At first we would like to thank TP-LINK for offering me a sample of their AC2600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router for testing and reviewing.

 

About TP-LINK:

"TP-LINK is a global provider of SOHO networking products and No.1 market share holder in China, with products available in over 100 countries to tens of millions customers. Committed to powerful R&D, effective production and strict quality management, TP-LINK continues to provide awards-winning networking products in Wireless, ADSL, Routers, Switches, IP Cameras, Powerline Adapters, Print Servers, Media Converters and Network Adapters for Global end-users.

Based on the confidence of tens of millions of customers, TP-LINK is now growing to become one of the most competitive providers of networking products with aspirations of becoming one of the top 3 networking brands and striving for a larger global market share, while further advancing in the world of networking to better serve our most valued customers with a product that makes their lives easier."

Product Features:

 

4-Stream for the Fastest Wi-Fi Speeds – The Archer C2600 reaches the fastest max speeds available over its 2.4GHz (800Mbps) and 5GHz (1733Mbps) bands

Run Multiple Devices Simultaneously – The Archer C2600 operates 3x faster by running MU-MIMO to serve multiple devices at once instead of one at a time

Multi-Task without Slowing Down – A powerful 1.4GHz dual-core processor lets you smoothly surf, stream, and game at the same time

Maximum Range – 4 dual band detachable high performance antennas provide maximum Omni-directional wireless coverage with beamforming technology

TP-LINK Tether App – TP-LINK Tether provides the easiest way to access and manage the router on your iOS and Android devices

 

Product Specifications:

 

It is time to take a look at another MU-MIMO router, but from another manufacturer: TP-LINK. TP-LINK impresses us again with a brand new design of the chassis, while incorporating the latest technologies, similar to what we have seen with the Sitecom Greyhound AC2600. The product is shipped inside a fully-sealed cardboard enclosure, sporting the iconic color scheme we have also seen with the previous generations:

 

 

 

On the frontal area of the packaging we will get to see a photo of the Archer C26700 router along with some product highlights:

 

 

 

If we look a bit on the side, we will get to see a list of package contents, the physical specifications, supported standards but also the security modes:

 

 

 

If needed, the router can be also configured via the TP-LINK Tether App and here we will find some shots of the product interfaces:

 

 

 

On the back area of the enclosure, we do get to see some explanations regarding the new technologies along with a comparison with other Archer router models:

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with a white cardboard box:

 

 

 

Right away, we will get to see the router, which is extra wrapped inside a semi-transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

Under it, TP-LINK has placed the documentation along with the rest of the bundle:

 

 

 

Multiple leaflets are offered with it which include router features, the declaration of conformity, technical support, GNU general public license notice but also the Quick Installation Guide:

 

 

 

The guide shows us in the simplest mode possible how the router setup should look like:

 

 

 

 

As hardware bundle, we will also receive the four dual-band detachable antennas, one LAN cable, the power adapter but also the power lead:

 

 

 

The power adapter was manufactured by Huntkey and is rated on the output as 12V at 4A:

 

 

 

Its Huntkey logo on top also doubles as a Power LED:

 

 

 

After we have seen the curved chassis of the Touch P5, the diamond-shaped top & metallic grey plastic frame of the RE850D Wi-Fi Range Extender, TP-LINK returns to a more minimalistic design but modern nonetheless, which reminds us of the D7 ADSL2+ Modem Router. While the top half serves as a ventilation grill, the lower area is made from black glossy plastic:

 

 

 

This plastic is covered by a transparent film and TP-LINK also instructs us to press on the specified button in order to turn on or off the LEDs:

 

 

 

On the right side we will also get to see the chromed TP-LINK logo:

 

 

 

The LEDs in question are placed in the recessed area of the top cover and can be spotted only when the product is in operation:

 

 

 

The left side of the router does not come with extra interfaces but we can clearly spot the nice metallic-grey-painted plastic frame:

 

 

 

The opposite area does come with no less than two USB 3.0 ports, a Wi-Fi On/Off button, a WPS button but also one Reset button hole:

 

 

 

In the back, the router has four gold-plated antenna ports, four LAN ports in yellow, one blue WAN port, a DC-IN port but also one Power On/Off button:

 

 

Here is also a look at the frontal area of the product:

 

 

The bottom area of the enclosure does act as a ventilation grill and in the middle we do have the product sticker:

 

 

Some small feet can be spotted on the sides:

 

 

The product sticker does show the Archer C2600 power rating, default access user and password but also the product serial number along with the MAC and wireless default SSIDs and PINs:

 

 

The product does keep a professional look after the antennas have been attached:

 

 

TP-LINK has used the same GUI design as with the last products we have tested from them; even the color scheme is untouched! After we go to the router web address, we will be first prompted to log in:

 

 

 

On the top area of the interface, we do have three main sections:

 

-Quick Setup (the included wizard which initially pops up to perform a fast configuration)

-Basic (for accessing Basic options)

-Advanced (for accessing the complete configuration menus)

 

Basic Menu comes with a Network Map, so we can see the current number of connected devices but also details about each of them:

 

 

 

Internet menu will show different options depending on our ISP to configure:

 

 

 

The Wireless menu allows us to enable/disable the respective interfaces, but also set the SSID and passwords for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz:

 

 

 

Guest Network options can be also assigned in the Basic section:

 

 

 

