Archer C20

Connection settings depend on your ISP, not this router

This is the part most setup guides bury: whether you need PPPoE or DHCP is decided by your ISP and the network your line runs on — not by the router. The same Archer C20 is configured differently on Afrihost’s Openserve line than on a DHCP network.

Our router setup finder combines the two: pick your ISP alongside this model and it shows the connection type that provider documents. The can I use my own router? page lists every ISP we’ve verified.

Where these details come from

Hardware specs come from the manufacturer’s own datasheet or product page, linked per model so you can check them. Management addresses are vendor conventions cross-checked across sources — the label on your unit wins if it differs. Where a model ships in revisions with different radios or port speeds, we leave those fields blank and say why rather than state a value that’s right for only some units.

Sources for this model specifically:

• TP-Link — Archer C20 specifications (South Africa) (manufacturer)

We’d rather leave a field blank than state a value that’s only right for some units. If your unit disagrees with anything here, the label and the manufacturer’s manual win — tell us and we’ll correct it.

Why there’s no default password here

We don’t publish default passwords. Modern routers ship with per-unit credentials printed on a label on the device, so any single published default would be wrong as often as it’s right — and publishing working defaults for ISP-supplied hardware is a security problem rather than a convenience. MikroTik documents this explicitly: newer units have a factory password printed on the serial-number sticker. Check the label; a factory reset returns the unit to those values. Default usernames are listed where an ISP or vendor publishes one, because a username on its own opens nothing.

What else we don’t list

• VLAN IDs — we found no authoritative public source per South African ISP. A wrong VLAN tag stops the connection working entirely, so we won’t guess one.
• MTU values — the 1492 figure commonly quoted for PPPoE is a general convention, not something SA ISPs publish per network. Leave it on automatic unless your ISP tells you otherwise.
• Custom DNS requirements — no SA fibre ISP we checked requires specific DNS servers to connect.
• Router LED meanings — these are per-model and the ISP guides don’t document them. The lights that actually diagnose a fibre fault are on the ONT, which our ONT light checker covers.
• Firmware versions — they change without notice, so any version we published would be stale. Use your router’s own update screen.

If your ISP gives you a specific value, use theirs over anything published here. Where we do state a setting, its source is linked so you can check it.

Setting it up

1. Connect the ONT to this router’s WAN / Internet port — not a LAN port.
2. Open 192.168.0.1 in a browser and log in with the label credentials.
3. Set the connection type your ISP requires. DHCP needs nothing else; PPPoE needs their username and password.
4. Give it a few minutes — sessions don’t always come up instantly.

If it doesn’t connect, the fibre troubleshooter separates an authentication problem from a line fault, and the ONT light checker tells you whether the fibre side is healthy at all.

Spotted something wrong?

Firmware changes and ISPs update their instructions. If anything here is out of date, let us know — ideally with a link to the source — and we’ll correct it and update the verification date.