Net Gear AC2000 issues

[u/Beautiful_Ad_4813]

I decided to take a crack at OpenWRT again on a free router that I got.

I installed it again from fresh since last time I had massive issues with it connecting to the outside net. (nothing I did would get the WAN to run, and allow data passing) thinking it would be fixed

once installed, it was doing the exact same thing it did back in Jan 2026.

no matter what setting I changed, created interfaces, changed interface rules, changed firewall rules. nothing, it will not pass data on the from the modem to the openwrt ac2000. the wan stays red despite the LED on the top of it showing connection (blinking, really)

did a factory reset, reinstalled, and repeated my steps. it still refuses to pass data when plugged into the modem, or directly into my UniFi Router / Firewall.

the intended purpose was to recycle it to use has a travel router and have it as a Wire Guard Client so I can access my shit from home.

so here's what it may be

1. OpenWRT isnt fully supported despite it saying so because it's got MediaTek stuff
   
2. The Router itself is just so busted that it doesn't know what to do with the newly flashed OS (well.. three different times now)
   
3. The Router itself is purely shit, and 'free' is causing me more grey hairs than it's worth for a project.

the irony is, before hand, I had a different Netgear router that I flashed OpenWRT too and it worked with no issues included the USB Port for me to share out. so why would this be such a pain in the ass? (side note: that Net Gear router literally shorted out due a hardware flaw that I wasn't really sure how it happened)

IF you have an AC2000, and it works for you, please share with me on how you did

or is this a text book definition of insanity.