# Suggest wireless AC router that you use (for ACT broadband)



## anonymous (Sep 2, 2017)

Hi all, I am planning to buy a router for ACT broadband and am not sure which one would be good for me. 
Below is my crrent setup/situation/requirement:-
I have 1200sqft house. I need the signal , on groundfloor, first floor and terrace. I need to connect around 7 devices currently but in a couple of years, I may connect 10 to 12 devices maximum. I use internet mainly for connecting to my work vpn, sometimes to watch movies,voip call and sometimes to download torrent.
I was thinking of going for wireless ac. I had shortlisted Dlink DIR -816 but found some negative reviews. Then I though of going of TP Link C7 AC1750, but this too has few negative reviews. I unable to afford nighthawk routers ,etc. Max budget is 5k. Please advise.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 2, 2017)

First of all you will never find a wifi router with zero negative reviews(assuming total reviews more than 40-50). Second,performance of router will depend significantly in the environment it is going to be used(aka your home) which is unique so you won't know how it will perform until you actually use it at your home.

Rule of thumb while buying wifi router is, get the router with best hardware & performance which usually is also the costliest within your budget.In this budget there really is no other option besides Archer C7,read the review below(it seems it has a relatively weaker 5GHz wifi performance):
TP-LINK Archer C7 V2 Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder

P.S.To fully utilize AC wifi,devices must also have AC wifi & I am not sure about mobiles but if you have any laptop more than a year old than chances are it doesn't have AC wifi.Also on amazon USA,asus RT66U costs only $102(~Rs.6500).


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## anonymous (Sep 3, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> First of all you will never find a wifi router with zero negative reviews(assuming total reviews more than 40-50). Second,performance of router will depend significantly in the environment it is going to be used(aka your home) which is unique so you won't know how it will perform until you actually use it at your home.
> 
> Rule of thumb while buying wifi router is, get the router with best hardware & performance which usually is also the costliest within your budget.In this budget there really is no other option besides Archer C7,read the review below(it seems it has a relatively weaker 5GHz wifi performance):
> TP-LINK Archer C7 V2 Reviewed - SmallNetBuilder
> ...



Hi Whitestar,

Thanks for the reply. 

I am thinking of shortlisting c20i. I feel even if I buy C7 which is around 7k, the technology will become obsolete in a couple of years and new one will come up (just like SD,HD,FullHD,4k,ulta,....)
By the way, I am using TpLink TD w8961ND on BSNL broadband now , it been 3 years, connects 7 devices, get atleast 1 bar signal on terrace of first floor and there are only 4 bad reviews on Amazon  since all these years.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 3, 2017)

Technology is always getting obsolete,that doesn't mean we should not buy anything technological.Just because HD will be obsolete in couple of years doesn't mean one should not download HD videos today.You buy a product based on your current requirements & immediate future requirements(say,next 12-16 months).

If you are planning on buying C20i then extend your budget by a few hundred & get Archer C60 from flipkart for ~2700.It has better hardware specs & may come in handy if you decide to start wireless streaming in immediate future.


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## meetdilip (Sep 3, 2017)

You would mostly need a repeater if you want to use in terrace as well. In a normal house hold, most routers cover 2-3 rooms with satisfying range. For further extension, try repeater. Xiaomi has a simple to use Repeater called Mi Repeater available through Mi Store.

TP-Link also has some good models. These days, routers come with software to use it as a repeater as well.

PS : I missed the ac part. My suggestion was for b/g/n


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## anonymous (Sep 4, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Technology is always getting obsolete,that doesn't mean we should not buy anything technological.Just because HD will be obsolete in couple of years doesn't mean one should not download HD videos today.You buy a product based on your current requirements & immediate future requirements(say,next 12-16 months).
> 
> If you are planning on buying C20i then extend your budget by a few hundred & get Archer C60 from flipkart for ~2700.It has better hardware specs & may come in handy if you decide to start wireless streaming in immediate future.



C60 is 2700 in Flipkart but Amazon it is 3550 !!! Is it because Amazon is latest model or something. There can't be that much defference simply

*www.amazon.in/TP-Link-Archer-C60-A...&*entries*=0&portal-device-attributes=desktop


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 4, 2017)

On amazon too it was around 3000(in fact just before their sbi card sale 9th-12th aug,the lowest I remember seeing its price was around 2700-2800,all these prices by cloudatil). After that it got out of stock.Also all tplink roters should be bought from Cloudtail(amazon's own seller) & as you can notice,this price is by another seller.As per my observation,for external hard disks & tplink routers it is best to buy from cloudtail(internal hdd is another matter as I have seen pics of not-so-good packing of internal hdd by cloudtail on some user posted pics in their reviews).


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## anonymous (Sep 5, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> On amazon too it was around 3000(in fact just before their sbi card sale 9th-12th aug,the lowest I remember seeing its price was around 2700-2800,all these prices by cloudatil). After that it got out of stock.Also all tplink roters should be bought from Cloudtail(amazon's own seller) & as you can notice,this price is by another seller.As per my observation,for external hard disks & tplink routers it is best to buy from cloudtail(internal hdd is another matter as I have seen pics of not-so-good packing of internal hdd by cloudtail on some user posted pics in their reviews).



Thanks for the reply. I was checking the C60, when I noticed that it does not have a switch to turn on/off wireless (also does not have usb port , which I don't mind). But I think this would make me want to login to the admin ui to turn off wifi if need arises. For example, suppose I reset modem, then wifi is open to all and all devices in my surrounding area could connect, and I would have to kick them out manually- this is just an example. If I am wrong, please correct me.
Can you suggest any other wifi router OR is any member here having the c20i, can they comment on it.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 5, 2017)

*Never ever rely on product description & technical specs on shopping sites or even physical showroom stickers/posters.Always check the product's official page to get correct info.*
AC1350 Wireless Dual Band Router | TP-Link


> WPS/Reset Button
> Wireless On/Off Switch
> Power On/Off Button



*static.tp-link.com/Archer C60_V2_User Guide.pdf  page number 5(not pdf reader page no. which is 9)


> Press and hold the Wi-Fi button for about 2 seconds to turn on or off the
> wireless function of your router.



