TP-Link Archer C9 AC1900 V1 Working Full Fibre Settings - With Screenshots

[DrWatson]

Hello,

For the benefit of keeping everyone sane and bringing some further meaning to my hours of lost life today getting this to work here are some screenies of my working settings for the masses. Hopefully this helps people out there. 

Step One - Getting the Latest Firmware

You need to be able to set the VLAN, which can only be done with the latest and greatest firmware.

When done your 'System Tools/Firmware Upgrade' screen should look as follows:

Available here: 

Download for Archer C9 | TP-Link United Kingdom

Follow all instructions and you will be fine ie. do not blame me if you brick your router.

Step Two - Add PPPoE Details

Go to 'Network/Internet' under the 'IPv4' heading and set your 'Internet Connection Type' to 'PPPoE' in the Username and Password fields that spawn enter the details you received from Vodafone technical support. You can ask them for your PPPoE details here: www.vodafone.co.uk/bbservcd

I don't know if the next step is necessary but I also changed the MAC address to be the same as the Vodafone router. If you wish to do this the address is on the bottom of the Vodafone router. You select the 'Use Custom Mac Address' option under the 'MAC Clone' heading. Remember to put the dashes in i.e. XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX otherwise it won't accept the address.

I've also changed my DNS setting to 8.8.8.8, and 1.1.1.1. This is entirely optional, and put your on a different dns service (no cost). You can read more about other common services here if you are so inclined. Best DNS servers of 2023 | TechRadar. Consider changing this if you have kids and want to block a lot of the bad stuff on the internet.

Don't change your MTU setting from the default, you might be able to make your internet slightly better in some minute way if you make it smaller, but it can mess up VPNs (like your work VPN) so don't bother with it unless you play video games for your work.

Step 3 - Add VLAN Settings

Go to Network/IPTV and enable 'IGMP Proxy' set the version to 'V2'. Enable 'IPTV' and set the mode to 'Custom'.

In the newly spawned fields, set internet VLAN ID to '911' if the full fibre was put in by CityFibre. I believe this number should be '101' if the full fibre was installed by Bt OpenReach. Don't bother asking Vodafone, they don't know and will just guess. Try to remember who was sending you letters through the door and closing all the roads near you causing chaos for a couple of months. That's the one. If you weren't around for the chaos then just try the other if the first one you try doesn't work.

The router will require you to populate the fields for IP-Phone and IPTV. I personally am not using them so I just set them to a random number, in this case '2000' and '3000'.  If you are going to use these set them appropriately, but its not needed for just setting up the internet.

Keep all priority fields at '0' and check the '802.1Q Tag' box. 

Set all LAN ports to 'Internet' (unless you are planning to use them for IPTV or Phone, in which case set them appropriately')

Step 4 - Enjoy

That should be everything you need to do. If it's not working try:

• making sure everything is connected correctly,
• asking Vodafone for your PPPoE details again to make sure they are correct,
• your ONT box has the four green lights of good health, 
• double checking you entered your PPPoE details correctly into the router fields.

So long brothers and sisters. May the good wifi and secure routing of the old but still beastin' Archer C9 be with you. 

[CrimsonLiar · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the info on getting such an old router to work with Vodafone, though with known security flaws and the newest firmware being around 4 years old on a 9 year old design.  You pretty much also have the issue that this router was never designed with the high speeds now available from FTTP, and it's likely to struggle if you are performing with any kind of data transformation at higher cable speeds - ie try to keep it in running with hardware acceleration on!

*Have you considered running a third-party firmware that may be considerably more up-to-date (though I don't think HW acceleration would be available).

[DrWatson]

The kit is able to handle gigabit through ethernet and wifi, so it can handle full fibre speeds no problem. The hardware was massively overengineered for the available speeds in the UK at the time (as with most premium routers).

Archer C9 | AC1900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Router | TP-Link United Kingdom

The point about how old the firmware is is definitely valid. However I would say an Archer C9 with old firmware is more secure than any new Huawei based ISP router in my opinion. Just my opinion, don't bother arguing.

If anyone is saavy enough to try out some new firmware let me know. But I've just got things up and running now myself so I've run out of spoons to work on this for the time being. I'll look into it myself in a couple of months or something. I'll need to save up my pennies just in case I brick my c9.

[Cynric]

@DrWatson The last firmware on the TP-Link site appears to be 2019. OpenWRT is available, but not the latest version.

I've a sneaky feeling that this model of router is slowly sailing away into the distant horizon of "perfectly useable kit made obsolete by the manufacturer wanting to sell you new stuff". 😀

[DrWatson]

That's for the V5, mines is the V1!

Aye, I was going to have a look at OpenWRT when I got round to looking at 3rd party firmware in a couple of months. 

You are definitely right about just wanting to sell new stuff when the old stuff is perfectly serviceable. Companies gonna company.

[CrimsonLiar]

The TP-Link C9 is incredibly similar to the Asus RT-AC68u and the Netgear R7000, putting it in the family of what I believe is the most commonly used router chipset to date.  As such you'll probably get years more updates from the third-party firmware.  Regards keeping up with WAN speeds, if you were on Fibre900 it could struggle if it's dealing with too many clients or was to be performing too many data transformations - we tend to expect more of routers now than we used to!

*Next to my current ugly brute of a router, the most reliable router I'd had previously was an Asus RT-AC68U V1.

[cheesmanc]

So I would like to confirm that if you use the MAC address of the existing VF Router, it connects straight away without issue - Have just setup Archer AX23 -AX1800 Wi-Fi 6 Router without issues