Linksys support replaced my V2 WRT1900AC with V1

[TheMountainLife]

Hey guys,

New here and would appreciate your inputs. Will try to keep it short but detailed.

I've had the WRT1900ac v2 a little over 90 days and while its beautiful out the outside it does not appear to function well inside. The WRT has replaced my latest gen Time Capsule because I have fiber 1GB up/down and needed VLAN/Tagging support to eliminate the need of a modem. The Time Capsule also maxes out at 650mb down on wired connections because of its limitations.

The issue? The WRT often restarts itself, has severe drop in performance especially when multitasking or under load. A simple way to replicate this is to stream Sling TV and play a online game or use my work VPN at the same time on separate machines. It occurs more often if port forwarding/triggering is enabled. It seems these symptoms are well documented online and others have experienced this.

I've done the basics such as:
- Ensuring the firmware was up to date.
- Factory Reset (3 times)
- Disabling IPV6. (its not supported with my ISP anyway)
- Even out 2.4ghz / 5ghz congestion instead of having too many devices on one network.
- Turned off firewall security features.

I contacted Linksys support and I went with the advanced replacement. They just sent me a new sealed unit but its version 1 with a fan where as the one I originally purchased is version 2 and doesn't have a fan. So far I'm not having issues with the replacement after 1 full day of use but I it makes me wonder if I should return it since I paid the price for V2. I have notified support and they said they will contact me in 2 days.

My setup:

- Router is connected directly to my ONI and handles VLAN/PPPoE to eliminate the need for a modem.
- My minimum connected devices daily is 17. About 9 are connected via ethernet. The most I've had connected at once is 28.
- Nothing special about the devices I use. They are a mix of 4 windows/macs, hue lights, harmony remote, thermostat, Amazon Echo, 6 chromecast audios, 2 printers, 2 Apple TV, Roku, 2 Chromecasts video, 4 iOS devices, My Cloud NAS, Time Capsule (bridged), and Android TV.

Questions:

- What were the common bugs with V1? Is it worth keeping it over V2?
- Whats your preferred stable open firmware that remedies the reboot issue?
- Am I using too many devices for what this router is capable of?

 

[sfx2000]

I've done the basics such as:
- Ensuring the firmware was up to date.
- Factory Reset (3 times)
- Disabling IPV6. (its not supported with my ISP anyway)
- Even out 2.4ghz / 5ghz congestion instead of having too many devices on one network.
- Turned off firewall security features.

All the WRT1900's perform about the same...

Getting the WRT stable is fairly simple

• WiFi, 2.4GHz is B/G/N-Mixed, 20MHz channels, and choose a channel (1/6/11 don't use auto)
• Disable the Guest Network functionality - smartwifi is very broken here
• IPv6 - depends on needs, but generally most folks turn it off
• Don't use a shared disk if you value security (see my rant on the forums here)
• Don't get overly involved with the Network Map functions on SmartWiFi, as this is the primary stability concern, buggy as heck...
• BW management - depends - they limit priority in SmartWiFi to four devices only - I would just turn it off, as it does a good job without it.

Set it up, with the caveats above, and it'll be stable and fast - no matter which version...

 

[FattysGoneWild]

V1 is the better version. Especially for 3rd party firmware. Keep the V1 you got the better deal and quite lucky actually.

 

[TheMountainLife]

All the WRT1900's perform about the same...

Getting the WRT stable is fairly simple

• WiFi, 2.4GHz is B/G/N-Mixed, 20MHz channels, and choose a channel (1/6/11 don't use auto)
• Disable the Guest Network functionality - smartwifi is very broken here
• IPv6 - depends on needs, but generally most folks turn it off
• Don't use a shared disk if you value security (see my rant on the forums here)
• Don't get overly involved with the Network Map functions on SmartWiFi, as this is the primary stability concern, buggy as heck...
• BW management - depends - they limit priority in SmartWiFi to four devices only - I would just turn it off, as it does a good job without it.

Set it up, with the caveats above, and it'll be stable and fast - no matter which version...

Thanks, just applied those settings. Will see how it holds up.

V1 is the better version. Especially for 3rd party firmware. Keep the V1 you got the better deal and quite lucky actually.

Good to know. The restarts are significantly less than the v2 but still happens. I have applied the settings sfx2000 suggested so I'll keep a eye on it.

I did call customer service today to see what are my chances of being sent a ACS version. They will follow up with me in the next 2 days.