BTW: I'm also thinking that I might need a new wifi card in my desktop or something. This is because the desktop gets single digit speed, while the laptop gets 10x that.

@MrR 

 

Usually routers affected by a power surge will not power on at all or they will end up crashing booting up doing a endless boot cycle.

 

If other wireless devices get better speed then your desktop it may be the device itself. If the computer you are on is in the next room over, make sure you are connecting to the 5GHz network, and not the 2.4Ghz. 

 

Make sure you are running the latest build, which for hardware version 2, should be 180425 https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/download/archer-c7/

Thanks. I'm not sure how to check to see that I'm not connecting over 2,.4Ghz. Can you instruct on that? Many thanks.

I have been to the TPlink equipment managing page from both desktops, but have been doing most checking on one that is hard-wired from modem. I'll try some things, but hope you post some instructions on checking that soon. Many thanks for your time.

OS is Windows 7 Home Premium. 150427 seems to be firmware number, so upgrade may help, yes?

 

 

@MrR 

 

When you log into your router, on the left side select Wireless 5GHz. The wireless network name to the right is what  you want to connect to. If you want to see what you named the 2.4GHz network select on the left side. If they both happen to be named the same, change the 5GHz name, something like addding 5G at the end like the screenshot has would help differentiate. 

 

 

Interesting. I am certainly connecting to the frequency/channel? that is what the 2.4Ghz is named. Do I have to set up another wireless connection using my OS? Thanks. It looks like you're onto something. I'll look to see if I can see the other, 5 Ghz name as one of my connection choices. I do not see a choice of connecting to anything other than my 2.4GHz access.

 

Oh, and my settings on the 5 GHz differs from your in that mine is set for "11 a/n/ac mixed", where yours is "11 an..."

 

 

@MrR 

 

If you do not see the 5GHz name, then your computer is probably not capable of seeing the 5GHz network. 

 

In which case you could get a Dualband USB network adapter that should help.

Gotcha. Thanks. I was considering the necessity of getting a new wifi card anyway. I was looking at a wifi card by TPLink, a TG 3468. Would that work, or do I need something that plugs into a USB port? Thanks again.

@MrR 

 

I would probably go for the Archer T2U or the Archer T2U Nano for the price and ease of use. You could go for a PCI card, just make sure your computer has a PCIe slot. The PCI card that would be recommended is the TL-WDN4800 or the Archer T4E.

I guess I should have waited for your response, Tony. Thanks. Was it a bad idea for me to buy the AC1300/Archer T6E? It is a dual band adapter. I should have a PCIExpress slot open. I see three unused cover-plates at the back of my CPU tower. I will, of course, verify by opening the tower before I unwrap the card.

@MrR 

 

That works, you shouldn't have issues with that card either.