It's not every day that the humble Wi-Fi router makes news headlines, but TP-Link has been given the spotlight over the past year.
The company is under federal investigation for alleged ties to Chinese cyberattacks and potential predatory pricing. More than half a dozen US government departments and agencies are backing a proposal to ban the routers, according to a Washington Post report released last week.
Despite the negative press, I haven't bought a new Wi-Fi router just yet.
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I've been covering the internet world for more than six years. For the past two years, I've used a TP-Link router. I've never had an issue with it -- minimal buffering, solid range and no outages (that I could blame on the router, anyway).
In our recent round of Wi-Fi router testing, TP-Link performed admirably, earning an Editors' Choice award for the best budget router.
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It's been a thorny issue to navigate for me personally, and for readers. Can I honestly recommend a company that's facing a potential ban in the US? Is my own data at risk? Do I need to replace my router?
These questions started swirling around in my head in December of 2024, when the Wall Street Journal reported that the US government was weighing a ban on TP-Link routers due to the company's ties to several high-profile Chinese cyberattacks. Three months later, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, held up a TP-Link router in Congress and said, “Don’t use this.”
Chinese corporate records and government announcements show that the company still employs about 11,000 people in China. But TP-Link representatives strenuously denied to me that the company has any links to the Chinese government.
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