TP-Link Tri-Band BE9300 WiFi 7 Router (Archer BE550) - 6-Stream, Full 2.5G Ports w/ 6 Internal Antennas, Up to 2,000 Sq Ft, Add Easy-Mesh Device for Extended Coverage, VPN and Free Expert Support

If you are looking for a cost-effective router that will put you ahead of the technology time-line, this is it. I was a LinkSys/Cisco fan and I bought this router to replace a pretty decent LinkSys WRT 3200 ACM. The LinkSys acquired some deficiency in the past year of "half-connecting" to just one device, while perfectly connecting to every other device on its 2.4gz and 5.0gz bands. (Half-connecting allowed some, but not all URLs to load). I recently had replaced a LinkSys extender with a TPLink extender because it could not maintain a persistent connection with the LinkSys (another hint the router was going out) and was pleased with its ability to retain its connection... though it seemed I was frequently fighting over channels with my neighbors which was very annoying, having to change them every other week. After researching the market (I looked at Eero, too), I decided this was the one that was budget friendly and buying a more expensive model was not warranted as I'm not a gamer or an extreme streamer - I have 1gz service from Spectrum anyway. I did look for a router that supported USB as I have a couple of USB drives (12gb) for "cloud" storage of my files. This router comes with "Easy Mesh" which I did not pay that much attention to, since the new TpLink extender was doing a nice job (Yes, the two extra SSIDs were a little annoying when connecting devices, but I was OK with that). Setup was pretty easy, though I did want to get into the configuration to set fixed IP addresses for wired and non-wired devices in my home. All that worked perfectly fine. The only irritation I had was LinkSys uses the Gateway of 192.168.1.1 and TpLink chose 192.168.0.1. So all my fixed IP address devices had to be reconfigured (I have a WD Cloud and Canon and Samsung printers)... all of which were time-consuming to figure out how to get them reconnected to the BE9300. Then came the big surprise! I went into the setup on the TPLink "extender" and the BE9300 recognized it and "hijacked" it! The extender is no longer an extender (though it can be configured as one), but it turned out to be a mesh access point. All of a sudden, the 2.4gz and 5.0gz networks on the extender (TPLink RE550) were greyed-out! The BE9300 turned it into a mesh access point! Being a little skeptical, I cranked up m favorite WiFi phone app (WiFi Overview) and walked thru the house (3600sf). This app displays a graphical indication of signal strength in a parabola display of all SSIDs nearby. Since the extender was now a mesh access point, I only had TWO SSIDS (one for 2.4 and one for 5.0) and of course, two "sub" SSIDs. As I walked further away from the BE9300, I could see the signal strength of the mesh unit growing larger and larger. Like any mesh network, it apparently switched to the mesh access point seamlessly on my phone... as advertised without any degradation of visual download speed.. Additionally, a lot of reviews on this product indicated they were seeing increases in download speed, so I did quite a few speed tests with several different test sites. Since my Spectrum 1gz service is still copper, I knew I'd never see 1gz speed, but the top speed with the LinkSys on and off the wire was about 910gz-920gz... not quite a 10% "loss", but still respectable. With the BE9300, I am consistently seeing over 950gz, so yes, I'll agree there is a slight increase in download speed. Another plus here is the BE9300 is Wifi 7 enabled. Yes, currently, the only WiFi device is the iPhone 17 pro, but again, its nice to be ahead of the technology curve rather than be current or behind it. In summary, I have to admit, the BE9300 exceeded my expectations, as I was not really in the market for a mesh system, but almost, by accident, I have one (I glossed over the "Easy Mesh" part of the BE9300). Combined with the slight increase in speed and the WiFi 7 capability already being there, I highly recommend this guy if you want to stay in the $200 range (vs. $400 range) when looking at a new or replacement router. And I got this during Amazon's fall "sale" and it happened to have a $20 coupon from TpLink which made it a very nice deal.

