Wifi 6 router AX3000 aka AX50 Issues
Hello All,
Today, I got a new router AX3000 which is also known as AX50. I was overexcited of getting wifi 6 router. I overlooked some review on amazon about how it heats up excessively and ordered myself as I needed a gigabyte router and thought to invest in the new technology. So far I can summarize some of the issues I came across on this router (I have around 10 tp link routers at this point, from cheapest to N to dual band.)
- To my horror, it does heat up considerably from top and bottom middle portion. If I have to keep this router and no firmwire can fix this, I have to install a PC cabinet fan under it to help remove the heat. Yeah, this will the first!
- This router doesn't provide bridging/WDS functionality that all other routers that I have from tp-link has. Very disappointed as this functionality is present even in the least expensive tp-link router.
- The range of 2.4 GHz is little better than C5 and C50 or any N band router I have. Bandwidth remains good even after 3 brick walls.
- 5 GHz band is as usual have short range. The 5 GHz AC can connect to any device with a maximum of 866 mbps, even if supported wifi adapter maximum speed is higher to 866mbps. Disappointing. C50 has 866 mbps and my laptop can connect to it with 866 mbps. My wifi is capable of upto 1166 mbps for 5 GHz band. I don't know why this router which has speed upto 2400 mbps for 5 GHz cannot connect to laptop at higher speed.
- 5 GHz with 160 MHz is set in the router configuration page and shows there 160 MHz but it is running on 80 MHz only.
- On both bands, the channel number is set to a particular number and stay for 2-3 login session the same and then it shows some random channel number or auto. What and why? It means, something is overriding the channel configuration automatically or some software bug.
- Sometime router disconnect itself when speed test is running on phone or laptop, it is seen on 5GHz band.
- Ethernet Gigabit ports is maxing out around 750 mbps read and 350 mbps write speed. I used CAT 7 cable to test the speed in my internal network.
- AC wifi is maxing out at 22 MBps and 45 MBps in the internal network test. This is disppointing result as this results is what I can get with older tp-link C5 router.
- While connecting to the 5 GHz AC with 160 Mhz in router configuration, I am getting only 50% of ISP when checked with speed test. Once connecting to 2.4 GHz band, I'm getting full speed. I have tested this 5 times and in five times, 5 GHz alwas capped at 50% of ISP speed. This router seems to have more bugs than I previously thought.
For configurations, I have disabled Airtime Fairness and OFDMA. I have enabled MU-MIMO as my laptop Killer's wifi adapter 1550i supports it. Smart connect is disconnected. One ethernet and 2 wlan devices are connected to the router. AX functionality is not yet tested as I still have to install Intel's wifi 6 AX200NGW adapter to my laptop. Router is running on new firmware as mentioned in the details.
Is this router faulty? Or this router has bugs and may be fixed in the next firmwire update?
Thanks for any suggestion!
EDIT ON 9th JANUARY:
update of some of the issue with point numbers:
1. Direct placement result in more heat so I have placed some spacer below the router which has reduced the heat buildup a bit. TP Link should think of putting some heatsink on the chip and air vents on the top surface which is absent in the present form.
4. With Intel AX200NGW wifi adapter, now I can connect to the router with 1.2 Gbps connection. An improvement but still fall short of 2.4 Gbps claimed by TP Link.
6. and 7. is no longer seen. what caused it or what solved it is not known.
10. I connected the AX3000 router directly to the ISP modem. Previously, It was connected to the tp link C5 router ethernet port, the C5 is WDS bridged wifi router. The C5 router could give 100% ISP speed in both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz band. By directly connecting now AX3000 5GHz band is also giving full ISP speed in Ookla speed test. It is strange phenomenon that no other router that I have shown. TP Link should investigate this.
Other point number from original post are still showing same behavior.