Xiaomi Mi AC2100 – back from the almost dead
This previously rather tired looking old Xiaomi Mi AC2100 router has just had a bit of a resurrection. After a good cleaning and an upgrade to the very latest OpenWrt, it has now been pushed back into service as a handy network extension.
At first we were reviewed by Banggood a few years ago, this Mi AC2100 (not to be confused with the Redmi AC2100) arrived only in Chinese – without the possibility to change the language. Well, that wasn’t the best start – a 3 LAN + WAN + dual-band WiFi router about which I don’t understand a single word.
My friend Antonio soon helped me remove it from its Chinese firmware and apply OpenWrt. I used it for a few years, ignored its single DIM blue light and didn’t realize that the setup had a DHCP issue (see other blog entries on the issue), because an extender router (access point) shouldn’t have its own DHCP.
Even the WAN port was wasted and packed. I use router mode to keep the front end available on the router’s IP address on the network – effectively a LAN extender then.
Finally, I checked and therefore checked several up-market (OpenWrt-based) routers for Gl.iNet and so this device ended up in a cupboard until today when I pulled it out – got out the Servisol and consulted my current favorite AI to see if there was anything we could do with it.
To cut some long hours very short, it gives me now four LAN portstogether with 2.4Gbps and 5Gbps Wi-Filooks great and it’s a pleasure to extend my network ( 3 available LAN “outputs”) – lack of WiFi 6 will not offend my IOT devices, so this goes to the garage. It turns out that the dark LED is the power LED and is not controllable – but there is a WAN LED that can be changed to always-on and that is now the main proof that the router is alive 🙂
Not bad for a retired router – the photo here is no exaggeration – thanks to Servisol it looks great and thanks to a very recent (freely available) OpenWrt, it WORKS great. A slight settings adjustment turned the previously detached WAN socket into an additional 1Gbps LAN port.
The router has LUCI – the semi-friendly OpenWrt interface – sitting on top of UCI – the very unfriendly underlying Openwrt interface – also now has Tailscale installed in case I ever need it. Running the latter is as difficult as entering “tailscale up” and adjusting some settings – I wrote about that elsewhere in the blog. I am excited. Morality – in the age of AI – never abandons old crap without asking if it can be upgraded. 😄
Footnote: The router has plenty of storage so plenty of room to add a half-decent text editor if I ever need it.