Pros: Works well with HDHome run EXTEND. The router is connected to my media pc over the wired ethernet connection and works fine for watching the full MPEG-2 HD broadcast from my local TV stations. I can also watch live TV on my NEXUS 5X over WFI using their Android app with the Mobile Tanscode level setting without any issues.

Cons: Wish the Wi-Fi was faster but real world performance is never as close to the ideal conditions tested in the lab.

Other Thoughts: Following tests done at about 15 feet from the router with it in line of site using IEEE 802.11ac at 5.0GHz and the routers latest firmware.
1. Using "Lan Speed Test (Lite)" on the client with a Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 nic and with "LAN Speed Test Server" running on the server connected to the router with a Intel® Ethernet Connection I219-V. I get around 160 megabits per second up and 220 megabits per second down. I ran through all the different combinations of settings: Channels/Channel Width/Transmit Power retesting the transfer rate each time and this is the best numbers i could get. I do live in an apartment with other wireless networks around. I also tried a TP-Link AC1200 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter and the speeds were about 90% of the built-in Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 nic.
2. On a Nexus 5x Andriod phone (Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO, dual-band (2.4 GHz, 5.0 GHz)) using wifi speed test (Zoltan Pallagi) and his wifi_speed_test_server running on the PC connected to the router i get around 100 megabits per second up and down.

Pros: Easy setup, intuitive and easy-to-use admin UI, attractive design, good reviews.

Cons: The router suddenly became unstable a few weeks after installation. Both wired and WiFi throughput was severely crippled, complex webpages that had encryption would not load, and WiFi power dropped markedly. Rebooting and power cycling the router did not resolve the issues. Taking the unit out of service and replacing it with the old router it had replaced immediately solved the problems, which points to a failure in the AC3200.

Other Thoughts: This is a huge disappointment to me. The router initially had very good WiFi coverage of the very large house and yard and had respectable speeds. That all ended in an instant.

I considered doing some extended troubleshooting and tweaking of the UI settings to try to find the problem but decided against it since the wired connections were crippled as well. Another factor was that I had only a few days left in the 30-day return window. In my experience, brand-new equipment that suddenly malfunctions without any changes being made to it or to its environment/infrastructure is an ominous sign to return it while you still can and not waste any more time on it.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Ed,
Thank you for sharing your feedback regarding our product.
We are sorry to hear that our device was unable to provide a solution for you.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our products in the future, please feel free to contact our support team at the number and/or email provided for you below and an available support agent will be happy to assist you.
We thank you again for your feedback and certainly hope this experience will not discourage you from checking out more of our great networking products in the future.
Best Regards!
TP-LINK Support Team
866) 225-8139
ussupportteam@tp-link.com

Pros: Fast
Stable

Cons: None

Pros: Versatile-2.4 GHz for older devices and 5 GHz for newer. Good range and thru-put.

Cons: Shipped with a short Cat 5e cable, yet all of the Ethernet ports (including the Internet port) are 10/100/1000. Why not ship with a Cat 6 cable? The USB 2.0 port did not work with my printer. Check the compatibility list B4 you buy.

Other Thoughts: Short power cable is great. It is the standard computer type, so if you need a longer one, it's not a big deal. Unit is a little large, but not terribly so. Even with the cons, I gave it 5 eggs and would buy it again.

Pros: It does connect to my network and the www. Speed is OK. I didn't notice anything earth shaking.

Cons: BUT: The TP-LINK Archer C3200 is not compatible with the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime TV tuner the tuner will not work with Windows Media Center at all when this router is installed. Windows will not see the tuner, install any tv functions, or TV guide of the Silicondust HDHomeRun TV tuner. After fighting with trying to make it work with my HDHomeRun Prime over the weekend and not getting any timely response from the maker I had to RMA this router.

Other Thoughts: It will probably work for most users but not for me. I will keep looking for a router in this class that is compatible with my network setup.

Pros: * The device comes with an easy to setup gui and at the same time, lets you take control of your network
* Dual Band, Multi Channel, Guest SSID. Really, everything you need for every situation.
* Speeds are as advertised (~Speed fluctuation is around 5 - 8%)
* Typical bottom mounting holes
* Typical USB ports
* Typical Print Server system
* Typical WPS
* Typical Parental Controls
* IPSEC VPN (This is important for me, as this allows me to connect to work and manage our local servers. This is great!)
* Nice Packaging
* Has all you need to get started

This thing is a solid build design also. Easy to hide too.

