TP-Link AXE5400 Tri-Band WiFi 6E Router (Archer AXE75)- Gigabit Wireless Internet Router, ax Router for Gaming, VPN Router, OneMesh, WPA3

We have lived in my house for over 10 years. It’s an older house built in the 60s, There are 6 of us in the house 4 adults, one 13y and one 7y. We have 3 ring devices, 4 Alexa’s, 6 fire sticks, 6 computers, 6 gaming consoles, a generator, and we all have iPads, cell phones etc, so there are a lot of devices connected to our wifi, so we’ve never had great luck with the range or performance of our internet signal. Things would buffer alot or we’d have dropped signals, so I was always restarting the router. We use to have Brighthouse but currently have Spectrum with just internet, We upgraded our internet to 1GB over a year ago and was given a dual band wifi 5 router that never really worked for us perfectly, I believe it was because it couldn’t support 1GB, but didn’t know that until I got this router. We were using an extender so we could connect to our generator and ring camera that was located outside, and just so you can have an idea, on our generator the wifi signal was at 2%, which was fine but if we wanted to connect anything else outside it was almost impossible. So we contacted customer support about the issues we were having, and they sent us there newest router the wifi 6e router, mind you we were still using the extender. It worked good for a couple days then it stopped. A lot of buffering and a lot of devices wouldn’t even connect to it like my Oculus Quest 2, my husbands work computer and more! I couldn’t even connect our ring camera outback, and the generator outside was getting 0%-1% signal, so the signal would drop a lot. I figured it was because a lot of things still aren’t compatible with wifi 6. So we called support again they did manage to get everything working for about 5 days, then it would stop again. So we called support for the last time and they told us to try to buy a router ourselves. So I happened to come across this one. I was pretty skeptical, thinking it may work as well as the dual band one we had only maybe a little better. The setup process was so easy! Didn’t have to call Spectrum at all! I do wish that the parental controls, security+ and, QoS was free. But they do give you a free month with any of them. So I did the security+. The app you use with it is great! There are a lot of tools in the settings. You can have it auto connect to a network or set it up separately so you can choose 2.4, 5 or 6G, which is what I did. You can have a guest network, optimize your network performance and a lot more! Everything connected perfectly with excellent signal! So I figured I would try to connect the generator and ring camera outback without the extender just for kicks, since I was feeling optimistic😎 The ring camera connected perfectly with excellent signal! Now was the most important test, the generator😵‍💫 Connected it for the first time and I see 22% signal!!! I was SOOO excited! Then I went to the farthest part of my backyard with my cell phone where Iv never had wifi signal before and I had 3-4 bars of wifi signal!!! I couldn’t believe it! This thing has GREAT range, GREAT performance, and is easy to set up and use, what else could you want! It’s been a couple weeks now, no buffering! and everything works flawlessly! I couldn’t be happier! No one complaining for me to fix the wifi anymore and no restarting it twice a week! I would definitely recommend this to anyone that has horrible or just ok wifi signal. The only flaw I can say about it is needing a subscription for the extras. Otherwise just go for it! You don’t like it just return it.

I upgraded my Internet speed in spring 2020, in the early part of the pandemic to 1GB to keep up with 4 laptops, 1 desktop, a Ring camera with chime, a Ring security system, two Roku sticks on smart TVs, 1 Ubiquity WAP, and two NES Switches (among other Wi-Fi devices), TV streaming, and online PC gaming. As our Internet-home grew, the devices with Wi-Fi connected devices exceeded 20. With the upgrade, I had to replace my coaxial router/modem to a permanently installed Frontier modem and an Arris NVG468MQ router that could take a WAN Ethernet port. The Frontier-provided Arris router was not new, low range, and buggy. I went through 3 of these Arris routers in 2.5 years with full Wi-Fi bars but with exactly the same errors ("Connected, no internet", "No Internet, secured", etc.). Nearly pulled my hair. The family was not happy either. Although the Arris router is compatible with 1GB Ethernet upgraded speeds, it appears to cap at about 600 MB. Believe me, I NEVER, ever, got close to 600 MB with Arris. At an OK speed check I would get 30-60 MB Wi-Fi speeds and sometimes crack 100 MB on my Wi-Fi connected laptops, and maybe a bit higher on my Ethernet-connected desktop. On my Samsung S20 phone I would get 80-120MB speeds.

