Top 10 best wifi routers for home 2022 For Cost Saving

Unfortunately Amazon throws all the reviews together for several DIFFERENT Netgear router models. For example, I am writing about the AC1000 R6080 but of the 1900+ reviews linked to that model’s page, the vast majority are for other models, like the Nighthawk or R700. So when customers ask a question the answer is often wrong as the one answering is answering for the model they bought, when the one asking might be asking about a different model… and everyone thinks they’re on the same page, when they’re not. I really wish Amazon would keep reviews for specific models separate unless the only difference is something immaterial like color (which doesn’t apply to routers but could to things like tablets).Case in point: When looking at the AC1000 R6080 here, and jumping down to the reviews, then entering “QoS” in the question field, several people asked about QoS and the answer was the router has great QoS controls. In fact, the AC1000 has no QoS controls. I believe it might have Dynamic QoS which is not configurable by the end user. The normal “QoS” tab does not appear anywhere in the config menus and QoS is not mentioned anywhere in the manual. I clicked on the reply that answered “Yes” and Amazon linked it to a picture of a different model — the Nighthawk. But you wouldn’t know that by just reading the answer (unless you clicked on it too).On to the review. I got this router — the AC1000 R6080 — to work with a Zoom 5370 16×4 686mbps cable modem. I returned the router after just 2 days use.Cons (starting with less important to more):1. LEDs are on TOP so you can’t see them without standing up.2. No QoS or even a way to see how the Dynamic QoS is set (if it even has that)3. Worst of all, *wired* connectivity through router is only ~70% of what it is directly through the modem. (117mbps modem/84mbps router)4. Wifi is also slower than normal (45-54mbps).5. The above last two cons are due to 10/100 LAN ports (including the Internet port that goes to modem) which are too slow if you have 100mbps service or higher.Pros:1. It’s returnable.Although it’s rated for 300mbps + 700mbps (using both bands) which equals 1Gb… it is not a “gigabit router”. The LAN ports are 10/100 (operate at 100mbps minus overhead) which is practically legacy now. It would probably work well for broadband up to 50mbps perhaps, but if you have a faster service the 10/100 LAN ports will bottleneck your connection.It’s hard to understand why Netgear would make an AC model with 10/100 LANs since 802.11ac is the newest, fastest wifi adapter standard. Even though you can certainly have an ac adapter and only pay for slow broadband, the router should meet the standards AC is capable of handling. Especially considering it is ‘parading’ as a ‘1Gb router’ by the 300 + 700 rating.To get your money’s worth of ISP service of 100mbps or higher, you will need to get a true gigabit router, identified by 10/100/1000 LAN ports (1Gb ports). The modem will make a 1Gb connection to the router in this case and deliver the full speed of your service at 100+mbps (or higher) with no overhead loss.I replaced the R6080 with the  NETGEAR AC1200 Smart WiFi Router – Dual Band Gigabit (R6230) , and sure enough, speed wired through the router is now identical to being wired directly to the modem (117mbps either way). Even Wifi improved by 30+% thanks to the faster connection between modem and router… the R6080 delivered just 45-54mbps while the R6232 delivers 75mbps over wifi. (That’s nearly what the R6080 delivered WIRED!) It also has QoS controls and a whole lot of other options, PLUS a separate, physical, wifi on/off switch… so you can turn the radios off at night when you’re done online, but leave the router up to save power cycling (which can theoretically wear these devices). And a physical switch is a whole lot more convenient that having to use the GUI to turn radios off/on, or use a schedule when your own schedule varies. Even better, it’s only about $15 more.Conclusion: If you want to future proof your investment, get an AC gigabit router with 10/100/1000 LAN ports. It will work with slower services but will also be there for you when you advance to faster services so you won’t have to buy a router twice.Note: So far the R6230 is not listed as being DD-WRT tested, for those interested in flashing that [optional] custom FW, but for all I know someone’s already done it. I haven’t gotten that far yet.

