TP-LINK Archer C8 AC1750 Dual Band Wireless AC Gigabit Router, 2.4 GHz 450 Mbps+5 GHz 1350 Mbps, 1 x USB 2.0 Port & 1 x USB 3.0 Port, IPv6, Guest Network

Pros: The initial setup phase was very easy, within a few minutes all the basic stuff was set up and the router was ready to go. Guest accounts are a great feature to allow users to access your internet but dont want to tell them your main login information. My password is very long and complex so it helps that you don;t have to keep giving it out to everyone. Physical wireless on and off switch. With other routers you usually have to cycle through settings menu's to switch this feature off. Has an on/off rocker switch, so in the event that you do need a simple router reset just toggle the switch instead of having to pull the power cord out. Does not require to reset the router when changes are made in the settings. It only saves about 10-15 seconds but its still a neat feature. The amount of different settings in the router menu is huge, it can almost rival third party firmware's like DD-WRT in that regard. The router has the same type of options of router that cost more then double. Has two USB ports, one at USB 2.0 and the other at USB 3.0 for attaching external storage devices to created networked storage drives. For the size the router is surprisingly light weighing a little less then two pounds. Dual band at 2.4ghz and 5ghz for optimal connection and speed. WPS button which is more or less standard on all routers these days.

Cons: Overall router design is a little quirky. It can only stand up vertical and cannot be laid down flat or mounted on a wall. With the three antennas installed the unit is fairly tall, so make sure you have sufficient room to accumulate it before purchase. The router built in menu and navigation for setting were not that good past initial setup. Someone who has trouble with more complex technology will most likely have alot of trouble trying to change basic settings where as experienced users should not have much trouble with it. The way USB external storage devices are shared over the network when plugged into this router could have been better. You must type a special address provided by the router every time you want to access the storage device over the network instead of the device just showing up as shared network storage in windows explorer.

Overall Review: It says it can detect where you devices are and increase the network strength in that particular direction but I tested it in a few different places and really haven't noticed any difference between it and other routers. Currently there is no DD-WRT available for this router, only the C7. It should come out soon, the sooner the better to get rid of the bad menu's.

Pros: I’ve been testing routers, modems, and switches for Newegg for the last year (one of their favorite things to send out for reviews). I have to say that I am blown away by this router. This is easily the BEST router I have ever used. Overall this router is built beautifully and feels like it will last quite some time. It has the latest wireless revisions and supports maximum connections speeds of 1750Mbps. External antennae are a HUGE plus because you can always get better antennae. This router also boasts a dual core 800MHz processor and can most likely handle anything you will be throwing at it. The installation was as simple as any other router. There are three options when you get into the admin interface, quick setup, basic and advanced. The quick setup process gives you a step by step walkthrough to enter all critical pieces of information to get your router going, this is great for beginners. Those that want a few more options, but don’t want to be overwhelmed can use the basic setup. Finally, if you want granular control of your network then you can do so with the advanced tab. This is the tab that I used, and I’ve got to say it is one of the best user interfaces I’ve seen on a router. Everything is right where it should be and is intuitive to find thanks to the tabbed navigation. I had my router up and running in 15 minutes. I’ve configured three networks, a 2.5GHz, 5.0GHz, and guest network. The guest network is completely isolated from the 2.4 and 5.0 networks (or you can grant guests access to see each other or the protected networks). I configured reserved IPs for my servers with ease, and then port forwarding to them just as easily. The USB options on this router are great. You get a 3.0 and 2.0 port and the admin options are simple and easy to use. Transfer speeds aren’t anything to boast about, I got about 6MBps upload and 10MBps download via the USB 3.0 port which is better than any router I’ve used before. Hopefully they will be able to give speeds a boost in future firmware revisions. I was able to map a network drive flawlessly using credentials which I’ve had issues with on other routers. I think my favorite feature of this router is that it allows dynamic dns through no-ip (as well as dynamic dns and comexe). Most routers I have used don’t have configurations for no-ip, but finally I have one that does. I can now access everything through my unique domain and I don’t have to worry about my VPN screwing up the DUC utility. This router supports concurrent use of both 2.4 and 5.0 bands for maximum wireless throughput while operating in AC mode. Unfortunately I am unable to test that feature at this time.

Cons: Not much. It’s a little pricey, but for the features you get it’s still a great deal. The USB is a little slow, even on 3.0, but as I said before this router still performs better than any other one that I’ve used. I think it is a hardware limitation not so much a software one. NAT Boost. Not 100% sure what this feature actually does (supposedly increases performance), but when it is enabled you lose out on features like bandwidth monitoring. From what I’ve found on the internet if you disable NAT Boost then there is ~50% drop in bandwidth performance. TP-Link recommends that this be left on, so that’s what I’m doing. I don’t generally monitor the bandwidth anyway so it’s not enough to knock an egg. If you plan on wall mounting this router, don’t buy this router. It has one position and one position only, can’t even lay it flat.

