I need 2 routers, one shall function as AP (WDS) and another as Client (WDS too). I am currently running two TP-Link WR841ND routers for that, but at least one of them often ends up with

which is a known bug according to https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/11862, unfortunately without any real solution.

So, can anyone recommend a router which works fine in both, AP and client mode? In addition I need 300 Mbit WLAN, that are basically all my requirements.

Thanks for any hint on this!

(Last edited by srynoname on 14 Apr 2014, 21:45)

are you using lastest trunk?

as the comments on the bug reports didn't sound much promising about newer versions, I yet didn't try it. Maybe I'll try, but reading the comments it looks like one is probably better off getting another router or at least already collecting informations about possible alternatives ;-)
edit: fixed link in opening post.

(Last edited by srynoname on 14 Apr 2014, 21:45)

The bug is probably not 100% fixed, but haven't run into tx dma error for a long time. I've two remote places where I have currently bridges between wr841ns as aps and wr741ns as wds clients, BB trunk is working fine. Maybe it's no longer necessary, but I'm still doing morning restarts from the cron, because the places are hard to reach and I don't want to risk a trip Can't speak for uptime because of cron restarts, but wifi on AA was very bad and BB has wifi ok.

(Last edited by nozombian on 14 Apr 2014, 23:11)

hmm on AA wlan works stable for me as long as I don't do downloads with like 20 threads. Maybe I'l give it a try with BB. Still I am interested if anyone can recommend a router which does AP and client stable and without problems. All this fiddling takes much time ):

how about considering batman-adv used as  L2-wifi-bridges  ?

I installed BB yesterday (only on the AP) and after first tests, problem seems to be gone :-) however, for me the problem occured often but not reliable always, so longterm testing will show if it really works stable now.
@3zl: I think it's a problem with Atheros, so probably my search criteria is also not that good, as it's probably not a AP-Client problem.

damn it. just got it again, there wasn't even load on the network (this was when it normally happened). at least this time it took 5 days till it happened. maybe I'll try the automatic reboot way...

I have the same problem on  a TP-LINK 1043nd.  I have this issue in post-387xx trunk builds.

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=50055

I started a thread which died, as I hadn't identified this problem as being the known bugs.  After building and re-building trunks I ended up ditching the TP-LINK and built it on a DIR-835, and am using a collection of DIR-615s as WDS clients.  the 835 and 615s can be WDS access-points and have so far been 100% reliable.  The TP-Links would die after 6-24 hours.

I am toying with the idea of trying Batman-adv, just haven't had the time to learn about it yet.

(Last edited by cconn on 24 Apr 2014, 15:18)

cconn, which revision of the dir-615 do you have? did you ever use the dir-615 as AP? shounds like you mainly used it as client? thanks!

I have 2 DIR-615s, they are E3/E4 revision.

They don't have gig ports so if that is needed, the 835 might be a decent choice.  I got one for 90$ canadian

but I use all three platforms as WDS AP and they have not failed me so far, I am running trunk 40535

PS, the 835 has 16MB of flash and 128M of RAM, its a very capable router!

(Last edited by cconn on 24 Apr 2014, 21:18)

hmm, I gave up and bought an ASUS RT-N66U and used TomatoUSB. Basically same problem (suddelny high ping, slow down...) though the router doesn't even have an atheros chipset. I then used wifi analyzer (android) and saw that there are many wifi networks around me and on the same channel. I now reverted back to the wr841nd with another channel - auto selecting channel seems to suck. note that I had to change the firmware to dd wrt, as I am using a channel higher than 11, which is not really supported/wanted using openwrt.
short story: think about changing channel instead of only the firmware. my place simply seems to be to wifi crowded...

(Last edited by srynoname on 4 May 2014, 18:58)

Wrong. Openwrt supports channels up to 14, but you have to set correct country and either to compile yourself with regdomain respect enabled, or instlall jow's reghack.

Btw. wr1043nd v2 works fine in here, but I'm not claiming there's not a bug The last bug I run into was annoying mainly with weak signal, in the same room it worked quite good too.

(Last edited by nozombian on 4 May 2014, 19:21)

I know, maybe correct statement would be: channel > 11 involves too much fiddling for such a simple thing.

I don't understand, why it is not enabled. It sucks, you're right.

See this bug report for why available frequencies are limited in default builds: https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/8624

Thanks for the link...

There's a discussion on this topic once in a while here and there, but no one really explained, WHO does not allow to change the county to the one where you are actually running the router. Openwrt is free, right? So why the developers can't do whatever they want? Ubiquiti devices has "compliance test" mode in their firmware, which allows you to violate every regulation available and use frequencies far outside the wifi spectrum, yet no one gives a damn. It's the user's responsibility to stick with regulations.

I had much trouble with setting up stable wds ap/client environment. Finally i activated STP on the lan interfaces which are briged to the wds-wlan-ifs and, most important, switched security from wpa2/ccmp(aes) to wpa2/tkip. Running TKIP security everything is running stable and fine. Routers are on latest barrier braker. I only have signal strength between 50-60 % on the wds link, but no disconnects or something similar. i dont't know the exact bandwidth, but streaming 1080p mkv and downloading with 12MB/s i working fine. At the same time and over the wds link for sure. That's all i ever wanted Routers are tplink 3600 on 5ghz with wmm mode turned on.

(Last edited by halycon on 14 May 2014, 10:09)

Just as long time feedback: Running on another channel finally solved my problem :-)
Thanks for all the other replies though!

Really? How come only changing channel fixes this issue?!? I'm really skeptical.