I'm a 37 year old computer scientist that has breathed computers, internet, and all its assorted devices his whole life. TP-Link is a standout router company right now, probably due to relative under-performance in the medium term. But their current Wifi 7 routers are unmatched; it's not even a debate. This is the best router you can get for the money right now, and with Wifi 7 bringing the MLO network, your wifi will have never been better (once you have devices that also support it, with the most important one being your smartphone (Samsung's newest as of writing already has Wifi 7 support, with iPhone 16 pro rumored to be getting it. If you have both of these, you need to turn on the MLO network setting in your router. It is absolutely worth paying for to have it done if you don't have the slightest clue how). The app is also very easy and very pleasant to use, with a modern UX that today's consumer demands. It can also help you set up your router, including said MLO network. Don't forget to enable EasyMesh, too, if applicable. And speaking of EasyMesh - do you need a new router? If that's the question you have for yourself, I'd say that if it's not Wifi 7 (and it almost definitely isn't, or you wouldn't be here) at the very least, then you do. But there's another metric with a lower bar: go into your router settings and update its firmware right now. If it doesn't support EasyMesh after that firmware update, yeah, you should upgrade. EasyMesh is the Wifi Alliance's new standard Mesh system that will support a mesh network not just between different models of routers, but different companies. That's huge. This, along with the MLO network, means that these modern routers are a very large step-change in technology, quite possibly the largest since 5Ghz and the advent of WPA2 encryption, and these were ages ago. Bonus MLO network section: Why is the MLO network a big deal for your smartphone? At a glance, it seems to just combine all the bands (2.4, 5, and 6Ghz) into one. So that just means higher throughput, right? Isn't 5Ghz enough even for HDR 4k video on Netflix? Yes, it is. But while greater throughput is nice, think about it for a second. Right now, any Wifi network you connect to (meaning a singular named SSID) only supports one band. So if you're connected to 5Ghz, and then you go outside into your backyard, you have to depend on your phone to be smart enough to switch to the 2.4Ghz to maintain a connection (since higher Ghz don't travel as far). This often fails. What's worse, even if it does switch, the phone often never sees the use in switching BACK to 5Ghz when you go back in the house, so you will be connected to the slower band potentially indefinitely, unless you go change the Wifi you're connected to manually. And you'd have to do this every. single. time. Why even have all these nice bands with specific purposes if it's so annoying to use? Well, here comes the MLO network to save the day. If all the bands can simply always be active on just one Wifi network, there's never a choice to make in the first place: not for you, NOR your phone. You're just always using all them. That means when you go into your backyard, your phone will simply be unable to use 5Ghz only because it's too far away, but the MLO will still be sending packets on 2.4Ghz. And when you go back inside, there doesn't need to be any intelligent decision by you nor the phone, since it's still on the same network, and once you're back in physical range, the 5Ghz will just start sending again right away. No user input needed, and no stupid algorithms making bad choices. And, it works with 6ghz too, of course. All 3 bands at the same time, on the same SSID. Do you see what I'm getting at now? It's a huge step forward for both performance AND ease of use. Wifi 7's MLO network, along with the Wifi Alliance's EasyMesh standard will usher in a new era of Home Wifi performance, reliability and user experience, with the long-term goal of single band Wifi SSID's disappearing completely and MLO network SSID's being the norm. But don't get too excited - devices have to support Wifi 7 to see the MLO network. So for now, your phone will be one of the only devices to use it. But honestly, that's good enough for now - the tech is that transformative. But one day, your toaster, fridge and Hue lighting system will simply connect to the one MLO network that exists, and no other single-band Wifi's will even be on, because they will no longer have a use outside of legacy devices that some people just can't live without.

