7 ms·

Openwrt is so nice. Despite small teams and budgets, they power so many routers and are also good at research and new features. The sqm/fq_codel stuff alone mak

Openwrt is so nice. Despite small teams and budgets, they power so many routers and are also good at research and new features. The sqm/fq_codel stuff alone makes it worth running openwrt. If you are not familiar with it, go to dslreports.com and run a speedtest. If you get a poor bufferbloat score, openwrt can help. A lot of vendors (even big enterprise ones) use openwrt builds for their products, but don't provide updates, documentation or sources to their customers. You'll see a lot of devices running old openwrt in the wild.

milankragujevic 8y ago
wrt bufferbloat: my internet is too fast (150 mbps) for a cheap router to effectively manage the connection, meaning that unless i pay 250€ for a router, I will just slow down my Internet needlessly.
- bubblethink 8y ago
  I have 150 Mbps and a sub $50 router (ac-68u commonly sold by t-mobile on clearance as tm-1900) does fine with sqm without any significant loss in speed. Note that this has no open wifi drivers. So you'll need a separate AP, or use a more blob friendly distribution like dd-wrt. Or use two of these, one with blobs as AP and one without blobs running openwrt. That was a great combination under $100.
  - milankragujevic 8y ago
    To be honest, that router costs 28 000 RSD ( https://www.gigatron.rs/ruteri/asus_dualband_wirelessac1900_gigabit_router__rtac68u_-51253 https://www.gigatron.rs/ruteri/asus_dualband_wirelessac1900_... ) which translates in EUR to 236 EUR, so your point is not valid for outside of the USA. To get a feel for a router that costs exactly €50, see TP-Link MR3420 V5. Also, the router you mentioned (ASUS RT-AC68U has a dual core 800 MHz Broadcom processor and 256 MB RAM and 128 MB Flash storage, while most routers at 50€ have a 400 MHz Ralink/Mediatek Processor (single core) with 32MB (at most 64 MB) RAM and 4 or 8 MB SPI memory. ) I'm glad you happen to live in a country where you can obtain such a router for so little, I am not so lucky, so I use my ISP provided one that barely manages that 150 Mbps (thankfully with a Gigabit port (yes single LAN port)).
    - bubblethink 8y ago
      Yes, this is the discounted price because the hardware is a bit old. However, I think there are some decent affordable routers around the world. More so if you are open to ordering from China. I haven't been following the ultra cheap space too much, but you should definitely check out the forums. There are also APU2 boards (https://www.pcengines.ch/ https://www.pcengines.ch/) that may provide a good bang for the buck. There's also old x86 hardware if you don't care about power consumption.
      - milankragujevic 8y ago
        The only thing I've found that is acceptable to me is this: https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_ac2 https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_ac2 (or "RBD52G-5HacD2HnD-TC", ... damn, don't they love the long-ass names). 128 MB RAM, Qualcomm processor quad core at 700 MHz (but ARM! :) ) and 5 gigabit RJ45 ports + Dual Band WiFi and a USB port! Plus, even if I can't get OpenWrt to work on it (though I prefer it), I can find my way with Mikrotik's RouterOS. I actually recently setup a PTP link at 3 km with 2 SXTsq's. Though I expected 100 Mbps, it only ended up being 72 Mbps stable, more than that and there's problems with the connection. I liked the old SXT more, you could put OpenWRT on it, the new ones use weird flash memory which OpenWrt can't write to... edit: forgot to mention, it's 60€ brand new from a friend who works at a WISP
    - ejanus 8y ago
      What is " 4 or 8 MB SPI memory "? Why using SPI to qualify memory ? Are you trying to something like SD and friends?
      - plasticchris 8y ago
        It's just the interface, serial peripheral interface.
      - makomk 8y ago
        The firmware for routers like this is stored on SPI flash memory, and the size of the SPI flash chip determines how easily you can fit third-party firmware like OpenWRT on the router and how many compromises are necessary to do so. It's soldered on so not really user replaceable.
- tapper82 8y ago
  I am sorry mate, but this is not true. I have a connection that is 220 down and 12 up and my C7[-v2 can run SQM and I can get 190 down and 11.5 up. Set your Queue setup script to piece_of_cake.qos:
  - milankragujevic 8y ago
    Again, a 128 MB RAM and 720 MHz CPU which is not Ralink/Mediatek. This is not a fair comparison. And the C7 costs 120€. http://www.netiks.rs/tp-link-ac1750-archer-c7 http://www.netiks.rs/tp-link-ac1750-archer-c7
    - tapper82 8y ago
      https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-Link-Archer-C7-AC1750-Wireless-Dual-Band-Gigabit-Cable-Fiber-Router-UK/272320507362?epid=182569425&hash=item3f67912de2:g:X6QAAOSw4shX9lWD:rk:1:pf:0 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-Link-Archer-C7-AC1750-Wireless... £63 For MediaTek what about the c50? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-Link-ARCHER-C50-AC1200-Mbps-Wireless-AC-Router/283349250350?epid=182569425&hash=item41f8ee712e:g:EW4AAOSw7OdcR3I-:rk:9:pf:0 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-Link-ARCHER-C50-AC1200-Mbps-Wi... £23 I am not shure what ver this one is tho v1 and v3 of the c50 work with OpenWrt.
      - milankragujevic 8y ago
        I'd rather not Mediatek, I'll try to find the C7 used or brand new but opened box on ads, if not, Mikrotik...
- ak217 8y ago
  150 mbps can be managed easily by an Archer C7 or one of many other QCA ar71xx based routers, which can be picked up for under $50 nowadays. The Netgear R7800, while a bit more expensive ($150), is still cheaper than the price you mention, and is very powerful and able to handle gigabit speeds easily.
