TP-Link ac1750 Archer C7 Ver. 1.1

Here it is, a throwaway Archer C7 that I've got at the local flea market a week ago for free  (plus $1 for more or less matching power adapter). By the dealer's info, it was bricked, so its three 5db fancy wedged antennas were screwed off a useless body and possibly held by owner for something.

The $1 power adapter was of 1000 mA caliber while the original brick is rated for 2.5A. However, the shiny piano black thing booted just fine right there, at the flea market.

Luckily, device was only soft-bricked, so holding a reset button for 10+ seconds (may take another attempt, and another...) has restored it to pristine, de-bricked factory defaults. Woo-hoo.

Setting up this router was a non-trivial task. Despite a manual of 146 pages in Chinglish and detailed help in Web GUI, it took me several hours to just get to the Internet and download current firmware.

When tuning up this router, one must remember to reboot it (on/off hardware switch) after one or more changes are saved, just to be on the safe side.

A good detailed review of this router can be found here: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32196-tp-link-archer-c7-ac1750-wireless-dual-band-gigabit-router-reviewed

Router is quite popular as it is generally 2 times cheaper than leading 3 to 5 ac1750 routers of other brands while holding similar throughput rankings.

If you ask me, I must say it's totally worth its $1 price, plus another $15 for three 9db 5GHz antennas to screw in instead of lost stock ones (stock is rated at 5 db; switch to 9db is reported as adding 20 to 50 percent bandwidth/distance).

There are plenty of forums dedicated to this device with hundreds pages in every language, and I'm in the middle of reading those and trying to solve many quirks above basic functions which are implemented pretty good so far. What it boils down to is two things: there possibly will be no DD-WRT firmware for my Release 1.1 and openwrt firmware for it has no real edge over stock fimware.

5 GHz range is not this Archer C7 v. 1.1 forte, so people are fast in suggesting all kinds of antenna boosters starting with a kitchen wire whisk perched on middle antenna:

 and ending with the throwaway satellite dish:

(there's a phone holder duct-taped pictured here, but nothing prevents you to tape a holder for your Archer C7, right? Hang the dish on the shortest wall of your cave and enjoy terrific coverage...)

However, the hardware revision 1.1 I've got me for such enticing price was deprecated several months ago, but the improved version 2 is available for $60...$85. I would seriously consider to get me that one upgraded (in 5 GHz range) model after some testing and hacking of what I have now.

 On a second thought, TP-Link AC1900 Archer C9 looks like a better bet, but for $150...$170 a pop. It's just too new. Once the TP-Link recognizes that with USB 3.0 drive attached they have an RF interference problem, and it's a hardware design fault, then these C9's initial versions may go on sale for about $90. Which is a fair price, and then anyone with good soldering skills will be able to shield that USB 3.0 connectors properly.