EDIT: Resolved - original unit was defective, replacement unit has working Wi-Fi.

Hello!

Yesterday, I bought an Archer VR600 V3, as my old modem has become unreliable.

The DSL side was automatically configured, and ethernet connections work perfectly as far as I can tell.

However, the Wi-Fi side does not work at all, as far as I can tell.

It's one of those "All the lights are on, but nobody's home" -situations where the modem says the Wi-Fi is on - both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands show up as online, and the SSID is not hidden, but I'm not getting any sign that the router is actually broadcasting those networks.

Actually, I tried to add them manually on my phone, with the correct SSID and password, but of course the phone couldn't connect since the network from all appearances simply does not exist.

I have three distinct devices with Wi-Fi hardware, and none of them are picking up the networks from this router:

- Desktop PC with Intel Wireless-AC 9596 160 MHz, with driver version 22.70.0.6

- Laptop PC with Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160 MHz, with driver version 22.70.0.6

- Samsung Galaxy S8+ with whatever wireless NIC they have going on.

All of these devices should be capable of picking up the wireless network if it exists.

Range should not be a factor as the desktop is about 3-4 metres away from the router with no significant blockage in line of sight, and the laptop and phone don't respond even right next to the router.

So either all of these devices for some reason are incompatible with the router, or there is some really obscure setting somewhere in the router that makes the networks invisible and inaccessible, or there's a hardware fault somewhere that prevents the router's wifi side from functioning while the router still thinks everything is fine and indicates as such to the user.

I have tried the obvious stuff, and then some:

- turning it off and on again

- turning wi-fi off and on again from the physical wi-fi button on the right side of the router

- turning wi-fi off and on from the http interface on browser

- turning 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands off and on again at different times

- testing with different channels, channel width, and figgrtrny 802.11 modes

- testing with Guest Networks enabled with No Security

- factory reset

- testing with default SSID and password to see if the router has connectivity before the quick setup

- removing the antennae and changing their order (grasping for straws here...)

- setting the router on Wireless Router mode to see if the Wi-Fi networks appear when the router isn't doing the DSL modem stuff itself...

Nothing is making any difference whatsoever, the networks remain conspicuously absent.

TP-Link's chat support went through the hoops of troubleshooting admirably, but ultimately the only suggestion they had was to contact the local TP-Link technical support (I live in Finland). But I'm not sure if there's anything they can tell me that I haven't already tried.

Any ideas?

Unless anyone can think of a good reason why my devices can't see the network, I think I'm going to have to assume the router is defective and I'll have to return it...