Overall Review: It is not very often that I give a product a 5 star review, but this router deserves it. The features and benefits that you get at this price point are pretty awesome. None of the cons are bad enough to warrant dropping a single egg and are only a minor annoyance at most. The benefits of this router greatly outweigh the cons. This router is for power users. People that are going to take full advantage of the features and want a router that outperforms most rivals. If you are looking for that kind of router then I would absolutely recommend this!

Pros: *received this router fully upgraded to latest US firmware revision and pretty much all was superb and easy to set up *great WiFi speed boost over my former Linksys E2000 router (n-band running Tomato firmware) *was able to achieve stable 64 MB/s (512 Mbps) transfer rate of huge 4Gb file from PC HDD over 5GHz wifi to PC laptop (HDD as well) *very good GUI which is both nice and pretty intuitive (check below for IPv6 config notes below under cons) *very good range, seems twice as strong as my former E2000 box with internal antennas *no problems with simultaneous running of both 2.4 & 5GHz wifi, no dropouts for days (I have old Asus tablet that doesn't support 5GHz like our all mobile devices do, so it's a great thing for me who had to run 2 old boxes so far) *worth the money! *USB File server share and FTP works fine and is pretty much automatic *gotta love the dual core 800MHz CPU :) *I love it, even tho it's white ;)

Cons: -My only real grief is the white color and no wall mount :( but that is not even worth hacking off an egg for, since that's just cosmetics -A bit of headache with IPv6 configuration as the default option (non-temporary address) doesn't work with Comcast. In short I set IPv6 WAN type to DHCPv6, then toggled IPv6 Prefix Delegation option, hit save and reboot router. Then go back to C8 GUI and check if LAN side of IPv6 is set to SLAAC and if the correct IPv6 prefix was picked up - NOTE: it's NOT the one like WAN IPv6 address! It must be one like WAN IPv6 Address Prefix, now if DNSv6 addresses were picked up automatically and correctly then you should be all set, so then reboot your PC and voilla, all works fine :) Any other approach to this fails miserably ;) -USB 3.0 port didn't like my Patriot Supersonic USB 3.0 32GB stick and ran at USB 2.0 speeds when transferring files over network (max 20 MB/s while I was truly expecting ~90 MB/s) -Do not disable the NAT boost functionality as the transfer speeds for WiFi will drop, that however cripples some functionality (cannot enable statistics or bandwidth QoS otherwise). -TP-LINK online support pretty much does NOT exist yet for this router, tried it, got no reply in 24 hrs so gave up with the ticket(wanted to ask about something when I initially ran into IPv6 issues). As you can see no real world problems here, a few glitches and minor drawbacks and all runs pretty much flawlessly. The firmware I am sure will be updated further to provide even more flexibility, stability and performance, this is just the beginning :)

Overall Review: My Archer C8 was Firmware Version: 3.16.27 Build 20140903 Rel. 75232, Hardware Version: Archer C8 v1 (US) My ISP (Comcast) seems to top out around 126 Mbps down and 12-13 Mbps up, not bad for a 105/10 plan :) Speeds tested with Xfinity Speedtest (powered by Ookla) for PC/laptop or Speedtest android app for phones. 1) reference PC with Atheros wired NIC IPv4: 126 Mbps down / 12 Mbps up IPv6: 124 Mbps down / 12 Mbps up 2) Mobile Speedtest results over 5GHz WiFi: a) Samsung GS3 T999 (android 4.4.4): 92 Mbps down / 13 Mbps up (over 2x improvement!! on downstream vs E2000 router, was 40 max) b) Motorola Moto X (android 4.4.4): 64 Mbps down / 13 Mbps up (slight downstream speed degradation vs E2000 router, was 71 max) c) HP Envy laptop win 8.1x64, Intel 7260AC adapter: IPv4: 126 Mbps down / 12 Mbps up IPv6: 124 Mbps down / 12 Mbps up An AMAZING 4x speed boost from barely 34 Mbps over IPv4 n-band E2000 router! IPv6 was reaching up to 93Mbps on old router with n-band, still a nice boost of 33%!

Pros: Looks great. 1 USB 3.0 Port + 1 USB 2.0 port. 3 dual band detachable antennas. IEEE 802.11ac/n/a 5GHz, IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz. Very easy straight forward set up. Outstanding range. Not once had a device disconnect.

