TP-Link AX3000 Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 Router and Range Extender
TP-Link AX3000 Dual Band Wi-Fi 6 Router and Range Extender Bundle, EasyMesh Supported, Dual-Core CPU, Ideal for Gaming Xbox/PS4/Steam (Archer AX53 and RE700X)
WPA3
The latest WiFi security protocol, WPA3, brings new capabilities to improve cybersecurity in personal networks.
| Brand: | TP-Link |
Had a new Virgin Hub and lost wifi speed around the house, added this router and doubled the wifi speed of the existing hub and now have full coverage, zero drop outs since I added it. Very easy to set up. Just pop the Hub in modem mode, plug it all in and set up was done in 5 minutes. As a tip you can change the router to the same name and password as your existing hub so you don’t have to set up all your devices again 🙂
The TP AX3000 is true value for money, usually picking the slight cheaper model means a half decent product but in this case i was most impressed with the speeds delivered.
After many month of trying to negotiate with the Virgin media call centres, is was quiet apparent there would be no chance of a modem upgrade to realise the true speeds of the broadband by supplied.
So gabbled on the AX3000 modem and it delivered great wifi 6 speeds after a 10 minute set up.
In setting the original router to modem mode we have not got WiFi speeds up to 600 MB/s in previously poor areas of the house.
Set up is relatively quick and easy, and if you set the settings to those of the original WiFi there is no need to reconnect all computers or smart devices.
This is a great router – really easy to set up and configure with loads of great features along with excellent coverage. Recently switched isp and the router they sent (Linksys SPNMX42) barely covered the ground floor of my house, let alone the upstairs! This TP-Link AX3000 (Archer AX53) not only gives me great coverage on my ground floor and first floor, but even reaches my loft room for which I thought I’d need an extender – so it’s saved me an additional layout. The icing on the cake for me however, is TP-Link’s awesome technical support – I had an issue trying to get my old TP-Link router (Archer VR400) to work with the new router as a wifi extender for my garden office connected via ethernet. Their technician Daria Hong was amazing in taking the time to help me access and then reconfigure the settings on the old router to get it working perfectly, thus completing my new home network.
I bought this because my Starlink router was useless in terms of coverage around the house. As soon as I installed this, the speed and quality of connection improved dramatically. I dropped a star because I found the setup instructions slightly confusing in terms of the phone app. However I just connected to the router through my browser and set it up in the traditional way that only took a couple of minutes.
* It works as advertised
* Its UI is clear, super responsive, easy to use and informative.
* Packed with a host of features
Negatives:
* None so far
I replaced my internet provider’s own-brand router (Virgin Media Hub 3.0) with this. I put the Hub 3.0 into ‘modem mode’ and connected this via ethernet cable and got it sorted pretty quick with the setup feature of the router.
This product boasts a lot of additional features and they’re all very easy to setup and work as advertised. For example, it can easily setup 3 separate WIFI networks for you, your main network, a guest network, and a IoT network (for your smart home devices) to keep everything separate and stop any compromised guest/smart devices from allowing anyone access to your main devices.
There is also the ‘tether’ app you can download or free and link to the router to manage it from the mobile app. If you create an EasyMesh network (using other TP-Link wifi extenders that support EasyMesh) it can also manage the extender devices!
Its got a lot of easy to use extra features such as per-device speed limits, setting priority devices, access point mode, as well as all the usual router config stuff.
Setup wasn’t as easy as just connecting the router for me. I had to get my username and password from Vodafone live chat. I then had to go into the router settings and set the internet connection type to PPPoE and then enter the details that Vodafone had given me.
You also need to enter the VLAN ID which you can find in Advanced>>Network>>IPTV/WLAN. Set the mode to custom and depending on whether you are on the openreach network or the city fibre network you’ll need to set the VLAN ID to either 101 or 911. Also whilst in the router settings goto wireless and set the 5GHz Channel width to 20/40/80/160MHz. And that is the setup complete, you should now have an internet connection. Hope this info helps someone.
