What feature do you miss in Linksys WRT1900AC ?

[IAAI]

To me the router is great but it misses the secure VPN home access . Just wondering why didn't they add it .


What do you guys miss in this router ?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[stevech]

 

[theveterans]

To me the router is great but it misses the secure VPN home access . Just wondering why didn't they add it .


What do you guys miss in this router ?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

For a casual (not an networking expert in router features) user like myself, none. I've never needed to use OpenVPN, Dual WAN, 80 MHz only mode, have an option to turn off implicit and explicit beamforming, torrent client, VLAN with bandwidth management, advanced QoS, multiple DNS per ip, etc

 

[htismaqe]

Yeah, I've never used OpenVPN either and that seems to be the one thing people miss, at least when I've been able to get them to say.

I've asked several times here on the forum in response to complaints of the Linksys firmware being too "light" and generally don't get a response. It seems like a canned answer, something people have heard and are repeating rather than something based on personal experience.

For me, I love the Linksys GUI. It's simple and straightforward. No extra crap that I don't need. Now if I could use it without the router crashing, that would be even better.

EDIT: I should add I'm not really a "casual" user. I'm a former network engineer and currently run 100% of my business out of my home office. This router works great for me.

 

[fistv]

Openvpn comes in handy, used it few times on a wrt54g running dd-wrtto connect to cisco asa and pix's. So far my 1900 is doing pretty much all I need it to do. No reboots, just works. The only thing missing is some information about clients, that is one of the things I liked about DD-WRT's gui, you can do a quick look at who is using what, router status, resource usage, etc. The part I really miss is a command line page.

 

[htismaqe]

You do know about the sysinfo.cgi right?

 

[fistv]

You do know about the sysinfo.cgi right?

Yes, I would still like to telnet into it for more detailed info.

 

[RMerlin]

Yes, I would still like to telnet into it for more detailed info.

Unlikely to happen. For some reason Linksys are so worried about keeping their design "secret" that even the internal serial port is read-only.

 

[htismaqe]

Unlikely to happen. For some reason Linksys are so worried about keeping their design "secret" that even the internal serial port is read-only.

If they were really intent on keeping things "secret", they wouldn't even allow read-only. You can reverse engineer things without having write access to the CLI.

I don't think they're trying to keep secrets, particularly given the amount of information the sysinfo.cgi reveals. I just think they're trying to keep it stripped down and basic - less to support.

Once OpenWRT comes around, I would guess they'll stop supporting it altogether and just pass people off.

 

[RMerlin]

If they were really intent on keeping things "secret", they wouldn't even allow read-only. You can reverse engineer things without having write access to the CLI.

I don't think they're trying to keep secrets, particularly given the amount of information the sysinfo.cgi reveals. I just think they're trying to keep it stripped down and basic - less to support.

Once OpenWRT comes around, I would guess they'll stop supporting it altogether and just pass people off.

I have no other explanation as to why they would make the serial port read-only. It's not for security purposes, since accessing that port would require disassembling the front plate anyway. It's not to reduce support requests either, since that port requires kinda specialized gear and technical know-how to use. So all I can think is they are trying to hide something by preventing poking at it.

Unless you have another explanation.

 

[RogerSC]

Stability and stronger wireless.

 

[htismaqe]

I have no other explanation as to why they would make the serial port read-only. It's not for security purposes, since accessing that port would require disassembling the front plate anyway. It's not to reduce support requests either, since that port requires kinda specialized gear and technical know-how to use. So all I can think is they are trying to hide something by preventing poking at it.

Unless you have another explanation.

No, I don't. I could certainly see them doing it to prevent someone from poking around but that would just be silly. You can still poke around in read-only mode. They're not actually hiding anything - you can still see everything, you just can't change it.

It's pretty petty on Linksys' part to do it, honestly. It doesn't buy them anything that I can see.

 

[htismaqe]

Stability and stronger wireless.

Interesting.

For me, it outperforms the R7000 in both areas, by far.

 

[cbrigante2]

Password

Password is on the bottom of the router if you left it default. If you aren't sure...I think the address is 192.168.1.1 default

 

[RMerlin]

No, I don't. I could certainly see them doing it to prevent someone from poking around but that would just be silly. You can still poke around in read-only mode. They're not actually hiding anything - you can still see everything, you just can't change it.

Sorry for not being more clear. By "read only", I mean you can view the serial output, but you cannot run any command since you cannot type anything over serial. That prevents you, for example, from looking at syslog, or the content of iptables.

 

[RogerSC]

Interesting.

For me, it outperforms the R7000 in both areas, by far.

Amazing. Glad to hear it that it's working that well for you. Especially that the wireless strength is so much stronger than the R7000. While I'm sure that you're not unique, I find that especially interesting.

Just don't touch the router GUI while it's in operation. And are you using wireless-AC at all, just curious about that?

Enjoy!

 

[htismaqe]

Amazing. Glad to hear it that it's working that well for you. Especially that the wireless strength is so much stronger than the R7000. While I'm sure that you're not unique, I find that especially interesting.

I can't guarantee that it's stronger overall. I have never tested the fringes of my property to see where signal is completely lost. But in my office, 50 feet from the router through 4 interior walls, the 5Ghz signal from the WRT is stronger and throughput is higher. With the WRT, my iMac hovers between MCS 12 and 13 (162Mpbs to 216Mbps) and my actual throughput bears that out, as I'm getting right at 200Mbps with large file transfers. With the R7000, it never got above MCS 12 and would occasionally dip to MCS 11 (108Mbps). File transfers averaged about 150Mbps.

2.4Ghz coverage and throughput isn't enough different to be noticeable. Certainly, it blankets the entire house adequately since we have media players at both ends of the house and both work just fine, even streaming HD.

Just don't touch the router GUI while it's in operation.

No joke. I haven't touched it in weeks. I'm like a week short of 2 months of uptime without any problems at all. I haven't even upgraded to the new firmware yet because I don't really feel the need. My family is much happier with the WRT over the R7000.

And are you using wireless-AC at all, just curious about that?

That is one thing I'm not using. That may have something to do with it, for sure.

 

[IAAI]

Stability and stronger wireless.

Interesting.

For me, it outperforms the R7000 in both areas, by far.

for me it outperforms Asus AC68U in terms of WiFi strength

I tested one a month ago and it was great under 2.4 , don't actually remember about 5 GHz

 

[RogerSC]

For me, my R7000 with dd-wrt firmware outperforms my WRT1900AC on wireless, and is much more stable. Don't have to be afraid to touch the router GUI, so I can easily monitor my network. And don't have to worry about reboots when using wireless-AC (which is the main new feature of wireless-AC routers, after all *smile*).

So this is kind of reverse of the original question, but encapsulates why I'm not currently using the WRT1900AC. And what features need to be worked on so that I feel good about using it.

 

[htismaqe]

DD-WRT can certainly make a world of difference with the R7000. That's about the only way you can make it useable, IMO.

And I totally get the need to monitor your network. For me, I live in the middle of nowhere - there isn't anybody within a mile of my house.

There's literally nothing to monitor. We either have internet access or we don't.