Linksys WRT1900AC First User Reports

[sfx2000]

More than 1 user with possibly bricked routers.

http://community.linksys.com/t5/Wireless-Routers/WRT1900AC-May-have-bricked-it/td-p/811096

http://community.linksys.com/t5/Wireless-Routers/WRT1900AC-and-OpenWrt/td-p/810750

OpenWRT experiments - not unexpected for any device - early days with this device - and something that if you have the right gear, is safe, but having a JTAG debugger is something most folks don't have unless you work on HW in a dev environment.

Might want to let the OpenWRT devs give the all clear first...

sfx

 

[speedingcheetah]

OpenWRT experiments - not unexpected for any device - early days with this device - and something that if you have the right gear, is safe, but having a JTAG debugger is something most folks don't have unless you work on HW in a dev environment.

Might want to let the OpenWRT devs give the all clear first...

sfx

Exactly! Only those that know what they are doing should flash the early builds OpenWRT.

But some are posting links to it with no warning or thought of the risk or seem to think they are perfectly stable releases. A few people seem to have no issues, but there are definitely others that simply flashed the image and got a B.P.L.O.D (Blinking Power Light of Death)

From what I have read, current Linksys products are not as easy to recover from a bad flash as Asus or some Dlink models. Recovery mode on those models is a life saver.

 

[jalyst]

I've got one of these as a review device:
I'm in contact with the Linksys team, so holding back a bit on comments until we can close out on some items... for the most part, my Linksys contact has been very open with access to the dev team, and I've received good responses.
It's a quality device out of the box - I'm doing a bit more of a deeper dive perhaps, just short of putting it on the lab bench - I wouldn't do this for most vendors unless I think the device is worth consideration.
FWIW - I do see this device as something more than "just another product" based on conversations with the Linksys Team - they're pretty serious about this device being a flagship product.

So, you'll be posting a much more in-depth "lab bench" analysis on some website soon?

OpenWRT experiments - not unexpected for any device - early days with this device - and something that if you have the right gear, is safe, but having a JTAG debugger is something most folks don't have unless you work on HW in a dev environment.

Yup, it's pretty straight-forward & safe if you dot your I's & cross your T's, but for folks who blink twice & don't really "get" the processes, best to steer clear, as you're prolly headed for brickdom.

For the adventurous, a nice series of well-trodden approaches is starting to evolve, the recovery option is crude, but it's the most fundamental/well-tested one over the yrs.

From what I have read, current Linksys products are not as easy to recover from a bad flash as Asus or some Dlink models. Recovery mode on those models is a life saver.

This is true, in a way it's good, because it lowers the barrier of entry to only those that have half-a-clue.
Hopefully later, when things are more (consistently) reliable, a user-friendly process will come into play.

 

[jlake]

This is true, in a way it's good, because it lowers the barrier of entry to only those that have half-a-clue.
Hopefully later, when things are more (consistently) reliable, a user-friendly process will come into play.

However there are some people (like me) who buy refurbs, that are absolutely counting on people without a clue bricking their router. It's just an unfortunate fact of life that there will be lots of clueless people and lots of brickings of the wrt1900.

Linksys has been well aware of ASUS' recovery mode that has greatly reduced the number of brickings and helped ASUS profit margins. They've had plenty of time since their WRT1900AC press release to have a user friendly system in place to de-brick. There's already been more posted brickings in two weeks of the Wrt1900 than there has been posted brickings on this forum of all ASUS routers combined in one year.

 

[jalyst]

It user-friendly enough for now, the rest of the feature-set + stability is far more important than an idiot proof de-brick process.
The de-bricking process is already very simple, once you get your head around it & set yourself up properly...
When the fw's generally more reliable & stable, then a more idiot proof system should come into play, ideally no later than Sept.

 

[G997]

I've got one of these as a review device:

I'm in contact with the Linksys team, so holding back a bit on comments until we can close out on some items... for the most part, my Linksys contact has been very open with access to the dev team, and I've received good responses.

couple of quick tips though for current FW on this box - current being 1.1.7.160177

1) Devices with Static IP's - they won't show up on the network map widget

2) For those who are seeing issues with 802.11 b/g/n devices - change the 2.4Ghz setting from Auto to B/G/N only and set channel width to 20MHz only - works better here for Atheros and Ralink STA's

3) Bridge Mode - note that you have to access the AP by IP - so you might want to assign a static IP vs. using DHCP

It's a quality device out of the box - I'm doing a bit more of a deeper dive perhaps, just short of putting it on the lab bench - I wouldn't do this for most vendors unless I think the device is worth consideration.

FWIW - I do see this device as something more than "just another product" based on conversations with the Linksys Team - they're pretty serious about this device being a flagship product.

sfx

#1 is not true. I have several static IP devices that do show up on the Network Map but not all of them.......

 

[G997]

I hate the oval look of the Network Map. Its hard to decipher.

It would be much more useful if presented in a list format that could be sorted into columns ie: 2.4 devices, 5GHz devices, LAN, device type, etc

 

[hewligun]

Did I miss it or how does the 1900 compare to the R7000 which is the top performing router.

