On Friday, 11 September 2020 12:44:22 UTC+1, Sidney Endon-Lee wrote:
On Friday, September 11, 2020 at 1:18:31 PM UTC+2, wrote:
Hello all,

I currently have a:

TP-LINK
N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router
Model No. TL-WDR3600

(as reported from its admin page)

and have had it for a few years. It has always had a problem with locking up every two weeks or so, where the wi-fi would stop working, then the wired connections would pack up. A quick 30 second on & off sorted it. Not ideal, but live-withable. Apparently it is a known bug, but there have been no firmware updates for 5 years or so.

Recently the issues have become more frequent. Sometimes the wi-fi will pack up but the wired connections are fine for days, something I only noticed after I was out of range of the mains connected wi-fi extender I have to service the garage with signal.

It does one thing which has proven to be very useful: the USB ports can be used to host a network folder, and to serve films for the media players, etc. I would like this feature in a new router. Other than that, no special requirements.

Can anyone recommend a make / model, or recommend a make / to to absolutely avoid?

Are current routers a mature sort of technology where an older model will do fine?

TP-LINK is the current make, are these any better now than they were when I bought my existing router?

Should I be looking at a different selection of equipment to do what I want, i.e. a "bog standard" wi-fi router with a Raspberry Pi to act as the network folder / media server?

Thank you all in advance for any help, it is very much appreciated. I know next to nothing about networking.

David Paste.

If you are sufficiently 'techie', you might wish to try putting OpenWrt on it.

https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wdr3600

The most recent OpenWrt firmware update was a couple of days ago (Version 19.07.4) , and the OpenWrt firmware often resolves issues not dealt with by the original manufacturer.

I will not try to provide simplified instructions. Careful reading of the web-page above and the link to the installation instructions for a related device ( https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wdr4300#installation ) should be sufficient.

Sid.

The OpenWRT firmware is doing well so far but the add-ons for FTP and media serving are useless for me, I am nowhere near competent enough to make it happen. I have tried following various instructions, installing usb drivers, NTFS things, to no avail. It really isn't user-friendly for the average chump, beyond putting the basic firmware on the router.

(I am not complaining to you, these are just my experiences!)

I will try to get a simple GUI driven rasperry pi answer to the FTP and media serving (if such a thing exists).