Linksys WRT1900AC First User Reports

[pete y testing]

well lets not focus on the r7000 ether as it too is quite basic in its feature set

instead look at the asus rt-ac68u and compare against it

i actually have all 3 of these routers here with me and so can see them and their working side by side as well as compare feature sets

i can appreciate that you want to defend the product you have purchased , but comparing these 3 wireless routers does come down to quite specific individual aspects as the main working of all 3 are so similar in the respect of how well they work and what they provide to the end user as well as the price point

as i said the wrt1900ac wins for those that want to actually use the usb3 as a NAS type device with throughput in excess of 70MB/s , its usb 3 alone at this stage is the wrt1900ac's claim to fame and i agree with the SMB ranking of 3rd in the 1900AC world , not that there is anything wrong with 3rd when in such esteemed company

i do think the asus rt-ac68u as a holistic package should be first and the netgear r7000 second though , mainly do to the feature set and flexibility the gui gives the user in the ac68u

pete

 

[sfx2000]

well lets not focus on the r7000 ether as it too is quite basic in its feature set

instead look at the asus rt-ac68u and compare against it

i actually have all 3 of these routers here with me and so can see them and their working side by side as well as compare feature sets

i can appreciate that you want to defend the product you have purchased , but comparing these 3 wireless routers does come down to quite specific individual aspects as the main working of all 3 are so similar in the respect of how well they work and what they provide to the end user as well as the price point

as i said the wrt1900ac wins for those that want to actually use the usb3 as a NAS type device with throughput in excess of 70MB/s , its usb 3 alone at this stage is the wrt1900ac's claim to fame and i agree with the SMB ranking of 3rd in the 1900AC world , not that there is anything wrong with 3rd when in such esteemed company

i do think the asus rt-ac68u as a holistic package should be first and the netgear r7000 second though , mainly do to the feature set and flexibility the gui gives the user in the ac68u

pete

Actually, I didn't purchase any of the above (WRT1900ac/Asus AC68U/Netgear R7000) - in my HomeNetwork, which covers my family and my small business - I run AirPort Extremes in a roaming configuration. I don't overly rah-rah them, but generally they just work for what I ask them to do...

My WRT1900ac - this is a review sample, and I have free reign to compliment or criticize - so I have no sunk costs - frees me to comment one way or the other. So let's talk about the WRT1900ac directly - this isn't about other vendors in this thread - go rah-rah there...

sfx

 

[pete y testing]

Actually, I didn't purchase any of the above (WRT1900ac/Asus AC68U/Netgear R7000) - in my HomeNetwork, which covers my family and my small business - I run AirPort Extremes in a roaming configuration. I don't overly rah-rah them, but generally they just work for what I ask them to do...

My WRT1900ac - this is a review sample, and I have free reign to compliment or criticize - so I have no sunk costs - frees me to comment one way or the other. So let's talk about the WRT1900ac directly - this isn't about other vendors in this thread - go rah-rah there...

sfx

if you note i was responding to the poster above my post and not to you directly

btw can you point me to where exactly client bridge or repeater bridge would be found as you claim as i must have my eyes painted on as i cant see it anywhere

if you want some downsides to the wrt1900ac try turning on its media prioritization and then transferring data between devices as you will find the throughput is dramatically reduced

the 2.4 gig wifi is imho weakish in comparison coverage wise

when i got the 1900ac i expected something more than the same gui the ea9600 has , after all this was the first release of the wrt from its original team

again dont get me wrong the wrt1900ac is a good product that should stand the test of time , its just not setting any records that set it apart from the field ( with the exception of its usb3 performance ) , so again to differentiate it from others comes down to nit picking and this can only really be done by comparison with its peers

pete

 

[chadster766]

I just found the advanced settings for the Wifi:

/dynamic/advanced-wireless.html

 

[pete y testing]

I just found the advanced settings for the Wifi:

/dynamic/advanced-wireless.html

um from what i can see this doesnt show any client or repeater functionality

just some advanced 2.4 and 5 gig options and a separate tab for some marvel specific beamforming settings

 

[chadster766]

um from what i can see this doesnt show any client or repeater functionality

just some advanced 2.4 and 5 gig options and a separate tab for some marvel specific beamforming settings

Yes I'm not sure how useful it will be.

