2.7.2013

Being an IT consultant means I get to play around with a lot of tech, so when this popped up I jumped at it. So far it hasn't dissappointed and does EXACTLY what it says on the tin, for those who can read properly.Firstly, this is a ROUTER, not an ADSL/modem + router. As such, it will only work when either an external modem is plugged in, or it's connected to a cable connection such as BT infinity that uses an ethernet connection. I used my old Belkin N300 in modem only mode, and the Archer C7 picked up my connection straight away.Once online, my connection was stable, and the interface is nicely laid out and very responsive, helped along by the gigabit speed ethernet ports.Wireless speed and coverage is good, and the router has 2 bands (2.4Ghz and 5GHz) to play with, each fully configurable. You can set the router to only work in 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz or both, and you also have the full range of security and encryption options available for each band, along with easliy configurable WPS for straightforward wireless setup. Both bands work fine, however I did find that when trying to connect my Galaxy S3 phone to the 5GHz network, I got instant disconnects. I found that configuring the router to use WPA-PSK (as opposed to WPA2) security with AES encryption solved the problem. Hopefully this will be fixed in a future update, however it's also possible that it's a problem on my phone.Another nice idea on this router is the ability to create an open (or secured) guest network, bandwidth restricted and segregated from the rest of the network, useful for small businesses wanting their own internal wireless and secure guest access as well.DHCP options are average, but do feature the ability to bind MAC addresses to IPs, which is useful if you have certain devices that you always want on the same address.There are 2 USB ports on the device, which support a variety of functions. You can set up a standard storage NAS, run an FTP server, or a DLNA media server as well, which can be any combination of folders on the file system. FTP and storage work well, and also give you the ability to lock down access via user accounts. The media server fucntion is frankly rubbish, and would only play MP3s and a small handful of my video files. I quickly turned this off and went back to using my Win7 machine which at least has the correct codecs. The print server function also works as advertised, again very useful for networking a USB printer via the router.Port forwarding functions are comprehensive, allowing you to create different external and internal ports to avoid exposing widely used protocols. THere are also port triggering functions if there is a specific need for them, and a DMZ function if you want one machine on the network outside the firewall for some insane reason. Other security options are fairly comprehensive, with the ability to turn off VPN passthrough, and FTP passthrough for added security. You can also enable remote access, locked down to specified IP addresses, and lock down router admin to specified machines on your lan as well.The other options are parental control, bandwidth control, advanced routing for static routes if there is a need for it, and dynamic DNS support (I have this activated as I'm on a dynamic IP, it works well).So to sum up, a solid router with a good variety of options, stable connection, wide level of configurablity and uber-fast 5Ghz connectivity if you have a device that will support it. Also, it looks like a spaceship, which is awesome. I have absolutely no complaints with this device, other than the media server function could do with improving and the 5Ghz band doesn't work with WPA2 (at least on my phone). An excellent product, and one I would recommend people with larger multi-device homes and small businesses looking for good wireless options, especially if they need customer connectivity. Highly recommended.