USB Settings menu does take care of the storage devices connected to the router and can also enable the Print Server, which works along with an application which will be installed on our OS:

 

 

 

 

Parental Controls is the last menu from this area:

 

 

 

Moving on to the Advanced section, we do have the Status area which lets us know about the ISP connection details, the wireless operating parameters, LAN details of the router on the network, Guest network details, connected USB devices details, router hardware CPU/memory resources occupation, connected wired clients but also connected wireless clients on both frequencies:

 

 

 

From the Network area we do have the Internet sub-section which allows us to configure the WAN port parameters depending on our ISP:

 

 

 

LAN menu allows us to set an IP address for the router on the network (this will also dictate the IP-range of the DHCP server):

 

 

 

A menu is also offered in case we are working with IPTV services:

 

 

 

From the DHCP server section, we will be able to select the range, gateway, primary/secondary DNS addresses but also see the DHCP client list of connected stations. We can add address reservations quite easily:

 

 

 

Dynamic DNS services can be used if our service provider is No-IP or DynDNS:

 

 

 

Advanced Routing features are available from the next sub-section:

 

 

 

The Wireless menu comes with the Wireless Settings sub-section, from where we can configure both 2.4GHz and 5Ghz networks:

 

 

 

WPS feature can be configured and turned on/off next:

 

 

 

Statistics per each connected stations are also available:

 

 

 

Guest network settings can be further configured from the respective menu; here we can also specify if the guests should be allowed to see each other or if the guests would have access to the local network (not recommended):

 

 

 

USB Settings menu gets populated when we have a storage device or printer connected to the available USB ports:

 

 

 

 

 

The same Parental Controls menu is also available in the Advanced section:

 

 

 

 

QoS Settings for us to configure are next:

 

 

 

Database files can be also loaded to the router:

 

 

 

Regarding security, we can enable the SPI Firewall, DoS protection and more:

 

 

 

We can also enable Access Control for different stations:

 

 

 

 

IP & MAC Binding is also available here:

 

 

 

NAT Forwarding menu comes with the following sub-sections: ALG, Virtual Servers, Port Triggering, DMZ, UPNP:

 

ALG

 

 

 

Virtual Servers

 

 

 

Port Triggering

 

 

 

DMZ

 

 

 

UPnP

 

 

 

If our ISP is using IPv6, we can enable it in the respective menu:

 

 

 

The System Tools menu does come with the usual Time Settings sub-section:

 

 

 

Diagnostics can be run if something is not working as it should or we do have issues with our Internet connection:

 

 

 

Firmware upgrades are easy to do if we do specify the file from our computer:

 

 

 

Backup & Restore options are available next:

 

 

 

The Administration sub-sections can allow us to define a new username, enable password recovery option, enable local management for all devices on the LAN but also remote management:

 

 

 

System Log sub-section shows us what happens “under-the-hood”:

 

 

 

We can also see the Traffic Statistics per each station:

 

 

 

System Parameters area practically joins some of the configuration menus together for fast access:

 

 

 

 

 

Wired Station

 

CPU: Intel I5 3570K Retail

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional

RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 2x4GB DDR2133 (@1600)

Video: Sparkle X560 Calibre

Power Supply: Cooler Master 850W

HDD: Crucial MX100

Case: Cooler Master ATCS 840

For this new breed of routers, we have used a mix of PerformanceTest 8.0 and LAN Speed Test in order to test performances. Our wired server had a public shared folder on it and with the help of the wireless station (i7 6700K, ECS Z170 Claymore, 8GB RAM DDR 2133MHz, OCZ Vector SSD) we have operated the test software (LAN Speed Test for measuring wireless download/upload and PerformanceTest 8.0 for checking out the wired station-to-station switch performances).

For the wired client tests, both stations were linked to the router via UTP wire.

 

Wired Test

 

 

 

We have tested the router while using all available modes from the interface, on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies:

 

 

 

 

To test the USB Storage speeds, we have connected one Corsair Flash Voyager GTX USB 3.0 Flash Drive to the router and performed file transfers both ways. The transfer speeds are very good, maxing out the LAN interface in the read department.

 

Copy

Read

 

TP-LINK did not go on the Sitecom route of using one of the latest OpenWrt builds (including customization in order to fit the new hardware features), but built on a proven stable software they have built for quite some time now and could have been also seen with their Touch P5 high-end router. Besides that, we are getting the latest MU-MIMO capabilities, a brand new chassis design and the Qualcomm dual-core IPQ8064 Internet processor at its heart, clocked at 1.4GHz.

 

Two USB 3.0 ports are conveniently placed on the side for easy access; here we can connect printers but also storage devices which can be enabled for using throughout the network from the GUI. As the Touch P5, the new Archer C2600 router sports good coverage so we have got absolutely no issues connecting it to our RE850 range extender and held both connections really well.

 

The Wi-Fi results we have got in our tests are as expected on this type of platform but may very well vary depending on the environment but also on the used Wi-Fi cards. On the USB 3.0 speed of transfer side, we have obtained about 50MB/s read/write, which is on par with low-end, cheap NASes.

 

If the previous features did not surprise, then the next one will do for sure: the price! Unlike the Greyhound which is available for about 272 Euros at the moment, Archer C2600 can be purchased for about 160 Euros, which makes it very attractive on the MU-MIMO market at the moment.

 

TP-LINK AC2600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router is Recommended For:

 

We would like to thank again to TP-LINK for making this review possible!