Do you know TP-LINK company? Do they make quality routers?

[xit2nowhere]

Evening guys,
My roommate moved out and left me his TL-WR740N router made by TP-LINK. I've never heard of that company before, but walking around many computer shops here in china, I can see a lot of routers/modems from this company. Do you have any experience with modems/routers made by this company? Do you like the quality?
But the main question is should I keep this router or go for something else like Asus, D-Link, Netgear or Linksys that I've used in the past?

Thank you!

P.S. Sorry for weird posting. Any way to combine the below posts into one?

 

[xit2nowhere]

P.S. My usage is typical, I guess. One main comp for online gaming (wired), one notebook for wi-fi web surfing/movie watching and one cell phone for web sufring connected via wi-fi.

 

[xit2nowhere]

All hardware is within five meters from the router.

 

[JackMDS]

None of the Wireless Router's manufacturer make it per-se.

There are 6 manufacturers that develop amd build the chip sets (like, Atheros, Broadcom, Realtek, Ralink, etc.)

Then it depends, some companies that sell Wireless Routers buy the chipset and do there own firmware and builds. Others buy a whole assembly (chipsets and components on printed circuits) from other OEM manufacturers (usually nameless Chinese shops) and basically just design the plastic box and the logo.

At the end, good or bad is many times depends on where the brand bought the OEM assembly, and within the price bracket good or bad is most time an issue of quality control tolerance.

As a result it is really very hard to give and answer about the performance and reliability of the hundreds of Plastic box (Aka wireless Routers ) that are out there.

I am sure that many End-users bought TP-Link and it works well for them, and many others have negative experience.

Most of us here (aka Enthusiasts) tend to buy specific models from different manufacturers that prove within time period to be Good and reliable.

Example of current picks.

Good Wireless Routers that can be flashed with DD-WRT and be configured as main Wireless Router, or Access Point/Repeater, if needed.

Money is Not an issue. Asus RT-N66U

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

Best value for the price. Cisco E4200 refurb.

http://homestore.cisco.com/en-us/Ro...-router_stcVVproductId133604734VVviewprod.htm

I want sub $100 and new (I am allergic to refurb.) Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833162070

--------------

I want to spend less and do not care about Giga, and NAS, but need good Wireless.

This is decent Wireless Router with Dual radio.

Cisco E2500 refurb. $35.

http://homestore.cisco.com/en-us/Ro...-Router_stcVVproductId138177695VVviewprod.htm

Rosewill USB $29

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833166046

 

[cmetz]

xit2nowhere, TP-Link is a major player in SOHO routers. They've been around for a while making the devices for somebody else to put their brand name on (ODM), and they've built up a decent reputation selling them under their own name. They are not enterprise-grade networking gear, but they don't pretend to be, either.

I would not say that there's a lot of difference between any of the other brands and TP-Link.

If your current router is working fine, then there's no good reason to replace it.

Note that you can probably put DD-WRT on that model. If you're comfortable with doing that, it's usually the case that the third-party firmware has more features than the OEM firmware.

 

[jumpncrash]

If it helps I have a tp-link that I flashed with dd-wrt and it has been great so far.

 

[xit2nowhere]

Guys, thank you all very much for your help!
I guess I'm gonna keep my current router, 'cause it seems to work well. Just yesterday I got a download speed of 8MB/s and now I'm playing a game with a ping of 556ms, but the connection is holding quite well. The only downside is that the router's menu is in chinese and there is no option, atm, to replace it

 

[xit2nowhere]

JackMDS,
thank you for the list of equipment to check out. I'm gonna check and see if they can ship internationally, because the problem is, even though there is a newegg china, they, most of the time, have a different assortment of items. Plus, when buying things in china one has to add anywhere from 20 to 60 usd to whatever price it is in US