Sharing experience of Tenda AC18

[hk7310]

Yeah i am the lucky one.

Btw how yo set to the region to be in HK?

Thanks

It is not me, but bro Comtt74 he has a set.

He quoted:

My AC 15 loaded with English firmware by default. My previous router was Asus rt-n56u but the 5ghz wi-fi keeps disappearing. Eventually, I bought the Tenda AC 15 which was recommended by my network colleague. Both Tenda AC 15 and AC 18 are known for their strong and stable 5ghz wi-fi. I have tested them both to my liking. My wireless download speed on 5ghz was slightly more than 200mbps on M1 200mbps fibre. The Tenda router heatsink is pretty big and I like that. AC 18 has a extra LAN port, faster chipset and more ram. For those who are having issue with AC 15, remember to select Hong Kong as the region. Always keep the firmware at the latest version. Use the online upgrade feature to auto detect and update the firmware for your router. By the way, my AC 18 is a black colour one compared to your red one. No sure got any difference. What is your setup? Care to share. Cheers.

As Tenda AC18 it not known in our local market, that make me curious about its performance. So as to asking Comtt74 for his view on AC18 performance and reliability. May be one of the day, I may replace this for my subscribed plan. But your case may deter many to reconsider.

 

[hk7310]

setting the region to HK, if I am not interpret wrongly, he should be doing it for the purpose of firmware updated.

 

[africatwin]

It is not me, but bro Comtt74 he has a set.

He quoted:


As Tenda AC18 it not known in our local market, that make me curious about its performance. So as to asking Comtt74 for his view on AC18 performance and reliability. May be one of the day, I may replace this for my subscribed plan. But your case may deter many to reconsider.

Well maybe buy from JD instead of TTB. TB is well known for counterfeit stuff.

Tried the other version of firmware and i am quite sure it is the port has hardware problem.

But if any buyer really want to try out it is up to individual. I pposted my view here is to share nnot to warn others not to buy and i did not specific which seller from TB should avoid.

 

[hk7310]

Thank you Africatwin. Your advice noted.

 

[comtt74]

Hi.

AC 15 will prompt you to select the region during setup but you do not need to select the region for AC 18 during setup.

I bought AC 15 from Tenda official mall at USA Amazon while I tested AC 18 which belonged to my colleague.

Cheers.

 

[ngcheeh@gmail.com]

This post has been 3 months old. Unluckily i my tenda ac15 just arrived this week and encoubter the same dynamic ip issue. I suspect it is the way starhub configure the router at their end. I called starhub up and ask to turn on direct ont and they told me mine already on direct ont.

I found a workaround use the tenda. Daisy chain the tenda to the okd router. You can disable the wifi, etc. on the old router and use it like a switch. Traffic passibg through this way the tenda can recognize.

I am hoping someday there will be a solution.

 

[applepie99]

Upgraded AC18 Firmware to Asuswrt-Merlin

I bought a Tenda AC18 from Taobao for RMB470, and upgraded to Merlin RT-AC68U_380.66_6 firmware. The original firmware doesn't support VLAN. The AC18 is a clone of the ASUS AC68U and the firmware can support VLAN, which means I can use the router for Singtel Mio TV. This is how I did it

1. go to Asuswrt-Merlin website and download RT-AC68U_380.66_6 firmware. Unzip the file. This is the latest stable version available when I did the upgrade.

2. Connect your laptop using network cable to the AC18 LAN port two.

3. fix your IP address to 192.168.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

4. On your laptop ping 192.168.0.1 -t continuously

5. insert a pin into reset hole, hold on to it, and power on AC18

6. once there is a response from the ping, release the pin

7. on your laptop, bring up internet explorer and access 192.168.0.1

8. From the internet explorer upload the firmware with filename extension trx.

9. A message will be shown on the internet explorer when it is completed. Takes about 1 - 2 minutes to complete so be patient.

10. Power off the AC18 and repeat step 4, 5, 6, 7

11. This time, select restore default nvram values

12. Once it is done, AC18 will reboot again and it is ready for use.

13. Change your laptop's IP address to DHCP.

14. This time, the IP address of the router is changed to 192.168.1.1 and you can start the set up using internet explorer

15. Don't worry if you brick the router, or decide to restore the original firmware. Just go to step 5 - 8 to upload firmware.

 

[tungsten2]

What you are doing is going to the router Recovery mode for step 5.

Sent from Samsung SM-G930F using GAGT

 

[africatwin]

Thanks for the instructions but i encounter error

I bought a Tenda AC18 from Taobao for RMB470, and upgraded to Merlin RT-AC68U_380.66_6 firmware. The original firmware doesn't support VLAN. The AC18 is a clone of the ASUS AC68U and the firmware can support VLAN, which means I can use the router for Singtel Mio TV. This is how I did it

1. go to Asuswrt-Merlin website and download RT-AC68U_380.66_6 firmware. Unzip the file. This is the latest stable version available when I did the upgrade.

2. Connect your laptop using network cable to the AC18 LAN port two.

3. fix your IP address to 192.168.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

4. On your laptop ping 192.168.0.1 -t continuously

5. insert a pin into reset hole, hold on to it, and power on AC18

6. once there is a response from the ping, release the pin

7. on your laptop, bring up internet explorer and access 192.168.0.1

8. From the internet explorer upload the firmware with filename extension trx.

9. A message will be shown on the internet explorer when it is completed. Takes about 1 - 2 minutes to complete so be patient. After loading the file it says FORMAT ERROR

10. Power off the AC18 and repeat step 4, 5, 6, 7

11. This time, select restore default nvram values

12. Once it is done, AC18 will reboot again and it is ready for use.

13. Change your laptop's IP address to DHCP.

14. This time, the IP address of the router is changed to 192.168.1.1 and you can start the set up using internet explorer

15. Don't worry if you brick the router, or decide to restore the original firmware. Just go to step 5 - 8 to upload firmware.

