Advice to buy Netgear or Linksys router

Hi

I have a choice to get a Linksys MR8300 or a Netgear Nighthawk X6S (R8000P).

Can you please suggest which is the best among the two for long term use and robust hardware compatibility with OpenWRT?

My use case is mostly large file downloads, VPN connections and Wifi using phones and laptop over a 2000 sqft + area.

Thank you for your suggestions/direction.

The X6S is as Broadcom based device, it will have crippled wifi running openwrt. I wouldn't buy it.

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Yes I read that about the broadcom devices and thats why this question arose.
But the general review of Netgear is that its a great device openwrt wise. Thats why I thought I would ask people using OpenWRT to see what they have to say.

I'd stay away, no matter what, but ultimately, it's your call.

Advice taken. Thank you.

As an extension of the question - is the hardware on the MR8300 good or is it just so so?

It's a tri band device, so it's not really fast, since the advertised (wifi) speed of 2200 is divided into three radios, and you can only connect to one at a time.

Your budget, location? DO you need WiFi 6/Ax or can do with WiFi 5/AC

I am in India and there seems to be very limited Wifi6 supported devices on OpenWRT. Their prices also seem to be very high to consider at this point - all above 150-200$ if I am not wrong.

Any alternative you would suggest?

This poster found a dlink, for reasonable price, I would expect.

RT3200
You can order it from amazon UAE
about 110 USD

Try flipkart, Amazon.
Best option is to visit your local hardware market, and search for used routers. Best in that class with great Openwrt support is Netgear 7800.

Another option could be xiamoi if you don't need USB.

If he can order from UAE, why not UK Amazon same device for as low as 39£

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Amazon won't ship?

Hi.
I own a MR8300. It works very correctly, but don't expect wonder if you have a Gbit/s WAN. Let's say that 500 Mbit/s is a maximum for plain use.
My only advice would be to run the linksys firmware, setup wifis, and wait for half an hour before installing OpenWrt. I had troubles with the radio0 wifi at first launch: it seems that the router needs time to calibrate DFS channels. After that it works like a charm.
You can use luci advanced reboot to change boot partition.

The device has 3 wifis
2.4 GHz 300 Mbit/s
5 GHz (channels 36 to 64) 867 Mbit/s
5 GHz (channels 100 to 165) 867 Mbit/s
They all can be used simultaneously (I bought this router precisely for this purpose)

That means that the maximum link for a device is 867 Mbit/s, not the 2200 advertised. These advertisements are foolish.

I don't think they will ship from UK /UAE to India. Or the shipping cost will be absurd.

Thank you. Do you think this is better compared to say a WRT3200ACM?

The WRT3200ACM is a high-end router, so it's better than the MR8300.
That being said, choose your device according to your need and budget.

The wrt3200 is powerful, but got semi broken 802.11n wifi.