Pros: If you have MU-MIMO capable devices (the majority of devices sold in the past 4 years) the TP-LINK Archer C2600 certainly speeds transfer rates when multiple devices are active. Video streaming to two or three devices is visibly smoother and higher quality on the Archer 2600 than traditional routers. Setup is straightforward, the WPS button works perfectly. TP-LINK's user interface is dated but functional as long as you enable the "Advanced" options. Wired performance is typical for home routers in this price range. I measured 750 Mbps down and 800Mbps up. Like all TP-LINK routers since 2008, the C2600 unfortunately is not Wi-Fi Alliance certified. 5 GHz throughput was very good at short range. I measured 215 Mbps down and 200 Mbps up - above average for comparable routers. Through a single interior wall, speed dropped by a third, two walls cut speeds in half. That was slower than comparable D-Link or Netgear routers managed. 2.4 GHz throughput lagged behind D-Link and Netgear at all ranges. The best I measured at short range was 92 Mbps down and 110 up. Relative drop-off rates with distance and through walls was at least as bad as at 5 GHz. Place a wall between the Archer C2600 and your device and most similarly-priced 2.4 GHz routers will blow it away. The MU-MIMO specification allows for streaming to four devices simultaneously. The Archer C2600 only supports three but does an excellent job at load balancing so all three devices receive maximum throughput.

Cons: I consistently saw transfer speeds slow to a crawl after a week or two of operation. It required power cycling the C2600 to restore full functionality. Security and compatibility are not strong suits of the Archer C2600. The router management password is limited to 15 characters and does not support secure (https) connections. Why? Who knows. Worse is that maximum length WPA passwords (63 characters) can't be used if you connect with either Android or iOS devices. I do not know what the cutoff is for password length; at 63 characters a phone or tablet connects but does not get internet address (tested with Nexus 5X and 6P and iPhone 6s and 6). Windows laptops do manage to connect, however. Firewall settings are limited to on or off. No support for custom rulesets. UPnP was flaky at best. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. Using the Archer C2600 for remote access to a networked system was frustrating at best. VPN support is lacking. With enough fiddling with virtual servers, static routes, and port triggering I managed to access a local machine from the WAN. Barely, slowly, and with low security. This is not a good choice for a SOHO router.

Overall Review: Most of the issues I have with the Archer C2600 are software related. The hardware performs well with the caveat that this is not the best router in its class if wireless range is a requirement. The firmware on TP-LINK's site has not been updated since last year. As other reviewers mention, there is no easy way to upgrade the firmware - a wired connection to the router is a must - and, unlike many competing routers, the C2600 neither updates its own firmware nor offers any way to check directly from the control GUI. If TP-LINK were to fix the firmware issues, this could be a good router for people who regularly stream to multiple devices at once. Until they do, however, I would recommend purchasing a different option.

Pros: The last few TP-Link products I have owned and reviewed have been a little hit or miss, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by its reliability. My previously router was driving me up a wall, randomly deciding it was going to send through 1-2 mbps rather than the 50 it was supposed to. I found myself resetting it daily, if not multiple times in an evening. However, this TP-Link is yet to require a reset in more than 3 continuous weeks of running. On more than one occasion, I have suspected it of being slow, but a quick stop at a popular internet speed testing site revealed I was pulling 51 down with a ping of 16-20. It was very consistent. As with any consumer level router these days, setup is a breeze. It has you input all your info and you get rid into the config. The other biggest boon of this device for me is the range. I had recently moved by router from the basement (where my switches and modem are) to the living room in an attempt to get better signal in my spare bedrooms. Obviously the move had helped, but I am still able to pull a relatively strong -50 dB in the farthest room. Not ideal for FPS online games, but it generally did alright with everything else. Finally, I did hook up an old flash drive to the unit to pull some files off and it seemed to immediately recognize it and allow me to access it. Nice and simple. No drivers, no jumping through hoops, no 30 seconds of power cycling, etc.