This is very close to scam model features advertisement. Reason i bought these routers is that my older mesh setup from same vendor (3x Deco M9 and 2x Deco M5 nodes) stopped working two months ago after firmware update - they broke DHCP for Guest network where i keep 50 IOT devices isolated from main network. Which was already a firm suggestion to not use this brand any more. Why I decided to give them a try again, I don’t know.. OK I received two BE550 today and spent entire morning to bind them in mesh (kinda glitchy process, had to reset them multiple times and login to local web UI, of course I updated FW to latest). Neither web UI nor Tether iphone app show backend eth links speed, but at least 1G eth should work for my test (i think it’s less than 100ft of Cat5e cable and worked well earlier) as my Comcast uplink is only 600Mbits, far from extreme requirements right? So again, my setup is wired backend between wifi nodes, and I need full speed of all 3 bands combined with dynamic allocation - wherever I go in my house, I want the top speed from these best customer level WiFi 7 devices! And here we start to struggle with TP-Link: 1) main wifi network can only combine 2.4 + 5Ghz, 6Ghz is separate band. Its basically old 802.1ac where your devices switch between old slow 2.4 and faster but not stable 5 bands. 2) MLO (multi link operation) - which is essential for tri-band - can only be enabled as separate wifi network (SSID) and(!) only combine 5 + 6 GHz, meaning that you always have to be pretty close to routers. 3) MLO (surprise!) appears to be working only off main node, and latest firmware does not support it for mesh satellite nodes. This is official and clear statement from their support line today!! Moreover they told me BE63 model (specialised mesh model) also has this problem! To make it clear for you - new 6GHz band alone makes zero sense if you stick to it, unless you live in studio apartment and router is in the middle. And only way to use third band in BE550 is dedicated 6GHz SSID. Meaning that either you need 8 nodes across the house, or you will have poor reception all the time going from couch to kitchen. I’m going to return these and try Asus tri-band Wifi 7. TP links are just too basic for the price, and I don’t want to rely on it any more.

UPDATE: 23 May, 2024 Now it's been awhile. I have to write: If something is messed up, it's NEVER the EAP225 WiFi units or this thing! It's been months since it's been rebooted! We have enough off-grid solar so the internet stuff and the comp room can stay off-grid all the time. It never gets rebooted nowadays and it's always there and it doesn't mess up! It has a gigabit (24 port) switch and two (8 port) 2.5 gigabit switches plugged into it. A total of 4 NAS's; three of them 2.5 gigabit dual LAN's; one with dual gigabit LAN's. And three computers, all 2.5 gigabit. And the Yeacomm 5G gateway is also 2.5 gigabit. Nothing bothers this thing. I'm still not using its WiFi, because of those EAP225's, which are also great. I read a few reviews, before, raving about this thing's WiFi, though and people write that it works great. The wife is Korean and she watches Korean soap opera's all day. We usually download way over a terabyte a month here. The Yeacomm connects at about 400 megabits down and 110 to 130 megabits up. ___________________________________________________________________ This runs a whole bunch of stuff - WiFi and LAN - typically about 15 devices. I'm not going to rate the Wifi because I'm not going to use it yet. 1) I have two EAP225's; they're VERY strategically located and they mesh with each other. Unfortunately they won't mesh with this thing. 2) I don't have anything else that will even do WiFi 7 yet. I got this mainly for the five 2.5 GbE ports - one WAN and 4 LAN's! I've also got a Yeacomm (Speednet) NR610 (also a very nice, but expensive device), and my internet is blazingly fast! Just very snappy. Internet tasks are usually as fast as doing stuff locally on the computer. You can easily tell when it's the website that's slow. That Yeacomm has a 2.5 GbE port and I was drooling at the thought of getting that 2.5 GbE speed to the LAN. (I also have a gigabit switch, a PoE switch [for the EAP225'sand the Magic Jacks that only do 10 MbE], and two 2.5 GbE switches.) Really nice that all my stuff plugs into this! The WEB interface on this device is a thing of beauty! Everything is very logically laid out, most changes, you don't have to reboot for, and if you know your network stuff, you'll find it nice and easy to use. If you don't know your network stuff, you're still in luck! It took its time communicating with the Yeacomm (LTE CPE Modem) (and a bunch of other devices) on the first boot - maybe 3 minutes or 4 minutes - but it configured itself very well! I have two Magic Jack lines and those didn't work right away. It took some hair-pulling-out time to straighten it out. But I've had one way audio problems with those before. This time, this router had the provisions to fix it (on one of them only.) That's not this router's fault; it's just the way it is. You need to forward a range of ports on two different devices and you can't. It took a very long time to get fixed. It was like a combination lock. Turns out the final step was some settings in the Yeacomm. The Magic Jacks now talk directly to the cell phone tower. One of them works perfectly and the other one only has one way audio when calling [mostly] cell phones. If I had another 2.5 GbE port on the Yeacomm, I could do it, I think, but as long as I can get calls on both lines and call out on one of them, I'm happy. Everything else worked like a champ with settings that this router came up with all on its own! The only thing I changed (not counting the Magic Jack settings) is making a bunch of MAC | IP reservations. When you set it up, you get a light show for awhile. Then the lights can be turned on or turned off with a WEBUI switch. You can also set up a night time mode and have them on in the daytime and off at night, specifying the times. You can plug a USB hdd into the USB port and use it as a very fast, very big network share. It's almost like having an NAS. It's been totally stable and reliable so far. It's a lot of money. I had to talk myself into it. I shopped for about a week. That should tell you something. Now that I've gotten to use it, I consider it well worth the money! I give their tech support 5 stars, not because of this thing, but because I've used their tech support in the past and I already KNOW it's exceptionally good! I have a lot of other TP-Link stuff. Advanced, hi-end stuff. Half of the 12 connected devices shown in the pic.

