I am looking for a router to replace a Cudy WR300S so I will have good Wireguard performance. I am considering three options:
The GL.iNet Flint 2
The FriendlyARM R4S
The FriendlyARM R5S
The challenge in deciding, of course, is evaluating all the consequences of the selection. The Flint 2 would be on the ground floor, but maybe not the source of wifi in most of the house. The R4S and R5S do not have wifi. They would go in the basement, and I would turn the Cudy router into a dumb AP. Is the Flint 2's wifi performance so much better than the Cudy's performance that it should be an important consideration in my decision?
The R4S is more powerful (six cores) than the R5S (four cores) but has only two ethernet ports, so I would have to buy a managed switch to use policy-based routing and exclude the TV from the Wireguard tunnel. I have not worked with managed switches. My networking knowledge is basic. I don’t want to spend days or weeks getting everything to run and then flail whenever I change or update something.
I could get a fan for the FriendlyARM router if it gets hot. Since it will be in the basement, I don’t care much about the heat beyond that as long as the unit does not overheat. The Flint 2 would be on nice furniture with soft wood. If it gets hot, as some people say that it does, I will have to do something to protect the wood. How well does the Flint 2 work and look hanging on a wall?
What do you know about each of these router’s performance with Wireguard? Heat? Difficulty of setting up the R4S or R5S? What else stands out to you as good or bad about these routers? Would you recommend something other than these two?
I have thought about a mini-PC. I worry that it would involve more complexity than I care for.
Which Wireguard performance do you need / what's your ISP speed?
According to this table, you should be able to get about 400Mbps with your Cudy.
When I had Wireguard installed on the Cudy router, speeds were 300 - 400 Mbps over wifi. I would be content with that, although I would like more. The problem was that a video call stuttered. That does not happen when I run Wireguard on the computer hosting the video call.
Apparently, putting Wireguard on the Cudy router increased latency. So I believe that I need a solution that is fast and has low latency.
But I am just trying to figure these things out. If you know more, please share.
You should get more than 400 Mbps wireguard from the cudy... I used a similar device with wireguard + SQM for 500 clients on a little bit slower link and didn't have any CPU usage problems.
No, I did not. I just read a little about how to do those things. It exceeds my current knowledge. I would welcome guidance if you care to give it. I prefer luCI to commands.
On my phone, measured by a certain speed test, speeds without Wireguard have been as high as as 700 Mbps away from the access point and 800 Mbps near the access point, but they are usually around 400 Mbps away from the access point.
Are your speeds faster than that over wifi and through Wireguard?
That should be more than sufficient. I'm on a 100/30 line and video calls are working mostly fine. The stuttering might not be caused by your end, it could as well be caused by your VPN provider and/or by the other party involved. Or by other clients on the same network if you do not use SQM. Or by your WiFi.
I would first rule out your other variables and get SQM going if that's a benefit - your speeds indicate a 1G (fiber?) connection and SQM is often discouraged and/or not necessary.
Can you attach an Ethernet cable? Try using that instead of wireless and see if it makes a difference.
Using Ethernet would be inconvenient because of how the house is wired. I could try it sometime.
The ISP provides one Gbps over cable. There are rarely more than two active devices on the LAN. Should I use SQM?
My speeds just increased significantly after I re-started the modem. That is not unusual. Maybe the stuttering happened because I had not re-started the modem in some time. Do you know why modems must be re-started occasionally?
Maybe I will re-install Wireguard on the Cudy router and check performance again.
For everyone else: I would still be interested in opinions on the three routers that I have been looking at.
Some modems are shittier than others. I never restart mine, but I'm on DOCSIS. There is often nothing you can really do, there are no open DOCSIS modems (and where I live you are forced to using the ISP equipment if the ISP wants you to).
There is "packet steering". Try all options and see what they provide
For a 1 GBps symmetrical link that you only use via WiFi, there is very likely no reason to do SQM as your WiFi Speeds will be the limit.
But yep, if you saturate your devices CPU with Wireguard (you will with 1 GBps) then you will have increased latency. Your only option is to offload the VPN to a dedicated device. If you care more about latency than speed (I normally do), then you can use SQM to limit your wan speed to 400/400 so something wireguard + sqm can very reliably do on your CPU.
Thanks, geminis3. I've seen such stats on the forum and at gl-inet.com. Do you have a Flint 2? How do you like it? Do you get this level of performance? How hot does the router get?
The device itself works amazingly well, over 5GHz WiFi I’ve been able of achieving 2gbps with OpenWrt and all hardware acceleration features enabled. For WireGuard expect 800-900mbps max either on WiFi or Ethernet.
I have not checked the temperatures but it works stable for months without requiring a reboot and it runs on open drivers so I’m sure it will be well supported by the community in the coming years.
The build quality itself is good, after all this is a consumer router so it has proper RF design.
