@Jim70 Hi,

I have the same issue for a while...sometimes it remains ok foir some weeks, but today its horrible again...as its changing the channel by itself i loose the WDS with my other TP-link...also for some reason now i cant see my 2,4 Ghz Wifi from my mobil...these two issue are very annoying and i already wrote to TP-link support many emails, never got real help except the basic stuff...

@Aragorc 

Hi, 

Sorry to hear your having the same problems. I tried rolling the firmware back to the previous version but it made no difference. So had to conclude it was some sort of hardware problem. Eventually returned it to the UK shop Curry's PC World from whence I purchased it for a refund. 

Replaced it with a Linksys Max-Stream AC1900 Mu-Mimo Gigabit Router which at the time Ebuyer had on special offer of £46.48 reduced from £50 plus. Ebuyer are still selling this router but for the vastly increased price of £142.98 which seems ridiculous even considering sterling has dropped in value. The Linksys has a faster processor and two USB ports one of which is USB 3 and the parental control settings are better. No VPN built in support and signal coverage seems to be about the same as the Archer. The version of Samba on the Archer seems to be older than that on the Linksys. But most importantly it stays on channel.

Suggest you return yours as faulty for a replacement or refund. 

Best of luck Jim70

@Aragorc 

Attempt the below, one at a time, to see which yields better result:

• Feel the router, if the router is hot or lots of heat coming out, use a fan to cool the router, a regular fan or USB fan is fine.
• Set the WiFi Transmit Power to low (if the setting is currently set to high), and see if this helps with the WiFi issue. When WiFi Transmit Power set to high, the router consumes more power, creates more heat, might cause instability.
• Review the Wireless setting, under 2.4GHz, adjust the Mode, b/g/n or b/g or n only (don't forget to click SAVE).
• Next, perform similarly with the 5GHz setting if the above did not help (change the 2.4GHz back to previous setting).
• Another option is to separate the 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi SSID along with different password to see if this helps. For example, SSID tplink1 - 2.4GHz and SSID tplink2 - 5GHz, different password for each.

Possibly lots of trial and error to troubleshoot. Additionally, review the firmware and see if it is the latest, might help with some of the issues.

@Jim70 I'm having the exact same issue. I have it fixed to channel 1 and it keeps jumping into channel 2 or channel 10. The issue is that most devices in the wifi network get unstable connections when this happens. For some reason the only one that keeps working ok is a MacBook, but Google products, Samsung phones and an HP Laptop get microcuts or super high latency when this happens. I have had this Archer for 4 years and this issue started like a month ago, so unless there is a new wifi network in the neighborhood that is making this bug arise, I'd think it could also be a hardware degradation problem. I'll probably will try to install openwrt and see if it gets better. I don't care if it bricks ir whatever, at this point I give it up for lost anyway.