NETGEAR Nighthawk has greatly disappointed me…If you read nothing below, take my word for it, don’t invest in products this company sells. They’re not selling quality long-lasting, reliable electronics, nor do they provide good service to their customers… they’re selling poor functioning, quick to fail, seemingly manufactured with little to no attention to quality, nor consumer satisfaction priority. They’re overcharging for crappy products, seemingly taking advantage of their customers financially & other ways…. profiting selfishly from un-integral business practices. I share this information after communicating with several other customers, family, friends, colleagues, all you share this terrible experience, some even worse than mine, which is why I feel compelled to share this with other potential buyers.Apple, unlike this company, provides extremely quality products that evolve & improve over time, that not only do the customers profit greatly due to the quality of their products & Customer Service, they profit as a company who’ll continue thriving I’m sure many lifetimes beyond my feeble human imagination. In the past, I perceived they were ripping me off but time & time again I have felt, & thus can rely that I will feel this same way in the future, that I got something worth what I paid & sometimes more.****First things first, I am not the account holder of this account, I purchased this router through this account administrator because she’s family. So, any bad juju anyone would like to share, or feedback/questions of any kind, is welcomed by me. I will not re-enter this account for responses of feedback, I am the account admin for Elena Mae Brown. I’m sure I’m easy to find if you would like to reach me.Lucky for any readers of this review, I have all the time in the world to write it because I have no internet to do the extensive work, I must take care of. Simply furthers my argument that this NETGEAR company fails to take care of their customers… BELOW IS A NOVEL WITH SEVERAL GRAMMATICAL ERRORS THAT I WILL NOT DEDICATE ANY MORE OF MY TIME TO FIXXING… I suppose I’m off to the library or a coffee shop since I have no internet thanks to good old NETGEAR…Today, I got to experience the ultimate joy of something we’ve all experienced as adults in the modern technological age. My Internet failed in & out all day long, on the phone with different companies & different individuals in different departments for hours on end, my valuable time was devalued extensively. & despite my time dedication, I got zero resolution of my problem.Since moving into our new apartment in January, we have only had her Internet go out two times & quickly called spectrum or promptly taken care of & our problem was resolved. Today I did the same, as always, they provided me with any & every possible service they make readily available to all customers throughout all times of day no matter how much time it takes to resolve any issues on their part. After calling Spectrum & them concluding that there was absolutely no problem on their end, they guided me to call NETGEAR to assist me with Resolving my router dysfunction.The cherry on top, oh what a lovely surprise It was, to be told by the service representative on the phone following being on hold for 30 minutes, that the router we purchased months ago (late July) is no longer under their responsibility as far as Technical Support? So, their Technical Support offering had an extremely short limited time warranty which I was not informed of a purchase I’m completely appalled by when I compare it to my experiences with other companies.{{Never in my entire life have I ever contacted a manufacture of an electronic device that I own  , has any company ever failed to provide me with the ultimate time consuming technical service over the phone or via my giving them access to the device while remaining on the line with them during which I get to watch them move the mouse & make all these changes & technical coding entrances, & my issues are always resolved before the communication with said manufactures comes to an end — A few examples: Epson, Tyson, Microsoft, Apple, Xbox, automatic sensor receptive no touched rash can manufacture, & the list goes on}So, what does background information you could see that this experience would be very upsetting & disappointing in the company that I am vested financially & providing me with unnecessary expensive piece of technology.So, in attempt to summarize this review, I went ahead & called the phone number that Spectrum had so generously & promptly offered to give me, & after a long ridiculous time on hold, I was greeted by a woman on the phone, to whom I expressed my issue I need for a solution, & The manner in which she communicated with me was completely absurd, Constant interruption in the middle of myself talking, terrible attitude, seemed irritated & bothered by my call.From my experience & understanding of severely perfect customer service validating the customer is always right, I determined this exchange as 100% inappropriate Customer Service.Following her terrible communication practice, she stated that the only way she was able to troubleshoot the device was for me to pay immediately: $89 & then this payment I would receive three more months of them providing need technical service & support over the phone. What was the most odd about the woman trying to convince me of this deal, was that she repeated over & over & over, that not only will they service this piece of technology but all the technology pieces in my home for 3 whole months! At this point I promptly informed her that every company I’ve ever purchased any expensive piece of technology from has taken care of me throughout my entire ownership of varying