You don’t have to spend a fortune on a decent entry-level WiFi 7 router, as TP-Link’s newly announced Archer BE3600 is now available for the bargain price of $99, making it a promising and affordable option for consumers and small and medium-sized businesses.
The Archer BE3600 operates on dual-band frequencies, offering speeds of up to 2882 Mbps on the 5 GHz band and 688 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band. It is equipped with four external antennas with beamforming technology that increases signal strength and range. It offers Multi-RUs, 4K-QAM and Multi-Link Operation (MLO) for simultaneous data reception on different frequencies and channels.
Archer BE3600 supports both VPN clients and servers and can run both VPN and normal Internet connections simultaneously. It also supports EasyMesh, allowing users to seamlessly expand their network with other EasyMesh routers and range extenders.
6GHz band is not supported
The router has two multi-gigabit ports at 2.5 Gbps each, three 1 Gbps LAN ports, and a USB 3.0 port that supports a range of file systems including NTFS, exFAT, HFS+, and FAT32. These ports provide good data transfer capabilities within the network, even if the internet speed does not meet ultra-high-speed broadband requirements.
Archer BE3600 supports multiple encryption standards such as WPA, WPA2, WPA3 and WPA/WPA2-Enterprise. In addition, TP-Link’s HomeShield security suite offers a range of protection features such as malicious website blocking, intrusion prevention and real-time IoT protection. The router can be easily set up and managed via the TP-Link Tether smartphone app.
Given the price, it should come as no surprise that TP Link’s offering lacks features found in higher-end models like the Asus RT-BE88U. In particular, it lacks support for the 6GHz band – a feature that is becoming increasingly common in higher-end routers but is limited by regional regulatory differences.
