TP-Link Archer C7 - Router Black

Product Information

OpenWrt doesn't support the hardware switch on this router, so you are limited by the CPU of this router. To bypass this limitation, download the relevant factory-flash BIN file and then rename the file to firmware. I was able to easily pop the C7’s hood to take the photo below, which clearly shows its QCA based design. On the lower frequency band, the Archer C7 can move up to 450 Gbit/s of data while the 5 GHz band supports up to 1300 Gbit/s.

TP-Link is not obligated to provide any maintenance or support for it, and does not guarantee the performance and stability of third party firmware. However, its performance dropped in the obstructed version of the test, delivering a below-average speed of 184 Mbit/s. The closest surface of the router was positioned 8″ from the chamber antennas in 0° and 180° test positions. To work around the problem without the new firmware, all I did was to run a short manual test before the automated run to ensure that the router had switched to high throughput mode.

The configuration is not that hard as you will be prompted to select your ISP during the initial configuration wizard.

There has been a steady interest in TP-LINK’s first attempt at an AC1750 class router, the Archer C7, which we reviewed about a year ago. It comes with 4 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports which is great considering that our ISP in Malaysia do support faster speeds now. Note that the default WPA password is the same on both radios and is the 8 digit WPS PIN, not the most secure way to go. In the medium distance tests, with about 35' separating the laptop and the router, the TP-Link Archer C7 scored in the middle of the pack in both, with its average throughput rate of 41 Mbit/s in the line of sight test and 35 Mbit/s in the obstructed version of the test. For a list of all currently documented Qualcomm Atheros ( QCA) chipsets with specifications, see Qualcomm Atheros.I used my Archer C7 as an AP combined with OPNSense to have a full-fledged firewall/router/AP combo. Both radios support WDS bridging / repeating and transmit power can be throttled down to Medium or Low from the default High setting. With that, all TP-Link cloud devices will appear once logged in to your TP-Link ID on the Tether app. Some versions of the Archer C7v5 (US) firmware (others might also be affected) do not reply to ARP properly, and the tftp fails because of that.

TP-Link's router comes with an individual network name and passcode that are printed underneath, but, as with any router, it's a good idea to change these security parameters as soon as possible.We split our testing process into five weighted rating metrics, with the results of the TP-Link Archer C7 and how they compare to the competition explained in the sections below. Router itself is pretty good, the firmware isn’t the best and its taken awhile to release and fix some of the issues. The respective programs are distributed WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. However, it lacks MU-MIMO support for more efficient management of the available bandwidth when lots of hungry devices are connected. To make installation easy, I would recommend using quick setup, which is the next option in the list.