Cons: I’m still kind of confused as to one issue I’m having. Randomly, my service speed will slow to a crawl. Certain pages won’t open or take a very long time to load (considering the 50 mbps connection). With my old router, this happened on all my wireless devices randomly. Now, it seems to happen exclusively to only one wired device; my main rig! This was especially infuriating when I was trying to do my taxes and it would load Google, but refused to pull up anything else (like, yanno, TurboTax.) Not sure if it is somehow an incompatibility with my PC, but you’d think in 2016 it wouldn’t have a problem. As others have pointed out, there is no one-click solution to firmware updates. My phone does them automatically. My TV does them automatically. My iPad does them automatically. Everything else in my house that is on the internet does them automatically. Why not my brand new, top dollar router?

Overall Review: Whereas with other routers, I have tried to be a little more quantitative, I did not actually run speed and throughput results on my local network with this unit. My current network has the signal going from my modem, across the house to the router, then back across the house to my network switch to feed the wired jacks throughout my home. I would hope the switch wouldn’t suck much bandwidth, but it seems unfair to report any numbers against just the router. I have a handful of TP-Link products in my house. I previously used another review unit from TP-Link and was only moderately satisfied. I think this unit makes a great case as a strong consumer grade unit that offers lots of power and configuration options without being too complex or confusing.

Pros: - Extremely fast and user friendly interface. I have to say without a doubt this is one of the smoothest and user friendly layouts for a router GUI I've ever used. You can quickly jump between menus with literally no waiting. There's also 2 modes to choose from "basic" and "advanced". Basic is stripped down to exactly what a novice end user would need to get their router setup and running. The advanced features are definitely better suited for your intermediate to advanced+ users however there are a few features there that you may find to your liking so don't be afraid to browse through them. There's also a quick setup option. 6 steps and a minute later you'll be ready to go. - Incredible coverage. I'm actually able to pick up a strong 5G signal in my bedroom which is at the complete opposite end of the house. This router should effortlessly cover most small to mid-sized homes or businesses. - Comes with every feature you'd want (Except for one and I'll address that in the "cons") for a home or small business router. File/print sharing, remote management, and a slew of security features. - This may sound like a dumb thing to add but not only can you turn the LED's on and off you can set a "night time" mode for them. The reason I need to mention this is because they are, just like most LED's, bright! Let's say you like your room dark but the router is fairly close. No problem! Set the router to disable all lighting from 6pm to 6am or whatever time works for you. It's little things like this that show a lot of thought was put into the product. - Not a single drop, hiccup, issue in 3 straight weeks of use. I took a little longer than normal to review this because I was determined to find something wrong. I've never used a router where I just didn't have some tiny little issue that bugged me. Literally nothing. - Backup and restore features. Once you get this router setup (and you're at the appropriate firmware version) you can backup your configuration for easy recovery. Again, the little things. I've been in situations before where I've run a firmware upgrade that ended up resetting EVERYTHING. Wireless settings, port forwarding, etc. It's nice to know if that does happen, no biggie; it's a minor inconvenience at most. - Renaming the admin account. You'd be amazed at how many routers don't allow this very basic function. I like keeping things secure and not giving away half of what you need to get in is a big plus.

Cons: - If I had to nitpick and really stretch for something close to a "con" it would be the lack of VPN given the price point this router is competing at. However this is something you know going in so it's not really something I can deduct an egg for.

Overall Review: First thing to do when you get this router is verify you're on the latest firmware. No exceptions. The improvements they've made have addressed earlier concerns of the router. And the firmware upgrade process is fast and painless; no worries there. One thing I need to stress is whether or not this is the right solution for you if you're not going to take advantage of all the features the C2600 offers. Simply put, just because a product is absolutely amazing doesn't always means it's the right one for what you need. If you're reading this review and looking for just something basic and don't need a large coverage area then there are a lot of really good mid-range routers that would be much friendlier to your wallet and you'd be equally happy with. Not to mention to the VPN issue can be a huge deal breaker for some. However, if you can live without VPN and want what I consider to be one of the most solid performing routers I've had the pleasure to use and review (and you're OK with the price tag!) then you found it.