  - milankragujevic 8y ago
    Netgear R7800: Again, $150 in USA, €280 in Serbia, €250 in Hungary, etc...
    - the8472 8y ago
      Hungary is part of the EU, can't you order from germany or austria where it's 170€?
      - milankragujevic 8y ago
        customs. i'm in serbia but i can get anything from hungary via a friend.
        the8472 8y ago
        but this arrangement doesn't allow your hungarian friend to order from other EU countries?
        milankragujevic 8y ago
        technically no, it's only cheaper as he bribes the customs in serbia and gets VAT back in hungary. it's already as complicated as it gets.
    - paulcarroty 8y ago
      ebay.com Guess your customs are not equal 80-90%.
- venj 8y ago
  have a look at ubiquiti routers: their edge router lite is capable of handling gbit, and can protect against buffer bloat at up to 100mbits/sec. the only doznside is that they are harder to manage than the average consumer router They cost about $100
  - milankragujevic 8y ago
    will do, that and mikrotik. i think i can manage managing it fine, i've worked a small bit with mikrotik
    - fencepost 8y ago
      For that matter, it looks like most of the Mikrotik routers can actually have OpenWRT installed on them, though not all of them have device-specific pages in https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_864?dataflt%5BBrand*%7E%5D=mikrotik https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_864?dataflt%5BBr... Edit: wups, misremembered Serbia as Slovenia. More like 160 Euro in Serbia: http://www.sampro.rs/Proizvod.aspx?kid=162&pid=33332&name=Mikrotik-hAP-ac-RB962UIGS-5HACT2HNT http://www.sampro.rs/Proizvod.aspx?kid=162&pid=33332&name=Mi... Edit2: Arrgh, and didn't read far enough on the thread before sticking my foot in it where you otherwise discuss the Mikrotiks. (previously) Going up to the question of Slovenia higher in the thread, there's a Slovenian vendor who has the "hAP ac" (dual band, gigabit, SFP, USB port) for 121 Euro (https://www.virtua-it.si/izdelek/mikrotik-routerboard-hap-ac-rb962uigs-5hact2hnt/ https://www.virtua-it.si/izdelek/mikrotik-routerboard-hap-ac...) along with other less-capable and cheaper models.
    - moreorless 8y ago
      Netgate makes some very nice appliances. For example: https://www.netgate.com/solutions/pfsense/sg-1100.html https://www.netgate.com/solutions/pfsense/sg-1100.html
  - MertsA 8y ago
    The edgerouter lite is quite old at this point and if the purpose is to use QoS to manage buffer bloat then the EdgeRouter X which is only like $50 would be faster. The edgerouter lite is of limited use for new installations nowadays.
sexyrouter 8y ago
After getting my TPlink router bricked and not having soldering skills for Serial UART. I got fed up and built my own router which never gets bricked: I bought Orange Pi3 (38 USD) from AliExpress. Orange Pi 3 H6 2GB LPDDR3 8GB EMMC Flash Gigabyte Ethernet Port AP6256 WIFI BT5.0 4*USB3.0 Support Android 7.0, Ubuntu, Debian https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/bfPcZFXS https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/bfPcZFXS It has Gigabyte ethernet Port and USB3 capable of delivering 5gbps. (Superspeed Mode) And I bought 1300mbps WiFi dongle (15 USD) from AliExpress: CF-WU782AC USB 3.0 1300Mbps Network Card Wireless WiFi Adapter+Dual Antenna High Speed 5Gbps Net card https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cGawgQRQ https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cGawgQRQ I used this to build a router. Setup Hostapd + dnsmasq Alternatively run Pihole and your custom iptable rules I get around 900Mbps (5Ghz AC network) on WiFi to all my rooms. Build your own router! Why do you guys still buy overpriced routers? What advantage do you've over my custom built one?
- IgorPartola 8y ago
  A couple of reasons. First, up until recently you couldn’t buy good hardware to build your own router, that was cheap and had gigabit or faster Ethernet. Second, support. If something happens to me or I am traveling, I want others to be able to figure out wtf is going on. Third is that I might want more than one AP and I might want to install them in places that are not great for home built looking hardware. My current setup is a TP-Link router with OpenWRT, and UniFi access points for Wi-Fi. The UniFis are really nice because they are PoE, so I only need to run a single wire to where they are installed. That’s not to say that what you did was wrong. It’s super cool! Just not a one size fits all solution.
- Semaphor 8y ago
  It does sound nice, does it handle multiple clients? Not a ton, but most of the day I have around 10 clients connected. I'd really like to upgrade from my aging RT-N66U
  - sexyrouter 8y ago
    I've tested it with 20 devices, works fine
MertsA 8y ago
>A lot of vendors (even big enterprise ones) use openwrt builds for their products, but don't provide updates, documentation or sources to their customers. Case and point, Ubiquiti networks is once again flagrantly violating the GPL. Their AmpliFi product is basically just a reskin of OpenWRT but they won't provide the source to it.
- nijaru 8y ago
  AFAIK their edgeos is based on vyos, but I have no experience with their amplifi line
  - MertsA 8y ago
    It's based on Vyatta, they've had it going since before the split into Vyos but as I understand it there was some collaboration between projects as they are both forks of Vyatta.
- jki275 8y ago
  Cite?
  - MertsA 8y ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/8e0w38/mesh_wifi_showdown_plume_google_wifi_eero_amplifi/dxrofaz/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/8e0w38/mesh_wifi_... It's been well over a year.

