Click here [dd-wrt.com] for a guide on installing DD-WRT
Download the latest DD-WRT builds from here [dd-wrt.com]
If you are not interested in using custom firmware yet, these routers support mesh with the stock firmware, but the USB port is disabled.
The stock firmware is relatively new, but is speculated to not receive many, if any, updates, so it may be best to wait until custom firmware support is merged and more mature before messing with installing custom firmware.
How to enable mesh:
- Setup your Main router completely.
- Plug your child node using the wan port to the main router lan port, wait for a solid purple light on the child node before proceeding.
- 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.
- Click Done adding Child Nodes and then Apply.
- Now the child node light should start flashing purple and turn into a mesh mode when it turns blue.
- Disconnect Ethernet and wait for blue light again.
- Move node to desired location.
How to set up as access point:
- Disable DHCP (optional).
- Set the device to Bridge Mode under Connectivity tab.
- Connect cable from your router to a LAN port.
- Get some nail polish and a round sticker to cover the annoying flashing right light.
- Click the 'CA' at the bottom of the page to see the detailed configurations of wifi.
to unbrick and flash new firmware
run flashimg
run flashimg2
rename stock firmware to tortuga.img
Top Comments
Mind you that I only have 100Mbps Spectrum internet but I do stream/direct play 4k videos from a Plex media server to several Amazon Firestick 4k devices without issue. Overall IMO you would be hard pressed to find such relatively decent hardware for so cheap; especially a Mesh network.
It wasn't all smooth at first mind you. I kept getting disconnects; especially with the streaming IP cameras. But I discovered by disabling Express Forwarding all my streaming issues went away. (CA>Connectivity>Administration>Express Forwarding)
I'm guessing that Cisco's/Linksys' proprietary Express Forwarding routing protocol was causing havoc with the IP cams streaming capabilities. Also, disabling Node Steering seemed to make things more stable as well; mesh nodes no longer disconnect from the router when Node Steering is disabled. (CA>Wi-Fi Settings>Advanced>Node Steering)
Of course, user experience can vary so feel free to experiment. if the routers are giving you problems, try turning these features off and see if it works
It's not a deal if you never receive it.
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But frankly basing on SD FP common sense (usually gone in days, this lasted for 2 weeks), I don't believe they sold of their stock.
It's more like a starving sale strategy, to boost the next sale wave, for the same price or even lower.
We'll see.
Many of us we swore to never use linksys after decade of bad firmware. A far cry from when was OG best WRT54G. Now this crazy deal pulled back in some nerds and semi tech savvy.
Linksys can win us back with decent FW update and improvement even if only 1 and done.
Cheapest marketing ever but yes DDWRT and OpenWRT can't be beat but I've not switch yet
If you have OpenWRT on one partition and stock on the other partition, what happens if you do a factory reset by holding the reset button? Does it overwrite both partitions with some saved default firmware? Or does it just overwrite whatever current active partition is running? Or some other action I haven't thought of? What happens during a factory reset if both partitions have OpenWRT loaded?
Thanks.
Can someone guide me through the steps to set this up? I followed the procedure I found, but the second router doesn't have a WAN port to connect to. I used an Ethernet cable to connect the first router (the main one) to the second one, but that didn't work either. I also couldn't find an option called "CA" as mentioned in the instructions.
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Could someone please explain how to set up this mesh mode configuration correctly?
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