Is there a head to head comparison between the two.

I returned my r7000 last saturday and I have had the linksys since tuesday. For me the linksys has been rock solid. 0 Drops faster and more range covered in my condo.

There is a new electronic smell from the linksys that took about 2 days to wear off. It stinks and it was in my bedroom. Secondly I still can only get 1 xbox one to have open NAT. So that is really frustrating for me at the moment. Also if I shut he led lights off and reboot the router. The wireless LED lights still show unless I turn the lights on and back off. Guessing thats just a bug though.

 

[m33p]

I can say using this newest image there are some issues... and wireless is not stable... I wouldn't flash unless your willing to put up with these issues... and also have a plan if it does brick on you...

 

[speedingcheetah]

However there are some people (like me) who buy refurbs, that are absolutely counting on people without a clue bricking their router. It's just an unfortunate fact of life that there will be lots of clueless people and lots of brickings of the wrt1900.

Linksys has been well aware of ASUS' recovery mode that has greatly reduced the number of brickings and helped ASUS profit margins. They've had plenty of time since their WRT1900AC press release to have a user friendly system in place to de-brick. There's already been more posted brickings in two weeks of the Wrt1900 than there has been posted brickings on this forum of all ASUS routers combined in one year.

Asus was not openly advertising and bragging about how their product is ready and designed for the OpenSource community as Linksys is about their WRT.

It surprises me that Linksys did not put much thought in to recovery by insuring a easy to use, straightforward fallback recovery mode or such as other brands have.

 

[KGB7]

Roldog.

I don't know who is in charge of your network but, the biggest mistake this person made, is by using of the shelf retail product for your network.
So if you want your clients to trust you and to keep their data safe, it is imperative that commercial grade products are used on your network.
So keep bragging on public forums as you are being hacked and little birdy contacts same magazine so public may know how unsafe their investments are.

Best of luck.

 

[RogerSC]

Been having a rough time with the WRT1900AC the last few days. It's great when I first set it up, and then after several hours to a day my Android phone and iPad have lost 1/3 - 2/3 of their download speeds on 5GHz. At the point when I see that, I can put my R7000 with dd-wrt firmware back online, and my wireless speed goes right back up to my full ISP download speed. This happened twice, lots of factory resets and reconfiguration, since I just didn't believe it. No disconnects or drops, just slow downs. Wired systems are fine, IPv6 is fine, wireless strength is fine...only the wireless internet speed slow downs are a problem for me at this point. My laptop (also on 5GHz.) doesn't see this problem, since it's only 3 feet away from the router. I use my other wireless devices in the living room, farthest from the router in my house.

The only other time that I've seen slow internet with normal signal strength was early-on when I was playing tx power on dd-wrt on the R7000, before "Auto" tx power came along. Don't know what's going on with this, can't use telnet with the WRT1900AC as far as I can see. So I can't look at what's going on with the router itself. The WRT1900AC web admin GUI certainly doesn't provide much in the way of monitoring tools.

So I'm back on using my R7000, working great with dd-wrt firmware. I'm essentially waiting for a new firmware release from Linksys, or open source/third-party firmware for the WRT1900AC. Preferably open source firmware, since I like the degree of control and monitoring that I get there, but I'd be glad to try new Linksys firmware as well.

 

[roldogg]

Let's keep this thread focused on the subject at hand. And on that note, I'm returning my WRT1900AC router and replacing it with another ASUS. It's just hard to find a better product.

 

[thiggins]

Keep on topic please

Gents,
Thought we were going to keep this to networking.

Offtopic posts have been removed.

 

[hewligun]

I played around with the port triggering yesterday. Still only one xbox one will go open. the other moderate. weird dmz, port forwarding or triggering dont matter. I wonder if the belkin AC router as an AP is causing any issue. Or maybe the firmware just has bad setup of upnp.

besides that everything has been fine.

 

[jlake]

I played around with the port triggering yesterday. Still only one xbox one will go open. the other moderate. weird dmz, port forwarding or triggering dont matter. I wonder if the belkin AC router as an AP is causing any issue. Or maybe the firmware just has bad setup of upnp.

besides that everything has been fine.

What Belkin AC router is being used as an AP? Do you mean you have another Belkin/Linksys AC WRT1900 being used as an AP?

I'm pretty sure port triggering won't work for an xbox that is connected to an AP that has been cascaded LAN to LAN.

I suppose it'd be easy to isolate by connecting both xboxs directly to main router.

 

[lexist2112]

I played around with the port triggering yesterday. Still only one xbox one will go open. the other moderate. weird dmz, port forwarding or triggering dont matter. I wonder if the belkin AC router as an AP is causing any issue. Or maybe the firmware just has bad setup of upnp.

besides that everything has been fine.

To enable port triggering for multiple XBOXES:
1) Configure port triggering rules, using xbox rules this link will give you a basic idea, it is being setup on the WRT-54G.
2) Best to use static IP addressing of xboxes, example:
XBOX1 192.168.0.10
XBOX2 192.168.0.11
3) when configuring the Port triggering rules you will have to use the range of 10 thru 11, in the above example, along with the xbox ports.