30.3.2020

My review is for TP-LINK Archer AX11000.I don't understand why Amazon aggregates star ratings for ALL variants, so if the lowest priced variant is terrible but the highest priced variant is great, you will look at the star ratings and think they are both bad.I wrote a review for the ASUS GT-AX11000 - feel free to see that one. It is AWFUL. Three replacements later and several firmware updates that took months to arrive, it is still full of bugs, devices drop connection, signal is unstable, generally a terrible product.I decided to give TP-LINK a go and wow I am glad I did. From the start, even putting it together it's a pleasure. The antennas are not twisted and cannot come loose, they are pushed in,and are therefore optimized in the best way possible since TP-LINK knows what's the best position. Unlike the ASUS AX11000, you do not have to fiddle with the antennas, you set it and forget it. I don't mind that they have red accents, they work and that's all I care about.There are fewer options on the setup GUI if compared to ASUS, however it JUST WORKS. The ASUS AX11000 has many options most of them are buggy and don't work well, so what is the point? I have found that ASUS is fond of doing this - marketing a thousand things but they are terribly supported. In 2016 I purchased a ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard, the most expensive at the time to use with my 5960x processor. That board had several BIOS updates which caused all sorts of issues, especially with USB ports. It took ASUS until around 2019 to make it stable - 3 years.... absolutely insane.You simply do not release a buggy product into the market just to shout "FIRST!!". ASUS loves the marketing aspect of things, but not the support one which is the most important. They care about being first to release and selling stuff, but they don't care that it works, as long as their review samples are carefully tuned so that they get good scores in magazines or YouTube then they're golden.I found that this is the case for their routers also.Why am I spending so much time talking about ASUS when this is a TP-LINK review? Well, because if you were like me you are researching which one is going to do the job and I want you to know that I tried the ASUS router for almost 6 months, waited for updates, applied them, and when it would fix one thing it would break others, so please don't make the same mistake and support that awful company with your money.The TP-LINK AX11000 will simply work out of the box. An example is my Nest doorbell, it would drop connection like crazy on the ASUS AX11000, but it's been running flawlessly with no drops on the TP-LINK.The most shocking thing is that both routers use the exact same Broadcom chipset, which is the radio chip that makes WiFi 6 work inside these routers. So the issue is entirely software related. ASUS programmers are just incapable of coding.Speed-wise this is not much different than the ASUS model since as I said above, they use the same radio chip to make the WiFi signals, however this is stable, so I am very happy with this purchase. Oh, and the UI is also more responsive, not to mention this has 8 Gigabit ports. This TP-LINK Archer AX11000 is worth the price. Signal range is good.Just one thing: to get the most out of this, you will need to use AX clients like the latest top Samsung or iPhone models, and on your laptop any PCI card with the Intel AX200 chip. You need to set the TP-LINK to use 160MHz on both bands, and set the channels manually rather than leaving on Auto. I picked channel 36 for the first 5GHz band, and channel 100 for the 2nd 5GHz band. It will allow clients that use AC/WiFi 5 with no issues. It will also let N/WiFi 4 connect no problem. If you leave everything on Auto then you are likely not going to get the full speed on offer, and bear in mind it depends on how thick your walls are, distance, etcetera.

27.6.2013

A quick outline of my setup, prior to the installation of the router: an ISP (TalkTalk...yeah, I know) provided router/modem (Huawei HG533), used for wireless connection, with range limited to about 7-8m (through walls).The main reason behind getting this router was to increase the signal strength of my current wireless signal, but to also take advantage of the dual band frequency. I initially started off by using the installation CD, which at first seemed to work, but only for 5 minutes, after which the router wouldn't work at all. If you're intending to use the router like I have (to turn the ISP router/modem essentially into solely a modem, and using the new router as my 'main' router),ignore the instructions provided. Instead, you should disable the wireless function on your existing router/modem. Then, connect the Ethernet cable from the Internet port from the back of your new router, to one of the LAN ports on the router/modem. Here, you are using the router/modem purely as a modem. As a result, when scanning for wireless networks on your computer/laptop/phone/tablet, you'll only see the signal emitted by the newrouter, and not your old router/modem. To connect to the new router, the router name will appear as something along the lines of TP-Link 2.4ghz or TP-Link 5ghz, depending on which band your device wants to/is able to connect to. This next bit is important. If you find that your device can't connect on the 5ghz signal, for some reason, TP-Link have the router programmed to US settings. What you need to do is logon to the router admin page, which can be accessed by typing in 192.168.0.1 (the tplinklogin.net website doesn't work). From there, go into the 5ghz wireless settings section and change its region to UK. The router will need to reboot for these changes to take effect. You should be able to connect afterwards. The router encryption password is the same for both the 2.4ghz and the 5ghz signal.I've found that the signal is much more powerful and much more stable than the router/modem my ISP provided me with. I am able to connect to the internet upstairs and right at the end of the house (about 15-20m away from the router). Physically setting up router is very easy, simply screw in the 3 antennas. The cables are pretty straightforward to connect, seeing as its only one Ethernet cable and the power cable. My main advice would be to avoid using the CD, and to some extent the instructions. If you have decent IT knowledge you should be able to work it out for yourself fairly easily. However, for those of you less able, the instructions MAY be a bit misleading. Another bit of advice, is again, avoid the tplinklogin.net website - it doesn't work, don't waste your time. Finally, don't panic if your device cannot see the 5ghz signal - it just means that your device isn't designed to use the 5ghz waveband.I've been able to connect to it on devices such as my Samsung Galaxy S3 and my iPad. Also, if you have a wireless printer, you'll need to reconfigure it. I found that on some devices, the printer drivers/software wouldn't link to the new router, however, when I used Windows' own printer wizard, it worked fine. However, this just depends on how temperamental your device is feeling at that particular time.Overall, I'd give it 5 stars if it wasn't for the needless CD and misleading instructions, and the website that doesn't work. It gets 4 stars as it has improved the reliability of my connection and the signal strength, for which I am very very grateful. The router is very good, and had many useful features such as the USB sharing and the dual band capabilities. I may not have used it for what it's actually meant for, but it works fine with some tinkering, and has improved things for me. Good luck!

