TPlink AX73 vs ER605(V2)+RE705X


https://www.tp-link.com/my/home-networking/...er/archer-ax73/


https://www.tp-link.com/my/business-network...n-router/er605/


https://www.tp-link.com/my/home-networking/...xtender/re705x/


https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?abbucket=....24811c28dmpNah


My unit is just 1050 sq ft, a standard 3 bed room condo. The modem is in my middle room
I could only get 1/3 of my speed in my bed room from my ISP's router (Zyxel EX3300-TO, DIGI 300Mbps)
Can't do anything with it. No VPN, no ad-blocker

Thinking of changing a router. Problem with routers are the they evolve too fast. Wifi7 is out already & within a year they'll be everywhere.
Separating the router & AP could solve this. Just upgrade either one when needed.
APs are very expensive & that RE705X should be the cheapest one available.
I'm very concern about it's performance. Advertisement are really good... 2x2 160MHz, 1024-QAM

Another idea that I have is to get pfSense with changeable Wifi hotspot cards.
I still haven't really dig into this. Generally the idea is there, just didn't know much about it's wireless capabilities
Heavier investment but in future the cards would be very much cheaper.
Also I wonder if the SSD could be turned into a NAS. That'll be a question for another day
Pls advice what CPU to get as it's gonna be on 24/7, could be a power draining monster.
It doesn't need to be the one that I viewed on top. Anything reasonable with Wifi would be great. Pls recommend

Finally is the AX73. Plug & play... Simple as it is. Only thing with it's a very old model.
Still worth investing in it? Can't play with it

Thanking all in advance for your comments & suggestion

For me lah, if you dont want complex configurations but need advance functions
Probably can consider asus router running merlin wrt+diversion for adblocking
Supports VPN too





This post has been edited by QuantumEdge: Jan 31 2023, 08:46 PM

I was using AC86U & thinking or switching it back till I got a new one

I was using AC86U & thinking or switching it back till I got a new one.
Any idea what's the cheap model with this capabilities?

Uhh cheapest you can get is AX56u I think
But if you are going to run a lots of plugins, better get the AX86u as it has 1GB of RAM
I'm running adblock+AI protection, RAM usage floats around 400MB (out of 512MB)

If you want coverage, then get AX73
If you want coverage+customisability, then get pfSense+AX73
pfSense+wifi module will be shit in term of coverage+support+configuration, don't go this route

For pfSense box, look for Honor Box or Anyrevo shop in Lazada or just search for n5105 box, much cheaper and ships locally as well as more up to date in term of hardware (Intel n5105 processor, Intel i225/i226 NICs)

Thanks... That's what I've been eyeing on as well. N5105with 2.5G ports.
Won't go with AX73. Mostly pair up with EAP610

If you go with i226, take note that pfSense 2.6CE doesn't have the driver for it
You need to attach USB to Ethernet, then register and upgrade to pfSense Plus
Or wait for 2.7CE to be released

Or look into OPNSense

for the router part can look into Nanopi R4S(Shopee has a seller from Penang, Lazada from Overseas)
running Openwrt, GbE capable.
plenty to run VPN server/adblock etc.