TP-Link Archer C2: Wi-Fi AC to the masses

A year ago, devices with 802.11ac support were considered premium by manufacturers of home network equipment and were not available to everyone because of the high price, but today you can buy a completely budget router with full-fledged operation in two frequency bands and with AC support. Having firmly won a leading position in the Russian network equipment market, TP-Link has introduced a new line of home routers, consisting of four positions.



Today there will be a review of one of the routers, and we will not examine the top model, but the “golden mean”, a solid middle peasant. Let's greet today's hero: TP-Link Archer C2 .

Wi-Fi wireless technology has long and firmly gained popularity around the world. It's hard to imagine, but literally twelve years ago, Wi-Fi was an optional option on laptops. Now Wi-Fi is associated directly with the Internet, and manufacturers are integrating wireless network support into almost all home appliances that have at least a few "brains", starting with laptops and ending with refrigerators.



The situation is not unique when up to several dozens of access points can be caught in an apartment building simply by scanning the air. The number of simultaneously working devices is increasing, everyone needs a minimum acceptable speed of access to the network, but the width of the 2.4 GHz band in which Wi-Fi works does not change from the very first versions of the technology. With the development of technology from the first public version of 802.11b to the latest 802.11n, developers squeezed out of the maximum speed range: from 11 Mbps to 300 Mbps, but the speed of the technology does not determine the actual speed of work on the network, since the radio broadcast in fact is “common environment ”, and the more simultaneously operating devices are in the coverage radius of the access point, the more they interfere with each other.

In routers and access points of the upper price segment, manufacturers began to use, in addition to the 2.4 GHz band, a less “breakdown" but freer band of 5 GHz. That is, in fact, embed two radio frequency paths in one device. The idea turned out to be so successful that the new version of Wi-Fi 802.11ac uses full work in both bands, allowing you to achieve speeds above gigabits per second!

“Archer C2” is delivered in a standard green cardboard box, on which, in addition to a brief specification of the router itself, a comparative table is provided as part of the device line.



All devices in the line support dual-band operation and support IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac standards. All but the younger model have gigabit ports and are suitable for multi-HD video transmission in performance, according to the manufacturer.



All devices have USB ports on board, but a different amount, depending on the model. The main difference between the models from each other in the maximum possible data transfer rate.



The case of the TP-Link Archer C2 router is made of black plastic, takes up little space and has an attractive design. The top panel is glossy and has a “broken” surface, which effectively distinguishes the device from the faceless gray boxes. Green status LEDs are located on the front of the top panel.



We must pay tribute to the fact that the design does not use the currently fashionable blue LEDs, and the used green ones are practically not visible with the device lying down - the router can easily be put in the bedroom: it will not interfere with sleep.





All communication ports and buttons are located on the back of the device: on the sides are two screw connectors RP-SMA for connecting antennas, combined WPS and reset buttons, a wireless disconnect button, five gigabit RJ45 ports (one WAN and four LANs), a USB 2.0 port, a power button and a connector for an AC adapter.







The bottom of the router and the sides are almost entirely covered with ventilation holes. On the factory label, in addition to the standard information, the names of the wireless networks by default for both ranges and the standard password for accessing the network are indicated.

Admin panel

The router is controlled via a web-interface, simple and logical, without unnecessary details. When you first connect to the network, the Quick Setup Wizard automatically opens, where you can configure your Internet connection in a few steps. At the same time, the firmware has a huge number of templates for different telecom operators. You just need to choose the right one, enter the necessary authorization data, and that’s it - the Internet is configured at home. Connection with the provider can be carried out either directly with obtaining an IP address via DHCP or assigning manually, or using the tunneling protocols PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP. Additionally, the router has full support for IPv6 addressing.



To reserve a connection to the network, you can use a USB modem for 3G / 4G networks. The router will automatically switch to it if the main connection is unavailable. Also in the firmware there are templates for connecting to all major mobile operators, so setting up a connection via a USB modem will not take much time. In the case of the "summer cottage" you can make access through the modem the main one.



