Best OpenWrt Router for my use-case

Hello all!
I currently own a TP-Link Archer C6 v2 router, which unfortunately has some stability issues on 5Ghz WiFi (strange things happen, like the connection slowing down a lot in 5Ghz when a device connects on 2.4 and things like that).
I would like to upgrade my router within a 150EUR budget.
The new router should be able to handle:

  • Fully compatible with OpenWRT
  • STABLE
  • VLANs
  • OpenVPN with decent speeds (at least 15Mbps - but something with AES hardware encoding should be better if exists at that price range)
  • Great 5Ghz Wifi (I would go with at least 1700Mbps, more is better)
  • 4 LAN Ports + 1 WAN Port (assignable to different VLANs - Full gigabit speed)
  • PPPoE support on WAN port (not sure if all routers have this)
  • Great SQM-QoS support
  • I would say at least 128MB of RAM, 256 better

During my researches I found the Zyxel Armor Z2 AC2600, but it's a little bit over my budget.
Thanks a lot!

Ps. I need also a "Dumb AP" compatible with OpenWRT in order to set "802.11r Fast Transition", because currently I have a second Archer C6 which has the same issues running OpenWrt

Some things to consider before you upgrade...

The Archer C6 already supports theoretical 5GHz of 867Mbps. Few clients will support faster than this.

What is your ISP connection speed? Your Archer C6 most likely supports a little over 100Mbps SQM. If your ISP is not a lot faster than that, upgrading your router will not help.

Can you use Wireguard instead of OpenVPN? This will achieve your 15Mbps VPN target speed on your Archer C6 - no upgrade required.

Finally, you might try an OpenWrt snapshot (master) before you upgrade. The low 5GHz performance issue you are having may be fixed.

As to an upgrade on a budget - I would keep an eye out for a used EA8500 or R7800. You might need a USB to serial dongle to flash the EA8500, but it is a good capable device. The R7800 is a bit faster. Either will run circles around your Archer C6.

1 Like

What about buying a Nanopi R2S as router and a Xiaomi router AC2100 as wifi/switch? You can get both for something like 70€ and should have what you want. Its a bit tricky but i would like that setup.

Nanopi is giving to me like 90 Mbps with openvpn, and test from other users say that SQM works over 400 Mbps, but its at initial states (i didnt have any crash or something strange in weeks)