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1. Working Ethernet Cable to connect the PC to the Router                                                                                (You should have 1 in the Box where you bought the Router).

1. SSH Terminal (For Windows Download Putty, Most GNULinux should have SSH Terminals by Default)           This Program is for Accessing the router like logging in to a server.
2. WinSCP (For Windows Download WinSCP, Most GNULinux should have SCP Terminals by Default)      This Program is for Uploading and Downloading Packages to the Router.
3. Fairly Advance Web Browser ( Either Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome will do)                                       This is for accessing the LuCI Web Interface installed into the router.

1. Disconnect all Internet Connections on the PC and Router. 
2. Ensure the Router/PC is on Stable Power Source.
3. Connect the PC use to upload the file to the Router using the Ethernet Cable.
4. Open Internet Browser on the PC
5. Type "192.168.1.1" in the URL Bar of the Internet Browser to access the TP-Link Router Configuration Page if you did not touch any ip configuration the default is usually 192.168.1.1.
6. Default Login name and Password is written under the Router.
7. Go to the Firmware Upgrade Utility Page

1. Click on Browse then navigate to the Folder where you downloaded  openwrt-ar71xx-tl-wr1043nd v1-squashfs-factory.bin
2. Click Upgrade and Wait for 15 mins 

1. Double Check the Lights on the Router it should blink quickly then turn off then turn on again.
2. Type "192.168.1.1" in the URL Bar of the Internet Browser again. You should see the LuCI Webpage

 

1. There should be no password just click login. Set a password (Under Administration) immediately to enable SSH Login.
2. You are done your router is now running on OpenWRT, but you are not done yet you still need to configure the router for normal use.

1. Wireless Performance
2. Wired Performance
3. Web Performance
4. QoS (Quality Of Service)
5. Overclock the Router

config wifi-device radio0
        option type mac80211
        option channel 7
        option macaddr XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
        option hwmode 11ng #Wireless G and N Modes
        option htmode HT40- # Set to 2.4GHZ 40MHZ Fat Lower(-) Channel

        option noscan 1 # Enable neighbour unfriendly WiFi Settings

        option country US
        list ht_capab SHORT-GI-40
        list ht_capab DSSS_CCK-40
        option disabled 0

        option txpower 24

config wifi-iface
 option device radio0
 option network lan
 option mode ap
 option ssid Your_SSID_Here
 option encryption psk2
 option key your_secret_key_here
 

kernel.panic=3
# The following 3 lines helps to ensure Router will always have
# sufficient memory and will not crash during samba file copy
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=1000
vm.min_free_kbytes=4099
vm.swappiness=0
net.ipv4.conf.default.arp_ignore=1
net.ipv4.conf.all.arp_ignore=1
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
net.ipv4.icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts=0
net.ipv4.icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses=1
net.ipv4.tcp_ecn=0
net.ipv4.tcp_fin_timeout=30
net.ipv4.tcp_keepalive_time=120
net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies=1
net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps=1
net.core.netdev_max_backlog=5000
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_checksum=0
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_max=32768
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_established=3600
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_udp_timeout=60
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_udp_timeout_stream=180
# Use ipv6
net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1

# disable bridge firewalling by default
#net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-arptables=0
#net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-ip6tables=0
#net.bridge.bridge-nf-call-iptables=0
# Increase TCP max buffer size setable using setsockopt()
# 2 MB might be enough for some very long end-to-end paths
net.core.rmem_max = 2097152
net.core.wmem_max = 2097152
# Increase Linux autotuning TCP buffer limits
# min, default, and max number of bytes to use
# (only change the 3rd value, and make it 2 MB or more)
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 2097152
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 65536 2097152 

# The following 2 lines enable ipv6 privacy mode
net.ipv6.conf.all.use_tempaddr=2
net.ipv6.conf.default.use_tempaddr=2

All the TCP tweaks are derived from ESnet
Note: These tweaks are not found on OpenWRT How Tos, however I soon discovered that someone is working on bufferbloat hence the tweaks on buffersize should be approached with caution.


Also if you have a Windows File Share you want to tell the Router firewall not to monitor SAMBA Packets.
Windows Share also known as SAMBA in Linux uses the Port 445 so you need to tell OpenWRT to stop monitoring Packet Originating from LAN using Port 445.

Tweaking Web Performance:
Web Peformance typically require a lot of DNS Look up so you want to tell OpenWRT to use the Fastest DNS Server available.
You can do this by logging into the Router via Putty using vi editor edit the file called "dnsmasq.conf" in /etc/ or do it in the file /etc/config/dhcp
and add the fastest DNS Server closest to you.
Add the Line Below and change the IP of the server to YOUR fastest DNS Server. My Fastest DNS Servers may not be your Fastest DNS Server.

dhcp-option=6,165.21.83.88,8.8.8.8,208.67.222.222

Blue is a Singapore ISP DNS Server, Green is Google DNS Server, Red is OpenDNS Server.
There is no limit of the number of DNS Server you can set on OpenWRT

Quality of Service                    

What is Quality of Service?
Quality of Service makes it so that during torrenting, your webpages doesnt take a long time to load even though you are on a 1Mbps Connection.
It does this by prioritizing network traffic, putting webpage network packets in higher importance than torrent packets.
The step to installing QoS is logging into the Router via Putty then

opkg install luci-app-qos

You set the QoS by setting the Port the Network Originate from and the Priority. Or you can set layer 7 filter to detect torrent traffic. Note that Layer 7 filtering is processor intensive activity and might cause the routing performance of the router to drop.

Hopefully you learn a lot from this series of blog post and enjoy the high performance of your Modified Router running on OpenSource Software.
If you run a Windows Share Server when you place the laptop beside the router and do a copy you should be getting insane WiFi Speeds @ 150Mbps at 5m line of sight
Let the numbers speak for themselves!

In case you modified the wrong config files and got lock out the fail safe mode is here.

If you are interested I have a OpenWRT built for TL-WR1043ND that I use personally myself. It is optimized to my satisfaction for pure performance.
You can get it here.
If you actually tried my firmware you will find that all the tweaks I listed above have been already added to the firmware defaults so there is nothing additional to tweak.