Cons: I really wish it had more Ethernet ports. For the more advanced people; there is no Tomato/3rd Party support currently. This is quite disheartening but to be expected at the moment of me writing this

Other Thoughts: I did the typical speed tests and bench marking I do with routers. This router falls under the "as advertised" category. Nothing really different to report than what is in specs listed.

You know what you are buying and that is nice as a consumer.

Pros: The Archer C3200 is very easy to setup. Although there is no included setup DVD as with other TP-LINK routers, it really is not needed, which equates to one less disc in the landfill. There is a small technical support pamphlet, and a quick start guide included with the power adapter and 4ft CAT5e cable in the box.

Overall, the web GUI is very organized and easy to navigate. They’ve cleaned up the menu significantly since the last TP-LINK router that I reviewed, which was an Archer C7. The menu is divided into three sections; Quick Setup, Basic, and Advanced. Within those sections you will find either the essentials of setting up a router, or you will find a plethora of options and advanced settings which allow you to really customize the functionality of this router. I’ll go into more detail in a moment.

The C3200 can broadcast up to SIX different SSID’s across three different bands with the optional guest networks enabled. Each SSID can have its own security settings. The three primary SSID’s can have their own channel number and width settings, as well as the transmit power can be adjusted from low to high. The guest networks will follow the global settings for channel widths and power, DHCP or static addressing, and other settings like MAC filtering, bandwidth control, and parental controls. Guest networks can have client isolation enabled and local network access disabled, which is an added layer of security for password-less open networks.

The C3200 has two USB ports, of which one is 3.0. These create a great way to quickly and easily setup your own personal media server, or FTP internet accessible storage device, or even a turn a wired printer into a wireless one. The ability to control access to the USB device is done through a user chosen set of credentials. You can even limit access to a specific file/folder on the drive. However, there can only be one username built into the access list at time, which is very disappointing.

There are a ton of other features that advanced users will find useful, like allowing NATing, MAC device filtering, custom WAN MAC address, VPN tunneling, advanced routing rules, and creating a DMZ. There are some useful built-in diagnostic tools like ping and traceroute for troubleshooting network connections, as well as a detailed system log with SMTP ability. There is also remote management ability built into this router with unique login credentials. One of my favorite features is the hour-by-hour on/off schedule for each of the three wireless bands. This allows you to only broadcast certain SSID’s during times of peak traffic in your home, like weekends and evenings, as well as disable Wi-Fi altogether when you’re at work or asleep to help prevent intruders.

The underside of the router has two mounting holes for wall or ceiling mounting, however, the antenna design would limit your broadcast range if the router is not flat/horizontally mounted.

Cons: I only have a couple complaints with this router. Firstly, DD-WRT firmware is not currently supported. If you are not familiar with DD-WRT, just think of it as jail-breaking your router with new software. But unlike jailbreaking, some and most manufacturers will support this on select devices. Doing so will unlock a fair amount of features not usually found with consumer router interfaces, as well as improving security against intruders and hackers.

Secondly, I did experience some client disconnects on the primary 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands when, and only when, the guest networks were enabled. In other words, when all six SSID’s are broadcasting, occasionally some of my devices would be blocked from connecting to the primary SSID’s. This could be temporarily remedied with a router reboot, or disabling the guest networks. At no time were any LAN connected devices ever disconnected. I have seen this same thing occur with another Wi-Fi router review, but never with a TP-LINK product. I can only wonder if it was caused by interference caused by the very many SSID’s and devices within my home. I attempted to troubleshoot with Wireshark, but my packet snooping device itself was kicked along with several cell phones and a laptop, so my trace ended before I could get any data that pointed to an issue. I really hope TP-LINK can reproduce this in their labs, and pinpoint the cause, because I believe this could just as easily be a firmware issue within the device.

Lastly, I still am asking during every router review for manufacturers to start building PoE ports into their devices. Again, so many homeowners are turning to grassroots security devices, including PoE cameras, that this could pose a significant gain in this realm. It would allow the flexibility to locate security cameras where AC power just isn’t reachable, or practical, but a CAT5/6 connection could be run instead.

Other Thoughts: Despite the few cons listed above, I truly would recommend this router to any homeowner looking for a tri-band router with long range, good surrounding coverage, and a rich list of advanced features. If you do not use or need a dedicated guest network, you might never experience the disconnect issue that I had even seen.

Thank you to TP-LINK and Newegg.com for the review sample!
If you found my review helpful in your product search, please check Yes below! Thanks!

