Tri-Band BE9700 WiFi 7 Router Archer BE550 Pro 1 × 10G + 4 × 2.5G, USB 3.0 6 Internal Antennas VPN Clients & Server 6GHz Band, Easy-Mesh, HomeShield, MLO, Private IOT

I bought this TP-Link Archer BE550 Pro to use in Access Point mode, fed by a 2.5 Gbps ethernet cable from my AT&T fiber router. Replaces a decade-old Wi-Fi 5 dual-band Netgear Nighthawk extender/AP to get Wi-Fi 7 Tri-Band. The first big question I had, that nearly prevented me from ordering this one, is that 10Gbps WAN port in back. Is it multi-gig, or is it fixed at 10Gbps? Nowhere on the box or on the webpage says. Even more confusing since other similar TP-Link models have a separate 2.5Gbps WAN/LAN port marked along with three 2.5Gbps LAN ports. Well turns out the answer from TP_Link customer support is yes, the 10 Gbps IS a multi-gig port that specifically will work fine with 2.5 Gbps (and I'm assuming 5Gbps and 1Gbps but I didn't ask) and linked up just fine with my 8 port 2.5Gbps TP-Link ethernet switch. All of this means this Archer BE550 Pro router is future-proof, since I eventually expect to upgrade to 10Gbps throughout the house in a couple of years when the prices come down. This BE550 Pro router comes with a short funky flat ethernet cable with shielded RJ45 connectors that I'm sure must be rated for 10Gbps (but works great at 2.5Gbps, of course). All you need for 2.5 Gbps though is Cat5e or Cat6 (what I'm using in the house) cable. Another hiccup is how to access this router's web setup page, or more specifically, how to find out what IP address it landed at on your network to do that. The Tether app does a great job with initial setup and some of the basic settings, including the ability to switch from router mode to access point mode. But then...anyone who has spent years with routers will say "where are the rest of the settings" and assume the the router will probably come up with a settings web page with more at its IP address. But where? The AT&T router is at 192.168.3.1 (I use a .3 subnet on the publicly un-routable 192.168.x.x for home network) but remember this is in Access Point mode, so the BE500 Pro IP will be somewhere else. Running a IP scanner doesn't really help much, nothing to ID the device, which by default will land in your DHCP IP block (I run both static IP and DHCP blocks). Turns out the answer is in the Tether app. Click on its entry under the first "My Devices" screen, THEN click right on the picture of the router itself on the next screen. That will come up with an info screen and on there will be the Archer BE550 Pro's IP address. Just log into that IP in your browser and use your TP Link website password for the password. You are in! :) The web setup pages do have a pretty extensive list of settings. So far I'm very impressed with this router, in all three bands, and especially the IoT setup. I'm using 2.4 GHz and 5Ghz IoT bands for the solar panels, Ring doorbell, water softener, and remote control of a Mitsubishi mini-split A/C system. The Wi-Fi 7 6Ghz band is working great to a cell phone and an external Tri-band Wi-Fi adapter on a laptop. The Tether app alerts every time a new device has joined one of the networks, which is handy. Recommended!!

This is a very FAST router! It's WiFi 7, so it can handle multi-Gigabit speeds. Via a hardwired CAT 6 ethernet cable, I've gotten 1 Gbit/sec speeds. Via a WiFI 7 compatible client (e.g., Samsung S24 Ultra, 25, 26...), i got 1.8 Gbit/sec. My cable Internet is 10 Gbit! If you have a cable speed to your house greater than 1 Gbit, there are two ports you can use: 2.5 Gbit and 10 Gbit speeds feom your optical or cable modem. Cable here is limited to 2 Gbit. While Optical is 10 Gbit (up and down). This Internet provider (optical) is called Sonic. The cable provider is called Spectrum. I bought this router bec I wanted it to take in the full 10 Gbit speed coming from my optical Fibre. So, check carefully before you buy to ensure it can handle the max speed of your Internet provider. The setup was via their app. And that went fairly smoothly. I got it for $200, which is thought was a good value. Remember, the bottleneck is not your Internet provider. It's the router (so you're purchasing a WiFi 7 router). But to attain top speeds, you client must be WiFi 7 or 6. But it's also compatible with older versions. The signal strength is sufficient considering I'm living at a two-story house with 1300 sqft. Router sits on the second floor. Overall, it's a fast router. And i thought the value was worthwhile...👍

The NYTimes Wirecutter recently rated this TP-Link broad band router #1. I used that recommendation to buy this router, and I think it is the best router I have ever owned. It was easy to setup and the Advanced Options are also straightforward to implement, such as enabling the router to serve as a VPN. I would also rate TP-Link's Support section as Outstanding. All too often IT support sections provide a 'lick and a promise' support for issues that aren't easy to solve. TP-Link worked diligently with me to get some issues with setting up the VPN router function to fully function. I expect to use this TP-Link Archer BE550 Pro router for several years. Consider buying this router, which is a very good buy.

Good coverage. Drops out sometimes. Supports fire 6e

Terrible, I got this router to replace an ASUS RU82. It was having 2.4ghz connection issues and I’d have to reset the router ever day for my devices to reconnect. So I bought this thinking it would help. After buying this it did help, but within a month I’ve started having latency issues, and being booted out of online games, the speed is great but reliability and connectivity of the router is terrible. I’m a few months past the return window but would love to get my money back for this. I only even have 17 devices connected on it at one time. I tried disabling mlo network and airtime fairness as I’d seen others have this issue with this router. But none the less this still didn’t help. I ended up buying a new modem, an arris s34 to replace spectrums crappy modem thinking it was that. But nope still having high latency and being booted from the game issues. Rebooting the router helps for a few hours but then it’s terrible again. Gonna just hooked my ASUS router back up! When I get more money I may try a netgear router

Great router, great range and setup configuration options. Easy to setup - ver impressed - return the Ubiquiti Dream and got this less expense one which out performs Ubiquit at least in my setup.

Great product. Modern features, easy setup and good range. Lots of Ethernet ports for hubs as well as 6GHz WiFi so it should last many years. Easymesh compatible so I am buying a second to expand my network further on the property.

Absolute garbage. Had multiple neatgears over the years, never any issues. First time waisting money on a TP and it might as well stand for toilet paper because it belongs into a toilet. Horrible range. Constant drops. It completely dissappears from the network and you can't find it. It constantly keeps asking to set it up when you go look for it. The worst part is the VPN feature that doesn't hold VPN unless you manually go it every time you want to go online, and reset it and turn it on. This device is a pathetic joke of a router.

I replaced my older generation Netgear Nighthawk router with this unit. Set up was pretty straightforward. The setup page and router are incredibly easy to use, probably the best one I've used when compared to Netgear and Asus. Once it's set up, some settings need tweaking to get the most out of it, and one thing I disliked is that you can't just save all the changes you want and then restart at the end, you must restart after every single change, so set up takes infinitely longer. I love the ability to have a dedicated IoT 2.4ghz network, particularly if you have a smart home. Overall, this is definitely a great purchase and bang for your buck.

I had the 4 antenna version from the same brand and it did not have the 6ghz band. This one does as it has 6 antennas inside and it allows running MLO, although currently it doesn’t provide much benefit. If you do not need the built in VPN get the non-Pro version for cheaper. The app is nice, the interface is easy to understand and quite handy. It comes with a CAT 6A cable and the front LEDs form a vertical bar down the whole middle of the device. You can schedule the LEDs to turn off automatically or just disable them altogether.