Kasda AC1200 Dual Band Wireless Router

First things first.. I AM an expert on routers - senior network engineer to be specific. This is flat out an AMAZING router once you realize it has one primary limitation - it has 10/100 NIC in the WAN port. Not a problem if you don't have more than 100Mbps, but if you do this one won't work for you and you should upgrade to the 6516 model which has a 10/100/1000 NIC. I have both and have extensively tested both.

Setup is easy, the method they give is to connect to the SSID this broadcasts by default and configure it through that using the login/password on a sticker at the bottom of the device. My PREFERRED method is to boot this router up, plug in a patch cable to ETH1 port, and then browse on your laptop to 192.168.1.1.. At that point you will be asked to set a password - I recommend something easy 'for now' (Password1234, etc), you will change this later.

If you are new to routers you can run through the setup wizard, it's self explanatory asking questions like DHCP on your wan (USUALLY this is what you want), DNS to use (I recommend DYNDNS - google it), all of the basics. Once all of that is done, and if you connected using my method above then you will kill off the default SSID's and enter your own SSID's and passwords. Remember to use the format of SSID_optout_nomap so for example your home SSID's may look like this: MyCoolHouse_optout_nomap..(nomap must be last!) The reason you use _optout_nomap is one turns off Google using your SSID to spy on people and locate you. The other disables Windows spying on your WiFi and using it for location identifiers. A GOOD feature of this router is the fact you can set exclusive 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz networks with different SSIDs - this is the recommended method and this router supports this - as well as ISOLATED guest network functionality.

Now on to the good stuff.. For techies and reasonably competent people immediately click on the 'Advanced' tab at the top to get rid of the consumer level configuration. Now the fun begins! Here is where you realize that this router has a potent Linux underpinning with configuration that dramatically surpasses most routers! (OpenWRT) Features noted;

1 to 1 NAT
vLAN (Yes, it has vlan support)
Diagnostics (Ping, TR, NSlookups)
Syn/Flood Protection (Layer 2 Firewall w/SPI)
Packet Deformation Block
Firewall Zones (Purple, Green, Red, etc)
Bridging of other interfaces.
MTU and MAC overrides
IPv6 Management
Advanced DHCP (Leases, Ranges, Limitations, Toggles, Statics, Forced, etc)
PPP Auto Reconnect and Configurable Timeouts，
PPP Auto Reconnect on WAN Access/PPP on
Demand，Static Route, Dynamic RIPv1, RIPv2 support
DNS Relay Agent/DDNS Support,
Network Address Translation (NAT),
Port Forwarding, DMZ Support, UPnP(Universal Plug
and Play)，
NAT Application Level Gateway for popular
applications，
IGMP Snooping v1/2 and IGMP Multicast
QOS
and more..

It really has a nice linux underpinning to it! The first thing you should do is go to the Kasda support website and download the latest firmware, and upgrade it. Period! The second thing you should do is disable SSH and WPS on this router. Don't ask why, please just do it. Range wise, this is impressive! Easily matching the range and power of my Unifi Pro access point.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07148RQ7T