TP-Link N600 TD-W8980

Great modem router – Heaps of features. Fast wifi speeds. TP-Link routers always offer a large range of configuration options compared to other brands. Easy to setup and we have communication with all of our technology devices in our home. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a reliable router or to upgrade.  Show details

Does the Job for a ADSL connection – The modem has done a fantastic job of handling a share house workload with multiple connections, the Dual band plus gigabit connection has handled mutiple devices such as PS4s, PC's and a bunch of phones without issue, my only complaint would be that it's sold on the premise of being NBN compatible however does not support the new VDSL standard that FTTN contains.  Show details

Never had a problem – I've own this router for 3+ years and it still works well. I've never had a problem with it. I have used it on ADSL, never on NBN. I've used it predominantly in a 2 bedroom apartment setting with multiple devices connected at once - never had an issues with the router.  Show details

Solid router, ticks all the boxes – Have had this router for some time now, and it is as solid as it ever was. It doesn't wow, but it doesn't disappoint either. Wireless printing, USB Media Server, and dualband wifi have all worked from the get go, and they're still goong strong. Reception could be a bit better, and stability in maintaining a solid signal has deteriorated over time, but not enough to make me worry about it. Overall, good product.  Show details

Great Price – Great modem for the price, lots off features. Mainly bought it for the QoS feature. Also able to use on adsl or nbn. Have had no problems what so ever. Easy to use interface, the wifi could be a bit better. Overall great product for the price. I have 3 of these in my network all perform very well.  Show details

Modem n600 – We have had this modem for appox 4 to 5 years during this time it has performed nearly faultlessy As is the way with most technical things it occasionally needs to be turned on and off but other than that has performed to the requirements that we need having 2 lap tops and 3 phones being used constantly  Show details

Frequently loses DHCP to ISP – I hope you like to live on the edge! Because TP-Link equipment is always on the edge! Live on the edge of your seat as you constantly fear the DHCP loss! Be ready to sprint to reset the router at any given time whenever you torrent! Be ready to look up the manual every single time you want to add a port-forward! And above all, be ready to aim 18… Read more

frames ahead of your opponents in case of a lag spike!

All this and more, with the TP-Link W8980! Oh, and it's pretty much impossible to share a wireless connection as an ethernet connection.

All of that said - at least it's better than D-Link equipment...

"NBN ready" ...but couldn't really handle it – I bought this as my old DSL modem died and I knew I'd be moving to an NBN area in the next few months. It worked fine as a DSL modem but at my new premises I had nothing but problems. Granted, my ISP provider was Exetel but we'll save that for another review! The two main issues I had was the NBN connection would frequently get dropped and NAT… Read more

table would lock up. Often the WAN light would go solid instead of blinking and I wouldn't even be able to log into the modem. I found myself power cycling the modem quite frequently. TP-link support eventually sent me hacked replacement with special firmware which I trialled for a couple of months before moving on to the Archer C7 AC1700. You can read my review on that one too.

Alright, but not the greatest wifi signal – I bought the router because it has gbps ethernet and I intend to use 95% of my stuff wired, which works completely fine, using wifi however the signal is a bit lower and speeds suffer slightly depending on how far away I am, If i was buying and taking wifi speeds more into account i would be looking at something else.  Show details

Mid range with good price – Have this for more than 2 years now. I bought this for 90 dollars. It may not be the best model that you can get. But with that price. It worths every dollar that you spend. Easy to setup. Has long range wifi connection and can get two connections (including the short one).  Show details

Good modem – Bought this from online, the signal strength is quite good, wifi range is very awesome, NBN ready as well. The modem it self is good, rarely had problem with the modem and barely drops. It has setting of 2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz which is additional plus for your optional .  Show details

Good, reliable router for the average user – I have been using this router for around a year now with a regular ADSL2+ plan. The router has all of the basic requirements and the usual features/settings via the web interface. The signal strength is also quite good, easily reaching 20m even through quite a few walls (naturally, the 2.4GHz band extends further, however 5GHz is also available… Read more

and is definitely more reliable). Also has USB and file server feature, which I found quite useful. Overall, this is a good medium spec router for the average family.

Cheap price but weak signal – I bought is hoping that it will work better than my existing huawei modem as the signal upstairs in my two storey house was very weak. however, it give same signal strength. Easy to configure and as good as any other modem. Price is very cheap compare to other product with same configurations.  Show details

An alright router – Setting up both 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz allow different uses depends on where you are and how close you are to the router. However, it requires an adequate set up location for better range as the signal drops off if there's a wall or a wall corner between your device and the router.  Show details

its not bad as a budget adsl2 modem – According to the other reviews it looks like it only works as a adsl2+ modem/router. I don't have nbn so cannot comment on that. Its flawless for adsl2+ stability and options. Been using it for more than 3 months and has not died on me yet. It seems that Tp link modem quality is really low in general. Had a previous cheaper model tp link adsl modem and it died after a year.  Show details

Unreliable & very slow – I run NBN at home. The modem has two bands 2.4ghz and 5ghz. 2.4ghz works only with 10 metres, 5ghz your lucky to get 2 metres range. The modem will Drop out on heightened demand, as in watching Netflix.. cannot watch a whole movie without a modem restart. We have 2 mobile phones, 1 iPad & 1 TV linked the modem. When two devices use YouTube at… Read more

once, he modem freezes and needs a restart.

