Overview of the tri-band MU-MIMO Wi-Fi router TP-Link Archer C4000

What is it?

TP-Link Archer C4000 is a high-end wireless router for home and small office with

Gigabit LAN and WAN ports, three bandsWi-Fi with a total throughput of up to 4000 Mbps and support for MU-MIMO and other very advanced functions. Essentially, this is a modernized, but slightly reduced in bandwidth and more affordable version of the flagship Archer C5400 model.

What does it look like?

The AC4000 is produced in the same design asthe older model AC5400, only its length and width are 3 centimeters less and there are not 8 antennas, but “only” 6. They are not removable, but fold flush with the top panel, which is very convenient for transportation and storage.


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The top, bottom and sides of the case are perforated forensuring the best cooling &#8211; Despite the rather powerful “filling”, it is passive, so the router, as it should be, is absolutely silent. The router can be installed either on a horizontal or vertical surface in two positions - with the front panel up and down. On this very panel, similar to its “big brother”, there are 9 LEDs on the left to indicate the power status, each of the Wi-Fi bands, Internet connection, WPS activity and connection to USB ports. On the right are three buttons: turn off/on the wireless network, activate WPS and turn off/off the indicators. The sides are not involved in any way, and on the rear panel there are 5 Ethernet ports (WAN and 4 LAN), USB ports of the second and third versions, a connector and a power button and a hidden reset button. All the “passwords and logins” needed to configure the router are on the underside of the case.


 

 

What is included?

In addition to the router itself and its documentation, inThe box contains a 1.2 m long patch cord and a power supply. The power supply is not as solid as that of the AC5400, it is made integral with the plug and produces 12 V / 3.3 A at the output. The length of the power cable is &#8211; one and a half meters.


  

What's inside?

C4000 is running a new, moreBroadcom productive 64-bit processor with a frequency of 1.8 GHz. To optimize data transfer, each Wi-Fi channel has its own additional coprocessor.

What can?

If the hardware "stuffing" of the router, with oneOn the other hand, it is more modern, and on the other, a little less productive than the C5400, then the software and functionality are the same as the top model. The interface is habitually divided into three difficulty levels with a different set of functions and settings.


 

Branded &#8220;chips&#8221; firmware &#8211;built-in Internet connection speed test Speedtest, Trend-Micro antivirus and parental controls, as well as distribution of priorities both for certain devices and for certain applications (traffic types).


 

The convenient Smart Connect feature hasn’t gone anywhere,turning it on, you will see on your device only one Wi-Fi network instead of three, and the router itself will choose which of the three wireless networks it is better to connect your smartphone or tablet.


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True, for all three networksdefault settings are set, and when Smart Connect is turned off, they all get the same SSID. So if for some reason the Smart Connect mode is not liked, you will have to configure everything again.

For more demanding users with the mostWith modern client devices, the router supports MU-MIMO, a technology for simultaneous data transfer to several devices, which significantly increases the data transfer speed to each device. One of the advantages of MU-MIMO is the ability to form a directional signal towards the client device (beamforming), which increases the range of reliable reception. Unfortunately, not all users will be able to experience these benefits, since client devices must also support MU-MIMO and beamforming. A proprietary feature of Broadcom processors - Nitro QAM - increases (due to a special modulation mode) by 25% the speed of data exchange with those devices that also support this technology. Please note that the Wi-Fi data transfer rates specified in the specifications are the maximum theoretically possible values ​​​​achievable when using client devices that fully support all optimization and bandwidth enhancement functions.

But the Airtime Fairness function (from English.Fair&#8211; fair, fair), which works in all Wi-Fi bands, makes sense to enable if there are many devices on your network and they have very different performance. Then the router will distribute the broadcast time between clients not equally, but taking into account the actual speed of data reception, that is, slower devices will be allocated more time so that they can receive more information in one session.

If the router is used as an access point or&#8220;bridge&#8221; between two segments of a wired network, to speed up the connection, you can combine any two LAN ports into one channel (again, provided that the device at the other end of the twisted pair supports this feature, called Link Aggregation). The same can be done for the WAN connection, using the LAN1 port as the second WAN port.


 

To an external data drive connected toThe USB port of the router can be shared between the local network and the Internet. It can also be used as backup storage for the Time Machine service. But the function of the print server was "reduced."


 

 

Like many other TP-Link routers, the C4000supports control from a smartphone or tablet using the proprietary Tether application, which provides access to the basic functions and settings of the router.