Set up and config is as easy as I've ever seen. This replaces my Orbi RBK763 with two remote nodes, and it was likewise simple, and even so the TP-Link wins in the set up race. It is fast too, now that I've moved from async Coax (Xfinity - gig down, 50m up, when was often 5-600 down, and 35 up) to synchronous fiber (Rapid Fiber -2G up, 2G down). 12 years of my career was as a EE, and my last 14 was as a data center designer/implementer, so I've had my hands in the world since early (slow) dialup, through coax, twisted pair CAT wires, and fiber plants with multi-mode and single-mode. With that background I still look at and review consumer products as though I was a first time home person attempting to set up their own router and wifi configs. Of course the folks who write the software should build their solutions with two forks, from which you can select; I have no experience with routers and wifi, to I'm an experienced user and want full set up and control. For the new user it should be a question based, with minimal or a split window view. On one side you answer simple questions, on the other side it should show the user how their question populated the set up (if they have an interest in learning more about their router, or the cause and effect). Where the router falls down a bit is the wifi signal. No one in my home has a device with a wifi 7 radio (our TV is 6, I have a Z Fold 5, my wife has an iPhone 15 Pro, our appliances are all 3 years old, the wifi on my desktop is 4 years old, and out laptops are 1-3 years old). Even so, we've noticed speed improvements while connected via wifi. But the throw (distance you get reliable wifi connectivity) is not great. While it is better than the Orbi base as a stand alone device, I am still going to have to add a couple nodes to get improved coverage. We live in a 30x71' home, with wood construction, but a metal roof. So at just over 2,100 sq ft you'd hope for whole home coverage, but no. The LED display - I'm certain this has a target demographic, but when your router is in a main room, it is both annoying and distracting. I've not dug into the setting deep enough to see if there is a disabled setting, but there is a button on the front to disable them. This works until the router processes an update, and is reset to on after any reboot. A little background. I have a penchant to use Netgear routers/modems (pick your preferred term) for probably 10-12 years, so for me to move to TP-Link was a big step. Kind of like starting to eat a food you've not had a taste for your whole life. On the other hand, when I look at my stack of unmanaged switches all of them are TP-Link. They've been around for a very long time and make reliable products. While I'm not yet fully satisfied with the product, it is doing it's job talking to the world, and only a little weak on the throw of wifi. I'm hoping to attach my Orbi mesh nodes, since this TP-Link says it is mesh friendly. I take that to mean it will use other mesh products without a problem?

