Suggestions to replace Archer C2600? (USA)

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

I need to replace an Archer 2600 with something equal or better (4-stream AC). I'd like to keep the price as low as possible, so I'm looking for something that is likely to be plentiful on the used or refurb market on eBay. I'm in the USA

My existing 2600 was fine for my needs as an access point, except that I can't upgrade the firmware any more due to a glitch, so I'm 12-18 months behind on patches.

I'd get another c2600 but they are harder to find at reasonable prices and I thought there might be another option.

Thanks!

2

Interesting, I have three of these as APs, haven't seen any issues...

3

Netgear r7800 or ZyXEL nbg6817 would be kind of equivalent, but slightly newer and faster (both the SOC and the wireless cards); if you'd be fine with pending OpenWrt support (and can merge/ build it yourself), Askey RAC2V1K / RT4230W REV6 Support could also be an alternative.

1 Like
4

Or perhaps the Belkin Rt3200...
$90 at belkin.com, openwrt is still in beta though.

5

Thanks for the suggestions. It looks like the r7800 tends to sell for more than the C2600 and that ZyXEL is in scarce supply. That Askey looks like a great deal on the used market but I'm going to skip stuff with pending support.

Thanks. That looks like its going to be a great option in the future, but not for me now, not at that price point and the current state of development.

At this point, It looking like my best option is keeping my eye out for a deal on a used R7800 or another C2600, whichever comes along first.

6

C2600s are scarce and R7800s tend to go for more than I'd like to spend. I considered an r7500, the single CPU port doesn't seem like it will be an issue for AP use and the slower 2.4GHz isn't an issue. Unfortunately r7500v2s seem to be in the minority on the used market.

I ended up ordering a Linksys EA8500; they are fairly plentiful and relatively cheap. The single CPU port to the switch shouldn't be an issue for AP use. If I'm lucky it'll have older firmware and I'll be able to install through the WebUI. If not then maybe I'll get lucky and the serial headers will be populated. If not, It won't be hard to do. It looks like it uses 3.3v? I think my ea8300 did. Otherwise I'll have to get a level shifter.

7

Do NOT buy an r7500 (v1) with OpenWrt in mind, its 5 GHz radio (Quantenna Topaz) isn't supported and most likely never will be (the qtnfmac module claims to support it for about 2.5 years now, but Quantenna has never released a matching -required- firmware); the r7500v2 with all Atheros wireless would be fine.

The EA8500 has another weakness, its kernel partition is (pretty hard-) limited to 3 MB, but the ipq806x kernel is already quite close to that limit right now.

8

Well, crud. With any luck it'll last me a couple of years.