Netgear R7900 Wifi FullMac Clarification

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

My neighbor's R7900 has had multiple OEM firmware issues. Initially, it frequently dropped the WAN, now resolved with an OEM firmware update. The latest problem is it looses the router password with a power outage and needs to be reset. He is considering a new router as the warranty expired and Netgear hustled him for $89 "tech consult".

The device page has a warning on Broadcom wifi, (no 5g) but posts suggest that FullMac Broadcoms are functional. It also seems possible to remove firmware limits and make the device a R8000 w/ Kong, DD-WRT and Asus firmware. I suspect this could also be done with OpenWrt R8000 build but a websearch did not find anyone who attempted this.

1 Like
2

You can try changing the board id to R8000 from stock firmware telnet and flash R8000 build, do this at your own risk since the partition layout can be different and thus damage it.

3

I'm not strongly inclined to upgrade to R8000, present 11n performance is acceptable for his use case.

Does 11AC work?

Edit: I think I found the answer:

https://forum.openwrt.org/t/whats-your-favorite-enthusiast-lede-openwrt-device/4477/204

4

R7800 >>>>>>>> R8000, avoid Broadcom hardware for future purchases