Thanks for the follow up.

I loaded the STA firmware already. It's version 0.999something IIRC, checked dmesg output that it loaded on reboot.

I had both set to WDS, which is how I thought I had it previously, but I don't doubt your recommendation as I read that several times during my research. I'm going to give that config a shot when I have time. And as to what I'm doing, I use Windows Media Center for my TV and live in a condo community. I get occasional dropouts on 2.4 there are 8 other visible access points on 2.4 in my condo. I use the remote client as a wireless bridge for my xb360. I'm trying hard to avoid learning to pull wire in a house.

Setup is Archer C7 as my router, WDR4300 as the bridge. I previously had this working on 2.4 with the wdr4300 and a wr841nd.

Also thanks to all of you that got this running on the C7.

I'm not sure if the WDR4300 and the C7 are actually WDS compatible with each other. The WDR4300 is only 802.11N on the 5 GHz and running on the ath9k driver (both the 2.4 and the 5 GHz radios), the C7 is 802.11AC on 5 GHz running on ath10k driver with 802.11N at 2.4 GHz on ath9k. The other unit WR841ND is 802.11N on only 2.4 GHz, and ath9k driver.

Everything that I've seen has said that everything has to be just right with each other in order to work in wds mode. There may be enough differences between ath9k and 10k to throw a wrench into your objectives.

Your best option really is to run a wire, as much of a pain as it is to run. I don't know if it will work in your condo (you might need some kind of filter at the breaker panel), but have you looked into a powerline ethernet bridge?

Just ran a test and both stations have to have wds enabled. When I enabled it only on the router I lost the 2.4 bridge.

I started looking more and I also noticed I don't have an sta adapter for the AC card. For the 2.4 card I see a wlan1.sta device when running ifconfig.

Here's the F/W:    [14.790000] ath10k: qca988x hw2.0 (0x4100016c) fw 999.999.0.636 api 2 htt 2.1

How hard would it be for me to return to stock to test?

Looking at ath10k source, it indeed seems that WDS is not yet supported for either firmware.

status: "on truck for delivery".
I give about a 10% chance that newegg didn't screw this one up as well.

I wonder if I should just keep RMA'ing it until they get it right, or just give up and send it back?

Just to let you know something you might or might not know already.
I bought the 6 antenna Chinese WDR7500 V2.0. It's only 439 rmb on JD.com
http://item.jd.com/802709.html
I updated it with the beta of the official Archer 7 V1.0 firmware:
http://nosferatu.g0x.ru/pub/wdr7500/fir … 307%29.bin

And it is working great, great speed on 5GHz, great USB performance, and stable as far as I can tell.

Yes, we are aware that the only difference between the wdr7500v2 and the c7v1 is the antenna configuration. Where the c7v1 has 3 external and 3 internal antennas, the 7500v2 has all 6 antennas on the outside.

(Last edited by definesinsanity on 9 Apr 2014, 14:58)

And another useless v1.

SNK thanks for the input that really helps. Hopefully they implement it soon.

Definesinsanity - Wow I almost got mine from newegg based on it being advertised as a V2. Glad I wanted instant gratification and got mine locally.

Seems that newegg has since removed the "v2" tag from their website.
I've contacted tplink, maybe they can do something for me... looks like their canadian distribution center / offices are about 5 minutes from where I live. One of the "manufacturer's responses" on newegg actually offered to swap out a v1 for a v2 (that is, response to someone else). That would be tp-link themselves, so guess we will see where this goes.

Anamin; where are you that you were able to find it in a local store? The only local store I can find around here that has c7's is canada computers, and I walked in there and they had a pile of v1's...

(Last edited by definesinsanity on 9 Apr 2014, 17:26)

FWIW I have 3 of the C7 V1 units. After waiting months for the stock firmware to be updated to support broadcom devices connecting, I pushed TP-Link support to allow me to RMA all three. They are on their way to TP-Link in California now. I verified via email with the RMA support person that I will get V2 units back. I think if you submit tickets on TP-Link site you will eventually get authorized for RMA directly from TP-Link and you should be able to request V2 units from their RMA support department.

That's what I like to hear. I hope that tplink-canada has similar policies to tplink-us. With any luck, I'll be able to just do the swap in person.
I sent them an email earlier, if I don't hear back from them by around lunch time tomorrow, I'll give them a call.

Looks like tp-link is going to be the hero in this ordeal.
Newegg can't get their act together, and tp-link has offered to fix their mistakes. They're supposed to receive a shipment of v2's "by the end of this week".