For 2017, this technology is completely outdated and unable to stream consistently an acceptable internet connection.

Didn't work for fttb nbn – Couldn't get it working for fttb nbn, tried everything possible with isp over the phone and tp-link support. The nbn technician who came out to check said that the only modems he finds issues with are tp-link. He confirmed that it wasn't my connection, it was the modem. Happy to say that i replaced it with a D-Link DSL-2885A Wireless AC1200 and it worked straight away!  Show details

Crap modem – This is one of the worst modems i have ever used. It was set up on NBN as wireless router. The wan port kept limiting bandwith back to dial up speeds tried everything to correct. Only was to get it to work were factory resets. Software faults. Now it is in a boot cycle trying to start a bit like a RAM failure. Has gone back under warranty for replacement.  Show details

Complete junk – First router wouldn't connect reliably through wireless and now have same problem with the replacement. My s4 drops on and off, a near new iPhone 6 and brand new Acer laptop simply couldn't connect. Error message repeatedly that password is incorrect when it is not. Back to the shop again. Don't buy one

Wifi range is terrible! Don't buy – I owned a TD8960N (half the price) which only has 10/100 lan and 2.4Ghz. On the back of the TP-Links modem boxes the TD-8980 is supposed to the best with 5Ghz Wifi and 1G lan. After setting up this new modem in exactly the same spot I found at 5-7m (approximately 2 bedrooms distance) I can only get 2 bars reception go any further and I my… Read more

phone/tablets lose signal. Whereas my previous TD8960N travelled at least 20-25m (not just 2 bedrooms aways but right down to the front of my property).

The real kicker was I bought 3 of these hunk of crap (house/office/folks house) all have the same issue.

Unless you are planning on only using the Wifi in the same room the modem is in, DO NOT PURCASE THIS HEAP OF CRAP.

And no guest network, I didn't even look for that on the packaging I just assumed it was a given.

EDIT: 6/4/16 - Because the wifi reception was so bad I moved the modem to the centre of my house whilst it's stopped the Wifi dropping off it is still rubbish 1/5 of the distance as the cheaper TD8960. I am going to flog my modems on ebay after 2 weeks probably only get 1/2 price I paid for them but they are that bad.

Any review that praises this modem or gives is anymore than 1 star was done on a bench with the laptop right next to the modem.

pathetic modem – pathetic modem, never got a full signal on my laptop even when I am connecting from within 10metres disconnects or speeds down when I work on most critical things in my office work and when you need it the most will never buy from tp-link again, won't even give it away for free on gumtree, if this does not work better anymore my $99 goes to the bin :( Lalitmittal79@gmail.com

Unreliable adsl connection – This provided great adsl for a few months then gradually became more and more unreliable requiring constant reboots. Died altogether after less than 18 months. Crappy service from TP-Link who took more than 2 weeks to authorise replacement under warranty. Box advertises USB device sharing but no support provided for Macs. All in all a most… Read more

disappointing purchase. I'm not often moved to write bad reviews, only good ones but on this occasion felt others should be warned as it's still a current model.

A price/performance leader in ADSL modem routers – First, a disclosure. As a long-time poster and reviewer on Whirlpool, I was invited by TP-Link Australia to review this product. They supplied a retail unit for testing and I'm returning it after this, with no payment other than the reward of tinkering. Having said that, I ended up buying another for my own use. Here's why. It's hard to get… Read more ·  3

excited about ADSL products when we're all waiting for fibre to arrive. Unfortunately the fibre's taking some time to reach most people. Companies like Netcomm, Netgear and TP-Link are all releasing "cross-over" products that can do ADSL now and fibre (or cable) later. It sounds good, but any weakness in either ADSL, wifi or general routing reduces the idea to nothing more than marketing spin.

TP-Link's use of a Lantiq chipset was interesting, especially in the lower price range it targets. We see those chips in expensive Draytek products, but the Lantiq platform hasn't otherwise been used since the days when the chipset was owned by Texas Instruments. Back then, the TI AR7 chip was king. How does it fare now?

