Experience of OpenWrt Firmware on Linksys WRT 1900AC and ACS

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I recently installed the latest 21.02.3 firmware on my WRT1900AC with V1 hardware (mamba).

https://git.lede-project.org/?p=source.git;a=commit;h=ac91824b3675977edb391a6d801657e533d2905d

Performance is nothing short of stunning! Really good. I get bitrates in excess of 600M on the 5GHZ radio and my full cable modem speed almost anywhere in the house.

I also own a WRT1900ACS - Hardware V2. I tried 21.02.3 on that and results were not so good.

https://git.lede-project.org/?p=source.git;a=commit;h=8bb23cfb663f8870f431edba0dab218a746456a3

Bit rates on 5GHZ only about 160M. I also notice that the Radio order is swapped around in the GUI wireless view (Radio 0 is the 5GHZ one, Radio 1 is the 2.4GHZ one) compared with the 1900 AC. I can get the ACS router to work but It's not as fast as the AC and that is inferior hardware (slower CPU, less RAM). Stock ACS Linksys firmware outperforms OpenWRT which is not the case for the AC.

  1. I notice there is only one version of Open WRT for both hardware versions of the ACS. Is this correct? There are individual versions for V1 and V2 of the AC.

  2. Are there any parameters I could change?

I know I have pretty old hardware but my WRT1900AC with OpenWRT outperforms stock Linksys firmware, My WRT1900ACS and Netgear R8000P Nighthawk. SERIOUS KUDOS TO THE WRITER!!

2

I have a Linksys WRT1900ACS V2 and I tossed it in the back of the closet; there were constantly issues with WiFi, like e.g. I had to disable AMSDU on it because otherwise it'd introduce stupidly high ping over WiFi, and I just got fed up with it. It was also running pretty hot 24/7/365, since there's no cpufreq-scaling.

In the end, I replaced it with a Xiaomi Redmi AC2100, which has been a much better experience. Granted, I don't remember what version of OpenWrt I got running on the Linksys, but as far as I know, it hasn't really gotten much (if any) better since.

3

WereCatf thanks very much for taking the time to reply!

I appreciate your recommendation of router. We have Comcast here at the end of a very long run and the signal is not the best even using amplifiers. I hold out hope for fiber one day but we are in the country.