Wireless network performance

First, let's look at the apartment that was used in our testing and how it is set up. You can see that the router is placed in the living room. With most wireless routers, the signal strength is not that high in places like the Kitchen and the Medium balcony.

Our testing was done using a fast 1 Gigabit Internet connection that is capable of uploads on the internet of up to 500 Mbps. We used an HP Spectre 13 laptop for all our measurements and several software tools.

To get a better idea of the performance offered by TP-Link Archer C6 v2, we compared it with its brother TP-Link Archer C5 v4, as well as one of its main competitors: Tenda AC10.

We started by evaluating the 2.4 GHz wireless network and measured the signal strength offered in each room, using a tool named NetSpot Pro. TP-Link Archer C6 v2 was slightly better than TP-Link Archer C5 v4, and slightly behind Tenda AC10.

Then, we used SpeedTest to see how fast the internet connection is when using the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency. TP-Link Archer C6 delivered fast downloads without being the fastest router in this test.

When it comes to the upload speed, TP-Link Archer C6 was the fastest wireless router in our comparison.

For the next measurements, we used the PassMark Performance test to transfer data between two computers connected to the network, using the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency. This time, TP-Link Archer C6 was the speed king.

When looking at the upload speed, TP-Link Archer C6 was outperformed by Tenda AC10.

When using the 2.4 GHz wireless frequency, TP-Link Archer C6 delivers reliable performance, in line with that of other AC1200 wireless routers.

Next, we analyzed the performance offered by the 5GHz wireless network. First, we looked at the evolution of the signal strength, from room to room. TP-Link Archer C6 had an uneven signal strength with more variability than that of other AC1200 wireless routers.

We then ran SpeedTest to see how fast the internet connection is on the 5GHz band. To see the maximum potential of TP-Link Archer C6, we used the world's only PCI-E network card with support for 4x4 MU-MIMO. When we used this network card, we obtained a maximum speed of 533.61 Mbps for the download and 470.85 Mbps for the upload. These are excellent speeds for an affordable wireless router.

For more down-to-earth results, we also measured the download speed with SpeedTest, in every room of our test apartment, using our HP Spectre 13 test laptop. TP-Link Archer C6 v2 delivered fast downloads, but its brother TP-Link Archer C5 v4 outperformed it.

The same was true when looking at the upload speed offered by TP-Link Archer C6 on the 5 GHz wireless network.

For the last measurements on the 5GHz wireless network, we used the PassMark Performance test to transfer data between two computers connected to the network. Again, TP-Link Archer C6 v2 delivered fast downloads, without being the fastest in our comparison.

The upload speed measurements revealed a similar story.

When using the 5 GHz wireless frequency, TP-Link Archer C6 delivers reliable performance, without being the fastest AC1200 router.

Wired network performance

To test the quality of the wired Ethernet connection, we used a desktop PC, equipped with an Intel Core i5 4460 processor, running at 3.20GHz, 16GB of RAM and a very fast Samsung 850 Pro 512GB SSD, and a Lenovo IdeaCentre 610s mini PC.

We measured the speed of the internet connection when using a 1 Gbps Ethernet cable, using SpeedTest. TP-Link Archer C6 v2 delivered fast downloads, but TP-Link Archer C5 v4 outperformed it.

Then, we ran a network transfer between the two computers, using the PassMark Performance test. TP-Link Archer C6 v2 was outperformed again by TP-Link Archer C5 v4.

TP-Link Archer C6 delivers real 1 Gbps Ethernet connections, as promised in its specifications.

Extra features

The most interesting additional feature offered by TP-Link Archer C6 v2 is the ability to remote control it using the TP-Link Tether app for iOS and Android. Unlike the firmware on the router, the mobile app is available in many languages. With it, you can configure all the essential features of your router: the wireless network, the internet connection, parental controls, network diagnostics, the guest network, the LEDs, or the operation mode.

The TP-Link Tether app is useful even though it has one downside: you can use it to remote control the TP-Link Archer C6 v2 only locally when your smartphone is connected to the same network. You cannot use this app to remote control the router from anywhere on the internet. This feature is offered by TP-Link only for more expensive wireless routers.

Other features that you can find on the TP-Link Archer C6 v2 are the following:

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• Parental Controls - allows you to control the internet access to devices on your network as well as block access to websites based on keywords. It is a rather basic parental controls feature which has limited usefulness and needs manual maintenance.
• Guest network - you can enable up to two additional WiFi networks, one for each band, and separate guests from your local network, which is excellent.
• QoS - a basic Quality of Service feature that helps you control how the total bandwidth is split between devices.
• Dynamic DNS - allows you to assign a fixed host and domain name to a dynamic IP address. It can work with the No-IP and DynDNS service providers.
• VPN server - you can set the router to work as a VPN server using OpenVPN and PPTP VPN protocols. The router also allows VPN pass-through for clients that are connecting to external VPN services.
• System Tools - a collection of logs, statistics, and diagnostic tools that allow you to troubleshoot problems.

TP-Link covers all the basics people need on the Archer C6 v2 wireless router. The only important feature we would have liked to have is the possibility to remote control the router from anywhere on the internet.

What is your opinion about TP-Link Archer C6 AC1200 wireless router?

Now you know our opinion about the TP-Link Archer C6 v2 AC1200 wireless router and how it performed in our testing. Before closing this review, tell us your opinion about this device. Is it worth buying? If you have it already, what is your experience so far? Comment below and let's discuss.