My wifi connections at home have been really slow using a really old AVM Fritz!Box, so I decided to upgrade to a TL-WDR4900. (The only thing still missing is 802.11 ac but the cheapest router providing that would be the Asus RT-AC66U AC1750 for twice the price of the TL-WDR4900, so that wasn’t worth it for me.)
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wdr4900
I’m only writing this blog post because I found it really hard to get the right information on how to install OpenWRT – the wiki entry only scared me away because it doesn’t mention the simple method. The simple method is: Download firmware, upgrade, configure, done. (I can only speak for the v1 variant though.)
In this directory you’ve got to select the right binary: http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/mpc85xx/
And this is the right binary: openwrt-mpc85xx-generic-tl-wdr4900-v1-squashfs-factory.bin
After upgrading the firmware, the most simple way is to telnet to your machine:
telnet 192.168.0.1
Install luci http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/luci.essentials
Configure your router from http://192.168.0.1
Update (2014-11-24):
To allow multiple outgoing VPN PPTP connections, the package “kmod-gre” is needed (“Generic Routing Encapsulation support”).
opkg install kmod-gre
6 responses to “OpenWRT on TP-Link TL-WDR4900”
Hi,
Thanks for sharing! Now I can go buy this thing. 🙂
Have you thought about adding this info to the Wiki?
Cheers!
Felix
Hi Felix,
you’re right, I just added the information to the wiki in http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wdr4900#installation
Cheers
How is it working for you? I’m going to buy it if it’s OK.
It’s working fine. Didn’t do too much of testing, it just works 😉
Did you found out how to enter FailSafe-Mode on TL-WDR4900? I also use one with OpenWRT and realy like it. But without having a working FailSafe-Mode I’m a little bit of bricking to router…
Hello mattanja!
Thanks for this.
I am about to do this right away with my 4900.
Is there any actual verion of openwrt or can i just use your instructions?
My most wanted concern, was to use a huawei Lte Stick on this device? With the original FW its not possible?
Do you know if it works with openwrt?