22.10.2015

This is a nice mid-level router, that has more features than some of the very basic devices, and will give you a bit more control if you want to do more advanced networking, but the quick setup will get you up and running in a couple of minutes for people who don't know very much about it.The install guide is pretty straightforward, all you generally need to do is plug it in, connect via the wifi using the default key on the label if needed, go to the supplied web page, login using the provided details, follow the on-screen quick set-up, selecting auto and fill in the ISP username and password. That's it for basic install.The web page user interface is nice and quick and very responsive.Better than many I've used in the past, saving a lot of frustration in setting up. The language defaults to US, and so the time zone is also set to default US time, so remember to change that if needed or all your logs will be a bit confusing.The wireless link speed is generally better than my old one that came free from my ISP, but I would expect it to be as this device has 3 external antennae whereas my previous one only has the internal antenna. So I'm getting my laptop hopping around 58/78/116/130/144 Mbps upstairs with the router downstairs, on the old router I was only getting 5.5/9/11 Mbps a lot of the time. When in the same room as the TP-Link router I'm getting 144 Mbps most of the time with the occasional drop down to 116 where the previous one was getting 100Mbps, and this is despite the router being very close to a DECT base unit which will interfere with the signal strength.The weak point for speed is really the 4 Ethernet ports which are only 100Mbps on this model. If you need to transfer large files across the wired connections it can be a little slower when compared to the more powerful models with 1000Mbps ports. This is perfectly fine though for general use for all machines to get to the internet.There is a nice feature for parental control, which allows you to restrict which devices are allowed access to what websites during certain times of the day. This enables you to set-up any parental PC's that are allowed to get anywhere unrestricted and set the kids' mobiles, etc. so that, for example, they can only get to certain sites after 7pm to do homework, etc. Unfortunately you have to configure the permitted websites repeatedly for each child's device rather than setting up a common list of web sites and assigning that list to each restricted device.The firmware update page just takes you to a generic website page rather than direct to the firmware for this device which is a little disappointing, though a basic site search for the model no. WR940N did find the model straight away without any more work, just selecting the hardware revision, the latest v3 in this case, them took you to a firmware download option. The firmware available (build 150206) actually appears to be older than the installed version (build 150312)There is a really good feature on the TP-Link website, which is an actual emulator for the device you are interested in. Amazon won't let me post a link but if anybody wants to know then please put a comment on, though you should easily find it through a search. This allows you to go through the device configuration web set-up screens in a simulation so that you can actually see what features are there and how they work. Using this enables you to check if it has the features or functions you are wanting before you buy it, such as security features, which ddns providers are supported, etc. This is a very good level of support, although obviously it's only a demo and therefore you can't actually change anything, but you get the feel of how it works and how easy it is.