companies products, always treating me as an extremely valued customer & ensuring that not only can I count on them as companies to purchase from in the future, but that their top priority was customer satisfaction simply provided through the electronics functioning at highest capacity thanks to their lifelong assistance (I listed over 8 companies who’ve provided this). Even after I explained this extensively, she repeated w/ my $80 payment, they would take care of all my technology? Having already proven themselves unwilling to care for the single device of theirs I own… unfortunately I repeated myself several times rapidly over & over & over because she kept interrupting, not my finest hour, that I didn’t need that because other companies take care of me endlessly following my purchasing any & every devices from them. All of a sudden after my repeating myself way too many times, out of the blue, suddenly she offered me a deal for $40 through which I would get all the same services. My mind @ this point is legitimately blown.I made it clear that I was unwilling to financially pay for services that any company I’ve ever worked with provides readily & happily to me as the customer. She put me on hold after telling me that she was going to go ask her boss if she could do anything. Cherry on top? Comes back on the line & says “OK so, I got permission from my boss to do this troubleshooting for you one time only for free & I’m going to do it right now”Finally, the grand finale! I called that disconnected, at the beginning of the call she confirmed the callback number for me if we got disconnected & unfortunately no longer to my surprise, she did not call back & has not followed up at all.I invested in this next year router because I had heard great things from those who use them & was willing to pay the extra money to get a quality product.Unfortunately (& fortunately I suppose…), I learned a lot through this exchange. I’ve taken for granted how impressive businesses & manufacturing companies etc., are with absolute 100% unignorable & so damn overwhelmingly delightful their upmost dedication to customer care, respect, readiness & willingness to help in a moment’s notice, & their clear priority of maximizing each buyers satisfaction with the product manufactured by them, made crystal clear by the sense of feeling taken care of that I have following any communication with them… this revelations have come to my attention as more important to me than anything from any company ’ll invest in for life.In conclusion, I find gratitude from this experience not only because I learned that this company is not one I will ever invest in nor recommend others investing, but additionally because it taught me how important it is to make sure anyone we provide service to as human beings feels taken care of especially in cases when they are taken care of us, for example financially & purchasing a service or product. Initially I was filled with rage & out of my mind, following this expression & honesty with other consumers out there, I feel like peace & hope that either customers will go another direction as far as the company they choose for their Internet router, or, which I Believe possible 100%, that this company can alter their practices starting with me by following through on commitment that was made to call me back… & overtime treat their customers with other respect & expression of how much we are valued because without us, any company fails. I’m surprised if any single human being read this entire review but I hope it has some sort of positive impact on any individuals reading or on the company… Call back won’t fix this for me, & without any greater action on their part as a company I will never again purchased from them & will give my honest opinion to every single person who asks me about them as a company.I’m an advocate for creating a world in which every single human enjoys & loves waking up every day to a life filled with love, connection, & the internal understanding & deep rooted knowing of the reality that there’s nothing more valuable then each individual alone (we each are equally as valuable as any other human on this planet). Stand up, speak up, express your vulnerabilities & your strengths openly with as many people as you possibly can because this will have a profound impact. Splashed in a small bite of my philosophy.So much time with my cellular data to write a review, but zero Internet connection to do my work… NETGEAR, do better, not for the selfish gain of your profits, but for the human beings such as yourself Who like you, valuable & deserve to be taken care of & feel taken care of by those that they trust. I’m sure you’re a massive corporation… Or owned by some other national business conglomerate… The number of you is absolutely not important, what is important is the each of you dedicate your hearts & your lives to treating others as your heart aches for people to treat you. Signing off, I hope you reach out NETGEAR make it up to me as well as any other customer whose experienced such a terrible experience of customer service. I understand fees & charges overtime, I do not except fees & charges I am not informed of at the beginning of my initial purchase being imposed on me when I simply need assistance…To all of you individuals out there, just like myself & just like every other person but you crossed paths with each & every day, but I know how important you are & how were the you are of everything beautiful in the world & a heart overflowing with joy & fulfillment. Things won’t change unless each one of us changes.My mini revolution comes in product reviews & through other interesting mediums, but I pray that the planet will be better when I leave & when I got here.

