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TP-link AC2600 vs. Netgear R7000 vs Asus AC-RT68U. Which one is better?

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phoenix90

Occasional Visitor
Hi,

I'm from New Zealand and I'm switching to fibre soon. I was planning to buy an upper mid-range router which is reasonably future proof and would last me a couple of years.

I was initially looking for a AC1900 router and have gone through the reviews of the Asus RT68u and the Netgear R7000 and it seems that the R7000 is preferred by many. But here in New Zealand, the TP-link AC2600 is available for the same price. Infact, these three routers are priced similarly, the ASUS costing a few dollars more.

I noticed that the TP-link Archer 2600 has only 32MB of Flash memory while the other two have 128MB Flash. The Archer 2600 has double the RAM though. Should I be bothered about the lower flash memory on the TP-link? And does the TP-link AC2600 do vlan tagging? Most ISPs here require this feature. Considering all three routers are priced almost the same (200USD range) which one should I go for?

I've heard netgear customer support is pretty bad. So a bit reluctant to buy the netgear. Also, the Dlink DIR-880L and the TP-link Archer C9 is available for around 130USD here. Approx 70dollars cheaper than the ones I mentioned. Kindly advice on which one I should go for.

Once again, I am looking for something which is fast by todays standards and will last for a few years, hence something future-proof.
 
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I have used an Asus RT AC68u last couple of years. Went and got the R7000 darknight as it was on special.
All I can say is I returned the R7000 the next day.
It didn't perform as good here.
Using stock netgear firmware.
ymmv
 
I'm from New Zealand and I'm switching to fibre soon.
hi and welcome to the forum

has only 32MB of Flash memory while the other two have 128MB Flash.
i think you being a bit to fixated on the ram as flash ram is not used for normal usage

i suggest you look at what each gives you and what features they have and there gui's

im not 100% sure which routers support 802.1Q with generic fw but most 3rd party firmware like dd wrt does support tagging

asus with the merlin firmware does support vlan tagging also i believe

so i suggest you look at the asus rt AC range
 
For my money, I'd go for the R7000. I've been using the R7000 here for over 2 years now, and it has been a great, reliable piece of hardware. I was interested and looking into TP-Link routers until I read that they're locking down their firmware so that users cannot flash them with third-party firmware. I'm no longer thinking about TP-Link. I do have an RT-AC68P, though, which is a nice piece of hardware, but not as good as the R7000 from my use here. I'm using Kong's latest dd-wrt firmware build on it, and it is performing very well. Get better wireless coverage and strength on the R7000 than I do on the RT-AC68 here, but both give me whole-house coverage.

There's also other third-party firmware than dd-wrt that runs on the R7000, like XVortex's port of RMerlin's Asuswrt firmware, and tomato ARM firmware as well. On the other hand, RMerlin's firmware and tomato ARM also run well on the RT-AC68, so that's not an advantage of one over the other. But having mature third-party firmware available is advantage for both of them.
 
Thank you everyone! :) Am I wrong if I say that the TP-Link AC2600 is a more "future-proof" router compared to the Netgear R7000 and the Asus AC-RT68U, as it supports MU-MIMO and is of the AC2600 class? And all these routers cost the same here.
But again, like RogerSC mentioned, TP-link has a habit of releasing multiple hardware revisions of the same router in future, at times dropping support for previous hardware revisions. I have noticed that this affects the availability of custom firmwares as they may be aimed towards a particular hardware version.
 
more "future-proof"

the whole concept of future proofing is a fools game that no one ever wins , you are far better to focus on what you need now and get that , and in a few years move up to the next best thing at the time

1900ac class routers are almost all anyone needs atm , mimo is a year or so to early with bugger all adapters out there and imho its a bit of fluff as most wont ever use it nor see any improvement in performance due to it as most want and expect it to make their internet faster and this it wont ever do
 
the whole concept of future proofing is a fools game that no one ever wins , you are far better to focus on what you need now and get that , and in a few years move up to the next best thing at the time

1900ac class routers are almost all anyone needs atm , mimo is a year or so to early with bugger all adapters out there and imho its a bit of fluff as most wont ever use it nor see any improvement in performance due to it as most want and expect it to make their internet faster and this it wont ever do
Thanks for clearing this Pete. I guess I'll look into the Netgear R7000 then as its slightly cheaper than the Asus and performs similarly.