milankragujevic 8y ago

wrt bufferbloat: my internet is too fast (150 mbps) for a cheap router to effectively manage the connection, meaning that unless i pay 250€ for a router, I will just slow down my Internet needlessly.

bubblethink 8y ago
I have 150 Mbps and a sub $50 router (ac-68u commonly sold by t-mobile on clearance as tm-1900) does fine with sqm without any significant loss in speed. Note that this has no open wifi drivers. So you'll need a separate AP, or use a more blob friendly distribution like dd-wrt. Or use two of these, one with blobs as AP and one without blobs running openwrt. That was a great combination under $100.
- milankragujevic 8y ago
  To be honest, that router costs 28 000 RSD ( https://www.gigatron.rs/ruteri/asus_dualband_wirelessac1900_gigabit_router__rtac68u_-51253 https://www.gigatron.rs/ruteri/asus_dualband_wirelessac1900_... ) which translates in EUR to 236 EUR, so your point is not valid for outside of the USA. To get a feel for a router that costs exactly €50, see TP-Link MR3420 V5. Also, the router you mentioned (ASUS RT-AC68U has a dual core 800 MHz Broadcom processor and 256 MB RAM and 128 MB Flash storage, while most routers at 50€ have a 400 MHz Ralink/Mediatek Processor (single core) with 32MB (at most 64 MB) RAM and 4 or 8 MB SPI memory. ) I'm glad you happen to live in a country where you can obtain such a router for so little, I am not so lucky, so I use my ISP provided one that barely manages that 150 Mbps (thankfully with a Gigabit port (yes single LAN port)).
  - bubblethink 8y ago
    Yes, this is the discounted price because the hardware is a bit old. However, I think there are some decent affordable routers around the world. More so if you are open to ordering from China. I haven't been following the ultra cheap space too much, but you should definitely check out the forums. There are also APU2 boards (https://www.pcengines.ch/ https://www.pcengines.ch/) that may provide a good bang for the buck. There's also old x86 hardware if you don't care about power consumption.
    - milankragujevic 8y ago
      The only thing I've found that is acceptable to me is this: https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_ac2 https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_ac2 (or "RBD52G-5HacD2HnD-TC", ... damn, don't they love the long-ass names). 128 MB RAM, Qualcomm processor quad core at 700 MHz (but ARM! :) ) and 5 gigabit RJ45 ports + Dual Band WiFi and a USB port! Plus, even if I can't get OpenWrt to work on it (though I prefer it), I can find my way with Mikrotik's RouterOS. I actually recently setup a PTP link at 3 km with 2 SXTsq's. Though I expected 100 Mbps, it only ended up being 72 Mbps stable, more than that and there's problems with the connection. I liked the old SXT more, you could put OpenWRT on it, the new ones use weird flash memory which OpenWrt can't write to... edit: forgot to mention, it's 60€ brand new from a friend who works at a WISP
  - ejanus 8y ago
    What is " 4 or 8 MB SPI memory "? Why using SPI to qualify memory ? Are you trying to something like SD and friends?
    - plasticchris 8y ago
      It's just the interface, serial peripheral interface.
    - makomk 8y ago
      The firmware for routers like this is stored on SPI flash memory, and the size of the SPI flash chip determines how easily you can fit third-party firmware like OpenWRT on the router and how many compromises are necessary to do so. It's soldered on so not really user replaceable.
tapper82 8y ago
I am sorry mate, but this is not true. I have a connection that is 220 down and 12 up and my C7[-v2 can run SQM and I can get 190 down and 11.5 up. Set your Queue setup script to piece_of_cake.qos:
- milankragujevic 8y ago
  Again, a 128 MB RAM and 720 MHz CPU which is not Ralink/Mediatek. This is not a fair comparison. And the C7 costs 120€. http://www.netiks.rs/tp-link-ac1750-archer-c7 http://www.netiks.rs/tp-link-ac1750-archer-c7
