Cheap router with BEAMFORMING

Yeah, I guess that's right you need ssh access to stock, which doesn't happen.

You should be able to get a localized firmware from tp-link's website. what is your local?

https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/download-center

is the US link, but you can replace "us" with the two letter country code, like "de" or "it" or "fr" or "pl" or what have you for other locales. Since you mention you're in EU I'm guessing you can get what you need from there somehow?

The C7 was bought in Germany and the Germany site doesn't offer a download.

from my experience the best coverage are like this, if you want to go ac, then the best one is ubiquiti ac lite lr, or for the n, the best one is 1043nd-v4, they bot work great with openwrt, v4 can be found very cheap on second hand, didn't had the chance to test the v5, on v1 you could stop httpd service and compile only the needed options, maybe disable ipv6, if you use more flash then you also use more ram, maybe you can try the ath79 images on v1

I suspect this is an oversight on the part of TP-Link's web team or due to some kind of regulations in Germany. If you go to the French site, you get firmware, and it's called "Multi language" EU region. If you go to poland you also get the same firmware revision. I do suspect the EU region just gets a single firmware:

https://www.tp-link.com/fr/download/Archer-C7_V5.html#Firmware

https://www.tp-link.com/pl/download/Archer-C7_V5.html#Firmware

From the french site it links: https://static.tp-link.com/2018/201805/20180518/Archer%20C7(EU)_V5_180425.zip

From the polish site, same thing: https://static.tp-link.com/2018/201805/20180518/Archer%20C7(EU)_V5_180425.zip

Thank you again, I compared md5sum of the French and the Spanish version, they are they same.

In the meantime I flashed the Archer C7. Everything is fine, except that I do not understand with it gets only 72Mbps with my phone. There is no difference between the stock fw and openwrt. Maybe the C7 uses old hardware? With elder phones the shown speed is 65Mbps and 72Mbps at the same place. My newest phone shows 86Mbps. So there is a difference with the phones.

I do tests with a Netgear R7800 now too, which is planned as a master-wds-ap. but it uses stock-fw until now, I have it a few hours. With the R7800 I get 45Mbps with 2.4Ghz at my desired position, but close to the router 86Mbps, with 5Ghz it is -80dbM and 90Mbps (shown on my Android phone) at my 2nd worst place and unusable at my worst place. With 2.4GHz it is at the limit at my worst place, but the speed changes after a while significantly. So maybe beamforming is doing it's job?

I am not sure if the Netgear R7800 is able to use beamforming with openwrt 18.06.1?

These numbers are what, the connection speed or a speed-test speed? The connection speed just means what modulation they are negotiating, it doesn't have anything to do with the actual practical transfer speed really. When actively transferring, devices can dynamically renegotiate speeds through time, and etc. You have to actually test speed-test to understand how well things really work.

If you really need so much Beamforming, then you should pay close attention to the products Ruckus, in particular R500 (used on ebay ~$60-65).

I fhink the Ruckus cannot work with wifi bridging, it it is not possible to have an ethernet cable there.

The conneection speed are shown by my mobile phone and the values are theoretical values, but if I see bad values here, tests will even be more worse.

I found out, that with 5GHz I get 80Mbips and with 2.4GHz 85Mbps. So I think 5Ghz doesn't make sense. Testing is not so easy, before I flash the brandnew R7800 with Openwrt. Before flashing with Openwrt I will test a while if the hardware is ok with the stock-fw to get no problems with warranty, should it get broken.

I didn't find a master-wds-mode with the Netgear stock-fw, but it works somehow. If I check the devices with the client-wds-router (Openwrt Archer C7), I see all devices and I can surf with a mobile phone in the web, which is connected to the C7, but if I check the devices at R7800 with the stock-fw, I cannot see the devices, connected via LAN-ports at the C7. So WDS works in 1 direction only. Maybe the R7800 is misconfigured with the stock-fw, but I couldn't find options, which make sense to try. The R7800 was not changed very much after using, static IP, no dhcp, gateway.

Can you recommend Android-apps with iperf3 for testing. I know I need a server and a client with 2 phones, but I have problems with editing the options in the app, they seam to be fixed.

I use hurricane electrics Android app Network Tools has everything I want except ability to query DNS for srv records

Maybe I missed it while reading this thread, but which drivers (in OpenWRT) actually support beam forming??

I know e.g. that the MT7612, which would be in a lot of "cheap" routers, can do (at least it is referenced in the proprietary Mediatek driver), but its not (yet) implemented in the MT76 driver.

Do the Atheros (9K or 10K) drivers have this implemented?

I can't get it work with HE. Is the HE app a server or a client? I assumed it is a client.

But I found a solution. I installed termux on my Android phone and entered iperf3. Then I was told how to install it, very easy. Then I needed a keyboard, which is able to cancel the server with ctrl-c. I found AnySoftKeyboard, added the terminal layout and could change the keyboard with long pressing space and swiping to right.

Between 2 phones connected to the C7 (wds client, wireless bridge) I get about 20Mbit/s @2.4GHz.

Does this kind of speed test make sense?

You are right it only does client mode, I thought it could be switched.

I suspect phones have their own CPU limitations that might limit your speeds, but this test certainly makes sense as far as real world performance goes. You might look at UDP based tests in iperf3 which will detect lost packets and may offer latency measures as well, can't remember.

That's actually rather impressive speed for 2.4 GHz, especially when you consider it is wireless-to-wireless so that the packets are flowing in, then out over wireless. So your observed 20 Mbps client-to-client is actually 40 mbps over the air. For a medium that maxes out somewhere around 50-60 mbps under the best conditions, that seems like you're getting very good speeds with your setup.

try magic iperf it has all the options, ctrl+c can be sent in termux using vol_down+c or vol_up+c, read the help

Beamforming won't run higher than 1x1 MIMO speed. Instead of a spatially different path for each antenna, all the antennas work in phase as a single beam. It is a compromise to increase distance.

Try Hacker's Keyboard - it's perfect for work with terminal on Android.

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I am still testing, the speed is changing a lot, between 3 and 20 Mbit/s.

But with a Netgear R7800, I see:

root@R7800:~# iw list | grep -i beamf
SU Beamformer
SU Beamformee
MU Beamformer
MU Beamformee

At the moment I get phantastic speed rates with 2.4GHz, more than 10 times better than days before, nearly incredible, I reach 50Mbit/s with 2.4Ghz. Can this be true, but I tested different ways. If you are interested in the discussion please visit Archer C7 WDS Client: What is wrong with the configuration But I have problems to do tests with 5GHz, so I disabled it.

I suggest to stop this thread as long there is nothing new with beamforming. Maybe it is the beamforming of the R7800 which leads to my good values.

Forgot to mention it, the last 2 days I am at 40-50Mbps See Archer C7 WDS Client: What is wrong with the configuration - #3 by linuxuser Can this be true or is there a design error for the test.

Theoretically the C7 supports 450 Mbps and the R7800 supports 800Mbps, so 100Mbps are possitble theoretically. The C7 is set to txpower '7' because I am so close to the C7 with my phone in the room, so it is a little bit stronger than the R7800, but on the other hand the signal is weak to send to the wds-master.

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