[SOLVED] TP-Link Archer C6 v2 vs Archer C1200?

[JaSoN_cRuZe]

Hi,

I'm getting a 200Mbps line to my home. So which router will be most suitable for high speed downloads & uploads without restricting too much and with good wifi coverage.

Any suggestions appreciated.

I'm in India, so kindly suggest me a good wifi router under 3000INR( ~$40).

 

[Lutfij]

Pick either one but one out of those two has a USB port in case you want to add on a storage device.

 

[JaSoN_cRuZe]

Pick either one but one out of those two has a USB port in case you want to add on a storage device.

I think the C6 v2(2018) is the newer version which lacks USB support but has MU-MIMO(2*2) whereas the c1200 is old(2017) but has USB 2.0.

My question is the MIMO technology worth to consider it OR should i go for any other budget routers??

 

[bill001g]

MU-mimo only works if your end devices also support it. It is of somewhat limited value it only helps in certain situations. It is much better to balance your devices between the 2.4g and 5g radios manually. All these fancy wifi feature mean little now days. They all assume you live in some magic world where you do not have 50 neighbors also trying to use wifi stomping on all your signals. Be nice if they worked on solving that problem rather than some fancy stuff for marketing purposes.

To maximize your download speeds you want to be connected via ethernet and even most very inexpensive routers can get close to 1gbit of traffic between wan and lan. You have to be careful about using fancy filters etc but you should have no issue running a 200mbps internet connection with either.

 

[JaSoN_cRuZe]

MU-mimo only works if your end devices also support it. It is of somewhat limited value it only helps in certain situations. It is much better to balance your devices between the 2.4g and 5g radios manually. All these fancy wifi feature mean little now days. They all assume you live in some magic world where you do not have 50 neighbors also trying to use wifi stomping on all your signals. Be nice if they worked on solving that problem rather than some fancy stuff for marketing purposes.

To maximize your download speeds you want to be connected via ethernet and even most very inexpensive routers can get close to 1gbit of traffic between wan and lan. You have to be careful about using fancy filters etc but you should have no issue running a 200mbps internet connection with either.

So are you suggesting that the USB feature is much more useful than these fancy gimmicks
If so i will go for Tp-Link Archer C1200.

 

[bill001g]

It depends if you are really going to use the feature. A router does not compare to a actual NAS for disk storage and for most people simple file sharing between machines is good enough. Maybe a printer would be useful on usb but they all seem to come with wifi anyway. Like many features on routers they are just there to make the feature list longer so it seem like you are getting more. You have to look and see if you are really going to use it. Most people use their router purely as a connection to the internet and do not use any feature other than the basic nat ability.

 

[JaSoN_cRuZe]

It depends if you are really going to use the feature. A router does not compare to a actual NAS for disk storage and for most people simple file sharing between machines is good enough. Maybe a printer would be useful on usb but they all seem to come with wifi anyway. Like many features on routers they are just there to make the feature list longer so it seem like you are getting more. You have to look and see if you are really going to use it. Most people use their router purely as a connection to the internet and do not use any feature other than the basic nat ability.

True but if i cheap out more on my router then i have to sacrifice my wifi speed as the range would not be that good also affecting transfer speeds.

To be honest i don't even want AC1200 just <750 is more than enough but those router has bad reception compared to this.

 

[bill001g]

Why would you think the range was different. Why would you think more money equates to better reception. You can't believe end user reviews. What you see them reviewing is their house not really the router. Almost nobody uses scientific methods to test devices even many review sites. They just setup a bunch of routers in their house and crank out a article so they get paid. All you can trust user reviews for is if for software bugs and equipment failures.

Routers for many years have transmitted at the maximum legal levels. You can look this up in the reports they must file with the FCC. There are tiny difference in the transmit power but that makes far less difference than the difference in the end devices they talk to. Things like cell phones have tiny antenna and transmit at low power. It is the end device not the router than causes the problems.

The main reason you would spend money for a better router is if you need something like higher speed cpu for vpn or firewall filters. The latest router I bought I has all kinds of fancy features. I have the wifi radios disabled and never even installed the external antenna. I purchased the router because it is one of the few that has a hardware assisted vpn that lets you run vpn over 200mbps. I could care less that it supports wifi mesh and USB3 and all the other features they list on the box. They don't even mention that it has the hardware vpn feature.

 

[JaSoN_cRuZe]

I used these reviews as reference,

Archer c1200 & Archer C6 v2.

 

[bill001g]

And why should I trust the reviews from someone who compares the transfer speed from his balcony to his kitchen. Will you get the same results in your kitchen and why would you think these tests mean anything.

Try this site. They have massive discussions on how testing is done and why you can not even project that there results will be the same as yours. They are honest enough to show that you can not even compare test results from other years where they used different testing methods.

They test using things like DB strength rather than what room the device is in.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar

In the end you are going to have to pretty much blindly pick and see how it works in your house since the materials your house is built out of and all your neighbors using wifi is going to be the primary factor in how well it performs.

 

[JaSoN_cRuZe]

I purchased the Archer C6 v2 (~$35) since i didn't think the USB support is useful for me and coverage is somewhat better than c1200 according to user reviews, of course it's subjective and may change.
In my place these are cheapest routers which has GE ports instead of FE ports so i wanted the best among these routers.

Anyways thanks for your inputs.