sfx2000
Part of the Furniture
I bid farewell to the WRT1900ac series (including ACS and the WRT1200ac) - I'm probably not a typical user, but at the same time, somewhat of a believer in the strong points of this device.
Many times, I've jumped in to the forums to help out where I can, but lack of updates, and the on-going confusion about what is shipping (is it really a V1/V2/ACS, who knows???) - it gets to a point where even experienced users cannot provide credible answers to questions, and Linksys doesn't provide any clarity..
The lack of updates, if not to improve performance and configurability - much less security fixes, tossing the lot over to OpenWRT (whose contributions/efforts are appreciated)... even within the Linksys factory firmware, seems like comments/feedback/bug reports - fall upon deaf ears...
First, just want to say that the hardware is impressive as a router, and perhaps as a Wireless AP.
The WRT's CPU/Switch complex - it is best of class in the AC1900 and above, Broadcom and QC-Atheros can't really touch this device in many ways, mainly because the WRT is a NAS class chipset with a couple of WiFi radios attached..
WiFi, properly set up, it's a very strong performer, WiFi B/G/N for 2.4GHz with outstanding range, and the 5GHz performance, due to the 4-Radio config is very stout...
SMB/CIFS file sharing, it's best of class, outperforming, in spite of the Linksys software, many ARM based NAS boxes...
That being said... The weak side of the WRT is the Linksys SmartWifi software stack...
And this is why I'm walking away from the WRT1900ac - most of these comments at one point or another, have been raised in the forums, both here on SNB and others, including Linksys factory forums.
[Most of the nits/quirks - I can fix, or others can, except that Linksys won't ship a GPL pull that is buildable, unlike what other vendors have done for a high-end Router/AP]
Wifi Comments:
2.4GHz is very liberal with standards intents for 2.4
- [quirk] TurboQAM is VHT20/40, and in a way that causes issues with many legacy clients - the beacon frames blow up legacy clients, and AC aware chipsets sometimes go into a dark place (trying to do VHT when they know they can't)
- Work-around here is to put the device into B/G/N mode
- Alt Approach would be similar to Broadcom, with Vendor Specific Attributes
5GHz - minor nit, auto always puts the 802.11n secondary -1 from the Primary, so... for legacy clients in a A/N/AC environment, the A/N clients pop up in the middle of the AC bandwidth
- [quirk] 5GHz side should be auto, let the 20MHz OBSS scan see where the other primary N/AC AP's are, and adjust accordingly
General Wifi:
- TxBF for VHT and HT is enabled, should have an option to enable/disable as per local needs
- DTIM is fixed to 1 for both bands - improves responsiveness perhaps, but serious sucks battery power for tablets/handhelds/phones - DTIM == 3 is generally good guidance
Guest WiFi - not sure if this should be in WiFi comments, or in Router comments, but I'm putting it here
- [quirk] At a chipset level, Guest SSID is enabled for both bands, even if Guest Network is disabled - not efficient, and a potential security risk
- [Security Nit] Guest Network - when enabled, it's Open, no options for WEP/WPA/WPA2 - AP is not isolated in my testing
- [Security Nit ]Guest comment 2 - all traffic across the Guest network is open for monitoring
Adcanced Wireless in the 2.xx branch, and perhaps in others is "read-only" so one can see params, but cannot change
Routing:
DDNS - DynDNS is broken, never could make this work, understanding here is that this is an API change on Dyn's side
IPv6 - well done, except that one cannot choose IPv6 DNS - accepts whatever is offered by the WAN side, which impacts many
Multicast: Don't get me started here, this is a bag of hurt all around, and more important these days, and the Linksys firmware is very confused
- IGMP - it wants to be both Proxy and Snoop, and no methods to adjust
- IGMP - weak or bugged IGMP group management, clients/groups that do IGMPv2/v3 seem to get lost, creates much chatter here, and lost opportunities for network conservation of bandwidth
- mDNS/Avahi/Bonjour - default behavior is to filter this, and WebGUI is confusing - to allow one must positively enable "Filter Multicast"
- In general - if using IPTV from a carrier, or using Multicast from internal sources, it's basically broken
- Most folks will see that AirPlay/AirPrint on Mac/IOS as inconsistent or not working
Media Priority/Traffic Shaping:
- Limited to 3 clients, wireless or not as high priority
- Many apps supported, but list is not updated - protocols/ports
- Poor sense of upstream bandwidth, manual generally works, but auto can result in much reduced client performance
- [quirk] Odd behavior - Media Prioritization limits LAN-LAN performance, not just WAN-LAN
USB/eSATA Disk Shares:
- [Security Nit] - FTP, if enabled, is public and overrides the FW/Port Forwarding - potential security issue here as it's FTP, and not SFTP, and there's no option
- Twonky Media Server - it's up and down, and inconsistent with both iTunes and DLNA
- DLNA is generally broken - and there's some Twonky config items that could be exposed for DNLA purposes
General:
- [Security Nit] - many apps/deamons - they're old, and have not be updated - some of this is Marvell, but most, if not all, are general Linksys trunk stuff, someone needs to review and update/integrate as needed
- OpenVPN - something good to say - easy to set up for remote clients
- [Security Nit] - OpenVPN is a fixed certificate with no visible means to replace/revoke for OpenVPN
- OpenVPN is limited use - dial-in only, no Bridge/Client capability
- Network Map - just dump this, it's often wrong and a real memory pig, and it leaks like a sieve memory wise, compromising overall stability
- SpeedTest.Net - make this go away, no reason to have a flash object here, and it's wrong, and doesn't work across platforms - it's a festering boil that should go away
Many times, I've jumped in to the forums to help out where I can, but lack of updates, and the on-going confusion about what is shipping (is it really a V1/V2/ACS, who knows???) - it gets to a point where even experienced users cannot provide credible answers to questions, and Linksys doesn't provide any clarity..
