ASUS TM-AC1900 Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router (RECERTIFIED)

BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
https://www.tanga.com/deals/4077f99bbcb8/asus-tm-ac1900-wireless-ac1900-dual-band-gigabit-router-recertified?affiliate_network=tanganetwork&click_id=6c25202454d992dc259301cbb7878fcb&affiliate=Skimlinks&utm_source=cj&utm_campaign=Skimlinks

For $46 they almost giving them away. I believe @rojo bought one similar(if not same) straight from tmobile sale a bit earlier. I think he mentioned that stock software is clunky and buggy, but it could run ether near stock Merlin or an https://advancedtomato.com/ software with some tinkering required.
In short this is definite 90% complete geeky DIY project. Given that undeath the drabby clothes tmobile put on it, lies one of the top AC1900 class home routers money can buy:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/33043-asus-rt-ac1900p-dual-band-wireless-ac1900-gigabit-router-reviewed

  • Seems to be free shipping and no sales tax collecting as well for NJ at least
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
That is basically identical to the AC3200 i just got except I have two separate 5G bands. Good price even for recert.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
https://www.tanga.com/deals/4077f99bbcb8/asus-tm-ac1900-wireless-ac1900-dual-band-gigabit-router-recertified?affiliate_network=tanganetwork&click_id=6c25202454d992dc259301cbb7878fcb&affiliate=Skimlinks&utm_source=cj&utm_campaign=Skimlinks

For $46 they almost giving them away. I believe @rojo bought one similar(if not same) straight from tmobile sale a bit earlier. I think he mentioned that stock software is clunky and buggy, but it could run ether near stock Merlin or an https://advancedtomato.com/ software with some tinkering required.
In short this is definite 90% complete geeky DIY project. Given that undeath the drabby clothes tmobile put on it, lies one of the top AC1900 class home routers money can buy:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/33043-asus-rt-ac1900p-dual-band-wireless-ac1900-gigabit-router-reviewed

  • Seems to be free shipping and no sales tax collecting as well for NJ at least
What tinkering is required?

I have had a Linksys WRT 1900 AC. It was costly junk. Apparently they have bad memory management. This results in finite bit transfer before it crashes. I have it on a Chrsitmas light timer, so it reboots every night. However when all the grandchildren are here on their devices it won't go 24 hour without a reboot.

So if this is the answer I'm all ears.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
What tinkering is required?

I have had a Linksys WRT 1900 AC. It was costly junk. Apparently they have bad memory management. This results in finite bit transfer before it crashes. I have it on a Chrsitmas light timer, so it reboots every night. However when all the grandchildren are here on their devices it won't go 24 hour without a reboot.

So if this is the answer I'm all ears.
Luckily for you, you don't have to buy anything at all. DD-WRT fully supports your router. Just need to follow instructions here:
https://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation
btw: Then doing search for router model use this : WRT1900AC
https://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database

TL;DR: The process basically comes down to getting correct files and flashing firmware twice. Once to prepare it and second time for actual dd-wrt.

I've ran DD-WRT on very old Linksys WRT54G router and it made it extremely stable and able to sustain much more connection and rarely needed to rebooted. Only reason I had to replace was due to inevitable hardware failure - it went out with smoke.
 
G

gholt

Full Audioholic
Would the Lynksys 9740 be able to be updated to this as well, if it's it too old.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Luckily for you, you don't have to buy anything at all. DD-WRT fully supports your router. Just need to follow instructions here:
https://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation
btw: Then doing search for router model use this : WRT1900AC
https://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database

TL;DR: The process basically comes down to getting correct files and flashing firmware twice. Once to prepare it and second time for actual dd-wrt.

I've ran DD-WRT on very old Linksys WRT54G router and it made it extremely stable and able to sustain much more connection and rarely needed to rebooted. Only reason I had to replace was due to inevitable hardware failure - it went out with smoke.
Thanks I will look into it.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Luckily for you, you don't have to buy anything at all. DD-WRT fully supports your router. Just need to follow instructions here:
https://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation
btw: Then doing search for router model use this : WRT1900AC
https://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database

TL;DR: The process basically comes down to getting correct files and flashing firmware twice. Once to prepare it and second time for actual dd-wrt.

I've ran DD-WRT on very old Linksys WRT54G router and it made it extremely stable and able to sustain much more connection and rarely needed to rebooted. Only reason I had to replace was due to inevitable hardware failure - it went out with smoke.
Thank you so much for this post. We did exactly as you described 10 days ago. There has not been a need for a single reboot.

In addition the range is better. Down on the lower level the signal strength is much better. I have done quite a bit of streaming down there, without a single interruption. This would not have happened before.

This is what makes this such a great community.

What I want to know is, is why was this router allowed to come to market in this condition? Linksys had to know about this serous flaw.

I'm going to get ready for the grandchildren this summer. The Paul Bunyan Giganet became available here about three weeks ago. Currently I have 20 Mbps, but I always measure 30 Mbps.

Anyhow I can not get 1 Gig at this location, but I can get 250 Mbps. So on Thursday the guys from Paul Bunyan will be here to change the converter and then I will have 250 Mbps. That should stop the grand children complaining. That is pretty remarkable in a State Forrest on the shores of a lake.

