TP-LinkDual-Band AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 Router Archer AX55 | Wireless Gigabit Internet Router for Home | EasyMesh Compatible | VPN Clients & Server | HomeShield, OFDMA, MU-MIMO | USB 3.0 | Secure by Design

This is a very popular router for many reasons. It is easy to install, configure, and use, is reliable, has a good track record, performs well, and looks good.It also has one other feature which is very rare in routers these days, and that is a hard-wired switch to shut off the wifi radios. Now, I know that most people love and drool all over themselves because of wifi, but I don't really care for it. I don't like adding even more RF radiation to my environment, and I prefer the security of wired circuits. Yeah, I know I'm old school, but that doesn't make my reasons for avoiding wifi any less true.I like the physical switch because software switches can be compromised more easily. A physical switch requires a physical presence to engage the switch. It can't be compromised from an online or otherwise software based attack.On some occassions, I have to use wifi (phone updates, etc.), so I like having the option to turn it on when needed. This is the only router I have found which has that capability. I think it is stupid that others don't have this capability. When I have used the wifi, it has worked well.I found setup very easy with plenty of instruction available online. It was instatnly compatible with my Spectrum cable modem, and I have have absolutely no issues with it in about a year of use. I cannot speak to the extra security features, as I also have a hard-wired cuttoff switch to air gap the router from the modem when not in use. I also turn the router off when not being used for long periods of time.The display LEDs are very simple and make it quite easy to monitor the status of the router, its connection to computers, its connetion to the modem, and the on or off status of the wifi radios. Simple and effective.I have just bought another one on sale for future use in creating an internal network which will not connect to the internet.I find it to be well designed, functional, and so far pretty much trouble free. Your mileage may vary.If any US company wants to compete with TP-Link for making a really great router, they would do well to study the design of this router. And, for Heaven's sake, put mechanical switches in for critical functions like shutting off various radios like wifi and bluetooth.Good job, TP-Link. I highly recommend this router. (Possible devious backdoors notwithstanding, IF they even exist).

What a great way to update an outdated combo modem router. I’ve experienced very slow performance with my 8+ year old Arris 3.0 unit. After much research, adding a separate router appeared to be the way to go. I found this TP-Link Dual Band model on sale that had terrific reviews. While not a computer neofile I haven’t dealt much with setting up routers and modems and I was hesitant about doing so. The reviews made it sound easy. The directions and process was even easier than I expected and I was up and running in no time. My speed has doubled and there are no issues with interference with the old system and modem. The only thing remaining was logging all my devices into the new network which was easy and without any problems. This router saved me hundreds of dollars and substantially upgraded my network’s performance.

Honestly this is the best router I've ever owned. I've had Netgear, Linksys, and whatever garbage Xfinity rents out. This takes the cake in terms of performance. The range is only slightly less than my previous Linksys router but it makes up for it in speed and stability. Also, the range might be slightly less but it performs better in the areas with weaker signal. It also covers areas better than my Linksys router so I think the beam convergence is much better. The icing on the cake is the Tether app. Makes setup and settings incredibly easy to set and change. Love it! I know recently there are worries about it being a Chinese company and cybersecurity issues and what not but honestly for me, it doesn't matter. The only thing they are going to see if they spy on me is Tik Tok videos and google searches to dumb questions. For me the $80 is worth it.

I've been using TP-Link for years now (this is my third router in a row from them) and they continue to lead the industry in price/performance. Don't make the mistake of thinking your router doesn't make a difference. Like most people, my wife and I have switched from standard cable to streaming services, mostly in 4K, and we also have two home NAS units (one is mainly for local use over both wired and wireless connections, the other more of a "personal cloud" that's connected to the internet). So when my internet provider offered a deal on gigabit internet that was cheaper than what I'd been paying for 200mbps, I of course jumped on it.But I was never satisfied with the speed, which actually seemed worse than my old internet plan most of the time, and I blamed my provider (Cox) for that. Cox didn't seem to really cap my old 200mbps connection so I'd often get closer to 300mbps. With the gigabit internet, I was actually still getting right around 300mbps. On my Xbox, which is how I watch most of my streaming stuff, I measured more like 78mbps! It is across the house from the router, but still. This was bad enough that some services (especially Hulu, but also YouTube and occasionally others) would drop resolution periodically, and sometimes freeze up. Again, curse that infernal Cox!It was when transferring approximately 3TB of data to my new NAS over wifi, feeling how slow that was and then looking at my actual connection speed that I started to suspect the router. The speed was rock solid at around 400mbps (like it was stable but maxed out), and I was actually connected to the router at something like 570mbps, which I knew seemed pretty slow for wifi in 2024. I'd forgotten that my old router was a wifi 5 router that I bought maybe 3-4 years ago, and we're well into the wifi 6 era now and on the verge of wifi 7. So I started researching and this router consistently came out on top of everybody's "best value" lists. That did not surprise me, because TP-Link's Archer routers are almost always at the top of those lists and I had been happy with my old router until time just passed it by.When I hooked up this router, I immediately noticed my connection speed was now 1576mbps. That's on a computer on a different floor than the router and with a bunch of "stuff" in between. Some days I connect at a little less than that. Right next to the router I can get around 2000mbps with my laptop. Keep in mind you won't get actual transfer rates that high because of overhead and error correction and things like that, but this is a *lot* faster than my old router. On my internet connection, I can get about 700-800mbps next to the router, or about 400-500mbps on my upstairs computer. Even my Xbox is improved, now getting around 250mbps, which is good enough for stable 4K on every streaming service.There are two versions of this router and for me, the "new" version with the 2.5gbps ethernet and WAN ports made a lot more sense given that I'm using a NAS with it and have gigabit internet. With only a gigabit WAN port, you won't ever quite max out a gigabit internet connection, again because of overhead. Same with the NAS, and I wanted the ability to someday have a NAS with faster than gigabit connections anyway. Keep in mind that even the new router only has two 2.5gbps ports; one WAN and one LAN. That "should" be enough for most home users. The other ports are still 1gbps. Also, if you don't have gigabit internet and don't have or plan to have a NAS or home server, then you can safely stick with the older, cheaper version with only 1gbps ports.Sounds like a 5 star review, right? Well, I'm taking a star off for a simple reason, and that's that TP-Link has started down the horrible anti-consumer path of putting all of its more advanced or just useful features behind a subscription paywall. Luckily I do not need any of these and most home users probably wouldn't, although things like parental controls are included in that category - gotta pay a monthly fee for those. You also need at least a free TP-Link account to use their app to remotely manage the router, although you can still just set it up so you can connect the old fashioned way through DNS forwarding or something.I have a feeling this may be my last TP-Link router because once a company starts down the road of putting stuff behind a subscription paywall, they only ever seem to add things to that and locking their products down more and more over time. So I expect this to get worse with subsequent TP-Link products. I could easily see them including remote management via the app as part of their subscription service, for example, since it already requires an account.But for now, this router still does everything *most* home users would need without a subscription, and it's fast and cheap, and has really good signal strength (this has long been TP-Link's biggest selling point). Don't blame your internet provider for slow speeds - it could be your router!