I liked the design of the TP-Link though! But ofcourse, we cant buy tech solely based on looks. :)
 
Keep in mind that you can return a router if doesn't fulfill your needs. I'm sure that the R7000 will do so, but you have whatever the return period is to make that decision. For Amazon and Fry's it's 30 days. For BestBuy it was only 14 days last time I looked. So when you buy your new router, make sure to check how long the return period is, so that in the unlikely event that you need to return it, you can.

I agree on future-proofing, as well. Don't bother to try to predict what you'll need in the future, or which way the technology will go in the future. Wait until you outgrow what you have, and then look at what's out there that will fulfill your needs (and have a little room to grow, of course *smile*).
 
Part of "future proofing" is looking into how active the manufacturer is in adding new features and new technologies. TP-Link aren't (which is another reason why the smaller flash doesn't matter, as TP-Link doesn't historically add new features to existing models).

MU-MIMO should not be a factor worth losing sleep over, as it's usefulness is very situational. Future wireless clients won't lose performance if your current router doesn't support it, and for a lot of home users it won't make any difference at all if everything did support MU-MIMO.
 
and for a lot of home users it won't make any difference at all if everything did support MU-MIMO.

and i think tri band would be more useful to the domestic user over mu-mimo if the smart connect gets working like it should and the end user has a lot of wifi clients which more and more have
 
So I just got the Netgear R7000 and I am facing a problem accessing the router configuration page on Windows. All my android devices can open this page via wifi without any issues. But with Windows, even with wifi and ethernet cable, I am unable to open the router login page.

I get an "Unable to connect" error on Edge browser. "Err_connection_reset" on Chrome. Unfortunately, since I am here as a student, I only have one laptop with me at the moment. So can't test this with another laptop.

Pinging 192.168.1.1 shows that there is no problem with the connection. But none of my browsers on Windows are opening the Router settings page. I wanted to flash Xvortex on this router but cant do so as I cant reach the page.

I have reset the router several times. Still, nothing!

My system runs Windows 10.

I believe I only have a 7day return window for the router. And returns here seem to be a hassle because if it works on their system, I may have to pay a testing fee. Nothing suggests its the routers fault. LAN lights are ON when connected via ethernet. I can ping 192.168.1.1 with no packets lost. Can access router page via Wifi on my phones and tablets.

Please help me with this.
 
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All my android devices can open this page via wifi without any issues. But with Windows, even with wifi and ethernet cable, I am unable to open the router login page.

use firefox browser

make sure your ethernet adapter is set to obtain dhcp and dns automatically
 
I tried all browsers including firefox. Got another R7000 to test and it isn't the router. This one behaves the same as well.

My adapter is set to obtain IP address n DNS automatically. How can I check whether DHCP is enabled?

EDIT: I must admit I am a noob to networking terms and I believe you asked me to set adapter tro retreive IP address and DNS automatically. This is already done and I still cannot access the page.

Pinging 192.168.1.1 shows that its connected and no packets lost. But cant get the router page to open.
 
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and i think tri band would be more useful to the domestic user over mu-mimo if the smart connect gets working like it should and the end user has a lot of wifi clients which more and more have

It would be more effective, but it's a pretty expensive (and band-wasteful) fix IMHO.

Personally, I just use the 2.4 GHz band for slow devices, and 5 GHz band for fast devices. Works just fine.
 
OP, I would go for the Archer 2600 as its a 4 stream MiMo router (others are all 3x3) and granted whilst there aren't many 4x4 clients around i still find a 4x4 router with solid fw (eg Linksys EA8500) easily outperforms older routers using 3x3 clients.
 
easily outperforms older routers using 3x3 clients.

really in what specific way cause wifi wise there isnt a lot in terms of coverage and performance

and the linksys fw is abysmal when compared to asus

and unless you have a 4 x 4 client like another 8500 you will gain no benefit
 
Looking at the SNB tests its interesting how 2.4 and 5Ghz AC the newest routers do not necessarily outperform the older routers such as the ASUS 68U.
 
Looking at the SNB tests its interesting how 2.4 and 5Ghz AC the newest routers do not necessarily outperform the older routers such as the ASUS 68U.

that is because we have reached max eirp limits and the manufactures are not allowed to exceed the set regs when it comes to transmit power output . so the manufactures can tweak around the edges and improve performance of things like beamforming and client handling and mu-mimo , but they cant increase pire power out beyond the set limits of the fcc regs etc
 

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