TL-WR3002X | Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 AX3000 Travel Router | Multi-Gig Portable | OpenVPN, WireGuard | Easy Public Sharing | Hotel/Cruise/Travel Approved | Phone Tether | USB 3.0

I recently picked up this router to use as an access point for my upstairs, and it’s been great. Setup was fast and straightforward—took only a few minutes. Once it was up and running, the difference in speed was immediately noticeable. My devices connect quickly, streaming is smoother, and dead spots are basically gone. Overall, a solid, fast, and easy-to-use router that made a big improvement in my home Wi-Fi. As you can see the speed difference before and after using this router.

[updated] I updated from a TP-Link Archer C7. I have an Arris SB8200 modem. Here are a few notes. The AX55 signal strength seems a little better, especially in the 5 GHz band. It also adds 802.11ax and WPA3 security as well as "Smart Connect" which allows you to combine 2.4G and 5G bands under a single SSID and have the router decide which to use with each client. You could just give the separate bands the same SSID with any router. In that case each client would decide which band to use. The router login no longer uses a username, only a password. I have now tried "Smart Connect" with 2 TP-Link routers in 2 different houses and I am not impressed. On both I eventually had to separate the 2 bands. It was especially dysfunctional on mobile devices (phones, laptops, etc.). It doesn't seem to switch bands very easily as you move around. Even stationary devices seem to bounce inexplicably between the two bands, which can have very different signal strengths. The wi-fi encryption settings can be a problem depending on your equipment. The options are: None WPA2-PSK[AES] WPA2-PSK[AES]+WPA-PSK[TKIP] WPA3-Personal WPA3-Personal+WPA2-PSK[AES] WPA2-Enterprise WPA/WPA2-Enterprise I wouldn't touch either WPA or TKIP. Previously I used only WPA2-PSK[AES]. I would have liked to have used WPA3-Personal+WPA2-PSK[AES] here, but I have an older 2.4G printer with WPA/WPA2[AES or TKIP]. It would not connect unless the router was set to WPA2-PSK[AES] or WPA2-PSK[AES]+WPA-PSK[TKIP]. In the end, I set the 2.4G band to WPA2 (only) and the 5G band to WPA2+WPA3. Configuration and Installation ----------------------------------- Installing the router was pretty straightforward. I turned off wi-fi on my laptop, wired it (DHCP) to one of the router's client ports, browsed to 192.168.0.1, and logged in (password is on the bottom of the router). Alternatively, you could leave your wi-fi enabled and connect to the router's default SSID, also on the bottom. Doing it over wi-fi is just a bit more risky. I configured it entirely through the web interface using the Advanced menus. I changed the password and IPv4 address and left it with a temporary SSID while walking through all the other settings. After that was done, I shut down my old router, changed the temporary SSID and passcode on the new router to the permanent ones, shut down the new router, and connected it to my modem. I have not as yet found anything I can do with the Tether app that I can't do, and more easily, with the web interface. The router would not connect to the internet when I powered it on until I remembered that the modem has to be rebooted to pick up the router's MAC address. It won't connect to a new router until then. I powered off both, powered up the modem, waited until it was fully up, and then powered up the router. It connected immediately and has been running fine since then. Once connected, I reviewed the internet (IPv4 and IPv6) status and settings. For Comcast, at least in this area, the IPv6 WAN connection type is Dynamic IP(SLAAC/DHCPv6) with DHCPv6 and prefix delegation selected. The LAN type is SLAAC+Stateless DHCP. I prefer to use Google's public DNS servers (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, 2001:4860:4860::8888, and 2001:4860:4860::8844), I've set those to override the Comcast-provided defaults. Performance --------------- I have 400 Mbps Comcast service with an Arris SB8200 modem. The modem indicates DOCSIS 3.1 service on the downstream side, but not on the upstream side. My laptop wireless NIC is an Intel AC7265 dual-band b/g/n/ac adapter. On a wired connection to the router, I get download speeds of 475+ Mbps. 480 would be the most I would expect given Comcast's typical practice of over-provisioning by 20%. On 5G wi-fi with 40 MHz channels, I get 475 Mbps next to the router and about 20' away in the same room. I get 355 Mbps in the next room, which is 73% faster than with the Archer C7. On 2.4G wi-fi with 20 MHz channels, I get 100 Mbs in the next room and 45 Mbs 2 floors up on the opposite side of the house. That's 25% and 80% faster than with my Archer C7. Those who have unexpectedly slow wi-fi performance and who have "Smart Connect" enabled may be connected via the 2.4 GHz band without realizing it. Another reason not to use that feature. I live in a crowded wi-fi neighborhood with people who think it's a good idea to use 40 or 80 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band. Don't do that. It makes all your neighbors' performance worse and doesn't really help yours.

Great little travel router that really delivers peace of mind. It’s compact, fast, and incredibly easy to use in hotels and on the road. The VPN setup is straightforward and once enabled, it automatically protects all your devices, which is a huge plus when connecting to public Wi-Fi. Performance has been solid and reliable, exactly what you want when traveling. The only thing I wish it had is a built-in internal battery. That would make it even more convenient in places like airports, especially during short waits when you’re trying to conserve laptop or phone battery and don’t want to plug in yet another device. Overall, a very well-designed travel router that does what it promises and does it well.