I bought this TP-Link Archer BE550 Pro to use in Access Point mode, fed by a 2.5 Gbps ethernet cable from my AT&T fiber router. Replaces a decade-old Wi-Fi 5 dual-band Netgear Nighthawk extender/AP to get Wi-Fi 7 Tri-Band. The first big question I had, that nearly prevented me from ordering this one, is that 10Gbps WAN port in back. Is it multi-gig, or is it fixed at 10Gbps? Nowhere on the box or on the webpage says. Even more confusing since other similar TP-Link models have a separate 2.5Gbps WAN/LAN port marked along with three 2.5Gbps LAN ports. Well turns out the answer from TP_Link customer support is yes, the 10 Gbps IS a multi-gig port that specifically will work fine with 2.5 Gbps (and I'm assuming 5Gbps and 1Gbps but I didn't ask) and linked up just fine with my 8 port 2.5Gbps TP-Link ethernet switch. All of this means this Archer BE550 Pro router is future-proof, since I eventually expect to upgrade to 10Gbps throughout the house in a couple of years when the prices come down. This BE550 Pro router comes with a short funky flat ethernet cable with shielded RJ45 connectors that I'm sure must be rated for 10Gbps (but works great at 2.5Gbps, of course). All you need for 2.5 Gbps though is Cat5e or Cat6 (what I'm using in the house) cable. Another hiccup is how to access this router's web setup page, or more specifically, how to find out what IP address it landed at on your network to do that. The Tether app does a great job with initial setup and some of the basic settings, including the ability to switch from router mode to access point mode. But then...anyone who has spent years with routers will say "where are the rest of the settings" and assume the the router will probably come up with a settings web page with more at its IP address. But where? The AT&T router is at 192.168.3.1 (I use a .3 subnet on the publicly un-routable 192.168.x.x for home network) but remember this is in Access Point mode, so the BE500 Pro IP will be somewhere else. Running a IP scanner doesn't really help much, nothing to ID the device, which by default will land in your DHCP IP block (I run both static IP and DHCP blocks). Turns out the answer is in the Tether app. Click on its entry under the first "My Devices" screen, THEN click right on the picture of the router itself on the next screen. That will come up with an info screen and on there will be the Archer BE550 Pro's IP address. Just log into that IP in your browser and use your TP Link website password for the password. You are in! :) The web setup pages do have a pretty extensive list of settings. So far I'm very impressed with this router, in all three bands, and especially the IoT setup. I'm using 2.4 GHz and 5Ghz IoT bands for the solar panels, Ring doorbell, water softener, and remote control of a Mitsubishi mini-split A/C system. The Wi-Fi 7 6Ghz band is working great to a cell phone and an external Tri-band Wi-Fi adapter on a laptop. The Tether app alerts every time a new device has joined one of the networks, which is handy. Recommended!!

I wanted its bigger brother with the 10gbe ports but ultimately my ISP is only 2.5gbps (not paying for the 5gbps, it's not worth the cost). If the competing ISP ever rolls out 10gbps then I'd upgrade, but that could be years. 10gbps could be a long while for a lot of people. So unless you have some NAS on your LAN where you can benefit from the faster wired speeds it's just overkill. 2.5gbps worked for me and that meant I could spend half as much on the router. For $269 (on 10% sale) it's honestly hard to find a better router than the BE550. I was a big Asus fan with Merlin firmware flashed on their routers. I was eyeing up their 10gbe router but it's also expensive. The TP-Link Archer BE550 has some negative reviews on the Internet, but I believe they issued a firmware fix...I did not experience any issues at all. Speed tests on wifi? 1.3gbps. Which I never thought I'd see from wifi. Granted I'm standing next to the router, but even from a distance the speeds are terrific. This is much better than my Amplifi and older Asus router 802.11ac. This is probably simply due to the 802.11ax. But the signal is still stronger overall. I picked up a Deco X55 as an AP and may get another, because those have two 2.5gbe ports. If your internet is above 1gbps then you need backhaul faster than a 1gbe port if you're running 802.11ax or higher to get maximum speed (though nothing wrong with 1gbps). I think most people focus on wifi, but I'd really suggest to focus on your wired connections. If you do have more than 1gbps from your ISP this becomes critical. Your choice in routers shrinks. I think the BE550 is a solid choice though. The parental controls seem decent so far. I don't know if it's worth the subscription. The basic features that you get for free provide the basic turn off on demand and/or on a schedule. The YouTube content filter is attractive but it doesn't seem to let you customize it so I have my doubts. The other features of this router seem good. It even has wire guard for a VPN option. It's easy to set up. It's nice looking. So I call it a gentle beast because you don't need to be an expert to set it up and get good performance. It even has wifi7 for whenever things start using that. Most devices in my home doesn't even use 802.11ax yet so to say this router is future proof is an understatement. It'll be years before 802.11ax feels old and since it can reach over 1gbps with ease and most people don't have over 1gbps internet...there's just no point. A router like this will last you years. I'm a nerd here. Very much into programming and computers and networking. I have a rack in my closet and a server in it that I built from used data center parts. So for whatever that's worth, this router gets a recommendation from me.