Btw why would you reset router & then use it without setting wifi password(WPA2 personal,AES encryption only) first.The first thing to do after resetting router is to set wifi password.Also once you set password,router will ask to reboot for applying changes & as soon as you reboot all connected devices will be kicked off automatically & need to provide the password on next connection attempt.


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## anonymous (Sep 5, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> *Never ever rely on product description & technical specs on shopping sites or even physical showroom stickers/posters.Always check the product's official page to get correct info.*
> AC1350 Wireless Dual Band Router | TP-Link
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks for the kind reply, really appreciate the genuine help. 
The moment i reset the router, I switch off the wifi immediately with external switch. Then I set the password and proceed with automatic reboot. I don't want other devices connected,even for a few seconds - I am paranoid!
I verified in youtube video review that there is wifi button. They had clubbed the wps and wifi button, that is why I missed it. So do you recommend me to buy from flipkart?


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 5, 2017)

Yes,the seller is flipkart assured with good rating & lots of reviews so I don't see any reason why one should not buy from it.


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## anonymous (Sep 5, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Yes,the seller is flipkart assured with good rating & lots of reviews so I don't see any reason why one should not buy from it.


I have ordered the same now. Let me see how it goes , keeping my fingers crossed. I believe I also heard that I need to update the firmware immediately as the default one is buggy


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 5, 2017)

Do post a review here if you get some free time.Also note that updating firmware must be done by connecting via lan wire & not wifi,also use ups/inverter when updating firmware as any power interruptions may brick the device.


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## anonymous (Sep 10, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Do post a review here if you get some free time.Also note that updating firmware must be done by connecting via lan wire & not wifi,also use ups/inverter when updating firmware as any power interruptions may brick the device.



Ok, the product arrived and I have been using/configuring since 3 days. Overall , I am disappointed with it. Infact disappointed with two particular features - parental control and qos).

Don't get fooled by thinking that 5 antenna would give great range. I got the same range and sometimes even worse than my earlier tp link router. In order to get almost same range as my previous wireless modem router, I had to position the 5 antennas in different directions. But the signal strength kept fluctuating every few seconds although I select the optimal channel,etc. As expected 5ghz signal is visible only to my laptop and smart tv but is strong unlike what many people out there have told. My smart tv is at a distance of 20 feet with 1 wall and I get 3 to 4 bars. I enabled dhcp address reservation for my devices and choose to hide the 2.4ghz ssid.

Some of the features of the router looks like a gimmick and does not work. I enabled parent control for my device, I tried both access restriction (setting time of day when device can access wifi) and also content restriction (blocked wikipedia.org), but it did not work. I was able to access the wifi anytime and also wikipedia. I tried by adding another device and also restarted the router, but it was of no use - disappointed. 
Tether app does not offer much of the settings as provided in web ui.

Now, the most important pain point for me due to which I am disappointed is that there is no way to limit bandwidth of a device. I am on a 10mbs connection, so when other people in my house watch video, or if I watch anything on smart tv, the resolution automatically goes to 1080p and I would end up finishing my 50gb quota in a few days/weeks! I hoped the qos on the router page would help me. So I set 10mbps upload and download limit and enabled qos. I added all my devices to low priority set at 10%. I assumed that this would mean, only 10% of 10mbs would be used. But still when I did speedtest, I was getting 10mbps upload and download on all devices !!! I restarted router, tried other devices, still the same. I ended up setting the limit as 2mbs at the router level itself. So now all devices have no choice but to operate at a low speed. So now I have a wireless ac router which can't be utilized fully - disgusting. I thought there would be new firmware update for these issues but it is the latest firmware. It is like forcing a ferrari to be pulled by a bullock cart.

I heard that there is something called dd wrt - can that be applied on this device to solve these issues?


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## meetdilip (Sep 10, 2017)

anonymous said:


> something called dd wrt - can that be applied on this device to solve these issues?



It's just a software for modem. Something like Linux replacing Windows for PC. It has more options.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 10, 2017)

ddwrt is not yet available for Archer C60.

*static.tp-link.com/Archer C60_V2_User Guide.pdf(see p37,in pdf reader p41)
Have you tried setting high,middle & low priority all to 10% or something like high 12%,middle 11%,low 10%?


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## anonymous (Sep 14, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> ddwrt is not yet available for Archer C60.
> 
> *static.tp-link.com/Archer C60_V2_User Guide.pdf(see p37,in pdf reader p41)
> Have you tried setting high,middle & low priority all to 10% or something like high 12%,middle 11%,low 10%?



I tried that out today but it made no difference . I feel some of the features are mere gimmicks or I don't know how to configure it.
Any other ideas are gladly welcome.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 14, 2017)

Can you post screenshots of priority settings options & did you restart the router after applying changes?


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## anonymous (Sep 18, 2017)

whitestar_999 said:


> Can you post screenshots of priority settings options & did you restart the router after applying changes?



Yes, I did restart the router. Screenshot below. I added all my devices under Low Priority but still they get 10mbps speed.


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## whitestar_999 (Sep 18, 2017)

Your devices appearing in low priority column like this FAQ?
How to set up QoS using TP-Link Wi-Fi Router (new designed blue UI)? - TP-Link

If yes then add/move one device under High Priority(e.g.some mobile) & set it to 85% & keep this mobile connected to wifi & test speed on low priority devices.


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