When you are considering spending almost 300 bucks for a router, and there are so many brands and models of them trying to lure your attention, you need to have some real facts. And that doesn’t mean reading about how fast or slow it is in somebody else’s house. Who cares? You don’t live in their house and every single thing you have connected to wifi and Ethernet in your home is different from someone else who is no more of an expert on routers than anyone else. Before I give you some real life facts I will get right to the bottom line and that is there is only ONE way you will ever know how a device like this can and will perform in your home and that is to buy it and try it with your own computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, TV and everything else that is common in today’s home place. Remember, if it doesn’t work you can always send it back and get something else. And with this device you may end up doing that. On the other hand, this might be just what you’re looking for.WHAT IS ITOkay I’ve called it a router, a term the maker is trying to avoid. And that’s not a bad thing because eero isn’t exactly like 95% of the other routers out there. It’s important to know a few things about them. Other than Eero being a common Estonian and Finnish first name, they are a company founded by a couple of dudes in their apartment in 2016 and then bought up by Amazon in 2019. If you are reading all those reviews posted prior to the November 23, 2020 ship date of this new model eero 6 you are probably reading about old obsolete products and you should stop reading those right now. This is not the same item. Same concept yes but what’s inside is night and day different. Under its new owners the game plan here is that this device should be two things – Simple and Safe. To that end they have done some remarkable things I’ve never seen before and some things that maybe aren’t so stellar. What am I basing that on? I’ve been in the industry for a quite a while now and part of that included hands on installing and using at least two dozen current model routers that I bought with my own money and are sitting in my storage room. The word simple isn’t one that usually comes to mind when talking about these things, in fact it can be the exact opposite. Unfortunately a lot of these devices are either made by old line networking companies that don’t get what life is like in the first quarter of the twenty-first century or by offshore companies who do well at making stuff but not so well designing it for real life needs. The other word, safe, isn’t normally associated with routers either – usually that’s a function of the computer or smartphone and not needed for non-smart devices. In today’s world there is some logic in nipping unsafe bad stuff before it even gets into the air in your home, which is why eero has gone to great lengths to build protection right into their hardware.WHAT I LIKEFirst off please realize that this page has changed a few times to correspond to different configurations they are making available and the one I evaluated was a prerelease sample of the basic model 6 (not the Pro) which included the main base unit and two satellite units. That’s pretty much all you get other than the power transformers and a tiny card that tells you that you have to download an app to set the thing up. There is no other way to set it up other than downloading their app , which is one of the first differences from what you may be used to. The setup process can go pretty fast, that is it would have been fast if they would have included better instructions, a topic I will touch on later. Unlike the old days the setup is almost completely hands off, the hardware configures almost everything automatically and hardly asks you anything. In other words you do not have to go through that tedious process of updating the software and firmware, it’s all done for you. After a few minutes you are up and running and if you wanted to you could walk away and never touch it again. There is one solitary status light that glows a few different colors then settles down to a soft white all’s well indicator and you can turn it off completely if you don’t like it. You can’t make a mistake plugging it in because other than the power cable there are two identical ports which are both self configuring Ethernet input output ports, you attach your modem to one and optionally a hard wired Ethernet device to the other, although most people will never use it. If you’re like me and have any devices that demand a hard wired configuration you can always add a switched Ethernet hub. After you’re done you can go back into the app and tweak some things but nowhere near as many as even the cheapest entry level wifi router you may have owned in the past. There are also some performance graphs that are simple and easy to understand and a heavy handed pitch for their safety and security upgrades.THEN THERE ARE THOSE THINGS I DIDN’T CARE FORI didn’t have any issues with the lack of customization this product offers, I think for the vast majority of homeowners it has everything we need. But there are some things that were frustrating. The first was the total lack of setup instructions included with the device. You get the three components (lacking any kind of protective wrap), the power cords and the tiny card that tells you to download the app. They even show a website address. But they don’t tell you that you absolutely must use a smartphone with an active cellular data line that meets certain specific criteria to use to install that app and use it for the setup. And the only way you will ever know any of that is AFTER you set the thing up and go into the obscure help section that consists of many thousands of pages. I tried using my iPad and got a message that it was doing something but it didn’t tell me what. After a half hour it finally timed out and said the installation failed but not a word about why. After I tried the only available option which was to try again and wasting another half hour I tried to contact tech support. No surprise, they don’t have phone support but their website promises instant response. I filled in the information and waited, and waited and waited and 24 hours later I still didn’t get an answer almost a week later. By then I had figured out on my own that maybe I should try using my smartphone and the installation took all of about five minutes. The problem here is that not everyone may have a brand new phone that meets their strict criteria and maybe this is being installed somewhere where the user doesn’t have a smartphone at all but wants wifi internet. The short answer is that you can’t do it, period.Frustration two comes in when the next thing is that they want to send you an email with a secret code to prove that it’s really you but the first time that process failed and I had to do it again.If you are protective of your privacy this may not be the product for you – unlike the majority of routers you have to give away a ton of private information and agree to just as many contracts and legal stuff just to use the hardware. I will never get how sending someone all my private information is helping them protect my privacy.Finally there’s the issue of the subscription service, and it’s no small issue at all. Like many other companies eero is looking to build a continuing revenue stream of having you pay to subscribe to all but the most basic of the so-called safety services you paid almost 300 bucks to get in the first place. I am very aware of the firewalls, virus protection and other safety hardware and software I have built into my computer and other devices and I will make my opinion clear right now that I don’t think I need anything their suite of services offers. In fact I know so. I read through it all (something one in a million people will do) and the vast majority of it is typical of the San Francisco penchant for someone in a windowless room deciding what is safe and moral for me to view, for example barring me from viewing anything that shows guns or violence – but yet they won’t answer why it’s okay for them to sell video games that require a router that are all about guns and violence. In fact their entire so-called Secure suite seems to be aimed at blocking everything I should have the good sense and choice to view or not view as I please.Fortunately I think you can use their hardware without paying a monthly subscription fee, right now I am sampling it so I can update this with more information later. Over and above that $30 annual basic suite they offer an advanced security suite that as far as I can see adds primarily the addition of Encrypt Me, iPassword and Malwarebytes for a whopping $99 a year subscription. My opinion is that most people choosing this product for simplicity’s sake would have little knowledge and thus little interest in a VPN app like Encrypt Me, would question the value of paying for a password manager when there are so many available for free, and the reality is most people’s devices are probably already protected by a very good antivirus program already. Note that I’ve used the word opinion a couple of times and I mean it, I’m not saying my opinion is what you should do any more than I am not saying a word about what internet speeds I’m getting in my home, because you shouldn’t care about my or anyone else’s speeds, they have no impact on you at all.SHOULD YOU BUYMy home is longer than it is wide and my wifi signal has to go through some mechanical equipment and a kitchen to get to my entertainment center, which has an adverse effect on the signal. In the other direction is my office which has a lot of walls between it and my router. I was getting ready to run a cable and hardwire both ends of the house to help solve this situation but this seemed like an easier solution – now I have one extender at one end of the house right next to the TV and the other in close proximity to my office equipment, much of which is wireless. I tried the previous products that used an extender you plugged into a wall outlet and they don’t work for me. They did in the old days when our devices stayed static but when I walked from one end of the house to the other with my phone I had to log out of one account and log in to another to continue. With eero everything is seamless, the extenders smartly and automatically connect to wireless devices and when a device travels it hands off from one extended to another without a glitch. While I am very technical I don’t like to overcomplicate things and I found the setup and configuration of this product to be amazingly simple. I don’t think the people in SF are on the same page as the rest of the country in terms of what their privacy needs are and what they feel they should be told they should be protected from so I’m leaning right now toward not continuing with their Secure subscription after the 30 day trial, which by the way I think is too short for anyone to make a useful decision on. I can’t tell you if you should buy this or not, but I hope this information has helpful. And if this sounds like it’s right for you I encourage you to try it and not be talked out of it because someone else didn’t like it. Good luck, I will give this an update after a month or two – no review for such a product can be very useful a few days after it’s introduced, mine has already updated itself three times in the 24 hours I’ve had it.