 

[htismaqe]

i do think the asus rt-ac68u as a holistic package should be first and the netgear r7000 second though , mainly do to the feature set and flexibility the gui gives the user in the ac68u

I have owned and used all 3.

The Netgear R7000 barely deserves discussion unless you're running DD-WRT on it. The stock firmware is buggy garbage and problems seemingly persist after yesterday's release of 1.0.3.60 firmware. They seem intent on adding ReadyCloud support instead of fixing bugs, which is hilarious since they stopped accepting new ReadyCloud users in March.

 

[htismaqe]

btw can you point me to where exactly client bridge or repeater bridge would be found as you claim as i must have my eyes painted on as i cant see it anywhere

Repeater bridge is useless. Lots of people consider using it and ultimately decide against it when they discover what it actually does to their throughput. Most user forums like Small Net Builder strongly discourage its use. Why enable a feature nobody wants?

if you want some downsides to the wrt1900ac try turning on its media prioritization and then transferring data between devices as you will find the throughput is dramatically reduced

Enable downstream QoS on the Netgear R7000 and you will find that VoIP soft phones are unusable and video streaming from sites like Netflix acquire a "freeze frame" effect.

You'll find plenty of posts here encouraging people to disable QoS on the Asus firmware as well.

The simple fact is that virtually no home router has a perfect QoS implementation. All of them have quirks and issues of some kind.

the 2.4 gig wifi is imho weakish in comparison coverage wise

In my setup, the WRT1900AC provides better coverage than both the AC68U and the R7000. The 2.4Ghz signal on the WRT1900AC is dramatically better than the R7000 in my house.

again dont get me wrong the wrt1900ac is a good product that should stand the test of time , its just not setting any records that set it apart from the field ( with the exception of its usb3 performance ) , so again to differentiate it from others comes down to nit picking and this can only really be done by comparison with its peers

For me, the fact that my wireless devices don't randomly disappear from the network and then suddenly appear as wireless devices in the router sets the WRT1900AC apart from the R7000.

The WRT1900AC has its issues but day-to-day, it just plain WORKS. Something that can't be said for the R7000.

 

[htismaqe]

um from what i can see this doesnt show any client or repeater functionality

just some advanced 2.4 and 5 gig options and a separate tab for some marvel specific beamforming settings

Look in Internet settings.

 

[RogerSC]

Repeater bridge is useless. Lots of people consider using it and ultimately decide against it when they discover what it actually does to their throughput. Most user forums like Small Net Builder strongly discourage its use. Why enable a feature nobody wants?

Enable downstream QoS on the Netgear R7000 and you will find that VoIP soft phones are unusable and video streaming from sites like Netflix acquire a "freeze frame" effect.

You'll find plenty of posts here encouraging people to disable QoS on the Asus firmware as well.

The simple fact is that virtually no home router has a perfect QoS implementation. All of them have quirks and issues of some kind.

In my setup, the WRT1900AC provides better coverage than both the AC68U and the R7000. The 2.4Ghz signal on the WRT1900AC is dramatically better than the R7000 in my house.

For me, the fact that my wireless devices don't randomly disappear from the network and then suddenly appear as wireless devices in the router sets the WRT1900AC apart from the R7000.

The WRT1900AC has its issues but day-to-day, it just plain WORKS. Something that can't be said for the R7000.

I'm currently using the R7000. Yes, dd-wrt runs really well on it, and that has made it stable and given me great performance over the last few months, despite what Netgear has done with their firmware. And tomato firmware is coming along for the R7000, it'll most likely be ready before too long.

However, I'm currently using a Netgear firmware debug version that is running well for me. Unfortunately some of the fixes in it were too late to make it into the latest official firmware, but this debug firmware performs well, and stays up. I can leave the web GUI up and actually use it while the router is running without worrying about the router rebooting as my WRT1900AC does.

Sorry that R7000 didn't work for you, I find that the wireless strength/coverage at my place is better with the R7000 than the WRT1900AC. By at least 5dBm on both 2.4 and 5GHz. bands. Consistently, not just once, but every time that I use it.