The lack of updates, if not to improve performance and configurability - much less security fixes, tossing the lot over to OpenWRT (whose contributions/efforts are appreciated)... even within the Linksys factory firmware, seems like comments/feedback/bug reports - fall upon deaf ears...
First, just want to say that the hardware is impressive as a router, and perhaps as a Wireless AP.
The WRT's CPU/Switch complex - it is best of class in the AC1900 and above, Broadcom and QC-Atheros can't really touch this device in many ways, mainly because the WRT is a NAS class chipset with a couple of WiFi radios attached..
WiFi, properly set up, it's a very strong performer, WiFi B/G/N for 2.4GHz with outstanding range, and the 5GHz performance, due to the 4-Radio config is very stout...
SMB/CIFS file sharing, it's best of class, outperforming, in spite of the Linksys software, many ARM based NAS boxes...
That being said... The weak side of the WRT is the Linksys SmartWifi software stack...
And this is why I'm walking away from the WRT1900ac - most of these comments at one point or another, have been raised in the forums, both here on SNB and others, including Linksys factory forums.
[Most of the nits/quirks - I can fix, or others can, except that Linksys won't ship a GPL pull that is buildable, unlike what other vendors have done for a high-end Router/AP]
Wifi Comments:
2.4GHz is very liberal with standards intents for 2.4
- [quirk] TurboQAM is VHT20/40, and in a way that causes issues with many legacy clients - the beacon frames blow up legacy clients, and AC aware chipsets sometimes go into a dark place (trying to do VHT when they know they can't)
- Work-around here is to put the device into B/G/N mode
- Alt Approach would be similar to Broadcom, with Vendor Specific Attributes
5GHz - minor nit, auto always puts the 802.11n secondary -1 from the Primary, so... for legacy clients in a A/N/AC environment, the A/N clients pop up in the middle of the AC bandwidth
- [quirk] 5GHz side should be auto, let the 20MHz OBSS scan see where the other primary N/AC AP's are, and adjust accordingly
General Wifi:
- TxBF for VHT and HT is enabled, should have an option to enable/disable as per local needs
- DTIM is fixed to 1 for both bands - improves responsiveness perhaps, but serious sucks battery power for tablets/handhelds/phones - DTIM == 3 is generally good guidance
Guest WiFi - not sure if this should be in WiFi comments, or in Router comments, but I'm putting it here
- [quirk] At a chipset level, Guest SSID is enabled for both bands, even if Guest Network is disabled - not efficient, and a potential security risk
- [Security Nit] Guest Network - when enabled, it's Open, no options for WEP/WPA/WPA2 - AP is not isolated in my testing
- [Security Nit ]Guest comment 2 - all traffic across the Guest network is open for monitoring
Adcanced Wireless in the 2.xx branch, and perhaps in others is "read-only" so one can see params, but cannot change
Routing:
DDNS - DynDNS is broken, never could make this work, understanding here is that this is an API change on Dyn's side
IPv6 - well done, except that one cannot choose IPv6 DNS - accepts whatever is offered by the WAN side, which impacts many
Multicast: Don't get me started here, this is a bag of hurt all around, and more important these days, and the Linksys firmware is very confused
- IGMP - it wants to be both Proxy and Snoop, and no methods to adjust
- IGMP - weak or bugged IGMP group management, clients/groups that do IGMPv2/v3 seem to get lost, creates much chatter here, and lost opportunities for network conservation of bandwidth
- mDNS/Avahi/Bonjour - default behavior is to filter this, and WebGUI is confusing - to allow one must positively enable "Filter Multicast"
- In general - if using IPTV from a carrier, or using Multicast from internal sources, it's basically broken
- Most folks will see that AirPlay/AirPrint on Mac/IOS as inconsistent or not working
Media Priority/Traffic Shaping:
- Limited to 3 clients, wireless or not as high priority
- Many apps supported, but list is not updated - protocols/ports
- Poor sense of upstream bandwidth, manual generally works, but auto can result in much reduced client performance
- [quirk] Odd behavior - Media Prioritization limits LAN-LAN performance, not just WAN-LAN
USB/eSATA Disk Shares:
- [Security Nit] - FTP, if enabled, is public and overrides the FW/Port Forwarding - potential security issue here as it's FTP, and not SFTP, and there's no option
- Twonky Media Server - it's up and down, and inconsistent with both iTunes and DLNA
- DLNA is generally broken - and there's some Twonky config items that could be exposed for DNLA purposes
General:
- [Security Nit] - many apps/deamons - they're old, and have not be updated - some of this is Marvell, but most, if not all, are general Linksys trunk stuff, someone needs to review and update/integrate as needed
- OpenVPN - something good to say - easy to set up for remote clients
- [Security Nit] - OpenVPN is a fixed certificate with no visible means to replace/revoke for OpenVPN
- OpenVPN is limited use - dial-in only, no Bridge/Client capability
- Network Map - just dump this, it's often wrong and a real memory pig, and it leaks like a sieve memory wise, compromising overall stability
- SpeedTest.Net - make this go away, no reason to have a flash object here, and it's wrong, and doesn't work across platforms - it's a festering boil that should go away