Advice for a router

Thank you very much @eginnc .
I will go through it as soon as I start configuring the device (not yet bought ...)

Thank you very much @fakemanhk for your tips and feedback.
It looks like the WAX206 is the right choice :slight_smile:

Thinking about some steps further in the future ...
Since the horsepower seems enough there, would it be possible to run some adblocking and VPN only for some devices with this WAX206?

Thank you

For WAX206 it might be difficult because the flash size is small, can't install too many packages (I mainly use it for pure AP) and no USB port so you can do extroot as well. But I think the simple adblock tool can still be installed.

Yes, it would be possible. The WAX206 has 256 MB flash and 512MB ram. With 256MB flash, even if only half or a quarter of it is available with OpenWrt, you should have no problems at all fitting a decent selection of packages on a WAX206.

This is plenty of flash to install OpenVPN and Wireguard for VPN and Adblock. There are ways to use policy based routing (which you will also have room to install) to restrict VPN to an interface or device, but I don't have examples for that as I have not puzzled it out yet myself.

Adblock needs memory more than it needs flash - and 512MB is plenty to hold a reasonable selection of block lists in memory and still have plenty left over for other tasks. You should also have enough flash to install packages for QoS (CAKE and fq_codel for latency control).

These are the packages I can fit on a Reyee RG E5 (only 16 MB flash) using the firmware selector and adding them to the custom installed packages drop down list. Image selector includes multiple packages in less space than installing them separately, but with 256 MB of flash you probably don't need to worry about that. On my 16 MB flash Reyee RG E5, I only have ~1.5 MB left. Still, the firmware selector is easy to use and convenient for adding packages. Note in this example I change (remove) the default wpad-basic-mbedtls package and replace it with wpad-mbedtls, which takes more flash, but is needed for luci-proto-batman-adv.

  • wpad-mbedtls luci luci-app-ddns drill luci-app-sqm luci-proto-wireguard luci-app-wireguard curl ca-certificates stubby luci-app-https-dns-proxy luci-app-statistics collectd-mod-thermal luci-app-adblock tcpdump-mini openvpn-openssl openvpn-easy-rsa luci-app-openvpn openssh-sftp-server iperf3 irqbalance htop coremark speedtest-netperf wavemon pbr luci-app-pbr luci-proto-batman-adv
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After setting up my WAX206, the available storage for software package is less than 20MB which makes me thinking not many packages can be installed, something is wrong?

Depends of what you installed ?

Pretty sure mine had more space available after a fresh install, using the default image.

But its a dual firmware device, so you'll have a lot less flash space from start.

I only put the snapshot + luci-ssl....nothing else.

Weird, I sold mine so I can't tell you what I had.

20 MB left after installing base OpenWrt + LuCI is plenty to meet the OP's needs, with room to spare. It should not be difficult at all.

pretty interesting, thank you very much @eginnc for the hint

I am start wondering if the device is "future-proof" for my needs ... actually, I thought it was much more than I needed ...

But in order of priority / needs:

  • additional wireless router, with isolation of clients (how, I will see; either to isolate them on the same SSID, or create different SSIDs or VLANs)
  • DNS filtering or adblocking: it seemed nice to have directly at router level, in my opinion ...
  • VPN: if this is too heavy to have it in the router for specific devices (which I thought it was convenient), I can run it in the clients. Just out of curiosity, is VPN heavier than DNS filtering or adblocking?

Thank you

yes, VPN is encrypting data.

but as long as you don't try to install Samba, you should be set for many years ahead, flash wise.

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The WAX206 doesn't have a USB port, so it is not likely you would be installing full Samba. If you get a different device with a USB, ksmbd is a lower flash space alternative. If interested, these are the packages I typically add for external drive support - they shouldn't stress flash space too badly.

  • luci-app-ksmbd ksmbd-hotplug kmod-usb-storage kmod-usb-storage-uas f2fs-tools kmod-fs-f2fs hdparm luci-app-hd-idle e2fsprogs kmod-fs-ext4 kmod-fs-exfat libblkid1 kmod-nls-utf8 kmod-nls-cp437 kmod-fs-vfat ntfs-3g wsdd2 hfsfsck kmod-fs-hfs kmod-fs-hfsplus ksmbd-avahi-service luci-app-minidlna

Because I find that when I try to install TailScale.....OMG it just takes up all the space :frowning:

I bet it does LOL....46 MB without a custom compile and packing for TailScale!!!

You are obviously doing more advanced things that need a lot more space. I did not intend to advocate that the flash space on the WAX206 would be a good choice for you.

But for what the OP has in mind, the WAX206 should have plenty of flash space with no worries at all, including reasonable extra space to experiment a bit in the future. Just not with something like TailScale or Asterisk.

The binary of TailScale simply growing crazy in the past year, a year ago that one was just 18M and I can just fit it in my WRT3200ACM......and now :frowning:

Later I enjoyed the 100M space for NanoPi R4S which makes we forgetting the TailScale monster until I get the WAX206.....oh....