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It's been a long time since I used 3rd party router software (and I think that was Tomato). If I was buying a router specifically for OpenWRT, what would be a g
by flir 4y ago
It's been a long time since I used 3rd party router software (and I think that was Tomato). If I was buying a router specifically for OpenWRT, what would be a good choice?
I did find this (https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128 https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128) but that's a lot of choices to wade through.
- rjzzleep 4y agoI used to bring OpenWRT routers everywhere I go. But if you worry about performance I'd actually recommend you get a router that's supported by AsusWRT Merlin. I've had a lot of WIFI performance and range issues with cheaper routers on OpenWRT. I recommend looking at the supported devices list, since some models have Chinese v2 models that are indistinguishable, but unsupported. https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/ https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/ https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Supported-Devices https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Supported-De...
- AviationAtom 4y agoBroadcom's driver model is annoying. Definitely why Merlin shines here.
- plagiarist 4y agoI have been a casual Linux user from back when I did installs from Ubuntu ISO CDs in the mail. Broadcom is in everything and has always a huge pain to work with, it remains a huge pain to this day.
- loginatnine 4y agoI second Merlin's recommandation, it's just the right amount of stock+custom features I want for my day to day. Rock solid for stability.
- zitsarethecure 4y agoDoes asus merlin support wireguard yet?
- joshschreuder 4y agoHas done since 3rd Dec for the 388 branch https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/changelog https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/changelog
- fanatic2pope 4y agoUnfortunately the 388 branch is for AX models only.
- trelane 4y ago> indistinguishable, but unsupported Ah, hardware vendors. Never change.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago>> indistinguishable, but unsupported > Ah, hardware vendors. Never change. Hardware vendors, please never change; it makes our lives harder when you do;)
- trelane 4y agoThe best part is that it makes third party firmware much harder, but at the same time their own firmware is proprietary abandonware in very short order.
- Thalarg 4y agoI do not recommend any of Asus routers because the hardware is unstable/buggy. The most recent purchase RT-AX58X was rebooting every 20-50 minutes, and there were no ways to fix it. Unless you want to buy multiple, test and return the buggy ones.
- suprjami 4y agoI buy GL.iNet routers, they've been incredibly reliable. They come with OpenWrt on them, plus the vendor's web interface. You can flash regular OpenWrt which is the first thing I do. Make sure any model you look at is supported on the ToH. It takes a while for brand new models to appear in stable owrt releases.
- gardaani 4y agoSadly, GL.iNet Wi-fi 6 routers seem to have no official openwrt support. None of their devices are listed here: https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi There seems to be some experimental openwrt build for GL.iNet Flint (GL-AX1800), but it still has some issues with fans: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/gl-inet-ax1800-new-router-openwrt-support/105163/376 https://forum.openwrt.org/t/gl-inet-ax1800-new-router-openwr...
- Bad_CRC 4y agoGL.inet has openwrt from factory with a nice ui. I tried one of their cheap ones.
- YakBizzarro 4y agoGL.inet are not using openwrt from factory. You can see in many forum threads. It's a custom one, sometimes derived from vendor SDK, like qsdk. I have one very nice small router from them, which can run mainline openwrt, but this is not always the case
- trelane 4y agoI ran into this after considering upgrading my hardware (WRT3200ACM and friends can't upgrade past 22.0.2 due to a "broken mv88e6176 switch." https://openwrt.org/releases/22.03/notes-22.03.3#mvebubroken_mv88e6176_switch https://openwrt.org/releases/22.03/notes-22.03.3#mvebubroken... But the Flint model (802.11ax) is using Qualcomm's hacked up OpenWRT: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/gl-inet-gl-ax1800-flint-users-discussion/143643 https://forum.openwrt.org/t/gl-inet-gl-ax1800-flint-users-di... Sounds like it'll be a while.
- bdavbdav 4y agoThis will largely depend on how much (read: bandwidth) you want to route. I used to be a big fan of the PCEngines ALIX boxes (https://openwrt.org/toh/pcengines/apu https://openwrt.org/toh/pcengines/apu) because you could run pretty much anything on them, but with big gigabit connections nowadays, they're less well suited. If you're looking to route the lower end of things, you're likely to be fine with an SBC like the above. If you're looking for more, then something with Hardware offload is worth looking out for. With OpenWRT, you're likely to be looking at either a fairly meaty X86 for gigabit, or an off-the-shelf for which it supports HW offload.
- amarshall 4y agoApu2 can route gigabit just fine (on Linux with non-PPPoE). No idea about OpenWRT specifically but assume it works.
- bdavbdav 4y agoAhh that may be consensus bias on my behalf - in the UK we're largely on PPPoE sadly.
- meinheld111 4y agoThing is that most users want some form of qos/aqm to guard against load induced delay, which the apu and similar low power devices cannot handle above a few hundred mbps
- flir 4y agoThat's interesting, because you've identified the reason I asked the question - on my TP-Link router wired connections just flood out wireless connections, and make them unusable as long as I'm doing anything heavy (like downloading ISOs). The solution's not going to be found in the firmware, is it?
- e4m2 4y agoYes, in general, having a better router would probably help (although you haven't mentioned the exact model you have, maybe it's already fine and the problem is elsewhere). Enabling SQM [1] would probably mitigate the issue further, at the cost of requiring more processing power. [1] https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/traffic-shaping/sqm https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/traffic-shaping/...
- jonpurdy 4y agoMore specific in my case: are there any APs that would be good replacements for Unifi AP AC models or above? Looking to replace my unifi setup with something simpler (don’t need to provision APs centrally as I just have one, but want the rock solid reliability and speed).