4) If your DHCP the XBOXES, turn on the 1st xbox and reserve that IP in the DHCP and name it as XBOX1(write down the IP address the router is issueing) and then turn on the second XBOX2 and let the router issue an IP address and then save that to DHCP reservation.

5) follow step 2.

Here are the following ports for XBOX1
Xbox Live requires the following ports to be open:

Port 88 (UDP)
Port 3074 (UDP and TCP)
Port 53 (UDP and TCP)
Port 80 (TCP)
Port 500 (UDP)
UDP Port 3544 (UDP)
UDP Port 4500 (UDP)


Let us know how it works for you

 

[speedingcheetah]

Intial Expercience

I just got the WRT1900AC, though it came much later than expected, so I am not able to fully test and use it in place of my Asus AC56U at the moment.

My Initial Experience: (just a quick setup)

Very nicely packaged. Very high end packing and padding.

This router is quite chunky and heavier than any consumer routers I have worked with. Feels very much like a solid device.(though the weight may just be from the metal heat-sinks I surmise).

I like how it has wall mount support, though it would have been nice to include a template so I can mount it easy and straight. When I move the antennas up flat, looks like a giant lady bug or something on the wall. People will notice it.

It uses a power brick like a small laptop cord. Its a 12v 4amp cord. Strongest one I have yet to see on consumer routers(most are 12v 2.5amp).

I read somewhere that the included cable was Cat6, but the box does not say Cat6 (just "Ethernet cable"). The cable it self has no writing on it to identify it. It also is flat, which means it is not a twisted pair cable. I don't recommend using it for main use.

I hooked the WRT up briefly. Just connected the WAN port to an open port on my switch which is connected to my Asus router, then connected port 1 of the WRT to my laptop. First browser window I opened, got the Linksys setup wizard, which I chose to skip. I saw a notice to update firmware and it updated very quickly.

I have to agree with Cnet? in the organization of the SmartWiFi UI Linskys has. It is certainly more refined from what I used back when I had an EA2700. But I had to hunt around for some settings. Some settings are in the wrong category. I still don't really like their UI that much anyway.

As many have said, this router is lacking in features compared to others. (I am spoiled by my Asus.) 3 biggest features are DDNS services are limited with no included free service. No built in VPN server/client. (supposed to be coming..sometime.) WOL page as well. For a top-of-the-line device, I would expect these features (at a minimum) plus much more advanced settings, especially since this is priced a tad higher than other top models.

As far as wifi goes, range on both 2.4 and 5 appear to be a tiny bit better.(just by using WiFi Analyzer app on my S3). Actually, the 2.4 band seems to be quite strong...strongest 2.4 router I have used as of yet. However, I don't use the 2.4 band due to a very cluttered environment.

Quick test of the 5g wifi,(I am about 5-10 feet away) laptop connected at the full 866 link rate and file transfer speeds were a tad slower than through my Asus directly, but this is hooked up after it, so its not the best comparison at this point. Just wanted to make sure things were working.

I hope to further put this router to the test at some point.
More testing: HEREhttp://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=118450&postcount=201

I am definitely interested in OpenWRT, once they put out a good official release and they get the Marvel driver re-done and things all worked out.

Overall, so far, impressed with the hardware, but not impressed with the firmware. Linksys should have put more effort into their firmware for their flagship product before releasing it. As it stands, I do not think it is worth the current price.

UPDATE: I just tested the USB storage ability of this router. This is wired over gigabit Ethernet. Win8.1 Drives formatted in NTFS. File is a 1.10GB .mkv video file.

USB 3.0 2.5in 320gb 7200rpm (seagate)

To router: 70-76MB's
From router: 70-83MB's

eSata: WD Blue 3.5in 500gb 7200rpm

To router: 70-76MB's
From router: 90-95MB's

Fastest speeds I have seen for a router.

I also noticed that when I enabled the network share, it showed the "System Volume Information" folder on the hdd, which I deleted without issue. I also saw other shares besides the 2 hdds I had connected...on the network from Win Explorer "sda", "sdb" but both of those did not have any space...not sure what those folders are.

Also, I changed the name of the router from the default "Linksys**" whatever it was to something custom, but it doesn't seem to have actually changed it. It still showed the default router name on network shares.

I also note that adding port forwards are not as nice as with the Asus. I can just copy and paste my list of ports (e.x: 80,443,8888,..etc) in one line and the Asus page and it works great. This Linksys, only supports 1 port at a time per entry and I kept getting a pop up of "Invalid IP". Also noticed, the PPPoE setting, it has Connect On Demand and a Keep Alive mode (redial every 30secs). Never seen that before.

 

[speedingcheetah]

just a note..i added some more info to my last post.

 

[sm00thpapa]

Just received my router today. I set it up and connected all 23 of my devices. Don't see any improvement over my RT-N66W as far as wifi range and speed. I will test further and share my experiences.