Cons: Cons? what cons this is the best router I've ever used. Well if there has to be a con I would say the same thing as every wireless router. I think the network cable provided should be a little longer. Also only 1 year warranty.

Overall Review: I need a wirless router with extreme range and no devices disconnecting (doesn't everyone) and this one fill the bill. Perhaps this router doesn't have "open source" set up software. But for me and most people that means nothing. Seriously this is the best router I have ever used.

Pros: I opened the box of the tp link ac-1750 and found the router, power adapter, 3 antennas, a 47" inch cat5e ethernet cable, a mini resource cd, and a quick start guide. the first thing i notice about the router is the big leg on the back that lets it sit upright on a desk. this is good because it gets the wireless antennas a bit higher in the air than they would be otherwise, and it gives it better ventilation, the entire back of the router has little holes for ventilation. i prefer to be able to mount my routers on the wall, but this router does not have hanging holes on the back for that. the router feels quite durable, they used a thick, and strong plastic, the router weighs about 1.5lbs. the power adapter also has this quality to it. the power adapter and router are both rated at 12v 3.3amps. = 39.6 watts. the wattage is between 2 and 3 times that of most of the routers i have used.

Cons: Most routers which are nice enough to include a usb3.0 port are painfully slow, usually to the point where it defeats the purpose. i benchmarked the Ac-1750 c8 with several of my usb3.0 external hard drives to try and find out what the maximum transfer speed of the usb 3.0 port is. unfortunately it maxed out at a slow 18MB/second. which is nowhere near the speed it should of been. i was expecting at least 50MB/second. especially with the way they are advertising the usb3.0 speed on the box. and that they have a dual core 800mhz processor built in. yet we are only reaching a file transfer speed roughly twice the realistic speed of usb 2.0. Setting up the usb file sharing is not as easy as it could be, with other routers i have used, the external drive shows up as a shared folder on the home network. this one does not, you have to find the location manually. for windows 7 users, click start. type "run" in the search bar, type \\tplinklogin.net into the run box. it should open the shared network folder, create a shortcut to it so its easier to get to next time. the tp link website has instructions. just incase you are using a different operating system.

Overall Review: Wireless strength is good, i have a good signal through my home, every two walls i put between me and the router i lose about 1 bar. i don't lose the connection until i get about 50feet away but thats at the far end of my property. overall i think this is a decent router. what it lacks in NAS performance it makes up with build quality, i would recommend this router for basic home or business use. If you were like me and hoping that the usb3.0 port would take advantage of the full speed of your external hard drives, you will be disappointed. its just too slow. the only users that i think would probably feel that the usb3.0 speed is adequate would be people who are just needing redundancy on their home network. people that just need to backup some data on the home network, possibly for several computers. but for gamers, or people who will be streaming media across multiple computers on a home network the usb3.0 file sharing is not fast enough.

Pros: Excellent speeds via wireless and LAN. The router is installed in the basement of my two-story 1920s home. The wireless signal to my Windows 7 laptops and Nexus 7 FHD are at full saturation, both upload and download speeds when in the basement and the first floor of the house. When I take my Nexus up to the top floor, the speeds decrease but are still solid, and fast enough for Netflix HD streaming, email, browsing, etc. The gigabit LAN ports in the back are an excellent feature, and one that I use frequently to send files back and forth between my Windows 7 x64 workstation, Windows 7 and 8 x64 laptops, and Mac Mini. Speeds are solid at anywhere between 90 MB/sec - 120 MB/sec. Huge HD video files copy from machine to machine very quickly. Setup was very simple. If you've setup a wireless router before, you'l have no trouble here. I turned off my cable modem and disconnected my old wireless router. I unboxed the new router, plugged in all of the Ethernet LAN cables in the back, and then powered back up my cable modem. After waiting for all of the activity lights on the modem to turn on, I powered up the wireless router. The instructions for setting up the router are easy to understand. Simply head over to the router's default static IP, enable wireless security, enter a new SSID and password, and you're good to go!

Cons: No instructions on how to use the three wireless antennas. I just twisted them in and left them fully upright. It would have been nice if TP-LINK at least acknowledged their existence and offered insight into how to aim them, what their effects are, etc.

Overall Review: I like the upright design of this unit. It looks sleek, and the activity lights are easy to read on the front.

