TP-Link Tri-Band BE9300 WiFi 7 Router (Archer BE550) – 6-Stream, Full 2.5G Ports, 6 Internal Antennas, Up to 2,000 sq. ft., EasyMesh Expansion, VPN

If you are looking for a cost-effective router that will put you ahead of the technology time-line, this is it. I was a LinkSys/Cisco fan and I bought this router to replace a pretty decent LinkSys WRT 3200 ACM. The LinkSys acquired some deficiency in the past year of "half-connecting" to just one device, while perfectly connecting to every other device on its 2.4gz and 5.0gz bands. (Half-connecting allowed some, but not all URLs to load). I recently had replaced a LinkSys extender with a TPLink extender because it could not maintain a persistent connection with the LinkSys (another hint the router was going out) and was pleased with its ability to retain its connection... though it seemed I was frequently fighting over channels with my neighbors which was very annoying, having to change them every other week. After researching the market (I looked at Eero, too), I decided this was the one that was budget friendly and buying a more expensive model was not warranted as I'm not a gamer or an extreme streamer - I have 1gz service from Spectrum anyway. I did look for a router that supported USB as I have a couple of USB drives (12gb) for "cloud" storage of my files. This router comes with "Easy Mesh" which I did not pay that much attention to, since the new TpLink extender was doing a nice job (Yes, the two extra SSIDs were a little annoying when connecting devices, but I was OK with that). Setup was pretty easy, though I did want to get into the configuration to set fixed IP addresses for wired and non-wired devices in my home. All that worked perfectly fine. The only irritation I had was LinkSys uses the Gateway of 192.168.1.1 and TpLink chose 192.168.0.1. So all my fixed IP address devices had to be reconfigured (I have a WD Cloud and Canon and Samsung printers)... all of which were time-consuming to figure out how to get them reconnected to the BE9300. Then came the big surprise! I went into the setup on the TPLink "extender" and the BE9300 recognized it and "hijacked" it! The extender is no longer an extender (though it can be configured as one), but it turned out to be a mesh access point. All of a sudden, the 2.4gz and 5.0gz networks on the extender (TPLink RE550) were greyed-out! The BE9300 turned it into a mesh access point! Being a little skeptical, I cranked up m favorite WiFi phone app (WiFi Overview) and walked thru the house (3600sf). This app displays a graphical indication of signal strength in a parabola display of all SSIDs nearby. Since the extender was now a mesh access point, I only had TWO SSIDS (one for 2.4 and one for 5.0) and of course, two "sub" SSIDs. As I walked further away from the BE9300, I could see the signal strength of the mesh unit growing larger and larger. Like any mesh network, it apparently switched to the mesh access point seamlessly on my phone... as advertised without any degradation of visual download speed.. Additionally, a lot of reviews on this product indicated they were seeing increases in download speed, so I did quite a few speed tests with several different test sites. Since my Spectrum 1gz service is still copper, I knew I'd never see 1gz speed, but the top speed with the LinkSys on and off the wire was about 910gz-920gz... not quite a 10% "loss", but still respectable. With the BE9300, I am consistently seeing over 950gz, so yes, I'll agree there is a slight increase in download speed. Another plus here is the BE9300 is Wifi 7 enabled. Yes, currently, the only WiFi device is the iPhone 17 pro, but again, its nice to be ahead of the technology curve rather than be current or behind it. In summary, I have to admit, the BE9300 exceeded my expectations, as I was not really in the market for a mesh system, but almost, by accident, I have one (I glossed over the "Easy Mesh" part of the BE9300). Combined with the slight increase in speed and the WiFi 7 capability already being there, I highly recommend this guy if you want to stay in the $200 range (vs. $400 range) when looking at a new or replacement router. And I got this during Amazon's fall "sale" and it happened to have a $20 coupon from TpLink which made it a very nice deal.