- AviationAtom 4y agoOmada
- waz0wski 4y agoOpenWRT runs on some Ubiquiti hardware, check their compatibility list
- jyscao 4y agoWhat I did was to look for good value second hand routers nearby to me on Kijiji (Canadian classified market similar to Craigslist) then narrow them down by OpenWrt support. Using this method, I bought 3 wireless routers 2.5-3 years ago for a total of about 50 CAD. They have been running as dumb wireless APs (https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/dumbap https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/dumbap) ever since, to great effect.
- segasaturn 4y agoThe router I see being recommended for openWRT lately is the Belkin RT3200 (also called Linksys E8450, they're the same device) because it's a cheap router you can get at Walmart and has 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) support out of the box with openWRT.
- Palomides 4y agoI have one of these running openwrt and I'm quite happy with it
- highpost 4y agoI have a few of these: WIFI6, 128MB Flash, 64-bit ARM A53, DSA, hardware NAT offloading, solid build quality and the price is right. If you look at the OpenWRT TOH you’ll see hundreds of models but historically some of them get more love than others. I think this model will be popular in the OpenWRT world in the same way as the TP-Link Archer C7, Netgear WNDR3700 and Linksys WRT54G models. At least I hope so.
- BLKNSLVR 4y agoAnother vote for GL.inet devices here, I've got a couple of Mango's and a couple of Creta's. Both low end devices, but their wifi coverage is great for the price and size of device, and they're working well for me as Wifi-VPN gateways, although I don't push a lot of bandwidth through them. The more you pay the more bandwidth they can handle, depends on how / where / why of the implementation.
- chatmasta 4y agoGL.inet devices are convenient and user friendly, but they run (by default at least) an outdated fork of OpenWRT and have issues with overheating.
- webmobdev 4y agoNote also to actually research the GL.iNet router model before purchasing - they falsely label some routers as "official openwrt". For example, the GL-SF1200 is listed as an OpenWRT router by them but some of the binaries on it, run on an outdated Linux kernel, and have not been fully made available to the public by the manufacturers of the Chinese SoC used on it. Thus, it is unlikely to run any OpenWRT fork or even receive opensource updates - https://forum.openwrt.org/t/how-do-gl-inet-devices-become-supported-by-official-openwrt-releases/103883 https://forum.openwrt.org/t/how-do-gl-inet-devices-become-su...
- chaxor 4y agoI think the Nanopi R5C Mini seems like a good choice for OpenWRT (Dual 2.5Gbps, Rockchip RK3568B2) https://a.co/d/0sHWZhf https://a.co/d/0sHWZhf
- SirMaster 4y agoI don't recommend buying a "router". I recommend buying a miniPC that has at least 2 network ports and install OpenWRT on there. You can do it on ARM-based PCs or even x86_64 based PCs. Then connect this miniPC to a cheap 8-port switch, and get some WiFi APs and connect those also to the switch. This way you will get a much more powerful and reliable "router" that can't ever "brick". Better WiFi quality with good Prosumer / small business APs, and the ability to upgrade your WiFi independently of your router as needed. Something like this for example: https://liliputing.com/linkstar-h68k-is-a-pocket-sized-router-or-mini-pc-android-openwrt-ubuntu-and-debian-support/ https://liliputing.com/linkstar-h68k-is-a-pocket-sized-route...
- rektide 4y agoI want to recommend this route so much. Alas good wifi cards are extremely hard to procure and to fit to boxes. You can maybe get someone to sell you a $200+ AP-class wifi6 board. Then you need some way to actually put it in a computer. Many are oversized mPCIe. We are starting to see some m.2 but it's rare & again they're likely to be oversized. Some have crazy power requirements, like having teo lugs to provide 5V on. This is by far the worst served aspect of personal computing & it's such a shame. I with the adding card market existed. And many how great it would be if USB chipsets could be reliable AP. Maybe they have gotten better, but after years of religiously buying everything Alfa made & trying to see how good an AP it'd be before falling over, it feels like a relatively simple ask that would make the world of difference (lots of modest sized APs everywhere) is so unlikely to happen. For no good reason that I can tell.
- SirMaster 4y agoWell to add wireless to a miniPC router, I was meaning to buy APs like these: https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-wireless https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-wireless You just put them in a good location and run a wire to your switch. Or you can get APs that support a mesh configuration and set them up wherever with 1 connected to your switch.
- tguvot 4y agoactually procuring cards not hard. i bought a bunch of times in the past compex cards with atheros chipsets from https://www.shop.compex.com.sg/products https://www.shop.compex.com.sg/products and it's alter ego https://www.524wifi.com/ https://www.524wifi.com/ . But I eventually gave up on going this route due to reasons that you described. Also it was turned out to be much more expensive to DIY compared to buying wifi ap and flashing it with openwrt. So now I run as router/everything x86 with a bunch of 10g/sfp ports and a couple of r7800 flashed with openwrt as purely AP
- aosmond 4y agoI bought a Netgear WAX202 and been pretty happy with it. At the time I bought it, I found it difficult to find many other 802.11ax models supported by OpenWRT here in Canada. I was also happy that it supported 802.11ax on both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands, the latter of which is often missing. I'm not sure how valuable it will be, but that is the first major upgrade to the 2.4 GHz band since 802.11n (2009!) and I tend to keep my routers for a long time.
- pxc 4y agoGood Life iNet devices all come with OpenWrt-based firmwares, and generally after some time you can upgrade to vanilla OpenWrt without having to resort to recovery mode or similar shenanigans. Even if you don't, you can access the traditional OpenWrt web interface (Luci) on the vendor's firmware, alongside their (pretty nice) simplified web interface. https://www.gl-inet.com/ https://www.gl-inet.com/
- dehrmann 4y agoI like Mikrotik hardware.