Open WRT on TP Link WDR-3600

[travisco_nabisco]

I finally upgraded my old NetGear Wireless G router to a dual band Wireless N router, the TPLink WDR-3600, and am not completely happy with the firmware on the router.

Specifically the router seems to have a lot of lag and fails to load pages much more frequently than the old NetGear I had.

Has anyone had luck with OpenWRT on this router. It is listed as supported, but I am not sure of the time commitment to get it set up how I want it and if there are any open issues I should be aware of.

Primary uses of the router are.
1. Wireless AP for up to 5 devices at a time.
2. Wired routing from NAS to PS3 or HTPC.
3. DHCP server.

I would also like to get my old Brother USB Laser printer working off one of the USB ports if possible.

Thanks in advance.

 

[apurcell]

Gargoyle be your friend

If you are worried about time then have a look at installing OpenWRT on this Router via the Gargoyle custom firmware. The Latest version (1.5.10) is based on the latest OpenWrt release (12.09). It took me about an hour from start to finish for a complete install and config on my WDR-3600 and I've tested that both USB ports still function and both 2.4 and 5Ghz Wifi bands still work as they did with the stock firmware. Plus you get all the benefits of the Gargoyle management interface and its fantastic QOS implementation and usage reporting. URL (http://www.gargoyle-router.com/)

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Feathers McGraw]

I have the TP-Link WDR-3600.

OpenWrt works brilliantly (I'm using Attitude Adjustment / 12.09).

Before I switched to OpenWrt I was using DD-WRT, which had a few problems - 5GHz wifi was a little flaky and SSH wouldn't work so I was stuck with connecting via Telnet... not cool.

As for how much work it is to set up... virtually none. You can flash the new firmware via the stock web GUI (just download the factory.bin from here: http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wdr3600 - NOT the sysupgrade.bin).

HTH,

Feathers