The cost by the way is $60 per month plus tax.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
What I want to know is, is why was this router allowed to come to market in this condition? Linksys had to know about this serous flaw.
Linksys and in much bigger degree Netgear are shamelessly guilty of spitting out half baked software since the idea is the software bugs could be fixed later on. Another benefit - the customers are de facto the QA department - less people need to be actually paid.

DDWRT/Tomato and others are created by very talented software engineers whom first of all wanted to have a reliable product which is not features limited just to sell it at higher margin.

I think Asus wifi routers is much better, but even they not below using 3rd party dev - Merlin-WRT
 
Last edited:
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Linksys and in much bigger degree Netgear are shamelessly guilty of spitting out half baked software since the idea is the software bugs could be fixed later on. Another benefit - the customers are defactor the QA department - less people need to be actually paid.

DDWRT/Tomato and others are created by very talented software engineers whom first of all wanted to have a reliable product which is not features limited just to sell it at higher margin.

I think Asus wifi routers is much better, but even they not below using 3rd party dev - Merlin-WRT
Anyhow, thanks again. I don't know about fixing it later on. That was not a cheap router by a long shot, and it was over a year old. They were in no hurry to fix it!

Most consumers are going to end up just getting rid of the things, which is an awful waste.

Anyhow I really appreciate your advice in solving this serious problem. Routers are now a key part of everyone's systems and a lot else besides.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Anyhow, thanks again. I don't know about fixing it later on. That was not a cheap router by a long shot, and it was over a year old. They were in no hurry to fix it!

Most consumers are going to end up just getting rid of the things, which is an awful waste.

Anyhow I really appreciate your advice in solving this serious problem. Routers are now a key part of everyone's systems and a lot else besides.
Agreed, routers are now pretty much the MOST important part of you setup! At the very least, the most important part of the support gear.

Don't try to save a $ on the router, it will only cause frustration.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Agreed, routers are now pretty much the MOST important part of you setup! At the very least, the most important part of the support gear.

Don't try to save a $ on the router, it will only cause frustration.
Money is not always the answer - Mark spent relatively heavy on router, only to get good hardware wrapped around dog pile dunk of software.
You also find it somewhat a hypocrisy coming from me, but going forward (soon) I will go separates as far as my home network goes. Aka - Router/firewall separately - wireless separately
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Money is not always the answer - Mark spent relatively heavy on router, only to get good hardware wrapped around dog pile dunk of software.
You also find it somewhat a hypocrisy coming from me, but going forward (soon) I will go separates as far as my home network goes. Aka - Router/firewall separately - wireless separately
Agreed, but a bottom of the barrel cheap router is almost certainly a headache!

I went through well reviewed (Amazon Reviews) routers from D-Link and Linksys that weren't that great and died after a couple years, before finally getting my hands on an Asus (rec from my IT bro in law).
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
Agreed, but a bottom of the barrel cheap router is almost certainly a headache!

I went through well reviewed (Amazon Reviews) routers from D-Link and Linksys that weren't that great and died after a couple years, before finally getting my hands on an Asus (rec from my IT bro in law).
Agreed. As far as stock product quality - Asus is definitely one of the if not the best out there. Apple used to build very decent wifi stuff, but it always lacked features and they are keen to exist that market all together.

New gen of home networking is on the rise - mesh wifi - but it's a bit too early to tell how well it really works, apart from one article: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/review-comparing-google-wifi-to-other-mesh-networking-heavyweights/
Also as of now wifi mesh prices are at premium.

To finalize this subject, I'd like to say that this will be my next home wifi:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/review-ubiquiti-unifi-made-me-realize-how-terrible-consumer-wi-fi-gear-is/
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Money is not always the answer - Mark spent relatively heavy on router, only to get good hardware wrapped around dog pile dunk of software.
You also find it somewhat a hypocrisy coming from me, but going forward (soon) I will go separates as far as my home network goes. Aka - Router/firewall separately - wireless separately
In case anybody is in doubt, this is the router in question here.



I paid $249.99 for mine! I now see this item is severely discounted now. The pro reviews were all glowing. One thing they were right about is range. This unit does have phenomenal range.

However, I owned it for over a year, with no attempt by Linksys/Netgear to update and fix the firmware. So it was a very poor product until fixed by the open source community.

Who says we don't need right to repair legislation? Next you know these outfits will be going after the open source community for copyright infringement.
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
In case anybody is in doubt, this is the router in question here.



I paid $249.99 for mine! I now see this item is severely discounted now. The pro reviews were all glowing. One thing they were right about is range. This unit does have phenomenal range.

However, I owned it for over a year, with no attempt by Linksys/Netgear to update and fix the firmware. So it was a very poor product until fixed by the open source community.

Who says we don't need right to repair legislation? Next you know these outfits will be going after the open source community for copyright infringement.
Yup, gotta love open source!

I did not mention here, but did mention in a different thread-- For my Asus router, I immediately installed Tomato at the advice of my bro in law. Worked great! I have no frame of reference for the stock firmware, other than my bro in law saying "use tomato, don't bother with stock firmware".
 
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