Long review but hopefully helpful:Bought this to replace an aged Airport Extreme and give my Oculus Quest 2 a better WiFi connection. So far so good.Set up was okay but I had some trouble getting the Ethernet light to go green despite all the others being green and I was unable to get online via wired or wireless connection. If you reboot your modem and this device, go make coffee or something when it is starting back up because the router takes a while to restart. The light finally went green but it did feel like it took an inordinate amount of time.I understand the frustration that comes with setting up these new things and the rage factor sometimes enters the picture. If it does: unplug the cable modem and the router, leave everything unplugged for 5 minutes, plug in the cable modem and wait until it is fully booted up, plug in this router and walk away for a bit. Give it 5-10 minutes and hopefully you’ll be good to go.The interface looks a bit dated and clonky but most do. Seems the least priority is given to creating a clean, attractive interface for all these things, but coming from an Airport Extreme where you have essentially no features to work with, this is a dream. The ability to edit the names of the clients is something I was never able to do before and it really makes a difference.I wanted something with the ability to kick clients off the network while I am using the Quest to ensure it has no bandwidth competition with devices that are not in use at the time the Quest is being used, but then put them back on without having to jump through hoops, re-entering passwords and such. I have a lot of devices on my network and while they may not be in use, they are still hovering around and eating up some bandwidth even while idling.This router allows that in an easy peasy way but the icons used are confusing. First, if you go to the Network map, clients section, you will see a list of all the clients on your network. You can click the pencil next to the name of the device and change it to make life easier. On the right side, if you click Block, that client gets blacklisted and cannot connect to the network. If you click View Blacklist, you will see all of the blocked clients and there is a garbage can icon on the right. This is a confusing and poor icon choice because most people would think that this will remove the client entirely. It doesn’t. It simply puts the client back on the whitelist. It’s a great thing to have, for example:Let’s say you have a Zoom meeting and want to ensure that there’s as little connection issues as possible. You can block all other clients on the network that are not needed and have all the bandwidth to yourself for your meeting and when it’s over, just click the garbage can on each device in the blacklist and poof! they are all able to connect again.I am not really understanding the point of the QoS feature on this device because in the past when I’ve set up QoS in a work environment, you are able to directly allocate bandwidth to devices. Ideally, this would be what you would use if you had a Zoom call rather than kicking clients off for a time. With this router’s QoS, you have two choices: On or Off. Each device listed has a Priority switch that is turned on or off. You can turn on the Priority switch for one, some or all devices, but there’s nothing else, so you have no idea how bandwidth allocation is implemented here.Under the On/Off switch for QoS, there is a bandwidth allocation box for both upload and download with each set at 1000. You can change this number, but again, it doesn’t tell you how it will divvy out that bandwidth to the clients. If you only have one device with the Priority turned on, you are left to wonder what that client is getting as opposed to other devices on the network. That’s kind of a shame because you can prioritize a device for Always or for a couple of hours. Would seem the perfect set up for a Zoom meeting as you can give Priority to your device for a set amount of time and the router will release that restriction at the end of the hour or two or whatever you chose without you having to interact with the admin page at all. Unfortunately, you cannot enter times: i.e,. Priority from 10 a.m. to noon. You can choose Always, 1 hour, 2 hours, or 4 hours.I’m not sure what people are talking about regarding monthly fees for Parent Controls. I don’t have kids, but opened it up and you can add a child’s computer as a device, block certain keywords from being searched online and limit the days/times that your child can get online. I didn’t see anything about fees or payment for those features.I have noticed more zip in my Quest 2 since setting up this router and am quite pleased with it so far. I set up a 5ghz network set to AX only for the Quest’s exclusive use, a 2.4ghz Guest Network for all the Echos, Kindles, switches for lights, etc., and a 2.4ghz network for laptops, iPads, etc.

The TP-Link AX5400 is a WiFi 6 router with dual band and long range wireless capabilities. Also known as the Archer AX73, the WiFi 6 technology allows this product to achieve speeds up to 5400 Mbps as a theoretical maximum. Even though actual speeds will probably be lower than that, it will still be fast enough to perform bandwidth demanding tasks such as large file transfers over the network or Ultra High Definition streaming on your local home network.Installation is super easy, it’s basically plug and play. You connect the router to your internet modem, and then connect your devices via the WiFi networks. The A5400 will come with default wireless settings, including a predefined network name and password, for easy initial setup. It is strongly recommended to change these settings to your own, for security reasons. Management can be done either via the smartphone app or (very happy about this one) the web interface. More about that later.Aesthetically, you will notice that this router has a rather interesting rectangular design, and it is equipped with 6 (!!!) antennas. Yes, you read that right: 6 antennas. TP-Link claims that this supports large wifi coverage and good signal strength to all devices with their beamforming and 4T4R technologies. Even though I have no practical way of measuring the performance of these technologies, I can attest to the fact that the AX5400’s coverage is excellent and I didn’t notice any dead spots at home (including the devices located outside my home, such as wifi cameras and doorbells). In case you do experience dead spots, you can add an extra TP-Link mesh device compatible with the AX5400 to solve the issue. I talk more about mesh networking below.One of the major features of the AX5400 is mesh networking. Mesh means that all your routers connect with each other, forming a mesh of coverage rather than having one router that acts as a single point of connection. Your wireless device will always connect automatically to the mesh router that provides the strongest signal. This is called Roaming. Much like in telecom/mobile