I have two theories;
1) That these Chinese companies are *really* bending over backwards to build themselves a good reputation,
2) That newegg is going to pay for this.
My guess is probably both in part.

Resolution for me will be as follows;
I have an RMA number from tp-link. They will let me know when the v2 units arrive in stock (could be as soon as tomorrow), and I will drive to their office and swap them face to face.

(Last edited by definesinsanity on 9 Apr 2014, 23:37)

I was able to find the V2 at Micro Center if that helps.

I've been over to the ath10k webpage and someone else asked about WDS on the mailing list and they are saying it's been in the code for quite some time, and that it should have been merged into OpenWrt by now. I'm baffled so I'm sharing my experience over there to see if they can help troubleshoot.

So what is actually the problem with the Archer C7 v1 units?

http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/ath10k/2013-July/000021.html

Is it my imagination? Or does that message actually contain an offer to swap out the junk boards?

I promise that I will *never* buy anything from newegg again.
Though this is being resolved by tp-link, there is still open communications with newegg, and they are really getting on my nerves....

*************************
Hello --------,

Case#  XDT0000000-------

Order# ----------

Thank you for contacting Newegg.

Both V1 & V2 are basically the same, the only difference is the firmware.  Here is the download link for V2’s firmware, http://www.tp-link.us/products/details/?categoryid=&model=Archer+C7#down. If you are interested in V2, may we suggest that you purchase it online.

If you have any further questions or concerns please reply directly to this email, or contact us by phone at 800-390-1119 between 8:30am to 5:30pm. Thank you for your time and patience regarding this matter.  Have a great day!

Thank you,

Yolanda Cantu

Customer Retention

T 800.390.1119

24/7 Live Chat

www.newegg.com  www.newegg.ca  www.neweggbusiness.com  www.neweggflash.com

Description: cid:image001.png@01CEB3B8.6A7AA520

Confidentiality Notice:  This communication is only for the person(s) named above.  Unless otherwise indicated, it contains information that is confidential, privileged or exempt from disclosure under applicable law.  If you are not the person(s) named above, or responsible for delivering it to that person(s), be aware that disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of this communication is strictly PROHIBITED.  If you have received this communication in error, or are uncertain as to its proper handling, please immediately notify us by telephone and mail the original to us at the above address.

*************************************************

Pretty hilarious.
That's the part of newegg that is supposed to be responsible for keeping customers HAPPY. Not pissing them off and driving them away.
1) Misrepresentation of the product,
2) Possible lack of research,
3) DEFINITE lack of qualification in responding,
4) "may we suggest that you purchase it online"  ????!?!?!?!!? SERIOUSLY???!?!
************* I DID PURCHASE IT ONLINE!!!!!! ***************

(Last edited by definesinsanity on 10 Apr 2014, 20:40)

Hello there,

I'm a bit of an openwrt fanboy and I recently got a TP-Link Archer C7 v1.1. I'm completely fine with what it does right now, because I just use it as a cheap WLAN-AC accesspoint.

I'm not so good at speaking english, so I did not quite understand what is going on here in this thread, so here my question:

Will it be possible to run openwrt on the Archer C7 v1.1 with working WLAN-AC ?

Greetz

Audiocrush

No. You need v2 for that.

Congratulations .. we now have Archer C7 V2 officially in the trunk but why the generated image only has the v1 and not v2? (opps, probably will be in for tonight auto generation .. ).

https://dev.openwrt.org/browser/trunk/target?rev=40463

(Last edited by wiraone on 13 Apr 2014, 01:02)

Alright!!!

Looks like upstream has decided to give everyone ath10k driver, in case anyone with a v1 decides to swap out the QCA9880 with a supported unit.

I'll email tplink again on monday to see if their v2 shipment has arrived... hopefully, I can actually use this soon

(Last edited by definesinsanity on 13 Apr 2014, 02:14)

So, got my v2 today.
Walked in, gave the lady at the front desk my RMA number, got everything swapped out nice and easy.
TPLink is great to deal with.

Factory firmware lasted just long enough to "upgrade" to openwrt.
The nightly images do NOT include ath10k driver, not sure why that is.... but it led to a weird problem; in the /etc/config/wireless file, radio0 and 1 were backwards. Since the qca9550 was detected on first boot, it got labelled as radio0, then after installing ath10k, the 9880 got called radio1 in that file. After rebooting, radio0 *really was* the 9880, but with the 9550's configurations, radio1 really was the 9550, but with the 9880's configuration. Repair that file, and all is well. I have working 2.4 *and* 5 GHz.