In the past, I used the TP AX6600 Tri-Band WiFi 6 router, Archer AX90. And that router operated very well for the last few years. I recently switched over to this newer BE9300 Tri-Band WiFi 7 router, Archer BE9300. The WiFi setup pages are almost identical for both TP routers. Sadly, instructions are quite horrible. Geezus People! The writing is a complete disaster… So, I had to solely rely on advice found on the internet to set the thing up. Somethings I could never figure out - Like Printer Sharing; and, Port Fowarding for VoWIFI (more on that later). The older WiFi 6 router (Archer AX90) provided me with smooth reliable operations. We ran several computers to it, one or two computers connected directly to the router and a couple connected to the router by WiFi; we often had a couple tablets connected to the router by WiFi; along with five cell phones (4 Android and 1 Apple). One cell phone is brand new; the others are about 2 – 4 years old. With the older Archer AX90, I never had any problems with phones, tablets, and computers! Yup, everything was working well but, I had to go and “fix” it by buying this newer WiFi 7 (BE9300) router! Setting up the new BE9300 router: I carefully set up the newer router with identical settings to the older router. Except for a few settings, (OFDMA/MU-MIMO and MLO network – refer to picture). I also unchecked the ALG settings (refer to picture). ALG is for older technology. And many s0-called experts on the internet said to turn that stuff off (because no one uses it, and it’s buggy). In the end, I learned it was a mistake to turn all the ALG settings off. [All the ALG settings are turned ON by default.] What happened after setting replacing the older router with this newer BE9300 router: Immediately, Zoom calls were cutting in and out; streaming videos over tablets was unsatisfactory (sometimes buffering more than playing); and I had absolutely NO VoWIFI (Voice over WiFi). VoWIFI is where you use your cell phone to make calls over the internet. Being able to make phone calls over the internet (VoWIFI) allows you to save money (no data usage) and make phone calls in places where cell signals are poor. Suddenly with this new router I have no VoWIFI on any of my phones! Oddly, I could communicate on WhatsApp and similar Cell phone Apps – though there were delays in sending messages out - And the calls on WhatsApp (and other similar apps) would cut in-and-out. Some of our phones could not reach the internet even though the phone said it was receiving a strong WiFi signal from the router. In summary: As soon as I changed routers, everything WiFi related went screwy. After some experimentation, I got internet and VoWIFI to work again. I turned OFF the OFDMA/MU-MIMO (changed the setting to disabled – see the picture); and I turned on one of the ALG settings, (IPSec Passthrough). What I learned: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If you buy this router and discover similar problems, it’s likely your hardware (computers, tablets and/or cell phones) aren’t entirely compatible with this new fangled WiFi 7 router. Bear that in mind! The instructions won’t help you, (because they really, really suck). God help you if you have so set up some sort of IPSec, IKE v2 Nat port forwarding scheme! That manual is not going to help. I couldn’t find information or videos on how to do that sort of thing with this router. If you switch out routers for this BE9300 and suddenly develop WiFi problems, likely the problem is that your older hardware isn’t ready for this WiFi 7 MIMO, MLO router. I have something to say to TP- Your customer service really sucks Bro! I had a previous router (IP routers back), and the WiFi stopped working all together. The online people were utterly braindead. I spent countless days on the phone with them. It was clear there was some sort of hardware problem. Finally, they admitted that I needed a new router. Problem was, they demanded a copy of the transaction before they gave me an RMA. And for some reason or another, I couldn’t find it. So, I had to buy another router. It seems clear to me, if you buy a TP router, you are ON YOUR OWN! You will have to rely solely on the internet for setting it up and troubleshooting. If you don’t have professional training with things like VoWIFI, networking, etc., you might quickly get in over your heard. Peace Out.