So I can't really agree with you about the R7000, but then, differences of opinion will certainly happen. I haven't used the Asus RT-AC68U, but the stock firmware on it has the usual Asus problems as well. They make lots of releases, fix one thing, break two more. RMerlin works hard to keep it together, but Asus doesn't make his job easy.

And I just can't wait to see how stable the wireless-3200AC routers are when they come out *smile*.

 

[htismaqe]

However, I'm currently using a Netgear firmware debug version that is running well for me. Unfortunately some of the fixes in it were too late to make it into the latest official firmware, but this debug firmware performs well, and stays up. I can leave the web GUI up and actually use it while the router is running without worrying about the router rebooting as my WRT1900AC does.

I'll be interested to see if the .60 or .61 firmwares fix the wired-to-wireless communication issue. So far I haven't seen any official word that Netgear has confirmed that it's even an issue, let alone determined cause or fixed it.

Minor quirks are one thing. A router firmware that can't tell the difference between wired and wireless clients after 2 days of uptime is another altogether. That's basic layer 2 functionality that's been on the market for almost 20 years.

 

[cc666]

R7000

I can tell you that I have my printer, now wired into LAN 1 port on the R7000 and its shows perfectly every time from every computer on my network. Does not disappear and shows as a wired device on the Network map. (.60 firmware)

If I were you I would dump the WRT1900 and get the Netgear r7000 back. Thats what I did and I am happy I did.

You can't tell me you don't have random reboots with the WRT 1900. Thats why I dumped it.

CC

 

[pete y testing]

<snip>

You can't tell me you don't have random reboots with the WRT 1900. Thats why I dumped it.

CC

i can tell you i dont , the wrt1900AC here with firmware version 1.1.7.160582

its been on line for just over a week solid with no disconnects at all

i did have issues with it and the asus pce-ac68 initially as it was causing it to reboot but its settled now and works fine ( might be cause im in Australia and its a different batch ???)

i also had an issue with my wireless printer showing offline but that was the printer its self going into green mode , once i changed the setting on the printer it stays showing as connected

pete

 

[RogerSC]

I'll be interested to see if the .60 or .61 firmwares fix the wired-to-wireless communication issue. So far I haven't seen any official word that Netgear has confirmed that it's even an issue, let alone determined cause or fixed it.

Minor quirks are one thing. A router firmware that can't tell the difference between wired and wireless clients after 2 days of uptime is another altogether. That's basic layer 2 functionality that's been on the market for almost 20 years.

Haven't experienced this issue, so I can't comment. I transfer files between my wife's mother's desktop (wired) and my laptop (wireless) all the time. No problem.

 

[sfx2000]

I just found the advanced settings for the Wifi:

/dynamic/advanced-wireless.html

404 - page not found...

 

[chadster766]

404 - page not found...

You may have to use the "For local access, click here" option before trying to bring the page up.

 

[pete y testing]

404 - page not found...

try

192.168.1.1/ui/1.0.99.160582/dynamic/advanced-wireless.html

where the ip address is the lan ip address you have set for the wrt1900ac , if you have left it at default the the above link works

 

[sm00thpapa]

try

192.168.1.1/ui/1.0.99.160582/dynamic/advanced-wireless.html

where the ip address is the lan ip address you have set for the wrt1900ac , if you have left it at default the the above link works

Good stuff dude. How are we finding these hidden areas and why is Linksys hiding them?

 

[RogerSC]

Good stuff dude. How are we finding these hidden areas and why is Linksys hiding them?

Hey, without the status page, I couldn't even have verified that I was getting reboots, that's not what Linksys wants you to know. This stuff, along with telnet is all too sophisticated for Linksys customers to handle. If Linksys thought that you could deal with it, they'd have put all those dangerous settings and status information in an easier place to find *smile*. This is the Romper Room of router web admin GUI's, you know. Can't have you hurting yourself.

 

[sm00thpapa]

It's cool finding these pages. But some people may mess with the settings and mess their entire network up. I was looking at the beam forming settings but not touching it till I found out more about it.