 

[africatwin]

It is working thanks alot

 

[applepie99]

Are you able to check if your USB is working by plugging in a flash drive? I can't access external USB storage after the upgrade, and don't know if it is due to the firmware compatibility. I did not test the USB port when it had the tenda firmware.

 

[africatwin]

Are you able to check if your USB is working by plugging in a flash drive? I can't access external USB storage after the upgrade, and don't know if it is due to the firmware compatibility. I did not test the USB port when it had the tenda firmware.

The usb at the front is not working although the lightbis turn on.
I wanted to plug a cooling fan via usb to cool the router which is much hotyer than my previous tplink.

The signal range is not fantastic too but acceptable.

Very glad i did not throw it away earlier haha.

 

[applepie99]

The usb at the front is not working although the lightbis turn on.
I wanted to plug a cooling fan via usb to cool the router which is much hotyer than my previous tplink.

The signal range is not fantastic too but acceptable.

Very glad i did not throw it away earlier haha.

I was using Archer C7 ver 2 before. It became unstable recently for some unknown reason and hang occasionally. I suspect it is due to the new laptops my children bought. There wasn't any updated firmware from TP-Link so I decided to try out the AC18. I think performance wise the AC18 is slightly better than the Archer C7. At least the 5Ghz wifi is stronger. After running for a week it didn't hang, so I guess it is a good buy. My next project is to replace the firmware in the Archer C7 with OpenWRT

 

[applepie99]

I managed to get the USB port on my AC18 working through the following steps

1. Enable SSH by going to Administration>System>Enable SSH>Lan Only
2. from my laptop, open terminal and run ssh admin@IP_address_of_router (I am using macbook, but if you are on windows, you have to find out how it support SSH)
3. enter password of my router
4. Enter the following at the # prompt
nvram set model=RT-AC68U
nvram set HW_ver=170
nvram commit
5. Reboot router

I have connected a 1TB USB storage to the AC18 and enabled Time Machine. The backup for my macbook works nicely!

For MioTV to work, the above must also be done together with the vlan settings

 

[teogb]

Hi

Just gotten a Tenda AC18, however i am not able to access the router admin page.
I tried plugging into all the 4 LAN ports but there is no connection and the led is not lighted up.
Btw, I opted for the Asus firmware to be installed.
Did anyone encounter this before?
Thanks.

 

[ivanmania_10]

I bought a Tenda AC18 from Taobao for RMB470, and upgraded to Merlin RT-AC68U_380.66_6 firmware. The original firmware doesn't support VLAN. The AC18 is a clone of the ASUS AC68U and the firmware can support VLAN, which means I can use the router for Singtel Mio TV. This is how I did it

1. go to Asuswrt-Merlin website and download RT-AC68U_380.66_6 firmware. Unzip the file. This is the latest stable version available when I did the upgrade.

2. Connect your laptop using network cable to the AC18 LAN port two.

3. fix your IP address to 192.168.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

4. On your laptop ping 192.168.0.1 -t continuously

5. insert a pin into reset hole, hold on to it, and power on AC18

6. once there is a response from the ping, release the pin

7. on your laptop, bring up internet explorer and access 192.168.0.1

8. From the internet explorer upload the firmware with filename extension trx.

9. A message will be shown on the internet explorer when it is completed. Takes about 1 - 2 minutes to complete so be patient.

10. Power off the AC18 and repeat step 4, 5, 6, 7

11. This time, select restore default nvram values

12. Once it is done, AC18 will reboot again and it is ready for use.

13. Change your laptop's IP address to DHCP.

14. This time, the IP address of the router is changed to 192.168.1.1 and you can start the set up using internet explorer

15. Don't worry if you brick the router, or decide to restore the original firmware. Just go to step 5 - 8 to upload firmware.

Does this work for AC15 ?

 

[PholkLorr]

i bought the ac10 for US$28 but it wasn't able to connect to internet automatically via DHCP. Stuck with a useless router but i guess can use it as AP instead. The router homepage is in english but it says the firmware is CN edition and it cannot be flashed to the international firmware.

Anyone managed to get it working? Im on m1

 

[dryteletubby]

i bought the ac10 for US$28 but it wasn't able to connect to internet automatically via DHCP.

You need to restart your ONT for M1 to assign a new IP address for your router.

 

[PholkLorr]

You need to restart your ONT for M1 to assign a new IP address for your router.

Thanks, i offed and onned the M1 ONT but it still didn't work. Tenda's detection of my Connection type is "Static IP", but it's supposed to be the auto DHCP option. When i use the DHCP option, it just doesn't get any internet.

Were you able to get your Tenda router to work? Mine's the AC10 btw

 

[dryteletubby]

Thanks, i offed and onned the M1 ONT but it still didn't work. Tenda's detection of my Connection type is "Static IP", but it's supposed to be the auto DHCP option. When i use the DHCP option, it just doesn't get any internet.

Were you able to get your Tenda router to work? Mine's the AC10 btw

I don't have a tenda router. But I assume it's the ISP not giving your ONT and inturn your router a IP address. Maybe turn off the ONT for a longer period of time?

If all else fails give your ISP customer service a call?