TP-Link - Archer AX73

My experience with the AX73 after using it for 3 years is that IPv6 doesn’t work. The first year was fine, but once I turned on the IPv6 feature, the internet would disconnect, even though my ISP supports IPv6. Also, TP-Link hasn’t released any official firmware updates for the last 2 years. The customization options are really limited too. As for the range, it’s actually very good. My house is made of brick, but the Wi-Fi signal still covers well without much loss.

Here’s a breakdown of the best router options for your 300-400 Mbps connection in a 2-3 BHK home, with a focus on future-proofing, reliability, and performance. I’ll also clarify whether Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 6 is the better choice for your situation. Should You Choose Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, or Wi-Fi 7? 1. Wi-Fi 6 is sufficient for most homes and supports high speeds, excellent device management, and widespread compatibility with current devices. • Your iPhone 11 and MacBook Air 15” (2023) don’t support Wi-Fi 6E, so Wi-Fi 6 will be optimal in the short term. • It’s also budget-friendly and works well for 2-3 BHK homes. 2. Wi-Fi 6E adds the 6 GHz band, which provides higher bandwidth and less interference. • However, it’s only useful if your devices support 6 GHz (future upgrades will). • It’s worth considering for future-proofing, especially if the price difference isn’t too high. 3. Wi-Fi 7 is emerging but not necessary right now. Few devices support it, and the routers are expensive. Key Features to Look For • Speeds: Look for routers rated for at least 1 Gbps to handle your connection with headroom for upgrades. • MU-MIMO and OFDMA: Ensures smooth handling of multiple devices like your phones and laptops. • Coverage: Ensure coverage for your 2-3 BHK space (mesh systems are unnecessary unless walls are very thick). • USB Port: Useful for storage or printer sharing, though optional. • Built-in VPN Support: Some routers offer built-in VPN servers, but many require a subscription. Recommendations 1. TP-Link Archer AX73 (AX5400) • Wi-Fi 6: Dual-band router with up to 5400 Mbps speed. • Devices: Handles 30+ devices with MU-MIMO and OFDMA. • USB Port: Yes, supports file sharing and media streaming. • VPN Support: Built-in OpenVPN support. • Price: Around $170. • Why It’s Great: Affordable, reliable, and offers great range and speed for a 2-3 BHK. 2. ASUS RT-AX58U (AX3000) • Wi-Fi 6: Dual-band with up to 3000 Mbps speed. • Devices: Strong MU-MIMO and beamforming for device management. • USB Port: Yes. • VPN Support: Built-in OpenVPN server support.

TP-Link Ax73 v.1 best router I’ve ever had. It has been working non stop the past 3 years - 3 year warranty too. What are you talking about ?

**All TP-Link i have stopped receiving updates in the first 2 years since I bought them.** And I have quite new ones like Archer AX73. I suspect they do everything in their power to let your router opened to Chinese state hackers simply by not providing updates anymore as soon as possible and hiding this behind revision bs. Most of the people use routers for much more than 2 years, your typical to-link updates window. Of course they never officially say they dropped support for a specific model - they simply don’t provide updates anymore. If you have like review 1 bought 2 years ago and now they sell exactly the same product but with review 2, review 1 usually don’t get updates anymore so the update window is far more worst than it look at a superficial search. Because of all this i decided only to buy unmanaged switches from tp-link from now on and stay away from anything that requires constant updates from them. I must be true and say they make some very good cheap home unmanaged switches. **ASUS? I still get updates for my 4-5 years old models.** They may not be the perfect one but at least they try to make it better & they respect their buyer more. Another thing i like about ASUS is the fact that many models support AsusMerlin & OpenWRT. So you have 2 alternative firmware to choose from. But of course, If your data doesn’t value s\*\*\* and you want your network to be an open book buy tp-link.