When the Frontier tech visited to check my Internet problems on the second Arris router, I gave him the list of errors (4 in total, two that I named here) and right away he said it was the router and just gave me another one (the 3rd one at that point). Since I had him at home, I asked him if I could buy a router from Best Buy or Amazon and just "plug it in?". He said, "Yes, your Internet setup is plug-n-play, just make sure the router has a blue or red Ethernet port." With that information I started some light research figuring I had maybe a year before the "new" Arris router would get buggy again. Well, it took about a month and I started getting the same exact errors as the previous Arris routers I had replaced. Although the Arris router "corrected" itself a few days later, I was done with Arris routers from Frontier. I sped up my research urgency for a new router from better known brands. At this point I felt I had control over the brand and price point I could buy knowing that I only needed a router and not a modem since Frontier installed a permanent modem when they upgraded my Internet to 1GB speed.

Having read about 6E enabled routers–catching up on the newest router/Wi-Fi standards–I figured that a 6E router would be the best option for me as a "future-proof" investment. I narrowed the search to TP-Link, Netgear Nighthawk, and Asus models. This TP-Link AXE5400 beat all the other brands in price for roughly similar, or at least comparable, reviews, features, and range. I purchased this TP-Link AXE5400 Tri-Band WiFi 6E Router (Archer AXE75). TP-Link AXE5400 had excellent reviews on Amazon but also across the Internet from reputable technology websites and sources. I did not rely only on Amazon reviews given the issues with bogus reviews. The "plug-n-play" setup at my home with a Frontier 1GB speed was just that easy. Within about 2 minutes of connecting the TP-Link AXE5400 router, all the lights came "on". I rushed to my Ethernet-plugged desktop and opened my browser. Right away I saw the TP-Link landing page asking for an admin login and password setup, and an Admin account. Several steps later, I reused the previously used SSID and password credentials to minimize connectivity disruptions on all my Wi-Fi-enabled devices and in a flash I was connected to the Internet. I might have spent maybe 20 minutes total, from unboxing to setup to Internet, with some thought-provoking time needed to come up with a new login and password for my TP-Link account.

My desktop Ethernet-connected speed test blew me away: I broke the 700/800MB download/upload speeds! I ran a speed test on my Samsung S20 but got the 100+ MB speed that I had gotten with the Arris router. I wondered if it would make a difference if I "forgot" the SSID on the phone and then log back in to the same SSID and password? Sure did! After I "forgot" the SSID on my phone and logged back in and ran a speed test, I broke the 800 MB download speed on the phone. Fantastic! My laptop speeds exceeded the 200 MB download/upload speed marks. Another laptop hit the 190/200 MB download/upload speed marks.

Although I am kinda rushing with this review, I feel I made the right purchase and that this TP-Link AXE5400 will outlast the last 3 Arris routers that this router replaced. I will return to review in a few months with good or bad impressions at that time. But, right now, I am a happy dad with a happy family.

(Update: September 21, 2024): Ok, so I didn't return after a few months. Rather, a few years. 😳The TP-Link is still going strong. No issues. No problems. No headaches. No regrets.

I've been using this router for a month with fiber optic internet. The setup was as seemless and easy as I could ask for, the Tether app is very good and user friendly, and the thing even looks good. It's not exactly an inexpensive router, but it's very well made and has been working flawlessly. I love the tri-band feature, and the smart switching to prioritize devices and bandwidth allocation. One reason I chose this router is the wifi 6E feature, which is an extension of wifi 6 that allows another lane for wireless connectivity so other devices don't have to share as much bandwidth and prevents bottlenecking from too many devices on one band. I have PCs, laptops, smart TVs, cell phones, tablets, gaming consoles, cameras, and smart light bulbs running on this router and have had no issues. The "gateway" I received from my previous ISP couldn't handle half of those devices at the same time. My research told me that this is one of the top routers on the market currently, and I would have to agree.