For ADSL, I had a really close link to the exchange (<200 metres) to test with. My Internet provider, iiNet, had Broadcom equipment at the exchange end and had enabled both Annex M and the highest "Thrillseeker" speed on my line. I compared this modem with the following:

Netcomm NB16DG (Mediatek aka Trendchip)

TP-Link 8840T (Mediatek aka Trendchip)

TP-Link W8960N, version 4 (Broadcom)

Zyxel P2602HWL-D1A (Texas Instruments AR7)

The results were interesting, and contradictory to what many self-styled gurus tell the uninitiated on Whirlpool. Without Annex M enabled, the W8960N achieved the highest sync speed (24,588 mbps). The W8980 came a close second at 24,200. Both Mediatek-based units synced around 22,500 and the older Zyxel varied around 21,500. I'd guess that the W8960 had a home ground advantage, with Broadcom chips at both ends. The real surprise was how poorly the Mediatek units did. As for the 10-year-old Zyxel - well, there's clearly been some water under the bridge since the TI AR7.

Turning Annex M on, both the W8960N and Netcomm NB16DG ruled themselves out. Version 4 of the W8960N doesn't support Annex M, despite earlier revisions doing so. The Netcomm claims Annex M support on the box, but their support team have since admitted that it isn't working. A fix may be some way off. As for the others - the W8980 topped the score with 23,000 down and 1,760 up. The TP-Link 8840T did 21,700 down and 1760 up. The Zyxel came last with 20,700 down and 1,600 up.

I should point out that the above figures were averaged over 3 or 4 tests per unit. Every single modem held the line beautifully, but when I'm close enough to a phone exchange to throw a stone at it, you'd expect that.

General routing performance on the W8980 was fine. TP-Link claims about 800 to 900 mbps of throughput on a gigabit (1,000 mbps) interface. I got at least 600 mbps in my testing, but the score may have been limited by my old-ish laptop on one end of the tests.

Early reports on the W8980 claimed difficulties working with media servers. TP-Link supplied me with beta firmware that apparently fixes the problem, but I didn't have any issues on the stock firmware with my Western Digital WDTV Live.

Wifi performance was interesting. I compared the W8980 against the Netcomm NB16DG. Both are dual band, 300 mbps per channel (sometimes called N600). The Netcomm has all internal antennas, while the TP-Link has 3 external 5 dbi antennas for the 5Ghz network, and 3 internals for the 2.4 Ghz radio. It did give the TP-Link the advantage, but not by as much as I thought. The 5 Ghz signal was useable one room further away with the TP-Link. The big difference was a test I did downstairs from where the routers were - the TP-Link was much stronger there. A multi-storey home would be much better off with the TP-Link, based on my testing.

The W8980 has two USB ports for printer and hard drive sharing. I didn't test printing for this review. As for hard drive sharing - yes, it works, but as with all USB ports in routers, the performance isn't great. If you want to share files on a local network at high speed, get a NAS and plug it into one of the gigabit Ethernet ports. Then you'll be cooking.

In terms of look, feel and general operation, the W8980 was a bit mixed. It's a big unit, solidly put together, with an equally solid power supply. The quality is way above the price point; almost a complete contrast to the shoddy, overpriced Billion products that have been virally marketed on certain forums for years.

TP-Link includes an ADSL filter, which is nice (Netcomm doesn't but their filters are better). The gloss black is nice to look at and the green LED display is interesting, although it's hardly something for your mantlepiece. The Netcomm can dim its blue LEDs and is much less obtrusive, making it the better looking candidate for a visible area.

Setup and the user interface is either disk or web based - I used the web only. It was fine - although most modern routers are pretty easy now (Draytek being a geeky exception). Most of the default settings are sensible and won't need changing, but you may want to limit the 5 Ghz wifi setting to '802.11n only' rather than the a/n setting. Some clients (e.g. Apple's iPads and iPhones) will grumble with an a/n combined network.

My only worry was the thermal design of the W8980. Every ADSL modem router generates some heat. In general the Mediatek (Trendchip) routers run coolest, Lantiq the hottest, and Broadcom is between those two. The W8980 has many slotted vents underneath, and plenty of holes in the recessed ridges on the top, but it still ran very warm. Most of the heat was emitted from the bottom, not the top. Unfortunately a convection design needs an air path, and with the router circuit board lying horizontal the air just wasn't moving. Worse still, the router's plastic feet are too short to allow much air underneath. After an hour of use the desk underneath the W8980 became very warm to touch.

For my own installation I got some cheap self-adhesive rubber 'Pro-tec' feet from Bunnings, which added about 1 cm of free space under the W8980. It runs a lot cooler now. I may be worried about nothing; these units are designed to run warm. But if you want a router to put in a cupboard or sunny area, you might want to take similar precautions. (The Netcomm, by comparison, runs cool).

Overall - the fact I went out and bought one for myself is the best way of saying that I liked the W8980. It's a great unit for the price. Even if price is no object it's still fine. I know it's meant to be forward-thinking to the NBN, but in the end the superior modem chipset did it for me. If I have to wait for fibre, I'll wait in style. Superior ADSL performance, build quality, better than average wifi performance, reliability Runs warm, will do best if elevated a little.