Linksys WRT1900ACS

Hardware
1

I’m looking at upgrading my router and was thinking about the Linksys WRT1900ACS.

Reading the documentation for the Linksys Smart Wifi Router component here, it says

For this platform to work correctly, it is necessary to disable the “Access via wireless” feature in the Local Management Access section of the router administration page. If “Access via wireless” is not disabled, a connectivity conflict arises because the Home Assistant integration is trying to pass userid and password, but the router is only expecting a password.

Can anybody tell me…

  • What other affect will disabling this feature have?
  • Will it still allow administration of the router via a PC connected by wifi?
  • Will it prevent the Android admin app from working?

Sadly the Linksys user docs available online do not mention this setting.

2

Hi,

I have the WRT1900ACSv2 since a few months.
Since the default Linksys OS on this thing was a nonfunctional piece of ****, I immediately decided to flash the router with DD-WRT.
I’ve had some 5GHz stability issues at the beginning due to the wireless driver (if I understood it correctly, Linksys had only released an older version by then), but it’s running really stable now.

So my advice: flash DD-WRT onto this device and you won’t have the issue.
Guessing what the “access via wireless” option does, I’d say you’ll be only able to administer the router from a device connected to one of the ethernet ports.

As a side note: DD-WRT for this device is still considered beta, so there’s an updated release about every week or so.
But don’t let that spook you.

Sebastian

3

I was considering switching to an open source firmware at some point, but not really as soon as I opened the box.

However I’m still trying to get my head round the difference between OpenWRT, DD-WRT and LEDE, and which ones are considered current.

And of course switching to this firmware would also make the admin via app redundant.

4

Hi,

Other than the suggestion to flash to DD-WRT, I’d still quite like to know the answer to this question

Does anyone have this router running stock firmware and know if the Android app works with “Access via wireless” disabled

Cheers,

DAve

5

Yeah, I initially wasn’t planning on flashing an open source firmware either, but (at least about a year ago) the stock firmware was unusable.

I don’t remember specifics, but I’m running the WRT as normal access point and not as my Internet router.
Selecting the corresponding mode basically disabled all the features I needed (like DHCP server).
The main difference between OpenWRT and DD-WRT is mostly the GUI. LEDE seems to focus a bit more on stability but might be a little behind the other two.

If you decide to go with dd-wrt, get it from here: ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas/2017
And keep an eye on the Marvell MVEBU thread at the dd-wrt forum…

Regarding the Android app: I’m pretty sure it won’t work when you disable wireless access.
But you could send an email to Linksys support, maybe they can get you a definitive answer.

Sebastian

6

Thanks for the info Sebastian,

The various forks are a bit confusing. LEDE at least seems to have a better website for newcomers, although many of the links seem to point back to pages on DD-WRT.

I suspect you are correct that the app will not work without wireless access, and TBH it’s not a major issue as I’m used to connecting via my PC. I just thought it might be handy. I’ll mail Linksys as you suggest.

Cheers

DAve

7

A current update to this topic.

I have the WRT1900AC router with the “access via wireless” checked and the Linksys stock firmware in the router. I can administer the router from my iPhone using the Linksys App and the Home Assistant integration is working. I added it to my configuration file as detailed in the instructions. I’m getting a device tracker entity in HA for every connection to the router.