This will not be an in-depth review but will cover some highlights. Pros: This is small and light, which makes it easy to pack for trips. It also has decent speed and range. Now, it's range isn't very far -- on the 5GHz band I was down a bar in strength about 20 feet away, but the range is sufficient for travel use unless you are staying in a massive room or house. It was generally easy to use and set up was straightforward if you know what you're doing. If not, I can see it being a challenge to many people because there are no clear instructions included with it. Cons: Set up was not as easy as it could be. The Tether app helped but pulling up the captive portal never worked from within the app. I generally had to plug the router in, connect to it, add the hotel/public WiFi as the network, and then go on a different device to pull up the captive portal. If you've been dealing with routers and computers for some time, you'll figure it out, but otherwise, the process is much too convoluted. Overall, the router is good. I'm hoping it lasts some years. It really should be priced lower though as a WiFi 6 device. I know competition is scarce but at the 'normal' price there is a better option for a travel router. At the discounted price of around $50-$60 after credits and coupons that was available recently, it's fairly priced for the performance. I think $50 would be much more reasonable as a target price for this.

Update 5/21/24: We just dropped our ISP and went with a new Fiber Optic 1GB ISP just on our street. no matter if you have a cable modem or a Fiber Optical connection, they all terminate to a standard ethernet connection. Our old cat 5e/6 ethernet cable works fine with this and were are getting ~800mbps upload and 725 mbps download speeds on wifi. (wired ethernet will almost always be fastest, but, our speeds are excellent for our wifi setup with the AX3000). I swapped out the WAN cable from my old Motorola cable modem, plugged in the ethernet cable from our Fiber Optic box, rebooted the AX3000 and bingo, back in business. It was that easy. The tech doing the installation here said he wished others would choose the right Router for higher speed internet services and he said he knows about the TP-Link routers and that the AX3000 was a great choice for our new internet service. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After about 10 years with an apple airport extreme that was working well, but, was outdated and no longer supported with firmware updates by Apple nor have adequate range in our house for Wi-Fi, I decided to look on Amazon for a newer and higher speed Wi-Fi six router. I tried a couple of other brands of wifi 6 routers, but, they just did not work out that well and lacked the desired GUI and setup screens I wanted. The TP Link AX 3000 router was my next choice to try and its GUI, setup and performance has been superb since set up. We use Xfinity\Comcast Internet service and our plan has a maximum of 450 Mbps download/12 mbps upload and right after setup, this router is seeing about 150 Mbps more speed using wireless in the house then AirPort Extreme could do even standing next to it. The AX3000 gives us our plan speed! I tried many varied settings for the airport extreme to see if I could get more speed out of Wi-Fi including trying different channels for 2.4 and 5 GHz, as well as a few changes for ipv4 and ipv6 settings and nothing I've tried could raise the numbers at all and at best, speeds were best about 250 mbps for Wi-Fi when within a room away from or even standing next to the router. The attached pic for a speed test for the AX3000 was done a room away from the AX3000 which is mounted high in a closet situated in the middle of the house (in a hallway) for best signal everywhere inside. The wifi speeds I am seeing now are close to what my wired ethernet speeds are and at the speed our plan is. That's impressive! What I'm seeing with the AX3000 for general Wi-Fi speeds are between 400-425 Mbps. I am also noticing a huge improvement in the Wi-Fi signal strength over-all. I can be at either end of my house or even out in the backyard now and still have plenty of signal and Internet speed to use. I could not do that with the airport extreme in which the wifi signal strength fell off much quicker by distance whether I was in the house, or in my backyard (where there was a weak signal to connect to, if I could connect at all from outdoors). We have a metal enclosed patio room and due to the metal walls, the Airport Extreme just could not reach there well out there from its closet/hallway location and internet speeds were reduced to around 200 or sometimes a lot lower mbps. I used a wifi extender out there as needed (with the Airport Extreme), but, as tested, the AX3000 has very adequate signal and speeds out there as well. Wifi speeds drop just a little out there using the AX3000 at around 375 mbps vs the 400+ mbps indoors and away from any metal. Impressive! No extender needed for my setup. A few reviewers noted, there's some special settings required for the AX3000 and some cable company ISPs. We have Comcast/Xfinity and I ended up having to mimic the MAC address of our old router to be able to finally connect. Having the ability to use default, clone or a unique MAC address on the AX3000 made the setup so much easier. Comcast does have an app where you can switch over to the new router basically where you will update the MAC address (to the Comcast server for your internet connection) for the new router so it works with your cable modem. I chose to work around that so I wouldn't have to use any app and that works better for me if I ever have to put the airport extreme temporarily back into use because I'll be using the same MAC address as I am now. Some of the routers I tried previously had no way to just put in their IP address and do the setup using a browser. These routers required an app to setup the router. The AX3000 lets you set up either directly at it's IP address using a browser or by using the free TP-Links "TETHER" app. One feature I really like in the advanced settings for the AX3000 is that you can choose either to have the IPV4 and IPV6 channels separate (using two separate WiFi network names for the 2.4 and 5 GhZ) or combine them into just one name and the router in that case will choose which one (2.4 or 5 GhZ) to connect to based on the signal quality, the device wifi capabilities and the location of your devices. My air airport extreme only allowed a separate 2.4 and 5 GHz Network to select from, but, with the AX3000 you can combine both into one (network name) and let the Router handle the best and fastest way to connect to each of your devices. That's nice for me because one name to connect you for Wi-Fi and your Network is all you need. It just simplifies things a little bit. The setup for the Guest network is similar. The AX3000 does have a very significant amount of adjustment and settings in the advanced mode, and I did change a couple things there, including the DNS servers that we normally use. Are use open DNS servers, using a primary and a secondary DNS and I put those into the router settings so that's where I'm connecting to (and then to Comcast). I have found better Internet speed overall when I'm using a public DNS rather than going directly to Comcast service. Your mileage may vary! I also use TunnelBear VPN here and the AX3000 has the option to basically always login and connect through the TunnelBear VPN servers which is really nice. Again because it's a much outdated model, my Apple Airport Extreme did not allow that but with the AX3000 I have the option of having a VPN on 100% using the router to connect to the VPN servers and not having to deal with turning it on it on each device using an app...very nice! Be advised that typically using a VPN will slow down your Internet connection a little because then you have a third-party access point in the loop that you're utilizing for your connection, but, for me, I have found that my VPN service does a superb job of keeping the Internet speed up substantially over a few others that I tried in the past which degraded speeds substantially. Given the large speed improvement using the AX3000, I'm fine with loosing some speed with a VPN. Also be aware the AX3000 has a full VPN setup that can b used to connect to your VPN through your router, rather then the need to install and use an app on each of your devices. VPNExress is supported in the AX3000 internally so if you have an active account with VPNExpress, you are good to go! My TunnelBear does not support router installation for it's app so I'm still using their app on each device to turn it on or off. Moving to a new router is always a bit of trial and error and tweaks to get it right and become familiar with a new GUI and protocol on the new router. The AX3000 took some time to tweak, but, once that's done, you going to be very happy with the maximum speed it will give you as well as the great signal coverage it has. Be sure to back up each time you change some settings. Its far easier to do that then try to remember all the changes you just made that did not work out. Backup and restore is the way to go. So far, so good and I'm very impressed with this new wifi 6 router. I'll update this review as required while this model is still current and available to buyers. 5 Stars all around!