  - tapper82 8y ago
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-Link-Archer-C7-AC1750-Wireless-Dual-Band-Gigabit-Cable-Fiber-Router-UK/272320507362?epid=182569425&hash=item3f67912de2:g:X6QAAOSw4shX9lWD:rk:1:pf:0 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-Link-Archer-C7-AC1750-Wireless... £63 For MediaTek what about the c50? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-Link-ARCHER-C50-AC1200-Mbps-Wireless-AC-Router/283349250350?epid=182569425&hash=item41f8ee712e:g:EW4AAOSw7OdcR3I-:rk:9:pf:0 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TP-Link-ARCHER-C50-AC1200-Mbps-Wi... £23 I am not shure what ver this one is tho v1 and v3 of the c50 work with OpenWrt.
    - milankragujevic 8y ago
      I'd rather not Mediatek, I'll try to find the C7 used or brand new but opened box on ads, if not, Mikrotik...
ak217 8y ago
150 mbps can be managed easily by an Archer C7 or one of many other QCA ar71xx based routers, which can be picked up for under $50 nowadays. The Netgear R7800, while a bit more expensive ($150), is still cheaper than the price you mention, and is very powerful and able to handle gigabit speeds easily.
- milankragujevic 8y ago
  Netgear R7800: Again, $150 in USA, €280 in Serbia, €250 in Hungary, etc...
  - the8472 8y ago
    Hungary is part of the EU, can't you order from germany or austria where it's 170€?
    - milankragujevic 8y ago
      customs. i'm in serbia but i can get anything from hungary via a friend.
      - the8472 8y ago
        but this arrangement doesn't allow your hungarian friend to order from other EU countries?
        milankragujevic 8y ago
        technically no, it's only cheaper as he bribes the customs in serbia and gets VAT back in hungary. it's already as complicated as it gets.
  - paulcarroty 8y ago
    ebay.com Guess your customs are not equal 80-90%.
venj 8y ago
have a look at ubiquiti routers: their edge router lite is capable of handling gbit, and can protect against buffer bloat at up to 100mbits/sec. the only doznside is that they are harder to manage than the average consumer router They cost about $100
- milankragujevic 8y ago
  will do, that and mikrotik. i think i can manage managing it fine, i've worked a small bit with mikrotik
  - fencepost 8y ago
    For that matter, it looks like most of the Mikrotik routers can actually have OpenWRT installed on them, though not all of them have device-specific pages in https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_864?dataflt%5BBrand*%7E%5D=mikrotik https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_864?dataflt%5BBr... Edit: wups, misremembered Serbia as Slovenia. More like 160 Euro in Serbia: http://www.sampro.rs/Proizvod.aspx?kid=162&pid=33332&name=Mikrotik-hAP-ac-RB962UIGS-5HACT2HNT http://www.sampro.rs/Proizvod.aspx?kid=162&pid=33332&name=Mi... Edit2: Arrgh, and didn't read far enough on the thread before sticking my foot in it where you otherwise discuss the Mikrotiks. (previously) Going up to the question of Slovenia higher in the thread, there's a Slovenian vendor who has the "hAP ac" (dual band, gigabit, SFP, USB port) for 121 Euro (https://www.virtua-it.si/izdelek/mikrotik-routerboard-hap-ac-rb962uigs-5hact2hnt/ https://www.virtua-it.si/izdelek/mikrotik-routerboard-hap-ac...) along with other less-capable and cheaper models.
  - moreorless 8y ago
    Netgate makes some very nice appliances. For example: https://www.netgate.com/solutions/pfsense/sg-1100.html https://www.netgate.com/solutions/pfsense/sg-1100.html
- MertsA 8y ago
  The edgerouter lite is quite old at this point and if the purpose is to use QoS to manage buffer bloat then the EdgeRouter X which is only like $50 would be faster. The edgerouter lite is of limited use for new installations nowadays.

