Difference between A20 and C4000 wireless routers ?
I am in the market for a new router and narrowed down by features, I am considering either the A20 or the C4000. They look exactly alike. Comparing the info I can find on tp-link's site:
https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/archer-c4000/#specifications
https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/archer-a20/#specifications
The specs for the C4000 says it has 4x 10/100/1000 LAN ports. The A20 says it has 4x GE LAN ports. Isn't this the same thing?
The specs for the C4000 says it support printer sharing for printers plugged into a USB port on the router. The A20 specs do not list printer sharing.
A look at the table of contents for the two routers' user guides also show that the C4000 supports printer sharing while the A20 does not.
Another difference in the user guides: the A20 has a section about Alexa and IFTTT. That section is not in the C4000 user guide. But the C4000 Overview page ( https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/archer-c4000/#overview ) says it works with Alexa and IFTTT (way down on the bottom).
So the only difference I can find is printer sharing. It's odd to think that they would make a new model whose only difference is that a feature for printer sharing is dropped. There's gotta be something else. Anyone from TP-Link who can answer?
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I went back and looked at our Amazon order for the A20 (ordered Sept. 10, 2019) and the description is clearly different:
No mention of Homecare length, but it was 3 years when I bought it.
I'd post the link, but it was from our account, and I'm not sure if you could see it or it would get you into our account, hence the screen capture above.
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@IrvSp I guess we'll see in three years :)
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https://www.tp-link.com/us/homeshield/@mat_919
Only 2 years for me
Actually, I am NOT a fan of the Home Care implementation.
For a few reasons:
- I actually don't know what it is doing? I can see the 'log' of what it has done, and can't relate that back to and 'failures' on any device. Usually I see 'something' was blocked on 'device'. However nothing on any device seems to know something happened?
- As far as I can tell, NO block has been complete, that is a specific web site was blocked or a program report it can't access something?
- Functions are either ON of OFF.
- You have no customization capabilities. That is no WHITE or BLACK lists.
- No indication that Home Care did anything, that is no real time notification to someone, no way to provide that path (even email to someone).
The single good part:
- All LAN devices are 'protected', even if the level of true protection is unkown.
That said, I've NOT removed Norton 360 from my PC's or McAfee from our phones. I can put Norton on some of our other devices but have not, no worries about those being used for banking or purchases usually.
It seems TP-Link has a new player in the arena as well, Home Shield (https://www.tp-link.com/us/homeshield/), it might be more robust and configurable?
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