This TP-Link Archer AX55 Wi-Fi 6 router has been absolutely incredible and completely transformed my home networking experience with blazing fast speeds and rock-solid reliability - the quality is outstanding with premium construction that delivers genuine AX3000 performance across my entire house while maintaining stable connections even with multiple devices streaming simultaneously, and I love how the advanced Wi-Fi 6 technology provides future-proof networking that handles everything from work video calls to 4K streaming without any lag or buffering. The functionality is phenomenal as the dual-band design eliminates the congestion issues I experienced with my old router while the easy setup process had me up and running in minutes without technical expertise, plus the gigabit ethernet ports provide lightning-fast wired connections for gaming and high-performance devices that demand maximum speed. It looks great with sleek, modern styling that fits perfectly in any home environment without the bulky, industrial appearance of many routers, and the intelligent antenna design provides excellent coverage throughout my multi-story home while maintaining strong signal strength in previously dead zones. At this price point for genuine Wi-Fi 6 performance, it's incredible value compared to expensive mesh systems or constantly dealing with slow, unreliable internet that affects productivity and entertainment - this router has eliminated all my connectivity frustrations while supporting the bandwidth demands of modern smart homes with multiple streaming devices, and family members constantly comment on how much faster and more reliable our internet has become, making this one of the smartest technology investments for dramatically improving home networking performance while providing the advanced features needed for today's connected lifestyle.

This is my second TP Link router, my first router being wi-fi 5. Wanting to take advantage of the increased speed with Spectrum, I decided I buy a wi- fi 6 router. My previous TP router had given me a great internet experience, so it was an easy choice to buy another router from TP Link. Setting it up was simple using the TP Link app, and the performance had exceeded my expectations. I’m getting Ethernet speeds wirelessly. I currently have 14 devices connected to my router and haven’t had any performance issues, every device is running perfectly. With this router, I know that I’m getting the internet speed I’m paying for. I’d highly recommend this, or any other router that TP Link manufacturers. It’s a quality company that makes high quality products.

I recently upgraded to the TP-Link Archer AX55 Wi-Fi 6 Router, and I am thoroughly impressed! The dual-band capability provides excellent coverage and speed throughout my home. Setting up the router was a breeze with the TP-Link Tether app, and I love the user-friendly interface. Streaming, gaming, and working from home have all improved significantly, thanks to the AX3000 speeds. The design is sleek and modern, fitting well with my home decor. Plus, the security features give me peace of mind for my connected devices. Overall, I highly recommend the TP-Link Archer AX55 for anyone looking to enhance their home network with reliable and fast Wi-Fi!