Setup your Main router completely.
Plug your child router using the wan port to the main router lan port.
Log into your main router web admin. Click on CA at the bottom right.
Click on Connectivity and CA Router setup. Click on both Add Wired and Add Wireless nodes buttons. Wait for the Add wireless button to re-enable then click Done adding Child Nodes. And then Apply.
Now the child node light should start flashing purple and turn into a mesh node when it urns blue.
This is really finicky but mines up and running again after a full reset.
Benefits of installing open sources openwrt/DD-wrt -
1.Current firmware is EOL and this router will not get future updates. But with Openwrt/dd-wrt, you will get longer support.
2. Support for additional packages/features
3. Easy mesh setup
4. VPN support
5. Potential for activating the USB3 port, which doesn't function with the stock firmware.
IMPORTANT Caution for following: As of Sept. 2nd, there is no official release of OpenWRT available yet for this unit - only the developers' testing versions noted below. The Linksys included stock firmware version shipped is from Spring 2024, so you may want to wait for installing an official Openwrt release, which may come within next few weeks.
Steps to install openwrt -
There are two models of this router, one is straight MX4300 and other is Homewrk version (please clarify/update this and ways to identify them. i believe all woot routers are Homewrk version) [Edit by hiroll: Actually most or all of those shipped from Woot are almost certainly the MX4300 ... it's confusing, because the outer brown shipping box is still labeled for the original Homewrk, but the router units packed within the inner white box are labeled MX4300. AFAIK, all of the Woot units are shipped via slow UPS ground from a 3rd party in CA. I received two different ones weeks apart from the earlier deal posts, one ordered through Amazon and the other directly from Woot - and both outer boxes and contents are exactly the same.]
Based on the router version, you need to install different variation of openwrt. One is lytr [github.com] and second is qosmio's build [github.com]. You have to install right version to right router otherwise you may end up with bricked router.
Here are instructions, thanks to @andythepandy
1. Go to https://github.com/testuser7/open...ax-2540ea6 and download the squashfs file for your device (e.g., LN1301 is the same as MX4300, so you'd download openwrt-qualcommax-ipq807x-linksys_mx4300-squashfs-factory.bin).
2. Follow the installation steps from https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/mx4200_v1_and_v
3. SSH into your router as user "root" and no password. By default, the IP address for the router would be 192.168.1.1
4. Make sure your router is connected to the internet (WAN port is connected to your ISP). Then in the router CLI, type "opkg update", press enter. Once finished, type "opkg install luci" and press enter. Once the command completes, reboot the router or power cycle.
5. Now you should be able to access Luci by going to 192.168.1.1 in your browser.
Some Relevent links:
https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/mx4200_v1_and_v
https://forum.openwrt.o
https://forum.openwrt.o
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SSH method
You can recover the Linksys stock firmware by using the basic SSH in PuTTy (for Windows®) and use the following commands:
Determining your router's current partition
/usr/sbin/fw_printenv -n boot_part
Booting your router
For Primary Partition: /usr/sbin/fw_setenv boot_part 1 && reboot
For Secondary Partition: /usr/sbin/fw_setenv boot_part 2 && reboot
- Master Node: 1 x LN1301/MX4300
- Mesh Node: 1 x LN1301/MX4300
PS: This is with the factory shipped firmware, nothing was changed. Not sure if it matters but i have all three WiFi settings (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz1, 5GHz2) set the same.How are the speeds you are achieving through this set up? I am in the process of going ahead with this rather than the OpenWRT but wanted to make sure that speeds are reaching what you had hoped. Please update if you can...
Only wish is the App or the Web Admin portal had advanced features to customize a lot more options.
The price/performance ratio is hard to beat.
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Edit:
I posted the wrong setup procedure before.
Setup your Main router completely.
Plug your child router using the wan port to the main router lan port.
Log into your main router web admin. Click on CA at the bottom right.
Click on Connectivity and CA Router setup. Click on both Add Wired and Add Wireless nodes buttons. Wait for the Add wireless button to re-enable then click Done adding Child Nodes. And then Apply.
Now the child node light should start flashing purple and turn into a mesh node when it urns blue.
This is really finicky but mines up and running again after a full reset.
Also does the linksys mobile app work if you make the mx4300 a parent node?
Also found this on the linksys website but it still will not turn blue for me:
Step 8:
Click on the CA link at the bottom of the dashboard.
Step 9:
Click Router Settings > Connectivity.
Step 10:
If the router does not have internet connection, go to the Internet Settings tab, and select the correct internet connection type for your network. Click on Ok or Apply. The router must be online first before you proceed to the next step.
Once online, click on CA Router Setup > Add Wireless Child Nodes, enter the WiFi name and password, then click on Setup Node.
Aside from the WiFi settings, Setup Node will also establish the following:
Set the router's device mode to master
Set the router's administrator password to the newly created IMDA password
Step 11:
Once the WiFi settings have been saved, you may now connect your client devices to the WiFi.
Step 12:
The router will become the parent node. You now are done with the initial setup.
If you want to add wireless child nodes, place them near the parent node. Turn ON the child nodes, wait until you have solid purple light, then click on Add Wireless Child Nodes.
To a add wired node, turn ON the node, connect an ethernet cable from the child node to the parent node, wait until the child nodes have a solid purple light, and click on Add Wired Child Nodes.
You will not see any changes in the web interface once you click on either of the buttons. It will be grayed out once clicked indicating that it is sending the configuration settings to the other nodes.
Step 13:
Once all child nodes have a solid blue light, click the Done Adding Child Nodes button then click Ok or Apply. You can then place them in other locations.
Step 14:
Connect a device that has the Linksys app to the child node.
Step 15:
Launch the Linksys app on your device and log in using your existing Linksys cloud account or create a new account if you haven't done so.
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