I'm new to OpenWrt. Looking to buy a router (1 device, "SoC" if I understand correctly) which can handle the followings using OpenWrt:
vpn server (if too much I can "implement" this on my linux server)
network monitoring
adblock
guest network
potentially SQM (if I see improvements)
DNS encryption (not necessary)
potentially a few other things (dynamis dns, mpd.. but not necessary)
(wifi is not that important, it should be sufficient)
Current internet speed is 250Mbit/50Mbit. But let's keep in mind this could improve in the future.
Budget is around 100$. (I've read this famous post: So you have 500Mbps-1Gbps fiber and need a router READ THIS FIRST but I think have a bit different requirements. Maybe I'm wrong though.)
Devices: 3 devices via LAN; wifi: few smart thingies (not much traffic), few mobiles, 2 chromecast
(Currently at home I have a Compal CH7465VF modem from the internet provider, but I'm having some issues with that which I hope an openwrt router can solve, but if not it is still needed for better privacy. Strange thing is this device has 512MB RAM and 2 core ~1200Mhz CPU so it is not that far off from mr8300 HW - by numbers, no idea about quality. But my guess is the software is trash and also it does too many things (handling telephone etc) so hopefully I can see some improvements.)
Why I think mr8300 can be enough to do this work is because the current Compal can do it as well (the basic part) and HW-wise they are sort of "similar". And SW can only improve.
(Edit: to elaborate a little: I'm having very strange internet disconnect issue (5-10 seconds in duration). Sometimes like every 10 minutes. Sometimes once a day. I've tried handling this with the provider, they changed modems etc, but issue is still there. Earlier this year they sent an update to the modem which "solved" the issue for a few months but then something changed and it came back and got worse. Very strange phenomenon. The cause could be outside of my flat or their modem as well. By buying a router I'm hoping to eliminate one of the reasons as well as I've always planned to setup a "proper" openwrt home device.)
No, it can do around 300 MBit/s plain routing, without sqm, vpn, monitoring or anything complex.
(don't stop reading at the top, the more interesting devices are only coming up towards the end; AMD jaguar can just route 1 GBit/s without any margin, baytrail-d can route that with ease, but tops out around 830 MBit/s with sqm/ cake).
This depends on what exactly you're trying to do, a full blown IDS would probably mean i5 level performance.
Then I have to rethink this.
I can let go of network monitoring. And can also let go of the other requirements in the hope of openwrt SW somehow solving the strange issue I described. Problem is if not I could only use this router for "privacy" until the next speed upgrade basically, after that I'd need a new and better one if I understand correctly.
I guess I could use my linux server (an older laptop) to execute the heavy stuff and use the router just for routing but I'm doing a bunch of other things there so wouldn't rely on it too much.
Any suggestions about a router which can handle like 500Mbit/s in similar price range? (just routing)
if you only want the routing, no bells and whistles; cr25ing / cr25wing / cr35wing / trustwave ts-25 / sw301da / sw302da / roqos rc10, look them up on ebay.
the cr25s are definitely the cheapest option, of the ones listed.
In this case (as both sqm is wanted and a speed upgrade in sight), I would skip the AMD jaguar based options (cyberoam) and would go with baytrail-d based devices instead (10-30 EUR more expensive, much faster (up to ~830 MBit/s with sqm/cake)).
