failed RT-AC66, what to replace it with?

[eak]

I have two RT-AC66s, the first is the main router, and the second runs in media bridge mode. The second one seems to have failed. I cannot connect to it either via WiFi or ethernet. I have done a factory reset, but the ethernet port of the computer never gets a DHCP address from the RT-AC66. I set the computer address manually to 192.168.1.X and tried to ping 192.168.1.1, but got no response. I think the RT-AC66 hardware has failed. If someone has another suggestion for something to bring it back, I will give that a try.

If the RT-AC66 has failed, I am thinking of buying a new router, making the first RT-AC66 into the media bridge. My second question is then what is the best ASUS product to buy? What I most care about is long distance operation, and I so I am wondering which product has the best distance capability. I presume it is one of the multiple antenna MIMO models. What do people recommend?

 

[rjmxtech]

Assuming the AC66 is dead, you could look at the following:

• If you are savvy enough I would recommend making a PFSense router and buying a few cheap Linksys routers with wireless AC as well as some powerline ethernet adapters (they work pretty well) and then you can make a few access points along your residence or wherever this is set up and get to mess around with an enterprise level router.
  
• For a pfsense router you can even build your own, which is basically like building a super duper awesome PC for a network guru.

If you still want to try and resurrect it, you could do the following:

1. Try to see if you can get it into the emergency mode that is described in videos like this one and all over various sites on the internet.
2. I once resurrected (well actually I bricked it and ressurrected it 20+ times now using a pin shorting method) a Linksys WRT160Nv1 by doing something similar to this here https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/13372 (I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THE PIN SHORT UNLESS YOU ARE OUT OF ALL OTHER OPTIONS)
   
3. Wait to see if anyone else has any other suggestions here.

 

[Pierino]

Pin shorting won't work on this router.