Pros: So the reason I implemented this router over my tried and true favorite Netgear R6250 was because...well my R6250 decided it was going to lease random IP addresses out, despite having a set DHCP table. That aside, I am actually quite happy I swapped this router into place. First and foremost, the packaging and the build quality of the router is second to none. It feels really solid and quite well put together. Secondly, some might scoff because there are (3) external antennas for this router, but I am actually pleased with them. I get exceptional coverage across a 3,800sqft 3-story home. The only time I lose a bar is in the basement in a corner furthest from the router. This is by far way better than the R6250 could ever manage. I've tried my best at keeping the firmware up-to-date, which is an easy process of downloading a file and clicking update. The GUI screen for this router from the basic form to the advanced form are extremely easy to use and understand. I have used a lot routers over the last year or so and this one is by far the most intuitive and quickest. On the topic of GUI, I don't particularly cherish having to reboot the router during each significant change, but with this router it allows you to make multiple changes and a single reboot. I have tested other routers where each change restarted the router...very very annoying. I had concerns from older reviews that port forwarding would not work, but it works and it works flawlessly. I've got successful port forwarding for both my Xbox 360 and my Directv GenieGO. Speed wise, I cannot complain nor should anyone. This router has IEEE 802.11ac/n/a 5GHz and IEEE 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz with 4 x 10/100/1000 ports. The USB ports are a nice feature, though it isn't unique to this router and others I've tested. I didn't test the VPN support as I haven't had a chance to configure that in my home application, so I cannot speak to that.

Cons: What is truly a con for me and disappointing is the fact that this router cannot be wall mounted. I've written this a few other times in my router reviews, but it really upsets me. Not all of us want a big white glossy router stranding at attention in their office. We want the ability to mount it on the wall out of sight, out of mind. This is unfortunately why this router is going to end up as a backup router in the basement for increased WiFi coverage second to my primary router which will be wall mounted in the living room up high. Other con for me is the sorting/organization of DHCP tables and MAC addresses. If I add 192.168.1.3 and then add 192.168.1.1 afterward, it doesn't sort them in order. This is annoying when you have 15 devices all in random order. It also doesn't do a very good job of picking up each device's name, even though the device is clearly setup with one (think iPhone or iPad).

Overall Review: It is an exceptionally great router at a pretty competitive price point. I wouldn't change much with this router other than what I've listed above. Buy it, most traditional and advanced users will not be disappointed by this device.

Pros: + a/n/ac 5 GHz bands supported b/g/n 2.4 GHz bands supported Gigabit LAN Two USB expansion ports, one 3.0 and the other 2.0 Easy and painless to setup and deploy. Excellent range and speeds Nice piano white and silver accent design aesthetics Small foot print, vertically standing design Triple positional antenna. Physical power switch Easy to access WiFi Protected Setup button.

Cons: - My only gripe with this router is setting up remote connectivity to the attached USB ports using a drive acting as Network Attached Storage. The router does not have a pre-configured tunneling service or a relay host, meaning you will need to have an available DNS configured to use the storage remotely. Although this router does provide options to manually enter an IP or DNS, the auto detected IP was the default of my cable modem (which is the same local IP for everyone with this same model). The included power cable with the unit I received was relatively short, only around 4½ feet in length.

Overall Review: ~ This router is very easy to setup and deploy, it offers a quick basic setup menu, as well as an advanced configuration menu that will satisfy both novices and people more familiar with networking features alike. If you just need to setup and go, the average user can get the router configured and running in about 5 minutes. Advanced users will appreciate the in depth control and configurations from security to setting up a VPN, to enabling virtual servers to act as a portal for public service forwarding. The AC link speed is excellent and on par with what you would expect from this band. Using an AC band WiFi USB adapter with my gaming PC, I was able to maintain a steady link speed of 433Mbps, which is reliable enough to play games such as CS:GO that demand fast, steady throughput. The QoS this router delivers is excellent, I was able to connect my gaming PC, laptop, iPhone, Roku (streaming 1080p) and tablet simultaneously, all with no noticeable lag or network congestion. The Wifi range was greater than I expected, I was able to connect with my iPhone on the 2.4GHz N band about 50 feet away, outside, through 4 walls. I really like the ability to turn any USB external drive into Network Attached Storage using the USB 3.0 and 2.0 expansion slots. With a drive connected and configured to use in the router's network menu, you can access the drive or set up access restriction to specific folders. This arrangement works beautifully with any device connected locally on the Network, and is a great way to view or listen to your media across your devices. You can also use the USB slots to connect a printer that might not otherwise be configured as a networked or wireless printer, to work across your local network. Another nice feature in the advanced menu allows control to disable or enable either 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio bands separately, and individual band transmit power settings for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands (low, med, and high). This level of control is not very common and can prove to be useful in certain setup configurations. Overall this is an excellent AC Router, I have had no glitches or hiccups throughout my testing and use. I would absolutely recommend this router to anyone looking for a router to meet their connectivity needs. The speed, range, features, security and NAS expandability all exceeded my expectations, and I have been very happy with the performance of this router.