UPDATE: 23 May, 2024 Now it's been awhile. I have to write: If something is messed up, it's NEVER the EAP225 WiFi units or this thing! It's been months since it's been rebooted! We have enough off-grid solar so the internet stuff and the comp room can stay off-grid all the time. It never gets rebooted nowadays and it's always there and it doesn't mess up! It has a gigabit (24 port) switch and two (8 port) 2.5 gigabit switches plugged into it. A total of 4 NAS's; three of them 2.5 gigabit dual LAN's; one with dual gigabit LAN's. And three computers, all 2.5 gigabit. And the Yeacomm 5G gateway is also 2.5 gigabit. Nothing bothers this thing. I'm still not using its WiFi, because of those EAP225's, which are also great. I read a few reviews, before, raving about this thing's WiFi, though and people write that it works great. The wife is Korean and she watches Korean soap opera's all day. We usually download way over a terabyte a month here. The Yeacomm connects at about 400 megabits down and 110 to 130 megabits up. ___________________________________________________________________ This runs a whole bunch of stuff - WiFi and LAN - typically about 15 devices. I'm not going to rate the Wifi because I'm not going to use it yet. 1) I have two EAP225's; they're VERY strategically located and they mesh with each other. Unfortunately they won't mesh with this thing. 2) I don't have anything else that will even do WiFi 7 yet. I got this mainly for the five 2.5 GbE ports - one WAN and 4 LAN's! I've also got a Yeacomm (Speednet) NR610 (also a very nice, but expensive device), and my internet is blazingly fast! Just very snappy. Internet tasks are usually as fast as doing stuff locally on the computer. You can easily tell when it's the website that's slow. That Yeacomm has a 2.5 GbE port and I was drooling at the thought of getting that 2.5 GbE speed to the LAN. (I also have a gigabit switch, a PoE switch [for the EAP225'sand the Magic Jacks that only do 10 MbE], and two 2.5 GbE switches.) Really nice that all my stuff plugs into this! The WEB interface on this device is a thing of beauty! Everything is very logically laid out, most changes, you don't have to reboot for, and if you know your network stuff, you'll find it nice and easy to use. If you don't know your network stuff, you're still in luck! It took its time communicating with the Yeacomm (LTE CPE Modem) (and a bunch of other devices) on the first boot - maybe 3 minutes or 4 minutes - but it configured itself very well! I have two Magic Jack lines and those didn't work right away. It took some hair-pulling-out time to straighten it out. But I've had one way audio problems with those before. This time, this router had the provisions to fix it (on one of them only.) That's not this router's fault; it's just the way it is. You need to forward a range of ports on two different devices and you can't. It took a very long time to get fixed. It was like a combination lock. Turns out the final step was some settings in the Yeacomm. The Magic Jacks now talk directly to the cell phone tower. One of them works perfectly and the other one only has one way audio when calling [mostly] cell phones. If I had another 2.5 GbE port on the Yeacomm, I could do it, I think, but as long as I can get calls on both lines and call out on one of them, I'm happy. Everything else worked like a champ with settings that this router came up with all on its own! The only thing I changed (not counting the Magic Jack settings) is making a bunch of MAC | IP reservations. When you set it up, you get a light show for awhile. Then the lights can be turned on or turned off with a WEBUI switch. You can also set up a night time mode and have them on in the daytime and off at night, specifying the times. You can plug a USB hdd into the USB port and use it as a very fast, very big network share. It's almost like having an NAS. It's been totally stable and reliable so far. It's a lot of money. I had to talk myself into it. I shopped for about a week. That should tell you something. Now that I've gotten to use it, I consider it well worth the money! I give their tech support 5 stars, not because of this thing, but because I've used their tech support in the past and I already KNOW it's exceptionally good! I have a lot of other TP-Link stuff. Advanced, hi-end stuff. Half of the 12 connected devices shown in the pic.

