Just wanted to add an update regarding my experience with 30880. It's been a few weeks now since flashing and performance has been rock-solid. The VPN is kept alive as it should be and I haven't experienced any wireless issues (as I was starting to with the more current version I tried). So for anyone else wanting to flash mainly for VPN use, I fully endorse build 30880. Thank you cecoates for the suggestion.
Great success, upgrading to v3.0-r31722 std (03/21/17)
of an Archer C9 V1 from previous version r30880 11/14/16
which only problem was losing settings after restart but stable over all.
Will be checking upon 31722 the next few days and give my feedback if I came across of any issue with this version.
Are you using R31722 with Open-VPN? Also do you have any issues with the wifi dropping?
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 9:20 Post subject: TP-Link Archer C1900 V1 US
Is there any stable release of ddwrt firmware for the TP-Link Archer C1900 V1 US model? I read about fcc locking down routers but thier website says that some of thier products do support ddwrt firmware and gives 2 versions of firmware for this router.
It does have the Broadcom chipset.
Mine looks just like the pic tbalon posted.
Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 10:38 Post subject: Re: TP-Link Archer C1900 V1 US
Bradford 717 wrote:
Is there any stable release of ddwrt firmware for the TP-Link Archer C1900 V1 US model? I read about fcc locking down routers but thier website says that some of thier products do support ddwrt firmware and gives 2 versions of firmware for this router.
It does have the Broadcom chipset.
Mine looks just like the pic tbalon posted.
is there a way to dump configuration before and after the upgrade in a way that I can easily compare to see what configuration needs to be updated manually after the upgrade?
Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 0:52 Post subject: Success Report
Hello everyone,
So I read through the entire thread before making any changes to my Archer C9 from stock and I was able to successfully flash DD-WRT onto my C9.
I have a Archer C9 Rev. 1 that had the stock firmware "Archer C9_V1_150916" from TP-Link's website. I had read earlier in the thread that it would be necessary to downgrade to the earliest stock firmware but later in the thread I had also read that this wasn't necessary. It turns out it is not necessary to downgrade, but I can't speak for any stock firmware that is newer than "Archer C9_V1_150916"
I had also read earlier in the thread that it would be necessary to do either a 30/30/30 reset or a factory reset before flashing DD-WRT but later in the thread I had found that was also not necessary.
Download the last appropriate dd-wrt firmware here, named factory-to-ddwrt.bin
Upload the dd-wrt firmware using the standard TP-Link UI
30/30/30 reset
I flashed the firmware that was recommended, namely 04-05-2016-r29409. I repeat that I did not do a 30/30/30 reset or a factory reset before flashing DD-WRT from the stock firmware.
There were also some people in the thread who were saying that you must first flash the "factory-to-ddwrt.bin" then flash "archer-c9v1-webflash.bin" right after. This is NOT true. You only need to flash "factory-to-ddwrt.bin" if you are going from stock to dd-wrt and nothing else after.
I spent a couple of days with the r29409 firmware and found it quite stable. No loss in signal or anything like that. My internet connection speed is only 20M/2M (Vancouver, BC. They really rip us off), so I'm satisfied with the wifi performance in terms of speed because I can get full performance anyway. I can't say what the performance would be like if you had a gigabit connection but I doubt it would be much slower, if at all.
I also do not use OpenVPN or USB or anything like that (I have a server for this) so I can't comment on these features. I found that port forwarding works which is the only feature I really use aside from SSH, which also works.
Using r29409 for a a couple of days, I also found that my C9 was running really hot so I also installed a 120mm fan on the back. The temperatures went down from ~80C to ~60C. I am going to try to get this down further.
Later I also decided to flash the newer r31899 firmware. You should be flashing the "archer-c9v1-webflash.bin" file only when you are upgrading dd-wrt and using "factory-to-ddwrt.bin" when going from stock to dd-wrt.
Before I upgraded from r29409 to r31899 I did not do any factory reset or 30/30/30 reset. I simply flashed the r31899 file and booted back up. My setting were all intact and I did not find any stability issues or anything like that. Uptime so far is 5 days.
just updated firmware on my c9 v2 to Firmware: DD-WRT v3.0-r29409 04/05/16 and my connection to net dropped to half i went from 950mbps to 400 what would couse this? also i cant flash to any other version as when i flash it it says its done but when i log into router its still the same. any help whould be good cheers
is there a way to dump configuration before and after the upgrade in a way that I can easily compare to see what configuration needs to be updated manually after the upgrade?
There's a settings export/import function - I believe it is in the Administration tab.
Just for the record: I did nvram show and saved the output to a file and brought it to my desktop.
After the upgrade, I did the same and compared the text file with the original in kdiff3. The upgrade kept all settings. I went from r30082M to r31899 because someone had just responded yesterday about r31899 being a good snapshot.
