TP-Link Festa FR205, Multi-WAN Wired Router, Up to 3 Gigabit WAN Ports & One USB WAN, Self-Organizing Network, Free Cloud, Load Balance, OpenVPN/IPSec/PPTP/L2TP VPN, Does not Work with Omada

Unit arrives with IP 192.168.0.1 which is annoying and makes plug and play integration not possible for many networks. The Omada Controller see’s the unit but cannot provision it. Once you change your terminal device to some IP like 192.168.0.X, you can log into 192.168.0.1 and change the router IP to be on your network. Not sure why they don’t just select 192.168.1.65 or some other random IP. Anyway, once I did that the router provisioned and I was in business. It’s faster than my older Edgemax 5 port, integrates really well, and has a bunch of other features. The full blown Omada control interface (not standalone mode, I have an Omada controller, a separate box that plugs into the network) takes some time to understand. Not a knock on Omada as there are many features and options for all devices. The way it all integrates is pretty powerful and easy to navigate after you ingest it all. The router stand alone UI is fine, too, if you just need a pretty fast and feature rich home router. So I have two wall mounted access points, a POE switch, an outdoor AP, and this router (all Omada). Adding the new router made a noticeable improvement to overall improvement and the system does seem to optimize very well.My only gripe is the initial setup could be a little more seamless for the router. Every other Omada I have integrated perfectly. I would also like it to be POE powered but that’s a “nice to have.”Some background if interested:I’ve been gradually moving my wifi system over to the Omada ecosystem. My first purchase was their wall mounted access point, which mounts in a junction box and has a couple Ethernet ports. Great product. After that experience to picked up an Omada POE switch to directly power the APs. Then I got an outdoor AP. AP Performance was (and is) great in a very challenging urban SF environment. There are so many wifi networks on my block. I was coming from a Google wifi which was ok at first but after more networks popped up or a SW update it would just grind to a 3Mbps halt. The Google isn’t flexible at all. With that said I know some people have great success with it in suburban environments.The Omada APs just work and it’s been great. The Omada controller box is also worth it. The whole system is a bit overkill for a residential system, but overkill is underrated and I have a bunch of cameras on switches spread all around.I tried Ubiquity but had some issues and didn’t like the cloud interface. I prefer the Omada interface and the Omada controller box isn’t hundreds of dollars.Hope this helps.

My WiFi access point hadn't received a firmware update for a few years so I purchased a TP-Link ER605 V2.6 wired router to move the routing, firewall, NATing and other tasks off of my access point to something newer and receiveing regular updates. Setup was easy, the defaults were well chosen and things like UPNP were off unless you specifically enabled them.I did have trouble updating the firmware as I couldn't jump right to the latest version. Instead I had to download and apply the two intermediate versions before I could jump to the latest version and there was no issue doing that. There was an issue with the USB modem setup where if you changed the country from the dropdown menu it would revert in 3 to 4 seconds unless you quickly scrolled down and hit the save button immediately. One other nit was that is you did a static DHCP address reservation and changed the IP address, it would still allow the device to renew its current address and not hand out the statically assigned value unless you rebooted the router or kept device offline until the current lease expired.After running for a couple of weeks it has been performing exactly as expected with no operational issues. From a PC on my network I can get about 980 Mbps up and down on my gigabit fiber connection. Normally utilization is low and the router CPU load runs about 25%.I could have wished for 2.5 GBps or faster ports as my fiber router supports it, but it's hard to argue with it at this price point and performance. Very happy with my purchase.

This TP-Link ER605 V2 is a great choice for techies—tons of options to tweak, but if you just need a fast, reliable wired router, it works flawlessly out of the box.I mainly got it for WireGuard VPN, and it hasn’t slowed down my connection at all. Setup was straightforward, and the load balancing & multi-WAN support is a nice bonus.Best part? If (when) your ISP decides that uninterrupted internet is too much to ask for (looking at you, Comcast), you can tether your phone via USB as a backup connection. Just plug it in, and boom—instant lifeline while the cable company plays “scheduled maintenance” roulette.If you need a powerful wired router with VPN support that won’t bottleneck your speeds and gives you a solid backup option, this one delivers. 🔥🚀🔌