networks, your Wi-Fi devices might change positions and move around your house. This means that the wireless signal between your device and the router gets weaker with distance. With mesh routers your device will automatically connect to a different router unit that offers a stronger signal, without interrupting the running service and streams. This not only increases the coverage vastly, but also offers seamless handovers and transitions of Wi-Fi services as you change your position in your house. In other words, you get Wi-Fi Roaming capabilities that will vastly improve the reliability of your wireless connection. That, of course, means that you need another TP-Link mesh capable device to achieve this functionality. TP-Link provides a list of mesh devices compatible with the AX5400 on their website.So far I have no complains regarding the AX5400’s performance. The Wi-Fi is very quick and outperforms my internet connection. I haven’t noticed any issues with latency either. One remark I want to make here is that, even though older WiFi cards will still be able to connect and operate with the AX5400, you will need a Wi-Fi 6 compatible wireless card to make the most out of the mesh system. Making the most out of it doesn’t mean that you will experience speeds close to 5.4 Gbps. These speeds are a theoretical maximum, they are achieved in the lab and they are impossible to see in the average home network setup. You will see, though, very high speeds depending on the quality of your wireless card (in my tests, I used the TP-Link WiFi 6 AX3000 PCIe WiFi Card), the distance from the router and the obstacles that separate you from it. Bottom line: it’ll be fast, but be realistic with your expectations.But probably one of the things I’m most happy about this router is the availability of a web interface for management. Being the owner/user of the otherwise great TP-Link Deco system, one of my main complaints was the lack of a web interface for network configuration. As a power user, I find it hard to configure my network equipment via the small screen of a smartphone. You can access the web interface by typing the router’s management IP (you can find it listed as Gateway on your computer’s network settings) in your browser. You’ll have to first set up a local password (or create an account with TP-Link) before accessing the router configuration.Once you log in, the first screen you’ll see is the home screen, or a summary screen if you like. You can see the internet status, the router status and some shortcut button to common functions, your mesh devices (if you have any) and the connected client devices. This last bit is quite interesting, since you’ll be able to see the connected devices, their real time speed (up/down), the interface they’re connected to (ethernet, 2.4G or 5G), their “negotiated” max bandwidth, how long they’ve been connected to the router and, finally, a “block” button to deny the device access to the network. Below, I’m going through some of the functions that I find interesting, but I will omit the ones that are so common you can find them virtually in every router out there.On the Wireless screen you’ll find your WiFi settings. You can turn on or off OFDMA, TWT, Smart Connect and, of course, the Wireless radio itself. OFDMA (simultaneous transmission to different devices within the same transmission window) will significantly increase the traffic speed with compatible devices (your device must support OFDMA), TWT will help increase your device’s battery life by maintaining the connection with the router and allowing the device to go to sleep (aka not forcing the device to send keep alive messages to the router too frequently), while Smart Connect optimized the connectivity of the router’s radio bands with the client devices.TP-Link offers a security platform with the AX5400, similar to what they offer with the rest of their flagship devices, HomeShield. The user will get some basic functionality out of the box, and additional sophisticated features and analytics are available with a subscription service.The last screen on the web interface is the Advanced screen, where all the advanced options are located. Power users will definitely appreciate some of these. The first thing that caught my eye was Lan —> Link Aggregation. You can aggregate (combine) up to two Ethernet ports into one (logical) network port, aggregating their bandwidth as well. Of course, you’ll need to aggregate ports on the other end of the connection as well, but that is the other side of the problem. Pretty cool. The router also supports direct DynDNS logins, for those of you who still use a DynDNS client on your computer. Another cool section is Routing. You can use your own static routes defined in the router’s config if you need to direct specific traffic to specific destinations. Use this only if you know what you’re doing, otherwise a bad routing config will probably block your access and traffic. The router comes with a USB port, which is nothing unusual. What is very cool, though, is the fact that the USB port supports (except for mass storage devices) Apple’s Time Machine. Just connect a storage device to the AX5400’s USB port, enable Time Machine in settings, and voila! No need for one of those old Apple AirPort Extreme routers anymore. NAT is, of course, present in this device as well, for your port forwarding needs. Security features include a Firewall, ACLs and MAC spoofing protection (by binding IPs to specific MACs). You have your standard VPN server built in, supporting both OpenVPN and PPTP, IPv6 support for you dual-stackers out there and a bunch of router Admin features (firmware update, backup, remote management, system logs etc.). Last but not least, you can switch the mode of the device between a Router (the device will route traffic and provide routing services) and an Access Point (the device will become a wireless gateway for clients, but you will need to connect it to a router for routing services – this is used mostly to expand the WiFi network).Overall the TP-Link AX5400 WiFi 6 router is a great home routing device and a strong contender in this segment of products. I’m very happy with it for the time I’ve been using it, and I definitely recommend it.