So I read a few reviews about the TP-Link A3000 and decided to opt for it. I was apprehensive as some reviews suggest it is difficult to install. So I did some research via the usual Youtube videos. All I can say is that the setup via the Tether app was the easiest setup I have ever encountered with a router. It took my longer to unpack and connect all cabling than it did to setup the router via the app. I did the usual and assigned the SSID name and password as my old router so as not to have the chore of re-assigning all my smart devices. The only problem I encountered was from my SkyQ minibox, that insisted on a full reset with my SkyQ box.
Other than that everything is superb, wifi range has doubled to the bottom of my garden.
It’s no secret that the Virgin Media Hubs have absolutely awful wifi range and are generally just incredibly bad when you compare them to what you get from BT. If you’re struggling for range upstairs then look no further!
After fretting about how much of a nightmare I’ve had in the past with setting up routers, the TP-Link AX3000 was a breeze! The full setup took no longer than 20 minutes. I started by logging into the VM Hubs settings on my laptop, switched the hub to Modem mode and then switched the Hub off at the wall, once the light had turned to purple. I plugged the router in as instructed and then powered the VM Hub on first, again waiting until there was a solid purple light. Next I powered up the router and only had to wait about 3 mins for 4 lights to come up green. After that, it was just a case of logging into the TP-Link Tether app on my phone and following the on-screen prompts until it was fully set up and I was good to go!
The wifi range is far superior to that on the Virgin Hub 3 and I’ve got 10+ devices connected to it at once.
I expected set up to be easier. Switch Hub 3 router to modem mode, connect AX3000 with the included ethernet cable and enjoy lightning quick wifi across the house. Not quite. All I got was a solid orange light indicating no internet connection. After numerous attempts to solve this by resetting modem and router, test and repeat, I ended up watching the TP-Link video showing a 7 step tutorial on how to get internet connection working. Step 4 worked for me, involving carrying my very heavy 10 yo iMac to the router, linking it by ethernet cable (after I found one) to the AX3000, accessing router settings and cloning the MAC address.
Finally, after a hour of effort, we had a green light and internet ! Must say, only dogged determination got me through this. At more than one stage, I was ready to send the AX3000 right back to Amazon, but I’m glad I stuck with it.
Once working, it was easy to set up One Mesh with my RE450, link up all our devices, and enjoy proper wifi speeds across the house. The other positives are, the helpful videos produced by TP-Link, covering complex fixes in a straightforward way. And the Tether app, probably the best app I’ve seen of its kind.
Overall, delighted with this new bit of kit, the way it links with my other TP-Link kit, and the end WIFI result. Set up was tricky, but well worth it.
My netgear ac router packed up after ten years reliable use but their WiFi 6 routers are extortionately priced imho, so for a quarter the price I decided to try this TP-Link router (AX5400). From unboxing to fully setup was about an hour or so. I did buy a new CAT8 cable to bridge my ISP router over (<10), which I think helped, too. All my existing devices (many, many) hooked up immediately with no problems, with exception of a first generation Sonos play:5 - which required a factory reset to work, but no biggie, just five minutes extra fiddle to do this.
Range is excellent, far better than hoped for with making a "perceived" comprise on product, which turned out to be a false perception, because this router delivers the same strength and quality signal to every room in the house, a marked improvement over my old router. I've had 3 TVs streaming 4k content simultaneously with phones, laptops etc all on at the same time and there is no lag, buffering or anything, it's brilliant.
I think the best way to describe it is "value for money". You really won't need anything more than this in a typical 3-5 bed house, 3 kids streaming/gaming all evening and working parents trying to remote connect to the office - fits my every need.
So I bought this router for approx. 120 on Feb 24th (Prices correct at the time of purchase).
I am with virgin media as my ISP in the UK, and had recently upgraded to their “1 gig” package, as I managed to secure it for quite a good monthly deal, considering it came with broadband and TV etc. This package expects you to receive approx. 1gbps across the line. I typically get about 950 across the line. But the hub 4 was obviously not the right hardware at all, to be able to transfer anywhere near 1gbps to my devices on Wi-Fi.
