personal is the newest, most secure protocol currently available for Wi-Fi devices. It works with all devices that support Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), and some older devices.WPA2/WPA3 Transitional is a mixed mode that uses WPA3 Personal with devices that support that protocol, while allowing older devices to use WPA2 Personal (AES) instead. (**Will not work as well with legacy devices. 2.4 and 5Ghz signals fluccuate too much. Use WPA2 for non-compatible WPA3 devices.**)WPA2 Personal (AES) is appropriate when you can’t use one of the more secure modes. In that case, also choose AES as the encryption or cipher type, if available. (***Most preferred encryption for legacy devices on 2.4 and 5 Ghz.***)Weak security settings to avoid on your routerDon’t create or join networks that use older, deprecated security protocols. They’re no longer secure, they reduce network reliability and performance, and they cause your device to show a security warning:WPA/WPA2 mixed modesWPA PersonalWEP, including WEP Open, WEP Shared, WEP Transitional Security Network or Dynamic WEP (WEP with 802.1X)TKIP, including any security setting with TKIP in the nameSettings that turn off security, such as None, Open or Unsecured, are also strongly discouraged. Turning off security disables authentication and encryption and allows anyone to join your network, access its shared resources (including printers, computers and smart devices), use your internet connection, and monitor the websites you visit and other data that’s transmitted over your network or internet connection. This is a risk even if security is turned off temporarily or for a guest network.Network name (SSID)Set to a single, unique name (case-sensitive) for all bands.The SSID (service set identifier) is the name that your network uses to advertise its presence to other devices. It’s the name that nearby users see on their device’s list of available Wi-Fi networks.Make sure all routers on your network use the same name for every band they support. If you give your 2.4GHz, 5GHz or 6GHz bands different names, devices may not connect reliably to your network, to all routers on your network or to all available bands of your routers. If your router is providing a Wi-Fi 6E network that isn’t using the same name for all bands, Apple devices that support Wi-Fi 6E will identify the network as having limited compatibility.Turn off “Smart Connect”Disable OFDMA/MU-MIMO.Don’t enable MLO Network. Most household do not have Wi-Fi 7 devices.Use a name that’s unique to your network. Don’t use common names or default names such as linksys, netgear, dlink, wireless or 2wire. Otherwise, devices that join your network will be more likely to encounter other networks that have the same name, and then automatically try to connect to them.Hidden networkSet to Disabled.A router can be configured to hide its network name (SSID). Your router may incorrectly use “closed” to mean hidden and “broadcast” to mean not hidden.Hiding the network name doesn’t conceal the network from detection or secure it against unauthorised access. And because of how devices search for and connect to Wi-Fi networks, using a hidden network may expose information that can be used to identify you and the hidden networks you use, such as your home network. When connected to a hidden network, your device may display a privacy warning because of this privacy risk.To secure access to your network, use the appropriate security setting instead.MAC address filtering, authentication or access controlSet to Disabled.When this feature is enabled, your router can be set up to allow only devices that have specified media access control (MAC) addresses to join the network. You shouldn’t rely on this feature to prevent unauthorised access to your network for these reasons:It doesn’t prevent network observers from monitoring or intercepting traffic on the network.MAC addresses can easily be copied, spoofed (impersonated) or changed.To help protect user privacy, some Apple devices use a different MAC address for each Wi-Fi network.To secure access to your network, use the appropriate security setting instead.Automatic firmware updatesSet to Enabled.If possible, set your router to automatically install software and firmware updates when they become available. These updates can affect the security settings available to you, and they deliver other important improvements to the stability, performance and security of your router.Radio modeSet to All (preferred), or set to Wi-Fi 2 to Wi-Fi 6 or later.Radio mode settings, available separately for 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands, control which versions of the Wi-Fi standard that the router uses for wireless communication. Newer versions offer better performance and support more devices concurrently.It’s usually best to enable every mode offered by your router, rather than a subset of those modes. All devices, including older devices, can then connect using the fastest radio mode they support. This also helps reduce interference from nearby legacy networks and devices.BandsEnable all bands supported by your router.A Wi-Fi band is like a road that data can pass down. More bands provide more data capacity and performance for your network.ChannelSet to Auto.Each band of your router is divided into multiple, independent communication channels, such as lanes on a road. When channel selection is set to automatic, your router selects the best Wi-Fi channel for you.If your router doesn’t support automatic channel selection, choose whichever channel performs best in your network environment. That varies depending on the Wi-Fi interference in your network environment, which can include interference from other routers and devices that are using the same channel. If you have multiple routers, configure each one to use a different channel, especially if they are close to each other.Channel width**Set to 20MHz for the 2.4GHz band** (Very important..!!). Set to Auto or all widths for the 5GHz and 6GHz bands.Channel width specifies how large of a “pipe” is available to transfer data. Wider channels are faster but more susceptible to interference and more likely to interfere with other devices.20MHz for the 2.4GHz band helps to avoid performance and reliability issues, especially near other Wi-Fi networks and 2.4GHz devices, including Bluetooth devices.Auto or all channel widths for 5GHz and 6GHz bands ensures the best performance and compatibility with all devices. Wireless interference is less of a concern in these bands.DHCPSet to Enabled if your router is the only DHCP server on the network.Dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) assigns IP addresses to devices on your network. Each IP address identifies a device on the network and enables it to communicate with other devices on the network and internet. A network device needs an IP address, much like a phone needs a phone number.Your network should have only