Archer A7/AX21 2.4G speed for iPhone 11 from 300M Verizon Fios5* review for successfully resolved my low 2.4G speed problem, excellent support from TP Link and fast 5G speed that exceeds Verizon Fios max speed of 300Mbps.The purpose of this review is to compare the 2.4G and 5G speeds of the TP Link Archer A7(AC1700) WiFi 5 router and AX21(AX1800) WiFi 6 router using an iPhone 11 which supports WiFi 6. The highest speed I can test is 300Mbps limited by my Verizon Internet plan. Measurement results using show that using the WiFi 5 router, the 2.4G speed is 60M/80M (UL/DL) and the 5G speed is 307M/330M, whereas using the WiFi 6 router, the 2.4G speed is 110M/120M and the 5G speed is about same.Newer routers’ real life 5G speed is very high and normally is not a problem, but real life 2.4G speed could be slow. It is not entirely sure which part of the wireless link is limiting the 2.4G speed. Below examines the speed limit of the WiFi standards involved, the router and iPhone 11. The routers are TP Link’s Archer A7(AC1700) and AX21(AX1800). Measured speeds at 2.4G and 5G will also be given.Router (TP Link) Specs and Supported WiFi Standards1) Archer A7(AC1700) has has 3 antennas is a WiFi 5 router2.4G : 450Mbps5G: 1300M bpsSupported Standards: AX21(AX1800) : 802.11ac(Wi-Fi 5), 802.11b, 802.11ax(Wi-Fi 6), 802.11n(Wi-Fi 4), 802.11g802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax are also called Wi-Fi 4, WiFi 5 and WiFi 6 respectively.2) AX21(AX1800) has 4 antennas is a WiFi 6 router2.4G: 574M bps5G: 1200M bps.Supported Standards: AX7 (AC1700) 802.11b, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11acA7 (AX1800) is a low cost ($60) popular (listed as “Amazon Choice”) WiFi 5 router which supports 802.11 ac whereas AX 21 is a low cost ($90) WiFi 6 router which supports 802.11 ax. WiFi 6 (max speed 9.6G) not only has higher speed than WiFi 5 (max speed 3.5G) but also can support more devices using orthogonal frequency division multiple access. The main differences are given in picture 1. (Picture 1 from : https://www.mwrf.com/technologies/systems/article/21849959/whats-the-difference-between-wifi-5-and-wifi-6)Comparing the specs of these two routers, one has a higher 2.4G speed while the other has a higher 5G speed. But in real life, according to my measurements, at 2.4G, the WiFi 6 router has almost twice the speed than the WiFi 5 router. I don’t have a high enough wireless speed plan to test the 5G speed. In my house both routers have the same speed of 310M, limited by the max speed allowed by Verizon Fios 300M.Speeds specified by the WiFi standards are speeds the router manufacturers trying to meet and they are not the limit, but speeds advertised by the router are the speeds that customers want the router to be able to reach. They become upset if they are unable to get the speeds advertised by the router.Routers often do not specified under what link conditions these seemingly advertised high speeds could be realized. For example what is the required bandwidth, the number of antennas (the so called MIMO) and how pure the signal has to be (the signal to noise ratio). Is the bandwidth 20, 40, 80 or 160M? Is the signal to noise ratio has to be greater than 10dB?In real life, link speed depends on how far from the router (the signal strength) and radio interference which falls in band (the signal to noise ratio). The former can be solved by doing the speed test right next to the router, where the transmit signal from the router is at maximum. But for the latter, unless one has a so called Faraday Cage, there is no way to block in-band interference especially at 2.4G, which are used by microwave ovens, Bluetooth and many household devices. Interference is hard to quantify without using a spectrum analyzer and could become an excuse if one calls the router support line complaining low speed.Another limit is the device itself, and in this case iPhone 11. It’s specs are given below.Wi-Fi specifications for iPhone 11802.11 standard, name, frequency Maximum PHY data rate Maximum channel bandwidth Maximum MCS index Maximum spatial streamsax@5 GHz 1200 Mbps 80 MHz 11 (HE) 2/MIMOac@5 GHz 866 Mbps 80 MHz 9 (VHT) 2/MIMOa/n@5 GHz 300 Mbps 40 MHz 7 (HT) 2/MIMOax@2.4 GHz 195 Mbps 20 MHz 9 (HE) 2/MIMOb/g/n@2.4 GHz 144 Mbps 20 MHz 7 (HT) 2/MIMO(From: https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/iphone-wi-fi-specification-details-dep268652e6c/web)https://mcsindex.com gives more details about how the speed on each band is affected by modulation scheme, number of antennas, bandwidth and WiFi standards used, not only for iPhones but for routers as well.From the iPhone 11 specs, only “n” and “ax” support 2.4GHz if we ignore the older standards “b” and “g”. At 2.4G, The maximum speeds for “n” is 144M whereas for “ax” is 195M. The max bandwidth for both is 20MHz which needs to be set in the router. Setting the bandwidth to 40MHz could lower the speed as the noise power will be doubled.However, at 5GHz the speed for ac (WiFi 5) is 866M with 80M max bandwidth whereas for ax (WiFi 6) is 1200M also with 80M max bandwidth. These bandwidths should also be specified in the router. Setting the bandwidth too high or too low could lower the speed.From the iPhone 11 max speeds, it is clear that the wireless link’s speed is not limited by both the A7 and AX21 routers and the standards, but by the iPhone 11 at 2.4G and by Verizon Fios at 5G.I have Verizon Fios 300M download and upload. Initially, I used an A7, thinking that at 2.4GHz, the router speed is 450M which is higher than iPhone’s 144M(“n”) and 195M(“ax), surely shouldn’t be a problem. But speed test showed that I got only 60M download and 80M upload from the best channel and 20M bandwidth (I tested all the channels and bandwidth combinations).60M is too slow for me because I have several devices (such as security cameras) using 2.4G. So I called TP Link support line to see what I had done wrong. Most customer supports didn’t know what the problem was the and finally I was connected to a high level support. She said that in real life, I had to multiply the speed by 30-50% and guided me through the various specs of the wireless link. I don’t know where the 30-50% comes from, perhaps it was her empirical experience. If I use the average of 40% and assume that applies to the lower speed of the router and the iPhone, which is 144MHz. 40%x144M is 57M. This was about what I got at 2.4G using the A7 router.But she also said something about WiFi 6 router and got me thinking perhaps a WiFi 6 router could improve the speed. (I must say that I got excellent support from TP Link, I had gotten calls twice from the specialist unsolicited and many followup emails. All trying to help me solve the low speed problem.)I then change the A7(AC1700) to an AX21(AX1800), which does support WiFi 6 “ax”.The main advantage of using AX21 is that it raised the iPhone 11 max speed at 2.4G from 144M to 195M, a gain of 51M. And as a result, in real life, the 2.4G link speed seemed to have increased by about the same amount. Speed test showed that at 2.4G, I now got ~90-110M(download, previously 60M when using A7) and 100-120M(upload) with the channel and bandwidth set on auto. Though the download speed is still less than 195M, the link speed has increased by changing to a router that supports ax and has 4 antennas. Have no idea if a more expensive router will further increase the 2.4G speed.However, at 5GHz, both routers give 307M download and 330M upload, limited by Verizon Fios max speed of 300M.When doing speed test, I shut off all 2.4G emitters. I live in a rural area and I suspect there is little interference.A7 has 3 antennas whereas AX21 has four. Is the speed improvement at 2.4G due to the additional antenna or the support of WiFi 6 or both?