Of course, it makes sense for you to be able to achieve the same capabilities of speed you are getting over the cable on Wi-Fi. You would want your Wi-Fi speeds to be that of Ethernet or somewhat similar because you are paying for such a high bandwidth service. It almost makes it seem there is no point in paying for it since majority of the devices in your network will be over Wi-Fi. Because of this, it does make sense to be able to get a router that is capable of delivering such high speeds. Since your Internet service provider will not provide a router capable of that. I think if you pay for 1 gbps, you will get it via ethernet, but you’ll get nowhere near 1gbps with any ISP router at the time of writing.
If you are in the same boat as me, then you will want a router that is capable of transferring high amounts of data to lots of different devices around the house on Wi-fi in the same way it could over ethernet. And you will really want that, because you want to be able to use the full capabilities the service that you are paying for provided by your ISP. That was the primary objective. If that isn’t you, then this review might not be the right review for you, but nevertheless, its a good read for any sort of shopper in the market for buying a new router.
I bought this router as I thought it had the best value vs ASUS competitors, as all ASUS did, was give a good typical catchy branding line of it being a “gaming router”, and they get purchases. I also notice that a lot of other brands like Netgear are like this. In my opinion, TP link is probably one of the most value for money brands out there in this market. So if you are looking for a router, no matter what price range you are looking for, TP link is generally brand I would recommend.
So before buying this router, the hub 4, with no other devices connected, gave me 250mbps* on the 5Ghz band, and 30-50mbps* on the 2Ghz band. This new router gives me about 900Mbps* on the 5Ghz band, and around 100-200 mbps* on the 2Ghz band.
* = Peak speeds. Not average speeds.
Now the literal only reason you see that sort of improvement, is because this is a Wi-Fi 6 router. As a Wi-Fi 6 router, it should theoretically, give me 3x the amount that a Wi-Fi 5 router will give in the same setting. However as you can see, it gives considerably more than 3x 250mbps, and it gives 900* which is 50mbps less than ethernet speeds. Pretty impressive for a 5Ghz channel. I got typical expected improvements on the 2.4Ghz channel, which is also good to see.
However do not expect a new router to massively improve Wi-Fi range across multiple floors. Yes it covers a wide area, and will give full speed to the same floor, but it doesn’t cover a large floor. If you want better range for a large house floor, get a better one than this. If you want signal on multiple floors, you will need a mesh network, so in that case, buying two of these and using one of them per floor might be a good idea. But if you just want to cover around a 10m by 10m floor, this router is perfect for you as it will give high bandwidth to devices on that floor.
So for me this is a 5 star router as it did exactly what I expected it to do, as the results of speed was what I expected to get based of how it should have theoretically preformed. But beware, as it might not be right for you, if you need it for any other purpose, other than getting more mbps. Of course, the benefit to you is highly dependent on the ISP speed that is provided. So expect less benefit overall if you switch from a hub 4 or sky box, on a 200mbps connection. However, you will still benefit as long as you have a Wi-Fi 6 device.
If this was a helpful review, I would appreciate you to click the “helpful” button below so more shoppers can see it. Have a good day.
– this Router doesn’t have a DSL port, you’ll still need your existing hub or by a new DSL router.
I bought this to replace my BT hub for the WiFi 6 upgrade . When it arrived, to my disappointment, I found there was no DSL port so I had to keep my existing BT router to act as a modem. This new router then plugs in to the old hub and you connect all your devices to the new WiFi password SSID.
I turned the wireless function of my old hub off too so the new router was the only signal in my house.
This router is really clever and handles traffic brilliantly. Set up was really easy, you download an app and you can easily manage connected devices, even limit how much bandwidth they use or prioritise a device.
I noticed better download speeds on my Xbox and PC, simply by changing to this new Router.
Be aware, if you want to create a mesh network, this router or any of the TP Link routers won’t act as a one mesh access point.
You need to buy a tp link repeater to do that.