sexyrouter 8y ago

After getting my TPlink router bricked and not having soldering skills for Serial UART. I got fed up and built my own router which never gets bricked: I bought Orange Pi3 (38 USD) from AliExpress. Orange Pi 3 H6 2GB LPDDR3 8GB EMMC Flash Gigabyte Ethernet Port AP6256 WIFI BT5.0 4*USB3.0 Support Android 7.0, Ubuntu, Debian https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/bfPcZFXS https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/bfPcZFXS It has Gigabyte ethernet Port and USB3 capable of delivering 5gbps. (Superspeed Mode) And I bought 1300mbps WiFi dongle (15 USD) from AliExpress: CF-WU782AC USB 3.0 1300Mbps Network Card Wireless WiFi Adapter+Dual Antenna High Speed 5Gbps Net card https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cGawgQRQ https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cGawgQRQ I used this to build a router. Setup Hostapd + dnsmasq Alternatively run Pihole and your custom iptable rules I get around 900Mbps (5Ghz AC network) on WiFi to all my rooms. Build your own router! Why do you guys still buy overpriced routers? What advantage do you've over my custom built one?

IgorPartola 8y ago
A couple of reasons. First, up until recently you couldn’t buy good hardware to build your own router, that was cheap and had gigabit or faster Ethernet. Second, support. If something happens to me or I am traveling, I want others to be able to figure out wtf is going on. Third is that I might want more than one AP and I might want to install them in places that are not great for home built looking hardware. My current setup is a TP-Link router with OpenWRT, and UniFi access points for Wi-Fi. The UniFis are really nice because they are PoE, so I only need to run a single wire to where they are installed. That’s not to say that what you did was wrong. It’s super cool! Just not a one size fits all solution.
Semaphor 8y ago
It does sound nice, does it handle multiple clients? Not a ton, but most of the day I have around 10 clients connected. I'd really like to upgrade from my aging RT-N66U
- sexyrouter 8y ago
  I've tested it with 20 devices, works fine

MertsA 8y ago

>A lot of vendors (even big enterprise ones) use openwrt builds for their products, but don't provide updates, documentation or sources to their customers. Case and point, Ubiquiti networks is once again flagrantly violating the GPL. Their AmpliFi product is basically just a reskin of OpenWRT but they won't provide the source to it.

nijaru 8y ago
AFAIK their edgeos is based on vyos, but I have no experience with their amplifi line
- MertsA 8y ago
  It's based on Vyatta, they've had it going since before the split into Vyos but as I understand it there was some collaboration between projects as they are both forks of Vyatta.
jki275 8y ago
Cite?
- MertsA 8y ago
  https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/8e0w38/mesh_wifi_showdown_plume_google_wifi_eero_amplifi/dxrofaz/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/8e0w38/mesh_wifi_... It's been well over a year.