Pros: Worked on first start without even going to its web page-just like a good piece of equipment should! I don't use wireless that much in my house for reasons I don't understand on signal carry-for the TV closest, 5 bars easy. For all my wired devices, including those on Netgear Megaplug-connections are great.

Cons: None at this point.

Other Thoughts: I'd started w a Mikrotik 10-port routerboard off another Church Member's suggestion. I wasn't smart enough to make that work so it was returned for a full refund. I did no small amount of research b4 ordering the Archer. This included MU-MIMO AC2600 units (inclusive of TP-LINK'S). I'm just not at that tech point-and this unit's reviews were clearly better. I now understand and agree with the others.

Pros: Box, packaging and router all seem nice and designed pretty well. Even though the main box was a bit messed up from shipping, the router box was in good shape.

Router looks serious when you open all the antenna's. Some will like this, some may not. I don't mind the look at all.

Has two mounting holes on the bottom if you want to mount to a desk / wall.

Bottom of the router has the default SSID names and password.

Initial Wizard setup on router works well. It will run you through all the basic options to creating a user account for login, changing the password, and enable / disable any of the wireless radios, can change names.

Router does have guest network settings. Settings for guest are pretty decent, you can allow all guests to share, access you network devices on your non-guest lan, or even block guests from sharing with one another.

Network map on the router after you login is decent and simple. Gives you a status of each radio signal, internet status, number of wired and wireless devices.

USB options to share folders from a USB HDD, and also a USB print server. (1 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0 port = nice!) Sharing Options are nice and work well for a high end router at this price point.

Advanced section is easy to find at the top, and has a ton of advanced features. You can easily port forward, use IPTV, Dynamic DNS, DMZ, Virtual Servers, and set your DHCP settings, add static IP's. You can even setup IPSEC VPN.
Firewall seems pretty standard, can enable/disable WAN ping, DOS,

As an IT guy, the advanced options on this router are pretty nice and I think it can handle everything I need for my home office network.

I do wish the Firmware update scanned for updates rather than having to search the tplink site manually. (It could at least have a link to the TP link download site ;) However not a major issue, just being picky.

Router had a firmware update online, So I updated version to the 150714 (latest at the moment). It was pretty easy to do and did not have any issues.


The router does have WPS available, however you can turn WPS off if you like. (I always do)

Parental Controls where you can add keywords to whitelist(allow) or blacklist(block). You can enable this for specific devices rather than the entire network if you so wish.

Signal strength is really good for this router. I won't say way better than other routers in this price range since others get similar strength. The signals do stay steady, and I have not had to reboot the router on a regular basis or anything for connections / wireless issues etc.... that is a good thing!

I get signals at the 2.4 ghz band in the 5 bar range @ 35dBm range at 30 feet away.
Router is downstairs, when I am upstairs it's around 50dBm.

Overall this is a great router and is a good option if you are looking for something high end.

Cons: No major cons that I have found at this point.

Other Thoughts: Would be nice in the address reservations if you could add devices from a list. currently you have to copy / enter the MAC address to add it manually. Not a huge deal as most people will not even need to assign a static IP, or be doing this for a lot of devices / everyday. I do however use this myself for a few specific devices (server, other network devices, etc...)

I live in a two story 2500~ SQ' house, and signal is pretty good throughout most of the house, however I do get a few low / dead spots here and there with just about any router do to the setup of my house.

Pros: Aesthetics are pretty interesting. This is the first time I've seen a router like it. It's well-ventilated, with collapsible antennas that each fit into the profile of the router base. The build quality is very good, with high quality rubber feet and a solid frame. There's also two holes on the underside to mount the router onto a wall.

Setup is very easy and you'll be ready in no time. Soon as you connect to the device, you're required to change the login password immediately.

All Ethernet ports are Gigabit.

There's no noticeable hiccups, stutters, or jitters. I haven't had any issues in the entire month running it.

The LED status lights, when on, are not excessively bright. That means it's not going to be as distracting as some other routers if the router is in a bedroom. You can also turn them off via a "Night Mode" setting.

Cons: Although it has firewall and bandwidth limiting which is plenty enough for household use, there isn't really any control in bandwidth shaping capabilities.

Other Thoughts: Note that 3200Mbps is split among 3 bands - two of them are on the 5Ghz spectrum. 600Mbps possible through 2.4Ghz (wireless n); 1300Mbps (each band, 802.11ac) through 5GHz. Plenty fast and stable for a household.

The "Night Mode" setting turns off all of the LEDs when within a period of time (HH:mm to HH:mm) described by a range you entered.