(Note ... this review applies to both the BE550 and the BE900. I started with the BE550, and when it didn't work for me, I tried to upgrade to the BE900, but it had the same issues). My eero6 pro router died on me, so I decided if I was going to replace it, I might as well upgrade at the same time. I read good reviews about this router on WireCutter and the price was reasonable, so it seemed like a perfect fit. Setting up the router was easy, and the app to control the router is decent (I prefer it to Eero). I have gigabit fiber, and my iPhone 16 and M4 iPad Pro were both getting blazing speed. Initially, I was super happy. However, my wifi devices started dropping connectivity. My iPad would only drop for a few seconds at a time, but my iPhone would completely stop working for extended periods (my wife's phone too). It was not a range issue as I was 20 feet from the router with no obstructions. I could get it to work again by turning airplane mode on and off, so I initially ignored it. Then my internet connected devices started randomly disconnecting. My nano leaf devices would stop working completely. My HomePods would disappear from the network. About half of my HomeKit light switches and outlets stopped working as well. Another issue was at the end of the day when my iPhone battery was dying (I usually go to sleep with about 40% left). The culprit was searching for a cellular signal (I barely have cellular access at my house). I eventually got fed up and returned the router and bought a refurbished Eero 6 Pro and instantly everything started working again. It is a little sad to see my download speeds drop from 900MB/s down to 200MB/s, but the truth is that on my phone and iPad, it is really not noticeable at all. I am a computer engineer, and I am pretty good with computer equipment. However, I find dealing with computer networking to require a bit of black magic, and nothing is more frustrating than unreliable networking equipment. I would much rather have slower and reliable. I wonder if there was something specific about my home and devices that was causing the problem as I can't believe that these units really are that bad.

I'm a 37 year old computer scientist that has breathed computers, internet, and all its assorted devices his whole life. TP-Link is a standout router company right now, probably due to relative under-performance in the medium term. But their current Wifi 7 routers are unmatched; it's not even a debate. This is the best router you can get for the money right now, and with Wifi 7 bringing the MLO network, your wifi will have never been better (once you have devices that also support it, with the most important one being your smartphone (Samsung's newest as of writing already has Wifi 7 support, with iPhone 16 pro rumored to be getting it. If you have both of these, you need to turn on the MLO network setting in your router. It is absolutely worth paying for to have it done if you don't have the slightest clue how). The app is also very easy and very pleasant to use, with a modern UX that today's consumer demands. It can also help you set up your router, including said MLO network. Don't forget to enable EasyMesh, too, if applicable. And speaking of EasyMesh - do you need a new router? If that's the question you have for yourself, I'd say that if it's not Wifi 7 (and it almost definitely isn't, or you wouldn't be here) at the very least, then you do. But there's another metric with a lower bar: go into your router settings and update its firmware right now. If it doesn't support EasyMesh after that firmware update, yeah, you should upgrade. EasyMesh is the Wifi Alliance's new standard Mesh system that will support a mesh network not just between different models of routers, but different companies. That's huge. This, along with the MLO network, means that these modern routers are a very large step-change in technology, quite possibly the largest since 5Ghz and the advent of WPA2 encryption, and these were ages ago. Bonus MLO network section: Why is the MLO network a big deal for your smartphone? At a glance, it seems to just combine all the bands (2.4, 5, and 6Ghz) into one. So that just means higher throughput, right? Isn't 5Ghz enough even for HDR 4k video on Netflix? Yes, it is. But while greater throughput is nice, think about it for a second. Right now, any Wifi network you connect to (meaning a singular named SSID) only supports one band. So if you're connected to 5Ghz, and then you go outside into your backyard, you have to depend on your phone to be smart enough to switch to the 2.4Ghz to maintain a connection (since higher Ghz don't travel as far). This often fails. What's worse, even if it does switch, the phone often never sees the use in switching BACK to 5Ghz when you go back in the house, so you will be connected to the slower band potentially indefinitely, unless you go change the Wifi you're connected to manually. And you'd have to do this every. single. time. Why even have all these nice bands with specific purposes if it's so annoying to use? Well, here comes the MLO network to save the day. If all the bands can simply always be active on just one Wifi network, there's never a choice to make in the first place: not for you, NOR your phone. You're just always using all them. That means when you go into your backyard, your phone will simply be unable to use 5Ghz only because it's too far away, but the MLO will still be sending packets on 2.4Ghz. And when you go back inside, there doesn't need to be any intelligent decision by you nor the phone, since it's still on the same network, and once you're back in physical range, the 5Ghz will just start sending again right away. No user input needed, and no stupid algorithms making bad choices. And, it works with 6ghz too, of course. All 3 bands at the same time, on the same SSID. Do you see what I'm getting at now? It's a huge step forward for both performance AND ease of use. Wifi 7's MLO network, along with the Wifi Alliance's EasyMesh standard will usher in a new era of Home Wifi performance, reliability and user experience, with the long-term goal of single band Wifi SSID's disappearing completely and MLO network SSID's being the norm. But don't get too excited - devices have to support Wifi 7 to see the MLO network. So for now, your phone will be one of the only devices to use it. But honestly, that's good enough for now - the tech is that transformative. But one day, your toaster, fridge and Hue lighting system will simply connect to the one MLO network that exists, and no other single-band Wifi's will even be on, because they will no longer have a use outside of legacy devices that some people just can't live without.