I’m very pleased, highly recommend this product.
The AX5400 is fairly well made, no surprises. With 2x mounting holes on the back for wall mounting. Unfortunately none the 6 antennas are removable/replacable on my version, however that is not the end of the world for me. I tested the inbuilt antennas for coverage in a three bedroom house, router on the ground floor and it was impressive to be fair. Much better than the Virgin Hub.
One thing to note is that the device does give off some heat from the top (the shiny part) where the heatsink would be. If you’re planning on hiding this somewhere without good air circulation, I would reconsider the location for best results and safety.
Setup was easy, the Tether app making things straight forward with the device not connected to the network. And then logging in via the local IP address (192.168.0.1) to finish off the installation once the Virgin Hub was in modem mode and the AX5400 doing the routing and WiFi.
The additional features of the AX5400 may not be of use to everyone, however turning off the LEDs is a nice to have if your router is in the lounge. The Tether app also notifiies you of devices connecting/connected to your network.
One thing I did notice was that my browsing performance did improve with this router. Speed tests do not really show much in the way of improvement, however browsing and streaming is definately more “snappy”. Ping rate in games (wired and wireless) is lower and the pixelation (for example) while a 4K stream buffers at the beginning is almost none. This could be due to the age of my Super Hub and aged firmware/silcone that this has replaced.
The firmware upgrade to 1.1.0 Build 20211125 rel.59476(4555) was easy and trouble free.
So far, so good. If you are looking for a Router with good WiFi so you can put your Virgin Hub in to Modem mode, this does the trick and is an easy installation.
At time of writing I paid 119.
-Speed
Can’t fault it, does what it says on the box. I don’t appear to get any better signal than my old ASUS (4 ariel) router, but as a positive, it doesn’t get any worse either. I don’t get any of the connection speeds the router boasts, but honestly, I didn’t expect them in a real-world environment. For reference, I have the Virgin 1gig service and I get about 800 wired to my new PC and around 650 over 5ghz, around 360 on Samsung phones connected on 5ghz (even next to the router) and slightly less on the kids Iphone13’s. Overall, I would of liked to see an upgrade in speed for my money spent, but the figures are good enough (if not comparible to my old ASUS .. sadly). Not sure I notice any speed difference from my WIFI6!
-Setup
Very Easy, took me a whole 5 minutes and I was up and running with primary SSID’s for home connection and a Guest Network for the kids to create a bit of isolation.
-Feature and Feature Setup
I have teenage kids that need to concentrate on school work so parental controls are a strong part of my decision when I purchased this router. The ASUS did a good job in this department. With schedules and usage logs. Honestly, this is where I should have done more homework. It’s not clear in the product information above (I cannot see a mention of subscription) but a lot of this functionality is behind a paywall … (55/72 a year depending on paying monthly/yearly). For free I get a single basic schedule that is fixed to being the same times everyday. I cannot even pause the kids internet (huge motivator for them) as thats part of the paywall software! Massive let down and back step for me here. Even the DDoS protection is extra and I thought that was standard on every router!
The other thing of note; management of the router is only partly done from the web interface. Most of the features are controlled by a mobile phone app that you will need to install. I would of liked to do more from the web interface to be honest, but this seems a common approach nowadays.
-Conclusion
Would I have bought it anyway, even if I knew about the paywall to the features I wanted and thought I was getting? Probably not! There is no arguing that the cost of the router is attractive. If I just wanted a router to replace my Superhub connectivity, I would have been ecstatic with the TPLink. But for me, those parental controls behind a paywall are just a bugbear that I just can’t help but feel a little bit of disappointment with my purchase and will be memorable when I have to replace it in the future.
Parting shot… I owned my ASUS Router for the better part of 8 years and it cost me around 200. If I wanted the Homeshield features and paid yearly to get the best cost-effective approach .. my total cost for the TPLink would be approx. 562 ..
I would potentially pay for a subscription that gives me updates and new features for something I want.. What sort of development am I getting for a subscription of over 400 for a schedule and a button that pauses the internet!