Best 2021 OpenWrt WiFi

That link displays Netgear C2600, not R7800 for me.

presumably the same thing.

Best Buy Canada image is the R7450.

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I need good 5GHz and 2.4GHz. I call out 2.4GHz due to my r6220 working wonderfully for my 5GHz needs, but being bad enough on 2.4GHz I need to replace the device for my home.

I went from WRT3200ACM to the Ubiquiti ER-X and a few of their APs. If you only get APs supported by OpenWrt (UAP-AC family), you can flash OpenWrt on both router and AP, I also have an older UAP-AP, so I decided to keep original firmware on both APs and use unifi controller (you can use a mobile app, but it doesn't have as many options) to manage them. If you don't have a local computer/server to run unifi controller, you can probably run it on a free Google Cloud or Oracle Cloud instance.

ER-X I got from amazon for like $60 and for APs I scouted FB Marketplace. If you only get the one older UAP-AP, you can power it thru Passive PoE eth4 port on ER-X, making it a neat setup.

If that single core MediaTek MT7621ST works fine for you,
Perhaps the current router models using the MediaTek MT7621AT dual core will suit your needs.
e.g. D-Link DIR-882 rev A1, DIR-2640, Netgear R6850 and so on...

Caveat: Models mentioned uses snapshots, so LuCI will need to be installed manually.

You can get the tp-link archer C2600 on ebay.ca, for 130.

I would not recommend tp-link,
Quality control is not up to par with a Netgear R7800.

I unfortunately bought/have two C2600. :frowning:

It's highly likely that this is really due to radio interference in the region around your home, unless you're in a highly rural area, and an arms race to louder APs is likely the reason. What you really need is to get your neighbors to STOP SHOUTING so loud. Barring that, which is virtually impossible, get yourself a second AP and wire it into your network so that it's closer to the desired area. @stangri has good ideas. I also like the TP-Link commercial APs, EAP225

Thanks for sharing! Does the Omada mobile app offer same range of control over APs as the Omada Software/Hardware controller? With Ubiquiti, you kinda have to have software/hardware controller, because the app features are very limited.

I actually haven't tried the omada app. I had the software controller running on my PC, then when I upgraded my PC rather than reinstall it I added the hardware controller. I just log into the web interface on the hardware controller. I prefer not to have proprietary apps on my phone :wink:

The omada system is very good though.

I've got three, running as APs, two of them were bought as refurbs directly from tp-link on ebay, 3rd one bought used someplace else, no issues for several years.

But hey, perhaps I've just been lucky.

I highly recommend the NETGEAR R7800-100NAS Nighthawk 2600 Mbps X4S.
Check eBay. I buy them used from eBay and have had very good luck.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=11176&_nkw=r7800+netgear&LH_ItemCondition=1000|1500|3000&_sop=10&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=3

If you don't mind me asking, what version of OpenWrt are you running on the R6220, and how exactly do the problems with 2.4GHz WiFi manifest? I'm personally running an R6220, and the 2.4GHz Wifi is "just fine", i.e. as good as can be expected in a crowded neighborhood. As others above, I'm not convinced a different router would bring significant improvement.

The R6220 has a bit of a rocky past with WiFi, for a long time there was a bug that can have caused the WiFi calibration/MAC data to be misread. That bug has been fixed with 19.07, so if, for whatever reason, you are still running 18.06 that might be the cause of your problem.

I ran snapshot from just before christmas as requested by one of the driver developers, 19.07.5, and currently have gone back to 18.06.9 as it works the best. The biggest problem is the 5GHz signal isn't strong enough to penetrate into all the rooms and when on 2.4GHz the are lag spikes or disconnects. When your kid was playing nicely with 60ms pings and they jump to hundreds or thousands there is frustration.

I was able to use flent to write up reproduction steps, so if anybody wants to dig deeper they should be able to.

The big take away is the archer c7 worked fine for me needs, but I traded it for the r6220 as somebody was reporting WiFi issues with it. Since trading I now have WiFi issues and their home works fine. I seem to have narrowed it down to the 2.4GHz on the r6220, especially in newer builds.

If you are technical enough to be able to use multiple devices to run flent I'd love to see more 2.4Ghz vs. 5Ghz data added to the above report.

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I see, thanks for the pointers, that was an interesting read (and a good indicator that I might just not be using my R6220's 2.4GHz Wifi to the point where I notice the problems you do. Nowadays it is relegated to only supply internet to my IOT devices, they don't run nearly as "hot" as your kid playing online games.)

Did you consider an external access point? Your situation sounds like it might benefit from a strategic placement of an access point instead of expecting one router at one location to cover a larger/more obstructed space. There are a few nice wall-mountable ones supported by OpenWrt now, and if your main requirement is the 2.4GHz WiFi you don't even have to go with the higher-end models.

(In a different location, I use a few Aerohive AP121s I picked up for basically free when a school upgraded to a much more expensive solution. They run OpenWrt nicely, but I wouldn't recommend them for covering larger spaces, they are more suited to be deployed in numbers, each covering a smaller space.)

I don't have that much space to cover that one router can't serve all my needs. Even if I add an ap closer to my son's room so he could use 5Ghz I still would want solid 2.4GHz for my ever increasing collection of IoT devices. Why but an ap or two when I could just get a better router?

Because even 500$ router won't cover as much as two separate AP.
Your best bet is two AP. I'm pretty sure you can find two UAP-Lite for little over 100$

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Because, as you initially said, you don't actually need a better router, you need better/stronger WiFi. It sounds like, no matter which great new router you get, you will always struggle to some extent with WiFi coverage.

It's just a suggestion, I'm not trying to talk you out of or into anything. But you can also ... just try if it helps? That additional AP can be dirt cheap, maybe even an otherwise useless old 2.4 GHz WiFi router you already have collecting mold in a drawer. And then you can still decide whether to get a nice dedicated AP for that purpose.

My problem isn't just high lag and disconnects when gaming or the terrible flent graphs posted elsewhere, it is also annoying things like having to ask the smart speaker multiple times to turn off the smart lights. There are an ever growing number of IoT devices around, many only work on 2.4GHz. This could be just a few metres away in the same room. If I solve this broken 2.4GHz problem I also solve my other problems without needing the Cadillac solution of multiple APs.

It seems like the r7800 has been discontinued. Amazon.com only has five left in stock, and that is from a third party seller that doesn't ship to Canada. I don't know of a similar ath10k device?

So it feel like the answer to my question is "there aren't any great ones". The Archer C7 v5 was working in my home. Therefore the Archer C7 is probably the best WiFi device with OpenWrt support one can buy in 2021. As Warlock said above maybe the DIR-882, etc are also good, provided one is willing to run snapshot builds.

Since I didn't feel like gambling on a device that I need to run snapshot on I've picked up an e8450 to get me by for now. Hopefully there is support soon. In the mean time I'm running stock firmware and have a working household again.

Thank you everybody for the suggestions.

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