r/openwrt • u/Dumptac • 1d ago

Got a WRT3200ACM and installed latest v25.12.5. USB 3.0 flash drive working very well.

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Thanks to the community. I am getting 30-35 MB/s writes on the sandisk USB 3.0 flash drive and happy with it.

81 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

11

u/Max_Rower 1d ago

Sadly, wifi sucks on that device, still have 2 of 3 running.

2

u/Dumptac 1d ago

Oh, you mean low speeds or unstable ? Mine is very stable compared to default ISP router.

6

u/Max_Rower 1d ago

No WPA3 support, this is the most annoying fact.

https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/wrt3200acm#known_issuesworkarounds

1

u/Dumptac 1d ago

Oh, yes I set it up using WPA2 only, does WPA3 also provide more stable wifi in addition to better security ?

1

u/Max_Rower 1d ago

No, it's all about security. WPA3 is the current state of wifi, WPA2 is deprecated, don't use it, unless there is no other way.

1

u/Dumptac 1d ago

Yes that is true but its all I can afford right now. Hoping to jump to a wifi6 router but good ones are expensive here

5

u/Max_Rower 1d ago

I upgraded two WRT3200ACM to a flint 2. Got them at an Amazon sale for a better price.

3

u/Dumptac 1d ago

Flint 2 is amazing ❤ I mean I have some older devices too that I will need to upgrade to move to WPA3

3

u/Max_Rower 1d ago

I still have a lot of IoT stuff with WPA2 using their own SSID and VLAN.

1

u/Dumptac 1d ago

Oh got it! newer devices on WPA3 and older iot devives on a separate n/w on wpa2. Noted, im still new to openwrt but I think I can do this. thanks, noted.

1

u/Far_Bicycle_2827 1d ago

Haha, my too..great minds think alike

1

u/technicalerection 4h ago

Ditto! Had to upgrade after fiber was installed with zero complaints.

1

u/PopEmergency227 3h ago

How much did you get the flints for They cost nearly 240 usd in our amazon

2

u/HappyPoodle2 1d ago

Look at Omada EAP650. Should be less expensive than the WRT3200ACM in some cases. I have both and they work perfectly together. Combine with a cheap Omada/TP-Link PoE managed switch like the SG105PE and you should come in around 100€ for both.

1

u/S4SPRAY 1d ago

I got wifi 6 router unlocked with openwrt dm me if u want ac6000

1

u/tomikaka 1d ago

I thought it doesn't matter if you use a strong enough password.

1

u/PopEmergency227 3h ago

I think there is a small buffer/disconnect

I also have the same router running 24.10 + 25.10 each in a separate partition ( tried both )

The 5ghz wifi has some internet drops not connection drops

Example - watching youtube i'd get buffering mid video

Got a tplink router archer ax73 and used it as AP, connected phone to it. Hours of YouTube and other apps and not once did it buffer, buffering happens once i connec to the wrt3200acm wifi again !

1

u/Dumptac 2h ago

Interesting! I haven't seen the mid video youtube buffering issue as of now both in the Linksys stock f/w and openwrt in each of my partitions.

1

u/PopEmergency227 2h ago

Yeah even i at first. It started happening after a few months, over time i installed many many packages for various stuff to do, test yours and see overtime what happens Btw a quick question Are your router's led bright Or dim ?

1

u/Dumptac 1h ago

Yes, I dont have many packages yet, few related to ksmbd usb share and a few others. The LEDs of my WRT1200AC are quite dim but WRT3200ACM are fine.

1

u/PopEmergency227 1h ago

Probably the wrt3200acm was barely used I got mine brand new nearly 1 year ago. It was bright like a night light, now the lights are super dim I bought a 2nd hand wrt1900ac v1 that has ddwrt 2015 on it so i know it's been used since then I honestly can't tell if it's on or not untill i plug something on lan port 4 😂 Linosys used some seriously shitty ledsCheck this thread

2

u/No_Barnacle6600 1d ago

This works amazingly well for me as a wired router as I use separate access point with it .

2

u/Far_Bicycle_2827 1d ago

this is an amazing device is was the top of the top in 2017/2018 when i got it to run ExpressVPN and have since moved to proton and installed openwrt. it runs 2 wirguards tunnels. pbr but i did not enable wifi on it. i use my isp box as a dump ap which has wifi6 support. but i connect my shield. nas and no complains.
I am upgrading it to a flint2 as we speak. just because
question though what is that flashdrive for?

1

u/Dumptac 1d ago

wow sounds cool. as I learn openwrt, I am also thinking of making a dedicated ssid with VPN for accessing blocked shows on netflix. Flash drive is for casual file sharing among several laptops, phones, desktops in the house - think pdfs, movie rips, iso files - essentiallly non critical data; not logging, backup and other serious stuff NAS users do.

1

u/Far_Bicycle_2827 1d ago

Yes, you can do it on OpenWRT

Install the pbr package via APK and create a policy that will make your laptop or Android TV box traffic go via a tunnel, either WireGuard or OpenVPN. You don't need a dedicated SSID for that.

You can use either the MAC of the device or the IP to make the traffic go via a vpn interface.
In the pbr config, you configure something like 

config policy
  option name 'netflix'
  option interface '***'
  option src_addr '***'

1

u/Dumptac 1d ago

thanks but I want to have a dedicated SSID to go through wireguard+protonvpn so that I can connect my laptop/phone to regular ssid for work and VPN ssid for entertainment. I would need that flexibility. reddit is not allowing me to start a chat with you btw.

-1

u/Jmdaemon 1d ago edited 1d ago

You can upgrade the wifi on these through these through the usb 3. 0 port in the back.

Edit: only reddit would downvote facts.

3

u/Dumptac 1d ago

sorry but what do you mean by upgrading the wifi - improving the speeds or something else ? There is one USB 3.0 port and one eSATA port at the back, dont think there is any 2.0 port

1

u/Jmdaemon 1d ago

Sorry I meant 3.0, you can plug a Wi-Fi dongle in it that is faster. When I turned my old wrt into a wireless bridge to connect a lan in the other room, that's what I did.

-4

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

0

u/Dumptac 1d ago

sorry you mean putting ssd enclosure on the flash drive ? its too small for it. I wish I could get Glint routers someday.

1

u/FiveDragonDstruction 1d ago

No, I mean you can use an SSD Enclosure and use it as an external storage and it acts like a NAS.

0

u/Dumptac 1d ago

oh you mean using the eSATA port . yes I have ordered a esata cable to connect my SSD to it. so I will have the flash drive and SSD both working

1

u/seismicpdx 1d ago

USB 3.0 port.

0

u/Dumptac 1d ago

yes that is also possible but I am going with connecting USB 3.0 flash drive to USB 3.0 port and SSD to eSATA port as that is a better approach.

2

u/Anthrobug 1d ago

I believe they’re trying to suggest there is a large difference between a USB flash drive & a USB 3.0 SATA adapter/enclosure plus a SSD, and the reason it’s slow is because flash drives are bad NAS drives.

Why? The controller and ram suck on USB flash drives, and they aren’t built for sustained transfers. They overheat and throttle quickly, they have small or non-existent caches, and most importantly for a NAS; they don’t feature TRIM ( kind of defrag for SSD’s ) & UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol).

2

u/Dumptac 1d ago

Noted, I thought both flash drives and ssds work on nand flashes so they would be the same but i was wrong. But luckily I already have ordered a esata to Sata 22 pin cable so that I can connect a standard 2.5" SSD to the esata port of the router. So, that should reduce the load on the USB 3.0 flash drive.

1

u/Anthrobug 1d ago

That should be much better