I was pleasantly surprised by the features of the TP-Link Tri-Band BE9300 WiFi 7 Router, Archer BE550. My only two criticisms are the odd arrangement of the 2.5Mbit LAN ports and the lack of some obscure features like WDS bridging. There are also no individual LEDs for each LAN port. You have to use the web interface to check if a LAN port has established a good link. I recently upgraded my cable broadband to 1 Gigabit DS / 40 Mbit US. This router had no trouble with 1 Gbit communication over the wired LAN and about 300 Mbit over a 5 Ghz. wireless connection. I don't have any wireless devices that will test higher speeds, so the router probably can support higher speeds. I noticed a big increase in speed versus my older Netgear R7000 Nighthawk (with Advanced Tomato firmware). That router had 1GB LAN and WAN ports but could not download faster than about 250 Mbit over the wired LAN. The user interface is different than most other routers, but it has everything that a typical user requires. My only gripe is that it does not support pasting a MAC address in the field when adding a DHCP MAC to IP address assignment. That is only an issue if you are adding devices that have not yet requested an address from the DHCP server, such as manually configured devices. My work around was to paste the MAC address in the description field and then type in the MAC address in the field above that. Then I just entered the correct description afterward. A big advantage to this router is the affordable price. I have a few TP-Link products and they have proven to be at least as reliable as the more expensive brands, and have nearly all the same features. The most useful settings are easy to access in the setup menus, but the more seldom used settings can be hard to find. If you aren't very technical, that can actually be an advantage. If you are doing something unusual, it may be a little frustrating. The cooling vents on the side of the router are working out better than the routers with vents on the bottom. I do have the router on a wire rack with ventilation underneath, but this router should be OK even on a solid surface like a bookshelf. I haven't noticed any intermittent problems or excessive temperatures after using the router for a few weeks. The LAN ports on the back are not all oriented the same way, with two having the locking tabs on the left and two having the locking tabs on the right. Most other routers have all the locking tabs on the bottom or the top. It may be awkward to plug in the LAN cables if you cannot see the back of the router.