All good so far. Will see if the connection stability is affected over long uptime.
well i found the answer to my questions above...if anyones interested. its called ctf cut through forwarding that limits ddwrt to about 400-500mbps so its preddy much halfed my down speed.(wifi is about the same) i guess with the extra options u get its worth it. anyway as for my other problem it is solved i was using the wrong file but got no paperwieght lol i was trying to upgrade from r29409 with a factory-to-ddwrt.bin where i was ment to use the webflash.bin file to upgrade in ddwrt. anyways im on 30880 now and happy with it so far im yet to set up properly yet tho so time will tell. id say for people who are not really needing the benifits of the extra options in ddwrt and if the have conections above 400mbps stick with stock.
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 3:41 Post subject: Needs to be a better system for recommending builds
Hi I just tried two different recommended builds and had disappointing results, I'm not really complaining but I just think we should all be clearer on:
1) Which hardware version we are on
2) Wi-Fi data-rates for 2.4GHz and 5GHz in Mbps ie "Rate" from the status page
3) Whether you use OpenVPN would be important for a lot of us
4) Average CPU load
I'm on Archer C9 V1 by the way.
Came over to DD-WRT earlier in the year because of OpenVPN support, unfortunately I updated recently and forgot to note which version I upgraded from I think it might have been v3.0-r30880 std (11/14/16)due to recommendations here on the thread. I was ok with the setup for a while but I noticed openvpn didn't connect after a restart which makes the connection watchdog a bit useless and that's not good with how often the vpn connection drops... so VPN performance could be better.
CPU load was very low though even with OpenVPN running it was still 5-10%, I'm starting to wonder if that's too low to be taken as an accurate measurement after seeing how the other firmwares I've tried report the average cpu load as well as another router I set up using ASUS Padavan(MIWIFI 3,single core, less powerful but OpenVPN is single core anyway).
The Wifi performance wasn't that great compared to stock on WPA2 the speed keeps dropping no matter which firmware I've tried so far infact, 2.4GHz stays at around 144Mbs and it drops below to 72 alot too, I'd really like to get near the 600Mbs it's supposed to be capable of but for now would settle for a stable 300Mbs as I stream a lot from a mediabox downstairs connected to a WR802n Nano Router(more than one person streaming from it at the moment is a bit flakey).
First update I tried was the very newest:
V1 Webflash r32170(06-01-2017):
Wifi same, no improvement.
CPU load 100% constant
VPN works but no improvement still wont connect after reboot and additional CPU load as above.
Having waited a while to see if the CPU load would drop and trying a 30/30/30 reset it was enough to convince me to switch to an older build.
V1 Webflash r31899 (04-24-2017):
Wifi same, no improvement.
CPU load around 50%
VPN works but no improvement still wont connect after reboot and additional CPU load as above(or maybe this is a more accurate measure?).
Interested to hear others CPU loads with OpenVPN running before switching back down to the first firmware.
Regarding the Wifi is there a way to force the router to stay at 300Mbs+ on 2.4Ghz? Any settings I'm missing to control this? Sometimes when it first connects starts around that and gradually drops down and settles at 144Mbs, finding this quite frustrating for IPTV and HD media streaming.
The quoted wifi datarates for the Archer C9 are:
2.4GHz: up to 600Mbps
5GHz: up to 1300Mbps
I know it will only approach those speeds if the devices you are connecting to is capable of it but has anyone ever been able to get near that and what settings did you use?
I decided to downgrade to v1 r30880 11/14/16 because the average CPU load and temps seemed a lot better on that. With a few hours reading and tweaking I finally managed to get 300Mbs on 2.4GHz, in short: choose the highest channel width and then decide between Channel 1 or 11 and choose the right channel extension. It's probably dependent on interference so choose which ever end of the spectrum that has less. I don't know how but finding good 5GHz settings seemed to affect the 2.4GHz range.
It's also connecting to the VPN on reboot at present(adding the right server in the NTP Client under basic setup seems to help with my setup), with an average CPU load of 1% and CPU Temp of 69.7 °C.
It's been stable for a good few hours now so for me the best version is v1 r30880 11/14/16.
well i found the answer to my questions above...if anyones interested. its called ctf cut through forwarding that limits ddwrt to about 400-500mbps so its preddy much halfed my down speed.(wifi is about the same) i guess with the extra options u get its worth it. anyway as for my other problem it is solved i was using the wrong file but got no paperwieght lol i was trying to upgrade from r29409 with a factory-to-ddwrt.bin where i was ment to use the webflash.bin file to upgrade in ddwrt. anyways im on 30880 now and happy with it so far im yet to set up properly yet tho so time will tell. id say for people who are not really needing the benifits of the extra options in ddwrt and if the have conections above 400mbps stick with stock.
I'm not sure if you've badly worded that or don't quite understand what was said on the forum but it's a feature that's not supported in DD-WRT so it's not limiting your router. It's a hack that bypasses parts of the firewall to achieve better speeds, it uses an older kernel that is less secure and less stable, so you would lose a lot of features by enabling it.