this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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TP-link is reportedly being investigated over national security concerns linked to vulnerabilities in its very popular routers.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago (3 children)

So who tf is left who makes good wireless routers? When I bought my tp-link it was top rated and recommended by everyone.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, most of those sites end up recommending the same brands over and over, which causes people to buy them and talk about them. I don't want to say, a scam, but it feels... scummy.

They never talk about other brands like Ubiquiti. Which isn't a perfect brand either, but I've never seen it compared. Or even a low end Netgate. It's always TP-Link, Asus, Netgear, Linksys, or D-Link... the same brands that have existed for the last 20 years offering crap. But Ubiquiti, Hawking, Belkin, etc. you basically never see.

I just googled it. Top 3 sites were wired.com, pcmag.com, and reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking (with a top comment pointing to cnet.com and nytime.com). And if you guessed TP-Link was recommended no.1 on all of them, you'd be right. To me, with the absolute garbage reviews on all of them, and the stupidity small sample size, it feels like TP-Link just buys the reviews because customers will read the reviews and buy their garbage. There was a mattress company that did something very similar years ago. The deck is stacked against customers.

And especially scummy, is TP-Link offers some cheaply made, highly marked up garbage that underperforms. They also are notorious for not delivering consistent updates to their routers. Maybe one or two updates, and they certainly don't care if all the features don't work. Just looked up one I bought from them before I wised up, the Archer C5400. 2 updates on a $200 router, that came highly recommended. Checked the v2, and also just 2 updates. I doubt it'll ever see another.

On top of their terrible support and pathetic hardware... they also moved to a cloud SaaS config model. They want you to sign up for an account and use TP-Link Tether. Here's something written up 3 years ago on [reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/tbthjj/psa_newer_tplink_routers_send_all_your_web/}

My general suggestion for most people who want something that just works and is easy to use... the Ubiquiti Dream router isn't a bad option. It's not the best, but if you don't want to really get into how networking works, it's a good option.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm a techie, but I'm past the point where I want to tinker and mess with my stuff for hours or days to get it up and running. I'm sure the enterprise grade options are better, but I just want some plug and play option that at least allows me access to the more detailed stuff if needed. This looks like a solid recommend.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Here’s a recommendation: GL•iNet

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

I gave up on TP-Link. I will never purchase any consumer router from them again. Little to no updates, connection issues that were made worse with an update, features REMOVED with an update, settings wouldn't always stick, which results in a factory reset to get it to do anything. WPA3 just doesn't work. It even would "mysteriously" turn it's DHCP server back on, no matter how many times I turned it off, when it was in AP mode. Friend had the same model and most of the same issues.

I have had better luck with the other brands, but I feel like most of them suck or cost way more than they should.