Pros: This router was an upgrade from my Linksys e2500 and right off the bat I saw a speed improvement of 5Mbps from the internet download. I loved that I could hook up a flash drive and use it for storage. The Router was also easy to configure through a computer but has an even easier mobile app to control it from. I also noticed that transfers through my network were faster, in my testing I was able to transfer a 9.23Gb Folder to my in house NAS in 3 Minutes 52 Seconds at an average speed of 50Mb/s. The WiFi Connection I was getting the same speeds as on Wired LAN. This is great for a larger family that has multiple people using the internet at any given time. I do video work which requires me to constantly upload and download video while transferring video off to Various devices, The AC2600 had no problem what so ever handling what I needed it to. In terms of Wireless range, In my stone house which does not normally have a good wireless signal, This router was able to keep me connected in all areas. Would Highly recommend getting this device.

Cons: None

Overall Review: I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ROUTER TO ANY HOME OWNER.

Pros: The TP-Link Archer C2600 router has a lot going for it. It is a very nice looking, high quality workmanship, well laid out, descent firmware settings and wall mountable. I like to mount my routers high up on the wall near the ceiling to get the best coverage in my home. I removed a competitor’s router and set up this router up with several home computers, laptop, iPhones, iPad, TV/DVD and my home server. All went very well on both the 2.4 and 5Ghz channels. The server did not fair to well and I’ll discuss that below. Transfer speeds were disappointing between the USB3 thumb drive attached to the router and a wired network computer, and two wireless computers (one running with an “N” adapter and the other with a TP-Link AC1900 T9E adapter). To test the speed I transferred 54 JPG files totaling 325MB to each computer as follows; Wired direct to C2600 router = 15 MB/s Wireless “N” adapter = 7 MB/s Wireless TP-Link AC1900 = 12MB/s Overall the speed was lacking for file transfer. Internet browsing was fast and snappy for all devices connected with no issues. The firmware is very extensive and includes a quick setup, basic and advanced sections. The advanced sections gives a lot of control over the router and has the majority of setting you expect to have available.

Cons: The C2600 Router and Windows 2012R2 Essentials that I use for my home server refuses to cooperate in establishing Remote Server Access. I use this capability to access files from the server to my work office. My previous router had no issues and turning on UPnP was all it took. With the C2600, UPnP is available and on but refuses to establish the remote connection. Windows Server always times out with several error messages to turn on UPnP, which it is. I have been tinkering with it over the past several weeks and have given up at this point. There is no updated firmware for this device so server remote access is a failure at this point and a substantial disappointment for such a nice high powered router.

Overall Review: I was unable to test the MU-MIMO features. The iPhones do not support the technology, no does my TP-Link AC1900 adapter. Hopefully new devices will be released soon with MU-MIMO capabilities. This router is a real tossup. Fast internet access, slow file transfers and no server remote access. Depending on your needs it may suit your needs.

Pros: After a month of typical household use, I have little to complain about, which is becoming my consistent experience with TP-LINK stuff. Fills a large house with a strong signal; the four antennas and beamforming seem to find every corner. Supports multiple streaming users with no apparent slowdowns. The unit itself is sleek and unobtrusive, which is really all I ask, optically, of a router. It's nice that you can turn off the flashy lights. Doesn't seem to generate a lot of heat, so ventilation shouldn't be a problem. The control panel is well laid out, and is impressively responsive. I was able to swap out my old router and be back online in five minutes. And unlike many other routers, changing a setting doesn't automatically necessitate a two minute reboot sequence. The controls were easy to understand (for a router), and seem full-featured, though more tech savvy reviewers have commented on some missing functions.

Cons: My one attempt to get geeky with the C2600, fiddling with the QOS (quality of service) settings to improve my VOIP performance, resulted in some frustration. The router allowed me to assign high priority to either a device, an application, or a LAN line. But the list of applications seemed short and obsolete – it showed "”Gtalk” but not Google Voice or Hangouts. There's a provision to upload an updated QOS database, but I didn't find anything at the TP-Link website. Then, clicking "view existing devices" only showed a few devices, and not the VOIP device. I had to go to the Network/DHCP Server/client list to find the MAC address of the VOIP and manually enter it. And then it insisted I enter all the dashes. ;-) It's hard to understand why such an advanced device can't at least have a button in the control panel that will take you to the firmware update web page. Better yet, update automatically, as other companies have been doing for years. Lastly, and most annoying "feature" of several of my TP-Link routers is the dreaded "auto-log-out." Yes, every 10 minutes while configuring this router you get to reenter your user name and password – made even more annoying by the fact that neither Chrome nor Firefox are able to remember the username or password.

