TP-Link - Archer C7 AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (V5)

The alternative firmwares are most useful as things age. They don't really unlock pretty basic features that should have been there as much as they did in the early days. But they are updated a lot longer. Got an old TP-LINK Archer C7 doing wireless bridge duty for a low-data wired device. Last firmware from TP-LINK was 2018. It's running the current stable release of OpenWRT. It will run it just fine until the hardware is so old that it can't keep up. Oh, and if you have carpeting, you can often slide flat Ethernet into the space between the baseboards and the carpet.

I would be surprised if there is a single currently supported OpenWRT router out there that couldn’t handle 35/7 SQM. If your C7 wasn’t working, your settings were wrong. It can handle that no problem.

i used to use my TP archer c7 with openwrt as travel router, now do i use a asus rt 53Ux(the name could be different) and just connect to the wifi via lucie. if you connect to a wifi via join network will it do everything for you like setting up wwan and fw rules to make it work. then do i use a device to do a captive portal if the network has one and then do i turn on wireguard. to then use other services do i need a extra vpn connection on the clients. btw wireguard may not work on all networks because some block udp ports that are above like 200. choosing a low port is not recommended but will guarantee to work in more networks. sftp and ftp ports are great but others in the low port ranges that support udp could help.

My experience has been pretty great with TP-Link hardware, starting with their Archer C7s with Linux installed on them, I still use these C7s as endpoint switches attached to the Deco mesh.. And yes it works very well for the price bracket it's in. Zero issues with the several sets I've installed, specifically the XE75. I used to call them toilet-paper link before I started using them.

What are you currently getting with your router? The hangups/stalls are worrying but the question is always why? Maybe config needs tweaking more than what you need a new device. I love openwrt devices... you can make them last forever. You get professional-grade features on consumer-grade devices. I also have 2 old TP Link devices (Archer C7), flashed with openWRT. They handle my network flawlessly.... including firewall, dynamic dns registration, wireguard, redundant internet connections, multiple VLANs, multiple BSSIDs with roaming...

Archer C7 + OpenWRT But proper routing + FW (no Wi-Fi) an old PC with pfSense /Opnsense ...

I'm not sure how to say this, but paying ridiculously amount of money then Asus being Asus not giving it a firmware update after it's out of software support time even if someone found a warning vulnerability hole is not a great choice. Just found out that TP-Link still update vulnerabilities firmwares for out of support routers. Recently the Archer C7 got a vulnerability exploit, they already updated the firmware despite that model is out of support.