How does it work

Archer C4000 with default installedThe maximum power of all three Wi-Fi channels easily covers a small 2-room apartment, despite the fact that it was not in the center of the apartment, but in the far corner. A gigabit connection to the Lanet provider was used, but the connection speed was limited to 100 Mbit / s according to the tariff plan. The Speedtest router built into the web interface of the router stably showed a connection speed of 93-95 Mbps, on a computer connected to the router with a cable, the speed was the same, even a little more (apparently, the server choice turned out to be more successful):


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Wireless connection speed testedon the Oukitel U23 smartphone. Next to the router on a 2.4 GHz network with a channel width of 20 or 40 MHz (which did not affect the result in any way), the WiFi Analyzer and Speedtest results were as follows:


 

But here are the results for 5 GHz networks, the first of which has a channel width of 20 MHz, the second &#8211; 80 MHz (see indexes _1 and _2 in SSID):


 

At the maximum distance within the apartment (about 8 meters from the router through 2 brick interior partitions) the results were, of course, worse, but quite worthy:


 

At the same time, the router worked stably, it heated uppalpably, but in moderation. As an informal test, a session was conducted simultaneously watching videos from YouTube in 1080p (60 fps) resolution on a PC and on two smartphones. None of the braking or jerking devices were noticed.

On the street next to the house all three networks were visible, but the connection was very slow and unstable (the router was on the 6th floor, the straight line distance was about 30 meters).

In the office, Archer C4000 easily coped with threedozens of clients (mostly downloaded by mail, instant messengers and web surfing), providing a stable connection within a radius of 15-17 meters through 2-3 partitions.

Special project

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In the dry residue

Archer C4000 is an excellent Wi-Fi router forthose who need advanced functionality, wide and high-quality coverage and confident simultaneous operation of a large number of different client devices. It is universal in the sense of the target audience, but it does not spoil it and affects only the price. C4000 will find a place in the office and in the apartment. For many potential buyers, its functionality will be redundant, but even in this case it makes sense to buy it for growth ”or even for the sake of the original design, if you can afford it. It is noticeably cheaper than the S5400 flagship - the recommended retail price is 5999 UAH. Paying for this is less bandwidth, but this is not a problem, since for most client equipment these values ​​are also unattainable. If you personally ask me whether I would buy an Archer C4000 or not, I will answer this way - if I were choosing a new router now and had the appropriate budget, this would be the first candidate for the purchase.

4 reasons to buy TP-Link Archer C4000:

  • It fits well into the modern interior;
  • you like the idea of ​​stopping viruses and blocking threats from the Internet right at the entrance to the network;
  • You are a system administrator or an advanced user and you know what to do with all these settings and functions;
  • You want to restrict Internet access for children, and you need the simplest and most convenient tool for this.

 

2 reasons not to buy TP-Link Archer C4000:

  • for your tasks the functionality of this model is redundant, and there is no point in overpaying for something that you will not use;
  • You vitally need the print server function.

 

Technical specifications TP-Link Archer C4000

Interface
4 LAN ports 10/100/1000 Mbps
1 10/100/1000 Mbps WAN port
1 USB 3.0 port and 1 USB 2.0 port

Dimensions (with folded antennas)

200 X 200 X 39 mm

Weight

810 g

Power supply
external, 12V, 3.3A

Wireless Standards
IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac

Frequency ranges (reception and transmission)
2400-2483.5 MHz
5150-5350 MHz
5650-5725 MHz

Transfer speed
5 GHz-1: up to 1625 Mbps
5 GHz-2: up to 1625 Mbps
2.4 GHz: up to 750 Mbps

Wireless security
Encryption modes: 64/128-bit WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK

WAN connection type
Dynamic IP/Static IP/PPPoE/PPTP (Dual Access)/L2TP (Dual Access)

DHCP
Server, client, DHCP client list, address reservation

Port Forwarding
Virtual Server, Port Triggering, UPnP, DMZ

Dynamic DNS
TP-Link DDNS, DynDns, NO-IP

VPN traffic pass

PPTP, L2TP, IPSec

Protocols

IPv4 and IPv6 support

USB sharing

Support Samba (Storage) / FTP Server / Time Machine

VPN server

PPTP, Open VPN Server

TP-Link Archer C4000

Modern tri-band Wi-Fi router for home

Great Wi-Fi router for those who needadvanced functionality, wide and high-quality coverage and support for modern technologies: Beamforming, MU-MIMO and Range Boost. Designed for rooms with a large number of connected devices and high traffic consumption.

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