Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Randy Brimmer photo
1 Level
806 Review
85 Karma

Review on TP-Link Archer C3150: The πŸ”Œ Ultimate Black Wireless MU-MIMO Gigabit Router by Randy Brimmer

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Yes, it works great! (Verizon user: read review)

As said above it works great and the range is fantastic as I have a lot of questions I want answered before I buy. Sorry I'm advanced, I'll be a bit verbose, but I hope this helps you =) Apart from that, I have gigabyte FiOS service and I've had huge speed drops with fios wifi routers. Out of the box (past the router and directly with the short 5e cable) I got (according to Verizon's speed test) about 960 down and 880 up. It's great. However, using their WiFi router and literally 10 feet away, I'm 50/20 on my laptop. Worse, on the other upper level of my house, I would have completely lost connection in the two back rooms. We have a 2400 square foot home on 2 levels. Our internet is on the lower level which is half below class. For the record, you don't want to connect wirelessly here, as the signal expands outward and down like an umbrella. Ideally, place your wireless router in the middle of your home, on the top level. Because of the way I designed the house, I placed the server room in the far corner of the lower level and connected CAT 5e to all rooms for wired connections (all computers and smart TVs were connected directly to the LAN line ) which I work with very Large amounts of data so hard lines were always a requirement and WiFi was only used for tablets and cellphones. However, now I and everyone in my house are relying more and more on Wi-Fi connectivity, and that slow signal just didn't get in the way anymore. As I wanted to use my laptop more for work at home, I started looking at different options. and tried the Linksys and Netgear system I had at another office and neither was much better. The range just dwindled and the speed never came close to what I needed. After a lot of searching and reading I decided on this TP link and I am very glad I did. Installation is very easy and I had absolutely no connections. Questions. It's literally a 5 minute process from opening the box to launching. Default: From a Verizon box (not their Verizon router, but a white box on the wall) I took this CAT5E cable (LAN line) out of the box and tested the speed before connecting to the new router have. Note that when I tested I actually only got 300/200, so I called and Verizon dropped the box and my speed was back. to what it should be (9XXgbps/8XXgbps). Make sure you check this incoming line before proceeding. You need to make sure what's coming into your home is what you should be getting before you move on. The Verizon speed test is verizon.com/speedtest if you're getting slow speeds. It will be many times slower when transmitted over the wireless network. I had to get to it, I opened the TP-Link box, pulled out the WiFi router and connected the same LAN line that came out of the Verizon box to my WiFi router and connected the router to ours with the included power cable UPS. and surge protection. You will no longer use a Verizon wireless router (or Comcast or Cox or whatever wireless ISP device you have). After turning it on, it started sending a signal for 30 seconds. I connected, set an admin password and changed the network name to what I wanted and changed the password. Very simple and very easy to make. Then comes the moment of truth, time to check wireless internet speed. You'll always have some drop with WiFi as it's not a dedicated continuous signal like you would with a Category 5e or 6a line, but you should be able to get half the speed of the leased line . That means I should be able to get up to 400Mbps wirelessly. Not the 50/20 I got with the Verizon router. I went to Verizon's speed test with trepidation, and it did. Speed 400Mbps! I finally have real wireless internet in my house! But wait, the test wasn't over yet, I had to confirm other issues. signal strength and distance. because this test was only 3 steps away from the router. So I went to the other side of the house, great, the speed was the same. Then I went upstairs, great, the speed was the same. then I went on deck, fantastic, the speed was the same. Then I went back and sat on the hammock. I still got over 300 m/s! It wasn't until I was about 70 feet from my house that I started having signal dropouts, admit it. this is installed with this router on the opposite side of my house on one level, partially underground! Once I knew everything was working fine, I went back to my server room and connected my switch to my router. Here you have 4 plugin options, just like most WiFi routers. My setup is this: I have a switch for all smart tvs and kids rooms. This switch then connects to the router and occupies 1 slot. I then have three dedicated lines from my office, my master bedroom, and our common room (when I want to work comfortably), each taking its own line. I can also confirm that in the individual test, they all still run at the full speed that they should get. This router is excellent for the price and I'm so glad we bought it. I can't vouch for the durability of the router as it was just installed but if you don't see any updates from me assume it's still working great =) Very happy with it and hope it helps you catching up!** *Update 08/08/2019: Well 5 months of use and it literally never shut down or had to restart. Literally no issues with Wi-Fi in the entire time I've owned it. Now I can truly attest that this is a great 5 star router!

Pros
  • Pretty impressive
Cons
  • Dull packaging