We’re going to stream our television & use an antenna. The signal from the old router didn’t quite cut it, so I looked for an alternative. I found the T-P Link AX6000 online & read some reviews and was a bit apprehensive because some said it was hard to set up. In the past I’ve used Netgear and they are good, but I saw this and like what I read.It wasn’t really hard to set up. It was time consuming, however. I still use a hard wired connection for sensitive work I occasionally do. This works for that purpose and the VPN worked well.The Wi-Fi was pretty much seamless. Unfortunately, I have a lot of devices and connecting all of them took a bit of time. I just remembered one that I still need to connect.The Wi-Fi speed doubled near every device in the house compared to the old router. I just used an online speed test to measure the speed. The hard wired computers didn’t have a significant difference in speed. I’m going to get new floors in my home office and will upgrade all the cables to Cat 8, I’m not so sure there will be a significant difference. This router has 8 Ethernet ports, I’d been using 2 routers for my printers & computers, now I just need this one. I know, a switch would have worked, but I had an extra router, so I used it. Besides, I couldn’t find my 10 port switch and didn’t want to buy another one.There are also security features and you have to turn them on manually. It’s a good idea to pay attention to this as there are so many devious people trying to steal your identity, hijack your computer and so much more. I was recently in a couple of cyber security & crimes webinars and the problems are getting worse. So please, pay attention to those security features.I don’t foresee any problems, only time will tell how this router will work. Sorry that I’m not that technical, I just wanted you to know that this router doesn’t require a “network guy” to make it work. If I can do it you can too.For perspective: my house is one level and about 1,600 SF. The router is in one far corner and the signal is good through all the doors & walls. It also works well on the back porch for the television I have out there.

I purchased the TP link deco whole home mesh Wi-Fi system based on a recommendation from Wirecutter on the New York Times website. They recommended it as the budget solution to weak Wi-Fi signals in your home.I’ve had the system for four days. In those four days I spent a total of 12 hours trying to get it to work for longer than 10 hours. I’ve been unsuccessful in that effort.The deco system sporadically cuts itself off from my router, leaving me with no Wi-Fi signal. And I don’t have more time to dedicate to finding out exactly what the problem is. I did contact the company’s tech support and they offered to help me via e-mail. The turn around for questions and answers is 24 to 48 hours. Again I don’t have time to spend precious hours going back and forth. I feel the system should be more automated and robust with its User Interface than it is currently. (Yes, I updated the latest firmware updates from the company.What is my skill level? I am a former IT coordinator for a small company and know my way around windows and apple. I am currently using windows 11 and a fifth generation IPad Air with iOS version 15.7. I’ve been running cellular based Wi-Fi routers for eight years. This is my first defeat in my home network. incidentally I used the IPad to download the TP link app that runs the deco system. Because of issues with connecting the deco system to my Netgear Ethernet port I had to use two different email addresses to download the deco app two different times under two different account names. Even that did not solve the issue.The AC 1200 deco S4 system cost about $120 through Amazon. It’s not a lot of money for a whole home mesh system. I bought the system that has one main base station and two satellite stations as the company calls them. I was able to successfully connect the system numerous times and get it operating properly. But for unknown reasons the satellite stations would drop their connection from the base station. Reconfiguring, rebooting, reconnecting, and everything else I could think of did not stabilize the platform. I feared that after the Amazon return window closed that I would be stuck with a system that would be unstable over the long term. And I don’t have unlimited time to figure get out. I also read many of the more detailed customer reviews on Amazon about the system. Apparently Amazon has pooled all the TP link products together under one massive thread with 24,000 customer reviews so I was unable to find exactly what my problem was.I agree with the New York Times review that this is a budget system in terms of dollars but in terms of your time it’s a massive expenditure.I’m giving the product five stars because the flaws in the system are so extensive that they became apparent very quickly and are allowing me to return the product before I’m stuck with three little plastic boat anchors.TP-Link challenge: send me three new little boat anchors, help me stabilize the platform and I’ll revise this review to one star where no one will read it, and I’ll throw in the 20 million user errors that I no doubt made.

I purchased this router to go with the new modem I purchased, because I was tired of paying a monthly rental fee for the cable modem/router combo that my cable company supplied. I don’t really like having a modem/router combo, only because if one or the other stop working or have glitches, it usually will all stop working. I purchased an Surfboard modem and then purchased this router to pair with it. It was very easy to connect it…just had to connect the power cord to the router and connect the ethernet line it from the modem. The only problem I had was the Surfboard app, You connect it all up through the app…it wanted me to scan the QR code, but I couldn’t find one. I finally saw it….it was on the clear wrapping that was on the router…I had thrown it away. I hadn’t noticed that the QR code and the temporary router username and password were on a little label stuck to the clear wrap. After I realized that I threw it away and retrieved it from the trash, I was up and running in about a minute. This router works great with my Surfboard modem.

I purchased this router on the advice of a friend. I have TMobile internet, which is considerably slower than the spectrum I had before. But with free TV through my Roku, I was saving about 100 a month. I installed the router, and bingo! My TMobile internet is twice as fast! No more freezing or buffering! Well worth the $25 I paid for it.