Overall Review: I see other reviewers have given detailed accounts of range and throughput. I'll only add that the router, like all its predecessors, wasn't able to broadcast much of a signal outside my house. For that I still need to use a dedicated outdoor router, mounted above the roof…

Pros: Great range. Great wired and wireless speeds. Seamless USB storage integration. Security as expected. 5Ghz band is SUPERB. DHCP or static IP configurations work. Parental controls are a nice touch if you've got curious kids or simple room mates. Easy web-based interface. LED indicator switch in the interface that lets you make it dark if you have it close and don't want to see it. Typical port forwarding seen on business class routers. Good guest network with options like allowing connected devices to see each other, and even giving guests the ability to see your internal network (you'd better be on top of sharing permissions if you want to allow that!) Easy firmware update utility that works. Traffic statistics is a great tool if you think you're being hacked. Simple reboot button in the web-based interface.

Cons: Print server is incompatible with most old printers. :(

Overall Review: This thing has exceeded my expectations by miles. It has so much power I no longer have any need for any of my range extenders -even the AC-1200 jobbbie... It jacks up the 5Ghz range and speed that no other dual band router I've used can touch. It's easy to log in and control the web-based utility and it's on par with other business class routers I've used like the Nighthawk, but with even more flexibility in the print server function, guest network, and USB sharing. I plugged in an external Seagate USB 2.0 HDD into the USB 3.0 port and it powered it and shared immediately without a reboot. Talk about a painless NAS solution!!! It's hard to find anything wrong with this router other than legacy printer support. I'm off to buy a new printer. :)

Pros: Sleek design, typical of most routers. Sits neatly on a test or surfaceThe 4 antennas are not that obtrusive but serve primarily for functionality which will be explained later. Buttons are easily accessible on the sides and notification LED lights are easily distinguishable under light or in low light. Spec-wise the C2600 is a solid high performance router. Supports MU-MIMO via the 4 antennas that can send out multiple output/input streams at once. This also allows for a theoretical maximum throughput of 1733 Mbps via 5 GHz (AC) and 800 Mbps via 2.4 Ghz (N). All 5 major bands are supported, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. The C2600 also supports Gigabit ethernet which is another plus which is standard on high performance routers such as this one. Not sure if there are any comparisons regarding this but another plus is the addition of 1.4 Ghz dual-core processor to manage the multiple streams. I personally like the addition of a Wireless On/Off button. Before on most routers you would have to access the software settings to disable Wi-Fi but now you can with the touch of a button. Compatible with IPV6 which allows flexibility depending on your internet provider. Two USB 3.0 ports are included for attached devices such as NAS, printers and other forms of external storage. I haven't really tested it but I am glad that TP-Link decided to make the ports USB 3.0 which eliminates the USB 2.0 data bottleneck. Installation was a breeze. Plugged it in, setup wireless settings via the tool and I was connected within 3 minutes. GUI layout is very user friendly, easy to read and navigate. It is not cluttered like other router GUI's in the past. I currently have a gateway router through Verizon Fios so I had to take this to a friends's house to test on his cable modem. The router had to be setup in the basement, not the most ideal spot since you want a strong signal to broadcast all throughout the house and not just the basement and the main floor. Used a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 to test range and speed. Basement as usual was 5 bars for 5 Ghz and 2.5 Ghz. Main floor, 3 bars for 5 Ghz and 4 bars for 2.4 Ghz. Attic 2-3 bars for 5 Ghz and 3 bars for 2.4 Ghz. Results can vary for others based on the size of the residence, materials used for ceilings and walls, and interference from other devices such as Microwaves, cordless phones etc. Speed was very good regarding data transfers, even better via 5 Ghz due to the increased throughput of Wireless AC.

Cons: UPnP is automatically disabled. A must have for file-sharing between local network computers or shared printers

Overall Review: Overall I had absolutely no issues with this router. This is a high performance router meant for individuals that utilize data intensive activities such as streaming 4K, gaming etc. Firmware needs to be update after installation. Price point is absolutely justified by the specs. Definitely a solid router for anyone that is looking to buy.