👆🏽This. Also use an app like WiFiAnalyzer and check for less congested channels. TP-LINK AX73 supports 'Zero Wait DFS' so you can pick a higher value channel that most routers don't support or avoid because of the wait time for radar scan. Zero wait DFS fixes this. For example, at my office block, there are many APs and most lower channels (48 and below) are heavily congested. I use channel 112. It comes with the risk of getting interrupted if radar is detected but it rarely happens. But when it does, it is only momentarily because of Zero wait. Sorry for the rumbling but just sharing an idea.

My main priorities when buying were load balancing and the processor. When I was using the C6 and C80, the 5GHz band would stop working, causing all devices to connect to 2.4GHz. As a result, I had to restart my router, which was inconvenient at times. With the C80, the main issue I faced was range. Although it claims to support up to 1300 Mbps at 5Ghz, it never managed to cover the next room. I replaced both devices through Rasi Peripherals. During this time, I got the AX73 and never used the replacement products. It’s been more than a year and a half, and I haven’t faced any issues so far. In conclusion go with AX23 or higher.

I own AX73 AX5400, C80 AC1900, C6 AC1200, and 3 others from TPlink. Replaced C6 through service centre. AX73 is the best no issue still now.

I own AX73 AX5400, C80 AC1900, C6 AC1200, and 3 others from TPlink. Replaced C6 through service centre. AX73 is the best no issue still now.

I think your Archer X73 would do just fine as a stand-alone access point. You might as well use it since you already have it. Just configure it as a dumb AP and take advantage of its Wi-Fi 6 radio. Why spend more on something you already have? If you want, run a wire to it somewhere further away from the pfSense box and locate it somewhere strategic or central in the area where you expect wireless devices will connect to it. Cheers! ☺

I’m using the ax10 as an easymesh access point it’s been rock solid. I even used it as my main router with a fibre to Ethernet adapter for a few weeks when my ax73 main router suddenly died. I also have an ax1500 (American version of the same device) I use as an access point for some building controls. It’s also pretty solid.

I'm currently using an Tp-Link AX73, wifi 6. I was poking around Verizon's site and as a long time customer, they have a deal where they'll knock $5 a month off the bill and throw the CR1000A wifi 6e router for free for 2 years. Is it worth swapping out the AX73 for the CR1000A? Like, is 6e any kind of improvement over 6?

Return the decos and get another AX5400 and use easy mesh capabilities. What model do you actually have the AXE75 which has the 6ghz channel or do you have the AX75 or AX73 which both do speeds of 5400gbps but are just wifi 6 capable? Either way, all three of those models are easy mesh capable, which would probably be a lot better than having the Deco’s with the same Wi-Fi name and password even though it’s the same network topology it’s still different hardware and it’s probably gonna cause issues. That’s why I suggest the easy mesh route because that keeps the routers pretty much the same and eliminates the Deco hardware.

Return the decos and get another AX5400 and use easy mesh capabilities. What model do you actually have the AXE75 which has the 6ghz channel or do you have the AX75 or AX73 which both do speeds of 5400gbps but are just wifi 6 capable? Either way, all three of those models are easy mesh capable, which would probably be a lot better than having the Deco’s with the same Wi-Fi name and password even though it’s the same network topology it’s still different hardware and it’s probably gonna cause issues. That’s why I suggest the easy mesh route because that keeps the routers pretty much the same and eliminates the Deco hardware.

I would just leave them for now but when able to grab another AX73 and run easy mesh with those 2 routers. It would give you better range and coverage with just those 2 routers than the 3 decos and the AX73

Return the decos and get another AX5400 and use easy mesh capabilities. What model do you actually have the AXE75 which has the 6ghz channel or do you have the AX75 or AX73 which both do speeds of 5400gbps but are just wifi 6 capable? Either way, all three of those models are easy mesh capable, which would probably be a lot better than having the Deco’s with the same Wi-Fi name and password even though it’s the same network topology it’s still different hardware and it’s probably gonna cause issues. That’s why I suggest the easy mesh route because that keeps the routers pretty much the same and eliminates the Deco hardware.

