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Bought this at launch for $300. It's decent. Got plenty of coverage from it. However, for the first 6 months or so I couldn't get the maximum speed from my provider (Spectrum), I was only getting less than half of it. Sometimes it worked after a reboot but only for a short time. I called the ISP to make sure it's not their fault. It wasn't. Then, about 6 months ago TP Link released a firmware update which appears to solve the problem. It's working fine since then. I highly recommend you apply the lastest firmware to get the best functionality.
Personally I find $75 routers don't have all the tunneling and software features I want, and I am not comfortable messing with custom firmware, but ymmv.
Custom firmware is where it's at, but it's not made for Wi-Fi 6 routers yet to my knowledge. The security is much more robust than the firmware that's in most older routers. I think companies are making it harder though for custom firmware to be developed
I think this router is great, but it's an overkill for most users. A couple of points I want to make are:
The 10.8Gbps is not for the wireless transfer, they confuse people by throwing words like stream in their marketing.
We have wireless devices that can reach miles, but the problem is that all the user devices have limited range. So no matter how powerful your router is, it's only as good as the weakest link.
WiFi 6 is not yet there, there aren't many devices that support it. Also, WiFi 6 has no real additional benefits over WiFi 5 in a home environment. The problem it solves is congestion which 99% of homes don't have.
The wireless speeds advertised are based on the 160 channel width, which is really unusable. You need to be within 5 feet of your router without any walls or obstacles in the way. The range is horrible and most people would just use 80 width which provides a good balance of speed and range.
Recommendations? Multiple access points are really the best way to go about it and strategically place your router in a good spot (center high). Any router or access point with 4x4 antenna and mu-mimo would be more than enough (assuming the software is also good).
Last edited by capplanet2704 October 13, 2021 at 08:52 AM.
My experience: I am using this paired with Archer C9 hard-wired to switch on 2-story ~1600sqft and this serves most of the areas. Got this from eBay 5 months back for around same price when TP-Link was running some offer.
Tried AX11000 alone in multiple locations and it would result in poor wifi reception in the far-most living areas and especially IoT devices were giving up the connection. After keeping AX11000 on one side of the building and Archer C9 on other side (both hardwired via powerline) helped fix the wireless coverage issue.
Overall there are 20+ various devices connected over wifi across two APs - most using 2.4GHz: Waze, Google Nest Doorbell, Google Home Max, 3-4 Google mini, few esp8266 switches, 3xLIFX bulbs, 3x-laptop,cellphone, ipad, kindle. nvidia shield, apple tv, netatmo home coach.
^ Devices excluding NAS, Pi, and Switch which are hardwired.
Overall no complaints, it's running flawlessly without any reboots. Don't expect it to cover all the edges of the house.
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Avoid tplink devices that are not on the DDWRT compatibility list guys. TPLINK is notorious on randomly abandoning support for products they still actively sell and leave their customers in a lurch.
I've been waiting for a sale on the Asus RT-AX86U, but would this be considered an upgrade despite it's limitations? They both have the 2.5 Gbps WAN port and this adds another band, which I'm not convinced I would even use. Most of our high powered devices are hard-wired.
I got one of these last year when I upgraded my Internet to a "up to" 1 Gb connection. My old router (Netgear Nighthawk) couldn't handle the speed and throttled it. I am getting over 600 Mbps with this router, which is the max for my location. So not only is this router good for range, it's also good for bandwidth as well.
I had tons of speed issues with mine. 1500sq foot ranch home, couldn't maintain speeds from a range of 8'. I switched to the eero pro 6, and my issues went away.
My ISP thinks there was a firmware issue, or some form of broken handshake between the modem and the router. That said, Costco was happy to allow me to return it.
Serious question for you network experts... I am between this and the $850 Orbi unit from Costco RBK843S AX5700 WiFi 6 Mesh System. The satellites would be hard wired via ethernet backhaul. Am I better off just purchasing 3 of these (2 setup as repeaters) instead of the RBK843S? I love Orbi for the most part but this would actually end up being less expense and maybe better?
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I have asus ax11000 and just added 2nd to help with mesh; too soon to say but I'm curious on one mesh on how well it works overall if it's like aimesh just reskinned
I would use the web ui over app but the app has better monitoring visuals; if your able to get an asus equivalent for this price it's great
Tplink has decent cpu and specs for the price for what other hardware would be for new
Range for my two mesh gives me about -75db in between them but that's on multi level with weird construction between
If people live in multi tier house i recommend the dedicated mesh so you don't have so many of these larger routers sticking out from your decor; and it's hard to dedicate space for just networking hardware when deco or eero has much smaller foot prints
Last edited by ShushiiT October 13, 2021 at 06:39 AM.
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onemesh helps boosting coverage, but speed is much worse than dedicated mesh. you can't mix and match it with deco mesh.
This thing is huge, about the size of a mini chromebook. super thick. Antennas are fixed and can't be adjusted.
My house is 2k sqft, single floor, router is in the center of the house, coverage is sufficient.
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The 10.8Gbps is not for the wireless transfer, they confuse people by throwing words like stream in their marketing.
We have wireless devices that can reach miles, but the problem is that all the user devices have limited range. So no matter how powerful your router is, it's only as good as the weakest link.
WiFi 6 is not yet there, there aren't many devices that support it. Also, WiFi 6 has no real additional benefits over WiFi 5 in a home environment. The problem it solves is congestion which 99% of homes don't have.
The wireless speeds advertised are based on the 160 channel width, which is really unusable. You need to be within 5 feet of your router without any walls or obstacles in the way. The range is horrible and most people would just use 80 width which provides a good balance of speed and range.
Recommendations? Multiple access points are really the best way to go about it and strategically place your router in a good spot (center high). Any router or access point with 4x4 antenna and mu-mimo would be more than enough (assuming the software is also good).
My experience: I am using this paired with Archer C9 hard-wired to switch on 2-story ~1600sqft and this serves most of the areas. Got this from eBay 5 months back for around same price when TP-Link was running some offer.
Tried AX11000 alone in multiple locations and it would result in poor wifi reception in the far-most living areas and especially IoT devices were giving up the connection. After keeping AX11000 on one side of the building and Archer C9 on other side (both hardwired via powerline) helped fix the wireless coverage issue.
Overall there are 20+ various devices connected over wifi across two APs - most using 2.4GHz: Waze, Google Nest Doorbell, Google Home Max, 3-4 Google mini, few esp8266 switches, 3xLIFX bulbs, 3x-laptop,cellphone, ipad, kindle. nvidia shield, apple tv, netatmo home coach.
^ Devices excluding NAS, Pi, and Switch which are hardwired.
Overall no complaints, it's running flawlessly without any reboots. Don't expect it to cover all the edges of the house.
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Almost as bad as netgear.
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My ISP thinks there was a firmware issue, or some form of broken handshake between the modem and the router. That said, Costco was happy to allow me to return it.
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I would use the web ui over app but the app has better monitoring visuals; if your able to get an asus equivalent for this price it's great
Tplink has decent cpu and specs for the price for what other hardware would be for new
Range for my two mesh gives me about -75db in between them but that's on multi level with weird construction between
If people live in multi tier house i recommend the dedicated mesh so you don't have so many of these larger routers sticking out from your decor; and it's hard to dedicate space for just networking hardware when deco or eero has much smaller foot prints
Join The Conversation
Share your experience with the Slickdeals community
Share information with the community. Please follow our Community Guidelines and be kind!