![]() ![]() The same apps are available for the 1200AC. ![]() When the 1900AC debuted, Linksys touted (among other features) the apps available for managing the router - that is, a way for parents to enforce website restrictions. Flashing the router with OpenWRT was easy enough, although you’ll want to download and keep handy a copy of the original Linksys firmware in case you find OpenWRT’s array of options too dizzying. It was revised early in April 2015 to fix several problems, and now the 1200AC and 1900AC alike have OpenWRT images available. The required driver finally came out last December. Unfortunately, the 1900AC couldn’t do that when first released, due to the lack of a proper open source driver for the Marvell 88W8864 chip set in the router. One of the original selling points of the 1900AC, and now the 1200AC, was that it could accept open firmware such as OpenWRT. The Web interface for file sharing (by way of the Twonky server) isn’t terribly polished, but it gets the job done. Connect a storage device to the USB or SATA ports, and you can share the contents via a password-controlled folder access, FTP services, or a DLNA-compatible media server. The rest of the hardware in the 1200AC is identical to its predecessor: four gigabit Ethernet ports, a USB 2/3 port, and a SATA port. Signal strength on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks are more or less the same as those put out by the 1900AC. Even more surprising was that the 1200AC’s wireless was as good as its bigger brother’s, despite having fewer antennas. Tests with the iPerf network performance test tool, between two systems with wired 1GB Ethernet adapters, showed that the 1200AC provides no less throughput than the 1900AC did (at least in wired mode). For Wireless Protected Setup (WPS), there’s a small button on the back of the unit - small enough that I missed it the first time I looked, so be sure you find it ahead of time if you use WPS. No further tinkering was needed to replace my existing router with the 1200AC by providing the same wireless network name and password used before, all my devices connected without issue. The few options that need to be configured out of the box such as the wireless network name are all provided through a wizard interface. Plug in, wire up, turn on, and navigate to. The 1200AC uses the same Smart Wi-Fi-branded firmware as the 1900AC, so setting up and configuring the router for use was about as painless as could be. Be warned, the wart is slightly too large to use on a wall socket without blocking both outlets I ended up plugging it into a power strip. I’m less fond of another change: The corded power brick on the 1900AC has been replaced by a wall-wart plug on the 1200AC. Said antennas, again as with the 1900AC, are removable and can be upgraded if needed - for example, with directional antennas. Though the 1200AC has only two antennas versus the 1900AC’s four, the wireless signal strength on the 1200AC was about as good as that of its bigger brother. ![]() Not only is the router compatible with open source firmware, that compatibility is available right out of the box - without the many months of waiting for a proper open source chip set driver that gave Linksys a black eye when the 1900AC debuted. Hardware hackers may be happiest of all with the 1200AC. All of the good aspects of the 1900AC - the expandable hardware, the feature-packed firmware, the convenient setup process - are still here. Despite these reductions, it’s no less versatile or powerful. The 1200AC is a slimmed-down version of the 1900AC, with two fewer antennas and around $100 knocked off the list price. When it comes to the Linksys WRT1200AC, the little brother to the WRT1900AC router introduced last year, it might be best to say less is just enough. Twonky Server v8.2.1 and higher no longer contain the Twonky Thumbnail Utility (TTU) tool and does not support extracting thumbnails from video content.Sometimes, less is truly more.The Twonky Server Interface and Settings are not supported by WD Technical Support.This article explains My Cloud OS 5: Twonky Server Configuration and Settings ![]()
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