Return the decos and get another AX5400 and use easy mesh capabilities. What model do you actually have the AXE75 which has the 6ghz channel or do you have the AX75 or AX73 which both do speeds of 5400gbps but are just wifi 6 capable? Either way, all three of those models are easy mesh capable, which would probably be a lot better than having the Deco’s with the same Wi-Fi name and password even though it’s the same network topology it’s still different hardware and it’s probably gonna cause issues. That’s why I suggest the easy mesh route because that keeps the routers pretty much the same and eliminates the Deco hardware.

I would just leave them for now but when able to grab another AX73 and run easy mesh with those 2 routers. It would give you better range and coverage with just those 2 routers than the 3 decos and the AX73

I have a TP-Link AX73. Its a Wi-Fi 6 AX5400 router. I paid £75 from a company that sell TP-Link refurbished(Pacetech) TP-Link are aimed at the average home user that wants a plug and forget workhorse. They are great value for money. But not really for advanced users that need fine tuning. Example.. I have Sky TV and wanted to switch my internet from Virgin Media Sky FTTP needs some authentication "Mer 61" and TP-Link don't have the funtion but Asus and Neatgear does. But Vodafone allows TP-Link without any drama. If money is no issue then the higher end Asus router is best.

Hi everyone! Hopefully someone can help me on this topic since I'm not sure if the setup that I currently have for my parent's house is the best as it can be. For context, we live in a bit of a rural area, so we started using starlink to get the best possible connection for remote work. Now, I saw some reviews and recognized that the starlink router is pretty bad even though it does its job, that's the reason I ended up buying the AX5400 Router, which so far has given me 0 problems and has a lot of nice options. My problem/situation comes when I realize that if I want to cover most of my house and a bit beyond it (since we have a lot of open space which is the garden and a guests area) I needed to set up a mesh network. Along with the AX5400 router, I ended up buying a 3 pack of AX300 Deco wi-fi mesh in amazon and gave my best shot at setting up all of what I have, which is the following configuration: \- Starlink router was set to derivation mode as to use the router AX5400 as the actual router as to have better options with guest network, security, port forwarding etc. \- Connected to the AX5400 router via ethernet is one of the AX3000 decos, set as an access point for the network and using the same SSID as the router so that only 1 network appears when searching for wifi (besides the guest network, which was set up from the application for the AX5400 router). \- So far I've only setup 1 of the deco AX3000 in the first floor of my house, close to the guest area, while the other one is stored and ready to be setup somewhere else, this one is also set as an access point and has the same SSID. My doubts/concerns about this, is obviously the fact that since these 2 products don't share the same technology for setting up a mesh, there's nowhere I can see that says "hey, these are your mesh devices while these are the devices connected to your router", and when actually getting decently far away from the router, as in like walking through my garden, I don't know if I'm actually now getting connected to the deco mesh or it's just the AX5400 having great coverage. What I want to get advice on is whether what I'm doing is correct, if I fucked up something, and what could I do to improve my situation. TLDR; Have a AX5400 router and AX3000 deco mesh, don't know if I can use same SSID on decos set as access point or if I fucked up with some of my setup and should change how everything works. Thanks to anyone who might be able to help!

Sadly I can't return them anymore, I ordered them quite a while ago since we were on the process of building this house. I have the AX73 model, which has been amazing so far. And welp, since I can't return those anymore would you have any recommendations on how to set them up in some other way rather than what I have right now? Or just leave them as they are?