26.6.2013

I've been satisfied so far with my BT Homehub, thinking that it's few problems were probably due to my computer, devices or the connection itself. However, after reviewing this unit, it's clear that the router makes a BIG difference to your net experience.Problems I was having with the Homehub were disconnections every few days, something to do with the router being unable to find DNS servers. My ipad mini would frequently disconnect when using apps, or the Safari and streaming over a media server was laggy and impossible to more than 1 device at a time. The TP-Link solves them all.Step in the TP-Link which is a dual band gigabit router with 3 antenna. Translated this means,the capacity for more connections without slowdown (bandwidth permitting) faster sustained transfers if using the 5Ghz band (with compatible receivers) and much better range of use.Instantly I tried speedtest and obtained 73.61mb/s download and a ping of 5. The best I've been able to receive with the homehub 3 under optimal conditions was 65.48 mb/s and a ping of 9. Note that BT rated my connection as capable of 65 mb/s max. Being able to 73+ at around 9pm when the US is starting to slow the net down is very impressive. It also managed to stream to 2 devices from a home media server connected via gigabit and using Plex Software. However 3 devices started introducing stuttering. However this problem is no fault of the router. It's just the inefficient n standard, which 802.11ac devices and this router should fix.Visually the unit is pretty bulky, feels cheap and is quite ugly compared to the sleek looking but substance less homehub 3. I guess the antennas in the unit explain the size but the 8-9 flashing blue icons on the front are just un-necessary and non-intuitive to explain.The web interface is particularly good and make setting up the TP-Link with a BT connection near painless. If you're thinking of getting this and have a BT Infinity connection, just type into Google "Getting BT infinity tomorrow, do not want to use the homehub" and check out the top search result for help on how to setup. It really is quick and painless.Note: When setting up the unit with a Ethernet cable, you'll need to try to connect to the router on your computer at which point it will ask for a password. This confused me for a while because at that point I hadn't set up a password and there was none in the box. Just go back to your router and press the connect button on the back (It's the button that ISN'T the OFF button). At which point your computer will successfully connect to the router. It's a bit of a hassle, but a good safety precaution as hackers will probably not have physical access to your hardware. After this, set up the router and other devices will be able to connect with the usual WPA key.So excellent router, takes up a bit of space, looks garish and cheaply made, but performs like a champ. Once AC devices start coming out like the iPhone 6, expect even faster performance and better home media streaming performance!

26.7.2013

The easy set-up wizard failed to set-up easily on a Plus.net Fibre to the Cabinet cable connection. During the Easy-set up, it offered me unsecured wireless by default, with some small print saying that it advises user to configure one of the secure forms. Defaulting to insecure potentially opens all your connected devices to whoever wishes to connect - Who wants to give our neighbours (and any passing criminal) access to our broadband connection and computers, tablets and phones?However, the easy-setup failed a little later, so I had to perform a set-up through its admin console. (default user is "admin" and password is "admin" ).When doing the manual set-up, I used the option to identify my connection type,which it did - as "PPOE/Russia PPOE". This was a little surprising as the last time I checked, I was in the UK, but I do have a PPOE connection type - so could use that. (For plus.net connections, you need to set the WAN connection type to "PPPoE/PPPoE Russia" the user name as "<your user name>@plusdsl.net" and your password as your sign-on password for plus.net)The wi-fi region was defaulted to "United States" (Setting it correctly in either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands sets it for the other too) and the default timezone was set to GMT+8 also known as Singapore.The basics of the actually broadband connection do seem decent, and the WiFi runs well, when secured.After you have configured the other settings, the router supports very fast connections between it and your devices, particularly using the wireless 802.11n and 802.11ac protocols, if you have appropriate WiFi adaptors, such as Netgear A6200 802.11ac Dual Band Wi-Fi USB Adapter. for your devices. This is great within the household LAN, but of course can not speed up your connection to the internet itself.I like the idea of a separate guest network for visitors, but I would again advice that this is secured (although it defaults to unsecured), and uses a different password to the main network.A memory stick in one of the USB ports can be used as a shared drive for all the users on the network, and if you don't mind files being exposed to the outside world, as a small FTP server.For the very technical, the System tools allow you to set up automatic emailing of the the logs. It supports IPv6 directly, which is OK, but unnecessary for a LAN, but most UK ISPs do not support IPv6 routing to the internet.It seems very poor that TP-Link, who produce some very good kit, couldn't be be bothered to make the default settings for a UK router, to be normal UK settings an couldn't be bothered to provide default security credentials as Belkin, Netgear and others do automatically. This gives a feeling of sloppiness in general, and makes me wonder if this was rushed to market with very little testing and what else might have gone awry.