one DHCP server. If DHCP is enabled on more than one device, such as on both your cable modem and router, address conflicts may prevent some devices from connecting to the internet or using network resources.DHCP lease timeSet to 8 hours for home or office networks. Set to 1 hour for hotspots or guest networks.DHCP lease time is the length of time that an IP address assigned to a device is reserved for that device.Wi-Fi routers usually have a limited number of IP addresses they can assign to devices on the network. If that number is depleted, the router can’t assign IP addresses to new devices, preventing those devices from communicating with other devices on the network and internet. Reducing DHCP lease time allows the router to efficiently reclaim and reassign old IP addresses that are no longer being used.NATSet to Enabled if your router is the only device providing NAT on the network.Network address translation (NAT) translates between addresses on the internet and addresses on your network. NAT can be understood by imagining a company’s post department, where deliveries to employees at the company’s street address are directed to employee offices within the building.Generally, enable NAT only on your router. If NAT is enabled on more than one device, such as on both your cable modem and router, the resulting “double NAT” may cause devices to lose access to certain resources on the network or internet.WMMSet to Enabled.WMM (Wi-Fi multimedia) prioritises network traffic to improve the performance of a variety of network applications, such as video and voice. All routers that support Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) or later should have WMM enabled by default. Disabling WMM can affect the performance and reliability of devices on the network.DNS serverContinue using the default DNS server, or specify a different primary or secondary server.To easily access websites on the internet, devices need a DNS (Domain Name System) server to translate domain names (such as apple.com) into IP addresses. By default, your router uses the DNS server of your internet service provider (ISP). If it’s configured to use a different DNS server, your devices will by default use that server while connected to your router’s network.If your device warns you that your network is blocking encrypted DNS traffic, you can continue using the configured DNS server, but the names of websites and other servers that your device accesses on the network are unencrypted and therefore could be monitored and recorded by other devices on the network. You can contact your ISP or other DNS provider for more information, but first try these solutions: Make sure your software is up to date and your security setting is configured as recommended. Restart your device. Restart your router. Forget the Wi-Fi network and then rejoin it.

If you are looking for a cost-effective router that will put you ahead of the technology time-line, this is it. I was a LinkSys/Cisco fan and I bought this router to replace a pretty decent LinkSys WRT 3200 ACM. The LinkSys acquired some deficiency in the past year of “half-connecting” to just one device, while perfectly connecting to every other device on its 2.4gz and 5.0gz bands. (Half-connecting allowed some, but not all URLs to load). I recently had replaced a LinkSys extender with a TPLink extender because it could not maintain a persistent connection with the LinkSys (another hint the router was going out) and was pleased with its ability to retain its connection… though it seemed I was frequently fighting over channels with my neighbors which was very annoying, having to change them every other week.After researching the market (I looked at Eero, too), I decided this was the one that was budget friendly and buying a more expensive model was not warranted as I’m not a gamer or an extreme streamer – I have 1gz service from Spectrum anyway. I did look for a router that supported USB as I have a couple of USB drives (12gb) for “cloud” storage of my files. This router comes with “Easy Mesh” which I did not pay that much attention to, since the new TpLink extender was doing a nice job (Yes, the two extra SSIDs were a little annoying when connecting devices, but I was OK with that).Setup was pretty easy, though I did want to get into the configuration to set fixed IP addresses for wired and non-wired devices in my home. All that worked perfectly fine. The only irritation I had was LinkSys uses the Gateway of 192.168.1.1 and TpLink chose 192.168.0.1. So all my fixed IP address devices had to be reconfigured (I have a WD Cloud and Canon and Samsung printers)… all of which were time-consuming to figure out how to get them reconnected to the BE9300.Then came the big surprise! I went into the setup on the TPLink “extender” and the BE9300 recognized it and “hijacked” it! The extender is no longer an extender (though it can be configured as one), but it turned out to be a mesh access point. All of a sudden, the 2.4gz and 5.0gz networks on the extender (TPLink RE550) were greyed-out! The BE9300 turned it into a mesh access point! Being a little skeptical, I cranked up m favorite WiFi phone app (WiFi Overview) and walked thru the house (3600sf). This app displays a graphical indication of signal strength in a parabola display of all SSIDs nearby. Since the extender was now a mesh access point, I only had TWO SSIDS (one for 2.4 and one for 5.0) and of course, two “sub” SSIDs. As I walked further away from the BE9300, I could see the signal strength of the mesh unit growing larger and larger. Like any mesh network, it apparently switched to the mesh access point seamlessly on my phone… as advertised without any degradation of visual download speed..Additionally, a lot of reviews on this product indicated they were seeing increases in download speed, so I did quite a few speed tests with several different test sites. Since my Spectrum 1gz service is still copper, I knew I’d never see 1gz speed, but the top speed with the LinkSys on and off the wire was about 910gz-920gz… not quite a 10% “loss”, but still respectable. With the BE9300, I am consistently seeing over 950gz, so yes, I’ll agree there is a slight increase in download speed.Another plus here is the BE9300 is Wifi 7 enabled. Yes, currently, the only WiFi device is the iPhone 17 pro, but again, its nice to be ahead of the technology curve rather than be current or behind it.In summary, I have to admit, the BE9300 exceeded my expectations, as I was not really in the market for a mesh system, but almost, by accident, I have one (I glossed over the “Easy Mesh” part of the BE9300). Combined with the slight increase in speed and the WiFi 7 capability already being there, I highly recommend this guy if you want to stay in the $200 range (vs. $400 range) when looking at a new or replacement router. And I got this during Amazon’s fall “sale” and it happened to have a $20 coupon from TpLink which made it a very nice deal.