In addition to Internet access, most modern providers offer additional services, the most popular of which is digital television (IPTV). In the vast majority of cases, this service is delivered using a digital TV set-top box (set toolbox, STB), which the provider gives “to the load” to the contract. Due to the specifics of technology, as a rule, it is not enough just to connect the set-top box to a free LAN port of the router - additional configuration will be required. The router supports various compatibility modes: both the usual IGMP proxy and the “separation” of LAN ports for working in bridge mode with a WAN port, as well as working with 802.1q VLAN. In the case of using VLAN, you can assign up to three separate VlanIDs: for the Internet, television and telephony.



The wireless network is configured separately for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, you can enter identical access parameters for them to automatically determine the range used by the client, or completely different to explicitly distribute the traffic across the ranges. In the corresponding sections of the menu, you can view a list of associated (connected) wireless clients for each of the ranges. For those who lack the standard settings, on a separate tab there are advanced settings for wireless interfaces. All modern access control methods are fully supported, both “home” WPA / WPA2-PSK, and authorization via RADIUS, which is in demand in the corporate sector.



If desired, you can configure an additional guest Wi-Fi network with separate access parameters by selecting the degree of isolation from the main home network. In this case, you can either make a separate network name with a separate password (but without isolation from the local network), or a completely isolated closed network or open with a passwordless connection. Optionally, you can limit the bandwidth of the guest network.



Several sections of the router admin panel are dedicated to protection against network threats. In addition, you can configure “parental control”, limit bandwidth according to various criteria, and configure scheduled access. So to say, a good "gentleman's set."



The built-in USB 2.0 port, in addition to modems, supports working with printers and external storage devices: flash-drives and hard drives. The router implements a DLNA media server and access to data on the media via FTP. If necessary, a primitive NAS can be organized on the basis of the router.

Testing

It was decided to conduct an impromptu test of the bandwidth of the router. First, we connected the router to one of the most popular home Internet providers in Moscow, in order to simulate normal work in the home. Our provider for authorization in the network uses one of the most voracious methods - connecting via L2TP. At the same time, the maximum speed provided by the tariff plan is quite typical: 50 Mbit / s. After the initial setup, we took speed measurements using a laptop and the popular service speedtest.net, connecting the laptop first through a wired interface, and then through Wi-Fi. As the test showed, the router digests such a load absolutely calmly:



Next, we decided to connect the router with a WAN interface to an existing local network and take measurements without the speed limits imposed by the provider. For tests, it was decided to use the cross-platform console utility iperf. The settings of the router were reset to factory defaults, after which we selected Dynamic DHCP as the Internet connection. We must pay tribute to the router - having received an address from the network 192.168.0.0/24 on the external interface, he assigned 192.168.1.0/24 to the internal non-standard network in order to avoid routing problems. On the server, from the WAN interface, iperf on the TCP / 5001 port was raised, from the LAN side, a MacBook Pro laptop with the built-in IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac interface was connected wirelessly. Thus, we immediately check the performance of the wireless network and routing performance.


When connected using the 2.4 GHz band, we reached a speed of 89 Mbps, this is quite a normal result for an apartment building, since we are not the only ones to utilize the range. Moreover, in addition to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DECT, various proprietary wireless devices and distortions of the microwave oven work in it:



In the 5 GHz band, we reached a speed of 228 Mbit / s. In principle, this speed is achievable using the previous WiFi IEEE 802.11n standard, but you must understand that in order to achieve the maximum speed that the standard implies, you need to test the equipment in almost ideal conditions. But we have two alien points operating in the same range. I think that if things are successful, the speed will be higher, since in this case it is not limited by the routing performance:



In conclusion, for the purity of the experiment, the laptop was connected using an Ethernet cable to one of the LAN ports of the router, where we found a speed of almost 1 Gbit / s, which is a technical limitation on the speed of Gigabit Ethernet ports:

Instead of output

The cost of the TP-Link Archer C2 router at the time of publication is 4290 rubles - a great price for a device in which the nice appearance, modern technical specifications and functionality are so intertwined. For home use during a crisis - what the doctor prescribed