Despite all the bugs, what keeps you using Linksys WRT AC routers?

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

As a user of WRT1900ACS and WRT32X for many years, I am tired of debugging all kinds of bugs. As far as I know, there are some pesky bugs running OpenWRT:

  1. mwlwifi 2.4G radio does not work with some IoT devices. (still exists in 23.05)
    https://github.com/kaloz/mwlwifi/issues/278

  2. broken software flow offloading. (still exists in 23.05)
    https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/10224

  3. flow offloading breaks ethernet connection. (still exists in 23.05)
    https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/9582#issuecomment-1212535096

  4. ethernet switch turns into a hub. (fixed)
    https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/10997
    https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/11077

  5. vlan untag problem. (partially fixed)
    https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/11877
    https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/12878

As in 2024, there are so many cheap MediaTek-based WiFi 6 routers, even with hardware flow offloading support. I own some, and they bring me no bugs.

So, what's your reason keep using WRT1200AC/1900ACS/3200ACM/32X ?

2
  1. All my IoT devices, including many ESP8266 and ESP32 work fine now (I guess the new firmwares deal with the issue).
  2. Never needed it.
  3. Never needed it.
  4. It has been fixed.
  5. It has been fixed.
  6. Not affected by it.
1 Like
3

Cheaper than free...?

4

Software flow offloading is much needed for WAN bandwidth more than 500 Mbps.
Apart from bandwidth problem, without flow offloading, large ip rule set will result in rather slow network connection. (netfilter_rtcache been removed in OpenWRT 21.02).

Anyway, we have already found a fix for software flow offloading problem, but have not fix the broken ethernet thing.

5

When I wrote "Never needed it", I meant "I never needed it", and that is why I still use the device. Obviously, your experience might be different.

6

Yeah, this will always come down to "it works OK for me" (or not).

It's not like MediaTek is free of issues; it's again just a question of whether a specific user is running into them or not.

7

Late to the party, but my two cents:

  • it has done everything I have asked of it the last four years and I fully expect another four years of similar service before any changes/updates to my local infrastructure.
  • superlative uptimes interrupted only to update to current builds
  • new updates to wifi benefiting my WRT1900ACS for 5Ghz and WPA3 (finally works)
  • almost impossible to brick due to dual partition.
  • still one the more powerful routers out there
8

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