20.2.2020

Going from an Archer C9, then to an Archer C3150 v1, I finally bought an Archer AX11000.Finally a router worth while.I really can't stand TP-Link's customer service or "technical" help. I was having problems with the C3150 v1, because it was only seeing my 10G network card as 100M, not 1G, like it should be doing. They wanted me to test wifi, and some other crazy hoops to jump through. If it wasn't for I dislike ASUS just as much, I wouldn't have bothered with the this Archer AX11000.Thankfully, setting up went smoothly. It updated its own firmware, and then setting everything up through its app or webpage is easy enough.As expected the range is better than the C3150,and everything seems more stable with having over 20 different items connected to it. To a point where I no longer need to use an extender to cover my smallish three floor, three bedroom house.It's got it's own built in Ookla speed test, which comes in hand, because you at least know what you're starting point is, for the wifi drop off as you move further away. (The drop off is fully expected)I really didn't feel like having to spend more money on my network, but this works nicely with Virgin's 500 package. The eight built-in ports have meant I could also take out a 1G networking switch from the loop.I've had it for 1 week so far, and never had to reset it, apart from setting different bits up, which it does itself. A whole 6 days with no new settings, and everything is still going fine. Since I'll never get the use of 10G networking, and most likely never go faster than 2.5G on the internet (Most likely stay at 1G if it ever gets here), I'm fully hoping to get a good ten years out of this thing, five at the very least.So, so far, money worth while spending? I hope so, because the cash I saved moving from Sky to Virgin for a year, and now been swallowed up by this thing! It's just the C3150 wasn't cutting it any more!Be warded though, this thing isn't small, and has some weight to it. My front room window sill, has only just enough room to it, to hide behind the curtain.Are there cheaper options? Most likely, but if you want something that gets the job done, covers a largish areas of your home, and you've got gamers in that home, I'd say, make the investment, then instead of arguing with cheap rubbish.You don't have to be super techie, just able to read instructions to set this thing up.Just don't expect great help from TP-Link directly, if my experience with them, is anything to go by. Only one out of three people seemed to know what they were actually talking about. Then a simple "Sorry" email from a manager after from three hours of my time wasted. Such a shame!So, buy directly from Amazon, so if anything does go wrong, you can send it back, and start again!

27.6.2013

While I'm in agreement with the other positive reviews of this product, I do feel that for those among us not proficient in the technology there are some basic points it's worth mentioning:1) To clarify, this router cannot be used in place of the existing router that is connected to your phone line. At least, that was my experience having read the manual and going through the set-up procedure. I don't think this is adequately explained in the product description, not as plainly that I think is necessary for those people who are unfamiliar with internet connections. In fact, I think it's misleading to call this is a router- consider it an additional booster hub.2) Contrary to the views of some other reviewers,

