The TP-Link Archer BE230 BE3600 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router ($119.99 MSRP, often discounted) is easily the least expensive Wi-Fi 7 router to hit our labs, but its rock-bottom price means you’ll have to do without certain features. As with the Asus RT-BE86U, another basic Wi-Fi 7 option, the Archer BE3600 lacks a 6GHz radio band and does not support 320MHz channels, two features found on more expensive (and more powerful) Wi-Fi 7 routers. That said, it supports multi-gig WAN and LAN, comes with parental control and network security software, and delivers solid throughput performance, which makes it a good choice for budget-conscious users who don’t have any 6GHz clients and don’t plan to purchase any in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, if it’s raw power you’re after, check out our top pick for Wi-Fi 7 routers, the $799.99 Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro.
Design: 3,600Mbps of Bandwidth, But No 6GHz
The Archer BE3600 uses a thin black enclosure with a textured top and four adjustable antennas. It measures 1.6 by 13.5 by 10.7 inches (HWD) and has several small LED indicators for power, 2.4GHz and 5GHz radio band activity, internet connectivity, Ethernet and USB activity, and WPS activity.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The rear panel is home to a 2.5GbE WAN port, a 2.5GbE LAN port, three 1GbE LAN ports, a USB 3.0 port, and a power port. The router also has buttons for initiating WPS, enabling or disabling Wi-Fi, enabling or disabling the LED indicators, and turning the power on and off.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The BE3600 uses a 2.0GHz quad-core CPU, 512MB of RAM, and 128MB of flash memory. It’s a dual-band router that can reach theoretical speeds of up to 688Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 2,882Mbps on the 5GHz band. Although it uses Wi-Fi 7 technology, it lacks a couple of key features. It doesn’t have a 6GHz radio band, and channel bandwidth is limited to 160MHz rather than 320MHz.
The 6GHz band is handy for connecting to nearby Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 devices, since it is far less crowded than the 5GHz or 2.4GHz bands. If you don’t have any such devices, or you need to connect over greater distances, the lack of 6GHz isn’t a deal-breaker. Support for 320MHz channel width, meanwhile, is a key feature of Wi-Fi 7, essentially doubling the transmission speed. As with 6GHz, support for 320MHz width doesn’t confer any benefit if you don’t have any Wi-Fi 7 client devices, since it’s not backward-compatible.
Supported Wi-Fi 7 technologies include Multi-Link Operation (MLO), 4K QAM, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), beamforming, WPA3 encryption, and MU-MIMO data streaming. This router also supports TP-Link’s EasyMesh technology and can be used as a component in a whole-home mesh network when paired with other EasyMesh-compatible devices.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The BE3600 comes with TP-Link’s HomeShield suite of basic parental control and network security software. It allows you to create user profiles, assign age-based web filters to each family member, block specific websites, and create bedtime access schedules. You get advanced controls for $2.99 per month or $17.99 per year, including SafeSearch (search engine filtering), YouTube filtering, app time limits and app blocking, and online time limits.
HomeShield’s Network Security software lets you scan the network for security risks and isolate devices that may pose a security risk. For $4.99 per month or $35.99 per year, the Security+ plan unlocks Web Protection, which blocks access to malicious sites; Intrusion Prevention, which protects against outside attacks; and IoT Protection, which protects your connected smart home devices from hackers. The $5.99-per-month or $69.99-per-year Total Security package gives you password management and PC cleaning tools, antivirus protection, and unlimited VPN.
You can manage the BE3600 using a web console or with your phone using TP-Link’s Tether mobile app. The app opens to a Network screen that displays the router name and the current internet upload and download speeds. The lower portion of the screen has panels labeled Network Status, Clients, Traffic Usage, and Report.
(Credit: TP-Link)
When you tap the Network Status panel, it takes you to a screen where you can view real-time traffic, CPU, and memory usage graphs. The Clients panel tells you how many clients are currently connected, and when tapped, it takes you to a screen where you can see a list of online and offline client devices. Tap any device to see its individual traffic usage and transmission rates, give it bandwidth priority, isolate it from the network, and see if it has been assigned to a user profile.
When you tap the Traffic Usage panel, you’ll see network usage statistics for each device ranked from highest to lowest. When you tap the Reports panel, you can view weekly and monthly network and parental control event reports.
