Archer C7 v4 support

Hi guys. I just got a C7 V4 and I'm wondering if going to DDWRT (which i've been using for years) o going to OWRT/LEDE.

Is the snapshot currently good enough for home usage? I do not use fancy features, just TX power, Short Preamble, DDNS and port forwardings, with a 50mbit internet connection.

Thanks.

Should be fine in snapshots, both master (keep in mind that these don't have the webinterface preinstalled) and the openwrt-18.06 branch (which should have luci preinstalled).

Great! But it's odd I can't get 18.06 main in the downloads site, is it published elsewhere? I only see 18.06 packages.

Snapshots (with all the usual caveats) are available at http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06-SNAPSHOT/

These are snapshot builds and are not "release" firmware

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@jeff @slh thanks a lot guys, you've been very helpful. Let's see in a couple of days when my router arrives how all this goes!

When trying to do opkg install luci, i have an error about a missing dependency libiwinfo-lua. Is mips_24kc not supporting this ? Btw opkg list | grep iwinfo does list libiwinfo - 2018-05-18-e59f9253-1

I did find one here: http://archive.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/packages/base/

But why is that failing in the first place ?

What is the exact error message?

BusyBox v1.28.4 () built-in shell (ash)

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M
 -----------------------------------------------------
 OpenWrt SNAPSHOT, r7337-3ce1158
 -----------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:~# opkg install luci
Installing luci (git-18.177.48256-60c5d15-1) to root...
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci_git-18.177.48256-60c5d15-1_all.ipk
Collected errors:
 * satisfy_dependencies_for: Cannot satisfy the following dependencies for luci:
 * 	libiwinfo-lua * 
 * opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package luci.

For the moment i worked around it with:

root@OpenWrt:~# opkg install luci --force-depends

But obviously the wireless page is not working

I also tried:

root@OpenWrt:~# opkg install http://archive.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/packages/base/libiwinfo-lua_2016-01-25-e4aca3910
dff532ed878d0ceaf1ab6e8ad7719bf_ar71xx.ipk
Downloading http://archive.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/packages/base/libiwinfo-lua_2016-01-25-e4aca3910dff532ed878d0ceaf1ab6e8ad7719bf_ar71xx.ipk
Unknown package 'libiwinfo-lua'.
Collected errors:
 * pkg_hash_fetch_best_installation_candidate: Packages for libiwinfo-lua found, but incompatible with the architectures configured
 * opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package libiwinfo-lua.

EDIT: For what it's worth the issue seems to have resolved itself

Hey,

Any news about the latest versions? Are they stable enough for C7 v4?

I have been running snapshot releases on a C7 v4 model for about half a year now. Never had any problems. AP on 5GHz, mesh on 2.4 GHz. PPPOE internet. VPN-bypass in combination with a site-to-site OpenVPN connection. No real problems.

I do have the occasional error in WPA.c encryption ccmp error showing up in the log. Didn’t troubleshoot the problem yet (it’s none fatal and no time).

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C7 v4 builds are very stable for me if you don't use VLAN (it did have non-consecutive VLAN tagging problem). I have only 2 types of issues:

  1. Google Chromecast devices are randomly not visible for Android devices
  2. 5GHz wifi without enabling client isolation and with LAN-Wifi bridget doesn't allow Android wifi devices to communicate directly with other LAN devices (NAS in my case). It just works if client isolation is permanently switched on for wifi. Maybe I am just too dumb to edit default firewall config?
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Same here. Snapshots have been more than stable (weeks of uptime and no weird slowdowns) for months, but I've come across what you describe in point 2. I don't have VLANs set up at home so I can't comment on that point.

I've connected a Chromecast to the 5GHz radio, yet a W10 notebook connected to the 2.4GHz radio won't find the Chromecast and the cast button doesn't show up in the Youtube player, for example. My Android phone does find the device if connected to the 5GHz radio. 2.4GHz/5GHz networks are bridged and in the same firewall zone (LAN)... this is how it's set up out of the box.

This doesn't happen with other devices. It seems to be limited to Android based stuff.

Client isolation is supposed to not let devices communicate with each other, if it's enabled it shouldn't solve anything... right? I must be missing something.

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My 2 cents: ad 1) sometimes Adroid devices find my chromecast (I own both 2nd gen fullHD chromecast and chromecast audio), sometimes it dosn't. It simply works unreliable, restarting chromecast/phone/router sometimes helps.
Ad 2) I am unable to connect Android file manager to NAS using Samba nor ftp/sftp. It worked previously with different router, but doesn't work at all now. LAN-wifi are bridged and client isolation is off.

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Despite all these small issues, do you recommend installing it instead of the stock firmware?

I strongly recommend installing LEDE over stock firmware of tp-link Archer C7 v4, due to LEDE security and features (full control of your router). As a bonus you have to learn more about networking :slight_smile:
Don't install LEDE is you are networking illiterate and refuse to learn.

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I agree. I have some experience with DD-WRT and want to give LEDE a try :slight_smile:
I just wanted to be sure before how stable it is before installing.

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note that if you have tp-link Archer C7 v4 device, you will have to flash DEVELOPMENT branch of LEDE. This means that there is no web-GUI out-of-the-box, so you will have to learn to use command line just to refresh repo and install LUCI (webGUI). Fortunately there are guides to help you with this step and this is well described on device page.

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