19.12.2016

I purchased this router for myself around 1 month ago as I was sick of bad wireless coverage with my ISP's modem. I would get "dead zones" around my house and also get very poor coverage in other parts. This was super frustrating for me, I decided to look around for a router to hook up to my network. I then stumbled upon this router and for the price I gave it a shot. From then on out I haven't looked back!Firstly, the wireless coverage is amazing. 90% of my house is now covered using this router. The modem from my ISP also covers around 40% so there is no more areas in my house where I either cannot get any wireless signal or get poor signal. I have the router in my bedroom,

24.9.2015

I got this to free up a slightly faster router from our hallway, which sounds strange I know, but I have an Amazon fire TV stick that was screaming out for faster bandwidth. I didn't wont to leave a wifi hole downstairs either.The setup is really easy and I plugged this in to our ADSL modem then plugged my laptop into the cable router network socket. The setup was very easy, then I adjusted the settings to make this an access point. That is a less straight forward thing to do but the web interface was pretty clear and I was able to achieve this in no time at all. So that shows how easy the set up was.I then connected a few laptops and a desktop and moved around to see what the connection was like and it was pretty solid.

3.7.2020

Archer C4000 and Virgin Media success:We lurched along with a Virgin V3 hub & 350Mbit package for six months until we could take no more. Virgin could never answer why aggregate across all devices topped out at 150mbit on the odd occasion it managed to hold five or more connections for two minutes without locking up. It was as if tech support had been told not to engage on the topic of the V3 being rubbish and talk around it.If you live in a UK standard construction three storey house and have VM coming in in the ground floor you don’t need mesh or repeaters or hybrid or power line or anything fancy - you just need an Archer C4000.Download the TP link tether app before you start.Log into your V3,

27.6.2013

It's big, it's shiny, the blue status lights look nice, and it feels well-built.There's a sticker over the LAN ports warning you to insert the supplied CD (mini-CD) before connecting the device up; you can safely ignore that, though. I ignored it, as I don't run Windows, and I expect the software on the supplied CD to be Windows-specific, and thus useless to me.I plugged the unit in to my laptop, allowed my laptop to acquire an IP via DHCP, and got assigned 192.168.0.100, with the router being on 192.168.0.1. I was able to log in with the default username and password, "admin" for both, and start configuring the unit via its web interface.First port of call was to disable WPS due to security

15.6.2015

As others have commented the descriptions are rubbish. It is not ADSL (that's the D7). Worse is that it doesn't say if it is Version 1 or Version 2. It must be Version 2. I suspect most bad reviews were either not for the C7 or were for Version 1 .For complex reasons Amazon sent me mine for no charge on a 1 day delivery and it arrived on the Sunday before my travel. It was Version 2. Well done Amazon!It is obvious from the Amazon reviews here that this is a good piece of kit but when I saw the link http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-router/ containing an excellent long term test review my mind was made up. I needed a router with USB Ports. There are 2 USB Ports. Each Port takes 8 drives so 1-8 & 9-16.

13.8.2013

The TP-Link 802.11ac router is a very handsome beast that is, when set up correctly, designed to link you securely to your internet and enable a speedy connection amongst devices. It can also do so on more than one frequency which means that you can have less interference from other networks in your neighbourhood.There is no doubt that the device is up to the mark in respect of its "workability" but getting to this point may well cause you some major problems and I think that these are well worth reporting, given that I went through considerable entertainment in getting to the above desirable state. You will need to know these things so read on!When I first took the items out of the box,

30.6.2013

Linksys Archer 7What is it,This unit is designed to be added to an existing router system to improve broadband speed, reliability and wireless range.In the box.The main unit, mains power pack, 3 aerials to fit to the back, brief instructions, Setup CD and warrantee.Setting up.This is very straight forward in most cases. Power off your router, connect up the Archer and follow on the switch on instructions. Load the CD and it auto runs and sets everything up. Min e worked first time when connected to an Orange router. My computer detected the Linksys and auto configured.Set up was easy but in case it does not work there is a manual setup guide on the flip side of the instructions.

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