At the very bottom of the screen are buttons labeled Network, Security, Family, and More. The Network button takes you back to the Network screen from wherever you are in the app, and the Security button opens a screen where you can scan the network, isolate clients, and view risk details. To access parental controls, tap the Family button. The More button takes you to a screen with Wi-Fi, QoS, Internet, and EasyMesh settings. Here, you can create a guest network and separate IoT network for smart devices, run network diagnostics, configure the router for access point mode, and access VPN Server, VPN Client, and IPTV/LAN settings.
Testing the TP-Link BE3600: Simple Setup, Pretty Good Performance
I had the BE3600 up and running in no time. I powered it up, tapped Add Device on the Tether app’s Welcome screen, and selected Standard routers. I confirmed that all of the LEDs were lit up and solid and used my phone’s camera to scan the QR code on the bottom of the router. I joined the router’s network when prompted, and the BE3600 was immediately found. I tapped Set Up This Device, connected the router to my modem, restarted the modem, and created a management password. After the new settings were applied, I created an SSID name and password, and the router went into optimization mode for around one minute. Once the network was configured, I disabled Smart Connect so I could test both bands individually and was ready to go.
Throughput Tests
The BE3600 offers good throughput performance for the money. With the router operating on the 2.4GHz band, its score of 186Mbps on the close proximity throughput test was faster than that of the Asus RT-BE86U (181Mbps) and the Asus RT-BE88U (178Mbps). However, at a distance of 30 feet, its score of 83Mbps trailed both the RT-BE86U (87Mbps) and the RT-BE88U (90Mbps).
Similarly, the BE3600’s score of 1,677Mbps on the 5GHz close proximity test beat the Asus RT-BE86U (1,589Mbps) and the RT-BE88U (1,661Mbps), but its score of 625Mbps on the 30-foot test fell short of the Asus RT-BE86U (889Mbps) and the RT-BE88U (808Mbps).
For our file transfer performance tests, we move a 1.5GB folder containing photos, video, music, and office document files back and forth between a USB 3.0 drive and our desktop PC, both of which are connected to the router. We then record the read and write speeds. The BE3600’s scores of 41MBps (write) and 43MBps (read) were a bit faster than the Asus RT-BE86U (38MBps on both tests) and the Asus RT-BE88U (33MBps on both tests) but couldn’t match the scores that we got with the more expensive (and more powerful) TP-Link Archer BE800, which garnered 102MBps on the write test and 109MBps on the read test.
Wireless Signal Strength Tests
To test wireless signal strength, we use an Ekahau Sidekick 2 diagnostic device and Ekahau’s Survey software to generate heat maps that show the router’s signal strength throughout our test home. (PCMag publisher Ziff Davis owns Ekahau.) The circle on the map represents the router’s location, and the colors represent signal strength. Dark green areas show the strongest signal, and lighter yellow areas show a weaker signal. Gray areas indicate very weak or no measurable signal reception.
2.4GHz coverage map (Credit: Ekahau)
5GHz coverage map (Credit: Ekahau)
You can see from the maps that the BE3600 delivered strong 2.4GHz signals throughout the central portion of the house but signals became weaker farther away from the router, especially in the far end of the den. Similarly, 5GHz signals were strong in the central areas but became weaker in the garage, the den, and the kitchen area.
Verdict: Proof You Can Have Wi-Fi 7 on a Budget
With the TP-Link Archer BE230 BE3600, you can upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 without breaking the bank. For just $119.99 list, and often less on sale, you get a dual-band router that uses Wi-Fi 7 technology and multi-gig connectivity to deliver solid throughput. It comes with free basic parental control and network security software and is a breeze to install.
Still, without a 6GHz radio band and 320MHz channels, it can’t match the performance you’ll get with a full-blown Wi-Fi 7 router such as the Editors’ Choice-winning Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro. Granted, the GT-BE98 Pro will set you back around $800, but it offers two 6GHz bands, 10GbE ports, 320MHz channels, and class-leading performance. It’s all down to whether your client devices will be as up-to-date as your router anytime soon—and you’ll want them to be, to make that router splurge worth it.
TP-Link Archer BE230 BE3600 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router
The Bottom Line
The TP-Link Archer BE3600, the cheapest Wi-Fi 7 router we’ve tested, is adequate for small households with basic internet needs.
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About John R. Delaney
Contributing Editor