Review Update August 31, 2025: In recent months Apple has updated the iPhone 16 to use MLO [Multi-Link Operation] efficiently. This way, all three bands will be used as needed. When the iPhone 16 first came out in September 2024, there was only the 2.4GHz or 5GHz or 6GHz bands in use on the iPhone. Now, i couldn't be happier that I'm getting full functionality from the BE9300! Original Review August 29, 2024: I wanted to believe the hype for WiFi 7, because I was already in the TP-Link family with WiFi 6 TP-Link AX1800 Router. Installation was simple for me, like the majority of guys on here. However, there is probably a good explanation for why a large number of people have struggled with the BE9300. I cannot speak to that, but I’m sure the reasons are valid. I used the Tether mobile APP, and set the BE9300 up as a new device, using the SSID and password that came with the BE9300. However, I kept all my Tether mobile APP passwords, only updating the Local Network SSID and its password from the new BE9300. You won’t want to reuse Local SSID names and passwords for different routers 🤣. Tether Mobile APP is a powerful tool, use it first if you can. The overall improvement in my home network has affected everything that has a WiFi radio or Ethernet port. For example: I now have very stable connections, greater HDR color depth in streaming video, and deeper bass and more crystalline highs in streaming audio. In a sense, it’s like I have a new audio/video system. Also, my Withings Body+ Smart Scale linked to Apple Health APP, using TP-Link AX1800 router or Spectrum AX6E router, could NEVER display my Apple Health APP daily steps for more than 24-hours at a time, before they would disappear. And resetting the Body+ would be the only way to get the steps back, but only for another resetting cycle. Oddly, daily weather predictions were stable, as were the Body Composition metrics. Just the daily steps were constantly AWOL. Since installing BE9300 in my network, those Apple Health APP daily steps consistently display as intended into the smart scale. All this improvement, and I only have one WiFi 7 device 😂🤣🥲. I have the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which has a WiFi 7 radio. All iPhone 16s utilizes a Broadcom Wi-Fi 7 chip, supporting the full Wi-Fi 7 standard across all 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, including Multi-Link Operation (MLO) functionality. Thus, iPhone 16 can enable the full performance of Wi-Fi 7 globally and optimize the potential of both the increasingly accessible 6GHz spectrum and regions with only 5GHz availability, leaving the 2.4GHz spectrum for legacy Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and IoT. All WiFi 7 devices will have this functionality in the BE9300. My main takeaway is that the BE9300, has increased bandwidth to my home network such that all my connected devices get the full signal requested without any throttling at all. Thus, everything is faster, fuller, brighter, clearer and more stable. I have noticed that iPhone 16 Pro Max alternates between 5Ghz and 6Ghz in the BE9300. It makes that decision based on moment-by-moment conditions in my home. Apple will probably tweak future iPhones to use 6Ghz more in the future. My main home theater is a Marantz SR6015 7.2.4 AVR with a 65” LG OLED TV. This system loves BE9300. I feel future-proofed for the foreseeable future, and the $300 cost is an excellent investment.

I wanted its bigger brother with the 10gbe ports but ultimately my ISP is only 2.5gbps (not paying for the 5gbps, it's not worth the cost). If the competing ISP ever rolls out 10gbps then I'd upgrade, but that could be years. 10gbps could be a long while for a lot of people. So unless you have some NAS on your LAN where you can benefit from the faster wired speeds it's just overkill. 2.5gbps worked for me and that meant I could spend half as much on the router. For $269 (on 10% sale) it's honestly hard to find a better router than the BE550. I was a big Asus fan with Merlin firmware flashed on their routers. I was eyeing up their 10gbe router but it's also expensive. The TP-Link Archer BE550 has some negative reviews on the Internet, but I believe they issued a firmware fix...I did not experience any issues at all. Speed tests on wifi? 1.3gbps. Which I never thought I'd see from wifi. Granted I'm standing next to the router, but even from a distance the speeds are terrific. This is much better than my Amplifi and older Asus router 802.11ac. This is probably simply due to the 802.11ax. But the signal is still stronger overall. I picked up a Deco X55 as an AP and may get another, because those have two 2.5gbe ports. If your internet is above 1gbps then you need backhaul faster than a 1gbe port if you're running 802.11ax or higher to get maximum speed (though nothing wrong with 1gbps). I think most people focus on wifi, but I'd really suggest to focus on your wired connections. If you do have more than 1gbps from your ISP this becomes critical. Your choice in routers shrinks. I think the BE550 is a solid choice though. The parental controls seem decent so far. I don't know if it's worth the subscription. The basic features that you get for free provide the basic turn off on demand and/or on a schedule. The YouTube content filter is attractive but it doesn't seem to let you customize it so I have my doubts. The other features of this router seem good. It even has wire guard for a VPN option. It's easy to set up. It's nice looking. So I call it a gentle beast because you don't need to be an expert to set it up and get good performance. It even has wifi7 for whenever things start using that. Most devices in my home doesn't even use 802.11ax yet so to say this router is future proof is an understatement. It'll be years before 802.11ax feels old and since it can reach over 1gbps with ease and most people don't have over 1gbps internet...there's just no point. A router like this will last you years. I'm a nerd here. Very much into programming and computers and networking. I have a rack in my closet and a server in it that I built from used data center parts. So for whatever that's worth, this router gets a recommendation from me.