The 9880 is advertising both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.
Ok, so looks like the 2.4 GHz band "works" on the 9880, its just *incredibly* weak.... i.e., it picks up the 9550 at about 51% signal strength and doesn't pick up anything else.

(Last edited by definesinsanity on 15 Apr 2014, 02:04)

Glad to see you got a V2. I really enjoy mine.

I'm still fighting my WDS woes. The ath10k mailing list told me WDS is supported yet I can never get my AC card to actually work with WDS. I don't think it's me as I've had no issues getting it working on the 2.4ghz radio. I did go back through the development log and I didn't see any ath10k updates in OpenWRT since the beginning of March so I'm wondering if the WDS patch wasn't included.

Hmm....
https://lists.openwrt.org/pipermail/openwrt-devel/2014-April/024731.html

Alright, for poops and giggles, I set mine up for WDS.
And it appears to work just fine.

I still have the C7 on my test bench.
I set my WDR4300's 5 GHz card as a WDS AP (WPA2-PSK).
I set my C7's 5 GHz card as a WDS client.
Connected my phone to the C7's 2.4 GHz with a static IP in the WDR4300's network.
Network cables are *all* disconnected from the C7.
WDR4300 has network address 192.168.1.0
C7 has network address 192.168.0.0
ping WDR4300 (192.168.1.1) from phone --- working.
ping google.com from phone --- working.

I did the configurations through LuCI.

WDR4300 is running BB r38167
C7 is running BB r40504 (official nightly build)

C7's config;

root@ArcherC7:/etc/config# cat wireless

config wifi-device 'radio1'
    option type 'mac80211'
    option path 'platform/qca955x_wmac'
    list ht_capab 'LDPC'
    list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-20'
    list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-40'
    list ht_capab 'TX-STBC'
    list ht_capab 'RX-STBC1'
    list ht_capab 'DSSS_CCK-40'
    option txpower '17'
    option country 'US'
    option distance '40'
    option channel 'auto'

config wifi-iface
    option device 'radio1'
    option network 'lan'
    option mode 'ap'
    option key 'mypassword'
    option ssid 'OpenWrtY'
    option encryption 'psk2'

config wifi-device 'radio0'
    option type 'mac80211'
    option channel '36'
    option path 'pci0000:01/0000:01:00.0'
    list ht_capab 'LDPC'
    list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-20'
    list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-40'
    list ht_capab 'TX-STBC'
    list ht_capab 'RX-STBC1'
    list ht_capab 'DSSS_CCK-40'
    option country 'US'
    option txpower '17'

config wifi-iface
    option device 'radio0'
    option network 'lan'
    option encryption 'psk2'
    option key 'mypassword'
    option ssid 'ANET'
    option mode 'sta'
    option wds '1'

WDR4300's config;

root@WDR4300:/etc/config# cat wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
    option type 'mac80211'
    option channel '11'
    option hwmode '11ng'
    option path 'platform/ar934x_wmac'
    option htmode 'HT20'
    list ht_capab 'LDPC'
    list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-20'
    list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-40'
    list ht_capab 'TX-STBC'
    list ht_capab 'RX-STBC1'
    list ht_capab 'DSSS_CCK-40'
    option txpower '27'
    option country 'US'
    option distance '40'

config wifi-iface
    option device 'radio0'
    option network 'lan'
    option mode 'ap'
    option ssid 'ANET'
    option key 'mypassword'
    option encryption 'psk2'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
    option type 'mac80211'
    option channel '36'
    option hwmode '11na'
    option path 'pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0'
    list ht_capab 'LDPC'
    list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-20'
    list ht_capab 'SHORT-GI-40'
    list ht_capab 'TX-STBC'
    list ht_capab 'RX-STBC1'
    list ht_capab 'DSSS_CCK-40'
    option txpower '17'
    option country 'US'
    option distance '40'
    option htmode 'HT20'

config wifi-iface
    option device 'radio1'
    option network 'lan'
    option key 'mypassword'
    option ssid 'ANET'
    option encryption 'psk2'
    option mode 'ap'
    option wds '1'

What I can't seem to do, is put the C7 into simultaneous WDS Client + AP.

Hmm...
BSSID: 00:03:07:12:34:56
That's not right...

Hmm...
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Dri … 2:34:56.3F

(Last edited by definesinsanity on 17 Apr 2014, 05:23)

Thanks for the info, however why not use the V2 version of Archer 7 on WDR7500 V2.0 like this one:Archer C7_V2_131217 ?
http://www.tp-link.com/en/support/download/?model=Archer+C7&version=V2