TP-Link TD-W9980 experiences

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thommonz

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#175729 10-Jul-2015 08:54

Given my experiences with Huawei HG630b's and the Technicolor 589vn2 I'm looking for a replacement that fits my needs.

I'm looking at this TP-Link (W9980) and wanted to know what others have experienced with it.. and have the following specific questions:

1. Does it do NAT/Port Mapping well?
2. Does it have user friendly name tags for LAN devices? (Can you put nice names on devices that are connected and see them when you are setting up NATs or reviewing what is connected to your LAN)
3. Is the wifi signal nice & strong?
4. Can you set up Dynamic DNS settings such as DynDNS or FreeDNS.afraid.org?
5. What good things have you experience with it?
6. What bad things have you noticed?

Thanks!

itxtme

2102 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 557

#1341029 11-Jul-2015 10:01

Sorry cant comment on that specific model. I have TL-WR1043ND which is router only TP-link

Its been rock solid for me (using a cable modem in front of it).

Good points are the NAT looping support, easy and comprehensive port forwarding. Wifi is good, not sure if your model differs

The DHCP users computer names, not capable of adding your own name to it, so I guess a cross there for you.

The dynamic DNS in this model includes No-IP, Dyndns and comexe. (dont use these as I have a static IP). Uptime seems really good, I would reccomend this model, and any model similar running comparative firmware (I believe your model does).

Also not sure what issues you have had with your modem/router combos, but have you considered running them in bridge mode and putting a router on the other side??

thommonz

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1341054 11-Jul-2015 11:17

Thanks for that..

There are some aspects that are non-negotiable.. (NAT/Port Forwarding for example) but the user friendly tags for devices I *guess* I would have to manage without.

I even have a work around for the DDNS settings (using my Linux machine to keep the ip address updated).. so that too is negotiable.

The other one that perhaps I didn't mention was the ability to set the DNS look up/routing to point to OpenDNS... I'm assuming that with any device that is NOT provided by the ISP, that it would be configurable.. (had to find the telnet instructions for the Technicolor I have, but there was no information I could locate for the Huawei - which wasn't port forwarding for me anyway).

sultanoswing

818 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 160

#1341452 11-Jul-2015 22:56

How about a Mikrotik RB2011UiAS-2HnD or RB951G-2HnD...lots of transmit power (1000mW -which is much more than most consumer routers which are 2-300mW) and *very* flexible, if non-n00b-friendly, software.

Other options which would also tick all of your boxes would be a Netgear R7000 or R8000, or ASUS RT-AC68 with Tomato or DD-WRT flashed.