@Sunshine Hi, Thanks for coming back to me.

As of this moment there are 23 devices connected to 2.4g, these are: 6 x HS100 TP Link plugs, 2 x LB100 TP Link Lightbulbs, 3 x TP Link KL110B lightbulbs, 5 x Google home mini v1, 1 x Google home, 1 x Google nest, 1 x chromecast, 1 x hp printer, 2 x HP laptops, 1 x Samsung TV.  There are 4 devices connected on 5g (1 x Iphone 1 x android phone, 1x laptop and 1 x ipad) and 1 wired device (Humax box).  We purchased this router as we were advised that it was very good for multiple device connections

Which Wifi Analyser app do you recommend (IOS) please and what am I using it to find out?  I looked for a TP Link one in the appstore, but didn't find one. 

When it is working we have good WiFi reception on 2.4g across the house - 5g is less extensive, which is why static devices are set on the 2.4g network.   

When 2.4g drops, all devices on the network are not connected, but the 5.g ones are.  The google home screen also tells us it's not connected.

How do I know which channel is empty please? it's just a list of numbers? It is currently set to Auto?

Many thanks for your reply

Sarella

@Sunshine Hi,  Thank you for coming back to me.  I will move some devices to 5g at the weekend and see how that helps. Is there a maximum recommended number of devices that can be connected to 5g please? 

Can you recommend another router that is capable of coping with all of the devices I have please?

Thanks again,

Sarella

Hi @Sarella - did you ever find  a fix for this?  It seems to be a TP-Link flaw/restriction as limiting the number of wifi devices to 25 is pretty ridiculous with all the smart devices in homes these days.  Lighbulbs and smart speakers use very little bandwidth, so it's not like it's a capacity problem.  Anyway, I have spoken to Asus who say they have several routers that will support 50-60 devices quite happily, so long as they aren't using lots of bandwidth.  I haven't found a firmware fix for the limitation with the VR900 so unless you've found a fix somewhere, I think I'll be buying a new router, as there seems to be no other help from TPLink online regarding this issue....

Hi @LondonSi72 I didn't find a fix for the problem, but as a work around I moved all my Google products to a separate (cheap) router wired to the Archer one.  It appears to have resolved the dropping issue, although it was a bit of a faff setting up and changing various settings.  Did Asus tell you which product would easily support 50-60 connections?

Thanks!

Hi @Sarella 

The router I was enquiring about was the DSL-AX82U, which is a combined modem and router. I've actually just bought the cable router only version of this - the RT-AX82U, and am planning on setting the Archer to be modem only, and connect this to the new router. If this works I'll let you know! The RT-AX82U is cheaper than the DSL version and is on sale at the moment too, and my Archer has been really playing up this weekend, so it's forced me to try something else...

@Sarella just to let you know I got this working.  I have configured the VR900 as a 'pure modem' by deleting the PPPoE definition on it, adding a new defintion within the Advanced / Network / Internet settings and changing PPPoE in the drop down list to Bridge, adding the VLAN ID (very important if you use BT, like I do - and missing from the instructions in another TPLink forum post elsewhere on this site).  I then connected the Archer VR900 to my new ASUS cable router from one of the Archer's LAN ports to the ASUS's WAN port, and created the PPPoE  definition on this router.

The Archer is now acting only as a modem, and the ASUS is doing the DHCP, WiFi and everything else.  So far it seems to work well, with 30 devices connected today.  Will continue testing. 

(BTW - I returned the RT-AX82U and got a TUF-AX5400 instead.  At £90, t's £40-50 cheaper and is basically the same router - almost exactly the same spec as the RT-AX82U - and also considerably cheaper than the £200 DSL-AX82U which is the DSL-Router version of the same box, but with a built-in modem...)