As I bask in the aftermath of CES 2025, I’ve been taking a bit of time to catch up on other tech sites’ coverage of the event. It’s like the tech journalist equivalent of an athlete watching sports highlights to improve their game next time around. One that really caught my attention was iFixit’s ‘Worst in Show’ awards, which are mostly humorous jabs at tech companies, but also featured one inclusion that suddenly has me a bit concerned about my home Wi-Fi system.
This entry was the new TP-Link Archer BE900, a powerhouse quad-band Wi-Fi 7 router - not a product I plan to buy, but I do already have a TP-Link Deco M9 Plus mesh Wi-Fi system set up in my home. As highlighted by Paul Roberts of SecuRepairs (an iFixit partner site formed by cybersecurity professionals who support right-to-repair), TP-Link is the biggest router brand in the US, but its ties to the Chinese government have resulted in some less-than-consumer-friendly problems with security on its devices.
