Buffalo AC Router WZR-1166DHP nightmare

I shortlisted 5 Wireless AC Routers for a project for 1400 sites at my work, one of the routers was a Buffalo WZR-1166DHP, well the first hurdle was it would not work in the lab when I connected to Admin because there was no internet connection. We have a secure network and our lab has a dedicated bank of ports for internet access but we are not allowed to connect unapproved network equipement (politics). I got hold of Buffalo chat they were so rude, they said it was designed to be internet connected and I explained we were in a lab and it was an eval for over 1000 units. Woman continued to be rude, she made some facile comment and ended the chat, so I put in my report that the thing seemed to "call home" and support was dire. Needless to say we did not buy buffalo.

Good news is I got to keep it for home, bad news is it has been a nightmare to get working.

The model number is a Buffalo WZR-1166DHP Wireless AC router AKA AC1200, I have an Intel 3160 AC Card which connects at a friends house to an ASUS at double the speed or more.

Having hunted around I found a lot of people got fed up with this wireless AC router and trashed it.

People on NewEgg said buffalo had discontinued model and that there would be no more updates (thus leaving a product out there with these issues). Then there was a response from Buffalo saying

I carried on and found a post with some suggestions but it needs a firmware update as version I have is Version 2.10 and latest is Version 2.13

So I got the updated firmware

Release notes: http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c85091/info-wzr1166dhp-us-213.txt
Zip of Binary: http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c85091/wzr1166dhp-213.zip

So I followe the instructions, unzipped the file and sure enough therein there was a file called

wzr_1166dhp_us_213

However when I follow the instructions and load that file for update, I get the following message

" Invalid firmware.

Estimated time to restart is 80 s. Please wait...

To continue setup, perform the following procedure.

Confirm that a connection between the computer and the router is established.
Use the AirStation Utility to connect to your AirStation and configure its settings.

Refer to the user manual for more information. "


I checked the source and that IS the cloudspace where buffalo puts all kinds of updates, so now what?

Has anyone else had this problem?

Does anyone have any other Firmware editions for this model they could load to mega.nz and paste the link?

Any other suggestions?

Please....