Xiaomi Mi AC2100 – back from the almost-dead
This formerly rather tired-looking old Xiaomi Mi AC2100 router has just had a bit of a resurrection. After a good clean-up and an upgrade to the very latest OpenWrt, it’s now been pressed back into service as a handy network extender.
Initially given to me to review several years ago by Banggood, this Mi AC2100 (not to be confused with the Redmi AC2100) arrived in Chinese only – with no way to change language. Well, that wasn’t the best start – a 3 LAN + WAN + dual-band WiFi router about which I could not understand a single WORD.
My friend Antonio soon helped me strip it of its Chinese firmware and put in OpenWrt. I used it for a couple of years, ignoring its one DIM blue light and not realising the setup had a DHCP issue (see other blog entries on the subject), as an extender router (access point) should not have its own DHCP.
Also the WAN port was wasted and taped up. I use router mode to keep the front end available at the router’s IP address on the network – effectively a LAN extender then.
Ultimately I’ve reviewed and hence own various up-market (OpenWrt-based) routers for Gl.iNet and so this device ended up in a cupboard until today when I dragged it out – got out the Servisol and consulted my current favourite AI to see if there was anything we could do with it.
To cut a couple of long hours very short, it now gives me four LAN ports, along with 2.4Gbps and 5Gbps Wi-Fi, looks great and it’s working a treat to extend my network ( 3 available LAN “outputs”) – lack of WiFi 6 won’t offend my IOT devices so this is going in the garage. It turns out that the dim LED is the Power LED and not controllable – but there’s a WAN LED which 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 brought the previously defunct WAN socket into an additional 1Gbps LAN port.
The router has LUCI – the semi-friendly OpenWrt interface – sitting on UCI – the very unfriendly underlying Openwrt interface – also now has Tailscale installed in case I ever need it. Running the latter is as hard as entering “tailscale up” and adjusting a couple of settings – I’ve written about that elsewhere in the blog. I’m chuffed. Moral – in the age of AI – never abandon old crap without asking if it can be upgraded. 😄
Footnote: The router has plenty of storage so loads of room to add a half decent text editor should I ever need it.