I'm looking to build a new WiFi system comprising a central router/AP and a number of dump AP's, some cabled to the router, some in remote locations connected via point to point wireless links. Internet connection will be via S̶k̶y̶N̶e̶t̶ Star Link. It's been quite a long time since I built a completely new system, and I have not been following the tech very closely for a number of years. I have a short list of TP-Link gear that I hope will prove suitable and I am looking for user feedback on the stability of these units with OpenWRT 23.05. I am in rural Australia and am looking at TP-Link because of availability and price.
S̶k̶y̶N̶e̶t̶ - Bridge mode only
Main router - TP-Link AX-23/AX1800 - 802.11ax & r, DHCP, DNS, no VPN, no storage
Dumb AP's - TP-Link WAX206 - 802.11ax & r, no DHCP, no DNS
PtoP wireless - TP-Link CPE-220 - setup as dumb AP and Client locked pairs.
There may be better options, for example CPE-210 would probably suffice instead of the 220, but 210's are not currently in stock in Australia. WAX-206's are probably overspec'd as far as throughput is concerned, but I haven't seen anything else available for cheaper.
If anyone has experience with these devices running stable OpenWRT 23.05, particularly with regards to their long term stability as these units will be many hours drive away if something goes wrong, I'd like to hear from you.
Yes, my mistake, I've been looking at so many different devices I've confused myself.
I hadn't thought of using the WAX as the main router, but that is a good suggestion, it's only $10 more and reduces the number of different units I have to maintain.
to answer your main question, the AX23 is cheaper than the 206, and we've seen more posts about it at the forum, than the 206, which isn't very popular.
very few, if any, of them have been negative though, except for issues going back to stock on the 23, but that's been solved.
I'm owner of Netgear WAX206, bought it cheap when it was selling at around US30 from Amazon Japan (in fact quite a number of folks in this forum and my friends in home country bought them), basically no complain with it. Antenna is internal but designed very well that the signal coverage is better than many routers with ext. antenna. 5GHz 4x4 can be used as 2x2 when you use 160MHz channel width (this is not possible with stock firmware), tested with 2.5GbE uplink I remember I got 1.3Gbps throughput by WiFi.
Yeah, I had two too, sold them again (for no real reason, but I think they initially had issues with 2.5GbE on the WAN port), replaced them with WRS36s.
I can attest to the stability of AX23 devices, running snapshots, for hundreds of days without reboot. Usage is VPN, DHCP, DNS behind another router/modem. You should have no issues running stable.