Hi everyone! Hopefully someone can help me on this topic since I'm not sure if the setup that I currently have for my parent's house is the best as it can be. For context, we live in a bit of a rural area, so we started using starlink to get the best possible connection for remote work. Now, I saw some reviews and recognized that the starlink router is pretty bad even though it does its job, that's the reason I ended up buying the AX5400 Router, which so far has given me 0 problems and has a lot of nice options. My problem/situation comes when I realize that if I want to cover most of my house and a bit beyond it (since we have a lot of open space which is the garden and a guests area) I needed to set up a mesh network. Along with the AX5400 router, I ended up buying a 3 pack of AX300 Deco wi-fi mesh in amazon and gave my best shot at setting up all of what I have, which is the following configuration: \- Starlink router was set to derivation mode as to use the router AX5400 as the actual router as to have better options with guest network, security, port forwarding etc. \- Connected to the AX5400 router via ethernet is one of the AX3000 decos, set as an access point for the network and using the same SSID as the router so that only 1 network appears when searching for wifi (besides the guest network, which was set up from the application for the AX5400 router). \- So far I've only setup 1 of the deco AX3000 in the first floor of my house, close to the guest area, while the other one is stored and ready to be setup somewhere else, this one is also set as an access point and has the same SSID. My doubts/concerns about this, is obviously the fact that since these 2 products don't share the same technology for setting up a mesh, there's nowhere I can see that says "hey, these are your mesh devices while these are the devices connected to your router", and when actually getting decently far away from the router, as in like walking through my garden, I don't know if I'm actually now getting connected to the deco mesh or it's just the AX5400 having great coverage. What I want to get advice on is whether what I'm doing is correct, if I fucked up something, and what could I do to improve my situation. TLDR; Have a AX5400 router and AX3000 deco mesh, don't know if I can use same SSID on decos set as access point or if I fucked up with some of my setup and should change how everything works. Thanks to anyone who might be able to help!

Sadly I can't return them anymore, I ordered them quite a while ago since we were on the process of building this house. I have the AX73 model, which has been amazing so far. And welp, since I can't return those anymore would you have any recommendations on how to set them up in some other way rather than what I have right now? Or just leave them as they are?

Hey! For around $200,, the TP-Link AX73 is a solid pick with fast Wi-Fi 6, a reliable firewall, and full gigabit speeds. It only has 4 LAN ports, but you can grab a cheap switch to get more... If you want something fancier, check out the UniFi Dream Router.. It's a slick interface, decent features, but just a bit tight on ports unless you add a switch.. Or if you’re into DIY, a mini PC with PFSense/OPNSense + a separate Wi-Fi 6 access point gives you tons of control, just needs a bit more setup... Hope that helps!..

TPLink AX5400 or AXE5400, done. Those are around $100/$150 on Amaz right now, I did a quick check I am using AXE in 1800ish. The big thing on routers, be sure it has multiple CPUs in it, different class ARM stuff, but you want more than 1. /cheers

A vote here for the TP-Link AX5400. Works fantastically with the Quest 3 in all the games I've tried so far.

BE3600: (5 GHz speeds of 2882 Mbps and 2.4 GHz speeds of 688 Mbps) (𝟐.𝟎 𝑮𝑯𝒛 𝑸𝒖𝒂𝒅-𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒓) \-Best for multiple stuff connected by cable because it has a better CPU. \-Best if few stuff connected by it to wifi 2.4, too many then it may have poor performance. why? 2.4 has 688 Mbps and wifi 7 depends on it as well, if you connect a lot of devices capable of 2.4 and 5ghz then you will have a lot of traffic competing with your main stuff, so you will have to manually configure the router to give your main stuff the preference... but even so... the wifi will be shared with IoT stuff... the wifi 7 performance will be hurt by it. AX5400: (6 GHz: 2402 Mbps;5 GHz: 2402 Mbps;2.4 GHz: 574 Mbps) (1.7 GHz Quad-Core CPU) \-Best for multiple devices connected to 2.4GHz and 5GHz while you use your main stuff on 6GHz \-If we are talking about the one that has 2x2.5Gbps WAN/LAN ports then it's a really good wired router even if a little bit worse than the BE3600 because while this has 1.7Ghz Quad-Core, the BE3600 has 𝟐.𝟎 𝑮𝑯𝒛 𝑸𝒖𝒂𝒅-𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒓.... that is... if we are talking about local data transfers like a NAS... in short: many wifi devices? AX5400 and use 6ghz for your main stuff. few wifi devices and the heavy network traffic will be local stuff by cable? then BE3600