I have successfully installed OpenWRT on my old spare router.
Now how do I add this to my current network with ISP Router?
DHCP client on wan port doesn't work for some reason.
And other lan ports on OpenWRT router don't let the pc connect to it at all for some reason.
It would be nice to use this as a switch and wifi router.
Is this possible?
What is your intent for this device? Do you want it to be a WiFi AP and switch (I.e. just extending your existing network), or do you want it to be routing (which means it will create a separate network on the lan relative to the upstream from the ISP router)?
If possible, I would like to use this as SQM router.
But I don't know if this is possible.
In that case, you'll want to use it in standard routing mode, with your entire network behind this one. Ideally, you'd remove the upstream router, or if it is a modem+router combo, maybe you can switch it into bridge/modem-only mode.
But...
Depending on your internet speeds, this may not be a good candidate. SQM requires a decent CPU to run, and older devices just don't have the power to run SQM at the desired rates.
What is your Internet speed?
What is the "old spare router"? (brand+model)
Connection is Fiber but speed is capped at 150mbps.
Old router is TP-Link W8968v4 and has 4 lan ports of 100mbps in which LAN4 is dual port as WAN.
Not suitable for SQM, even with the relatively modest 150Mbps internet speeds you're using. Right away, you'd be hard limited to a maximum of 100Mbps just as a function of the ports. And I'd be surprised if you could get even 50Mbps of practical bandwidth with SQM enabled. It wouldn't be a shock if that device could only route at around 50Mbps in best conditions (I.e. no traffic shaping).
1 Like
Thanks for the excellent info. I'm glad that I have robust support on this community.
One more question, can I use my PC? I mean I have spare pc and it got gigabit ethernet connection.
Yes, you can use a PC, but there are few caveats:
- Most x86 systems will consume a lot more power than a standard 'plastic box' wifi router. This is true for most desktop and even laptop computers unless they are designed with ultra-low power consumption in mind. This is bad for the environment as well as more expensive (your electric bill).
- You need to have at least 2 ethernet ports on your PC, or you need a managed switch in order to use a PC as a router. If you use a managed switch, you need to ensure that you're not using one of the entry level ones, as they have some critical firmware flaws that could really mess things up in this type of setup.
1 Like
For power, I got solar panels, so it's mostly reproducing more than I use.
For 2nd ethernet port/managed switch, I got none of it :(.
Suggest a good router pls that can use ISP's fiber and do sqm.
Take a look through the hardware section of the forum.... and feel free to ask there if you have more questions.
There are many factors, but probably the most important ones are:
- Your location in the world
- Your budget
- wired router or wifi built-in
- Internet speed (in your case, will not constrain your choices)
- your internet speeds in the foreseeable future
- How many ethernet ports you need
- any other services you might be running aside for SQM on the router
Wait, so if I buy a $10 gigabit ethernet adapter, I can use my PC as OpenWRT router with SQM?
Edit:
USB 3.0 Type-C adapter can work, they seems like very cost effective.
yes. But make sure you get one with a chipset that is supported by linux/OpenWrt. You can search the forums for this. A popular one is the TP-Link UE300.
1 Like
would definitely try this.
Just to clarify this aspect ("my PC").
You generally want dedicated hardware for your router, running OpenWrt natively on the bare iron. This normally means that you cannot use this PC for any other purpose but being your router (dual-boot simply doesn't make sense for a router that needs to run 24/7, virtualization is possible, but not recommended for a variety of reasons (unless you know very, very well what you're doing)). As previously mentioned, it is advisable to keep track of the (idle-) power consumption of your device, depending on age and hardware you may see anything from 5 watts to 130 watts (and more) here - which can make a significant financial difference for a device running 24/7 (in quite a few cases it will be cheaper to buy a purpose-built x86_64 device than re-using an older one and paying for that through the power bill).
1 Like
Just gone through the ToH and found Raspberry Pi also supported.
I wonder it has only 1 ethernet port, will the above TP-Link UE300 work will Raspberry Pi & OpenWRT combination?
Will this setup viable for SQM?
Depends on which Pi you've got ?
And if you don't own one already, there are cheaper options.
Raspberry pi4b and 5 have enough cpu performance to allow traffic shaping in the 500 to 1000 Mbps range, earlier/lower number pis are limitied by weaker CPU and usb attached ethernet.
Note usb ethernet dongles have a reputation of being less reliable than real NICs, but I can not tell whether that is a deserved reputation or speculation.
Got none, was checking and it got me to rpi4b. But looking at cost, a router will be more viable. Sad that no router with XPON and OpenWRT support available in my country. I have calculated the media converters for fiber and that too adds up cost. Overall if I can completely ignore my ISP router and buy only a router that supports OpenWRT and will be able to use it as network router is only option visible/viable to me.
media converter for fiber + vanilla openwrt router should be the cheapest alternative, unless you want something with an SFP or SFP+ port.