DIY: Transforming Unstable TP-Link Archer C6 Cloud Wi-Fi Router to a Stable OpenWRT-based Cloud Wi-Fi Router

Last year in December I bought a TP-Link Archer C6 v2 Cloud Wi-Fi Router (EU make) to have Gigabit support on my Home Wi-Fi Router and also be future ready for the Internet Bandwidth upgrade. One of the reasons for choosing this model was – Dual Band Gigabit Router, MU-MIMO Support, 4 Antennas, Low Price and the most important – Cloud support. While the first couple of Firmware upgrades went on well and caused no issues, sever problems started arising from Firmware upgrades starting Mar’20 or so. The key issue was the stability issue with the 2.4 GHz Band. Devices connected to this Band will suddenly be thrown out even while the SSID would keep broadcasting (sometimes 2 – 3 times a day, sometimes in week or 10 days). After being patient for the initial couple of months, I found a Thread in TP-Link forum where many users kept complaining about this issue.

(https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/165494?page=50 ) 

With every firmware upgrade things went from bad to worse and other than the 2.4GHz stability issue, I also started facing issues with QoS, DDoS filtering and LAN access. Though the Router was under warranty I decided last night to go with the OpenWRT route. Though OpenWRT is a reputed non-OEM firmware, it did not have Cloud support for my Router. So with some experiments conducted on my RaspberryPi, I decided to make the Router an IoT device and install IoT services through which I could manage the Router from the cloud. Please go through the detailed instructions below if you want to make your Router an OpenWRT Cloud Router. Do keep in mind that you will loose product warranty for not using OEM firmware (though you can restore back to OEM firmware later on if required). You should also ensure that you have a Wi-Fi Router with sufficient on-board memory to support OpenWRT and other additional packages that need to be installed.