Is now (2023) the time to replace the "TP-Link Archer C7 V5" (2018)? It is about a streaming fanboy with fiber connection

Hi

I had installed at my ex-friend "TP-Link Archer C7 V5" and make regular updates. Yesterday I installed OpenWrt 22.03.4 service release on his box and noticed how LuCI was very slow to respond.

He told me he also had problems with 4k streaming.

Is it time for a new router?

What do you think? He has a fiber connection in the house.

Thanks

What's the CPU usage like? What services are running on it? I have a c7 and 4k streaming works fine.

I switched from c7v5 to xiaomi ax3600 , much faster , wifi 6 and not very expensive compared to the tplink years ago.

If it was working with the previous version - it's not the hardware itself. It should be able to do at least 100-200Mbps. You should check and compare the memory usage as well. On the firewall page there should be some checkboxes, which may lead to some improvement if not trying to use QoS. You may compare the performance over the 2.4GHz band - if it's working better, there could be dust inside, causing signall loss over the higher frequency band.

Switched from archer c7 v5 to dl-wrx36 and I'm not looking back.

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Thanks for the recommendation.

On the "xiaomi ax3600" is very difficult to install OpenWrt. According to Reddit, the manufacturer firmware is also a customized OpenWrt (source: https://old.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/frx3us/xiaomi_wifi6_ax3600/). Can I just wait 6-12 months and then the OpenWrt installation is easy? Or how does it look in the near future?

Thanks for the recommendation.

Also the dl-wrx36 is complicated to flash.
At the moment only snapshot release from OpenWrt (https://openwrt.org/toh/dynalink/dl-wrx36). Will it be easier in future?

Adblock uses lots of resources

AX3600 vs WRX36 ia discussed in Netgear WAX206 vs Xiaomi AX3600 - #7 by Borromini and onward.

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You brought a very important point to the discussion. However, in the linked article there are many technical terms (hardware specs) that I do not know.

Wow the installation of OpenWrt is tremendously easy on NETGEAR WAX206, see https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wax206

Do I understand correctly? Am I doing a proper summary:
On NETGEAR WAX206 you have little or no proprietary BLOBS, whereas on Xiaomi AX3600 you are very dependent on proprietary BLOBS (not proper open source OpenWrt possible)?

They are un-proprietary enough to be published/shipped.

The WAX206 got its own issues, the RTL 2.5 GbE uplink port broke a couple of days ago, because of some bug/commit.

Think it's been fixed now, though.

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How much faster is the WAX206 than "Nighthawk X4S AC2600"?

An AC2600 device maxes out the wifi at around 600mbit
(note, wifi speed isn't the same as routing performance).

For the WAX, I have no idea, haven't seen any benchmarks posted.

For the WRX36 users have managed to achieve at least double the speed of the AC2600.

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It's just...
Downgrade stock firmware via web UI
Press f12 and copy/paste rooting javascript from openwrt wiki
Connect via ssh/scp
Ubi flash
Reboot
Flash sysupgrade image

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I just looked at Apple KB. Apple support WiFi 6 only in 2023 models.
I use a MacBook from 2015

Check of you can replace the wifi module in the computer.

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R7800 can work with 160MHz channel so it should make more on wider channel, but it has only one gig ports - so it's plenty of power with nss hw firmware. Compared to dynalink is similiar, but with 2.5gig port should be even faster, so all basicly depends on question what performance You want . Also if the clients suport ax or even 160MHz channels.