TLDR: I bought this router about a month ago when my older one started to stutter. After some initial issues with firmware and a round or 2 with TPLink tech support I got everything ironed out and now I am very pleased with the performance. For more details, please read on. I'm a Network Engineer who works from home. Internet access is critical to my ability to do my job. So, when my older Netgear wireless router started to show signs of failure (random WIFI network loss of signal and reboots) that I could not fix with firmware updates, I started searching for a new router. The BE550 is a slightly less expensive version of TPLink's top end router. It lacks the extra LEDs on the front that allow for it to display the weather and a few other cute features, and it only has 4 LAN and 1 WAN(Internet) connections, all of which are 2.5G. there are no 10G ports on this router. Since I don't need to move that much data, it wasn't a deal breaker for me. Install was pretty easy, but I was also taking the opportunity to upgrade my Cable modem to a newer model and to install a 2.5G NIC in my home PC. After initial bootup and configuration of my home and guest networks, I ran speed tests that showed significant improvement in throughput. I have Gigabit service and improved my wired speeds from 690Mbps average to 1.1Gbps average on my home computer. The 2.5G ports are really doing there jobs and keeping the data moving without a bottleneck. Unfortunately, after about 24 hours, the new router became unstable. The wireless signal would cut out, and even wired connections would lose internet access intermittently. As I tested components I ruled out the Cable modem and the new NIC and started to focus on the router. Constant ping tests to google would randomly time out for 20-30 seconds and then return. At the same time the LAN side access into the router would be lost, which shouldn't happen if the loss of signal is on the Internet side. I opened a ticket with TPLink and was surprised by how quickly they responded. After some initial testing with a tech on the phone, the ticket was kicked to the next level of support and all subsequent support was via email. The techs asked for log files and information about my troubleshooting and the analyzed that for about a day. They then sent me a firmware update (which wasn't available via the firmware update process in the router) and asked me to apply it. Once that was done, the router stabilized and hasn't shown any issues for about 48 hours. Like: Design - more like a book than something from a Star Trek movie. WIFI Coverage: Even with internal antennas, I have very good coverage of my 2000 sq. ft. house and my backyard. WIFI Speed: Phones and tablets are easily pulling 8-900Mbps from anywhere in the house. WIRED Speeds: My desktop (with 2.5G NIC) is able to pull 1.2Gbps easily Don't Like: GUI: Maybe I'm just picky, but I think the GUI needs help. It isn't as intuitive as the Netgear router I replaced Price: This is an expensive piece of kit at $300+ Overkill for a lot of people, but there are limited 2.5G capable wifi routers on the market

Hasta ahora, producto perfecto. Más de lo qué esperaba. Señal más potente.

Falta atualizar os firmware? Deveria ter um "Manual Detalhado" para explicando as configurações? Configuro a wi-fi no modo SSD oculto, mas dá erro de senha(30 caractere alfanumérico)? Como sofresse uma interferência.

Very Good Router. I recommend that this Router has the best output port.

A truly excellent router in every sense of the word, both in terms of coverage and speed. Highlyrecommend 👍👌

dont waste money