Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Bought to replace an aging R7000 Netgear Router ( developed a habit of "DNS server is not responding" error. ) TL;DR Pros: -price -ports -no reboots required after setting changes Cons -no default admin / admin account like old routers -cant turn off QOS ( hasnt effected my network though) -lesser known brand So this purchase was the culmination on about 40 hours of research. I was a die hard Netgear owner for about 15 years. i decided to try something new for a few reasons. 1. new routers are stupidly expensive. most Wifi 6 routers with any reasonable hardware are going to run $270+ 2. firmware issues are reported for both of the popular Netgear and Asus routers. lots of negative reviews. 3. "gamer" price increase just because it is branded as "gamer" 4. sometimes trying new things is good. I settled on this TP-Link for a few reasons 1. Wifi6 (AX####) if im going to get somthing new, i might as well get the newest technology (even know none of my devices can use it yet) 2. it had a usb 3.0 ( most routers do at this point but it was on my list anyways due to network storage) 3. less that $200 4. gig+ Ethernet ports 5. its a name i know of ( top 5 networking companies Netgear, Cisco, Asus, TP-Link, D-Link) Anyways on to the review. Design: pretty slick. thinner / smaller than i expected. antennas swivel with a little effort, but stay put when your finished moving them. attaches to the wall with two screws ( not included ) the holes on the back of the device are roughly 8 1/2 inches apart. has an option to turn the LED's off at certain times Setup: initial log in was done with a cable and my laptop, the rest of the setup was completed once i replaced it on the wall where my old router was ( hard wires / cable modem location ) pretty standard set up. my router was defaulted to 192.168.0.1. once i got to the page i was prompted to set up a password. i later changed my network to use 192.168.1.1 ( like my last router) there was some quick set up first run type questions it asked. i later went in a specified permanent ports for my wired desktops which was a breeze. i also updated the firmware which was painless. one major pro with this was you can make changes to the router configuration, and you never need to reboot the router ( firmware being the only rebooting action of all the settings i changed. ) Speed: wired connections were reading 500mbps to the xfinity.speedtest.net which is what im paying for speed wise. my google pixel 2 wireless speed test to the google site was reading 320 mbps. i cant complain here, so im pretty happy with that. networked storage: i plugged in our families 256GB photo archive thumbdrive to the router, was getting consistent 30mbps transfer from desktop to thumbdrive. pretty happy with that, as its about as fast as i get when its plugged into my desktop. All and all im pretty happy with it, will keep this review updated as time goes on.