Hardware advise (cheap, good support and available in Germany)

These devices are cheap but not very reliable.

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BT Home Hub 5 Type A can be bought on auction on ebay.co.uk for 6 or 7 pounds including delivery in UK. "Buy Now" prices can be around 10. FLA and RAM space is great but CPU isn't that good (but it also has ADSL/VDSL so good cheap all in one solution. I bought one to replace my ISP modem and make a WDS with my Archer C7, so will give it a try when I receive it and report back.

There is also the BT Smart Hub (aka Home Hub 6) Type B that looks interesting but isn't supported yet. I am trying to look into that.

If you happen to buy a BT hub, ask the seller to send you a photo of the sticker, because they look similar and people sometimes list them under the wrong model number. BT Home Hub 5 Type A is what you want. Type B wont work.

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I also think that Fritz!boxes are popular in Germany, and the are some models supported. You can probably get one from ebay.

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What about AVM Fritzbox 4040?

That's an IPQ4018 device: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/AVM_FRITZ!Box_4040
Current price is about 75 EUR with shipping included: https://geizhals.de/avm-fritz-box-4040-20002763-a1501050.html

OpenWrt on Fritzbox 4040: https://openwrt.org/toh/avm/avm_fritz_box_4040

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I was also going to suggest the 4040, I have it and I am quite pleased with it, on the whole.
Opening it and adding a serial port is fairly simple (see later)

However, it must be noted that the switch is not quite behaving the way we'd like in OpenWRT and deviating from the default settings of 4 wired ports -> 1 VLAN is asking for trouble (and this is where a serial port will save your bacon)

It should be noted, in fairness, that the issue is common to other devices in the IPQ family.
(keywords: ipq40xx vlan)

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It is actually straightforward, as long as you don't follow the instructions for non-ipq40xx devices. I presently have multiple, trunked VLANs on the "blue" port, and one of those bridged to the "yellow" ports as untagged, running on multiple EA8300s.

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Be careful regarding shipping costs to Germany, and customs duty (19%).
But otherwise, most bang for the buck. Ask for EU-power plug when ordering. Only a bit tricky to do the initial flash.

Well, from what I read, most issues with unreliable network are sorted out now thanks to more mature drivers. Apart from that the reliability seems to be ok, there might be a higher chance to brick the device and it can have problems with poweroffs causing bad config files. But overall I did not see any recent complaints about the device.

I saw them. Unfortunately I need shipping to Germany and a different power plug. That causes a somewhat increased price, resulting in about 20-25€ total, I guess, thus I am currently in favor of the Xiaomi Router 3G.


I don't consider that cheap anymore :slight_smile: Nonetheless I think it has a rather good value when not compared to Chinese products. Also I might not even have to install OpenWrt, since the existing FritzOS already offers most options I need.


I am aware of that, the price included shipping to Germany and tax coverage. I contacted the supplier whether they ship with EU plug. I will also take a look at alternative power supplies which might fit better as @mk24 suggested.

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If 75 Euro is too cheap, then why not buy Netgear R7800?

Qualcomm IPQ8065 with Dual Core ARM and 512 MB RAM: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_R7800
OpenWrt on R7800: https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/r7800

could be bought for 170 Euro in Germany with shipping included: https://geizhals.de/netgear-nighthawk-x4s-r7800-100pes-r7800-100uks-a1403461.html

I (also) use a Xiaomi 3G, got it with EU-plug. No problem.

No, wrong direction. I think the FritzBox is too expensive :slight_smile:


But probably a different shop like Aliexpress, right? Chinabrands has the lowest price I found, the only problem is that I need to confirm the plug.

Is it a real problem in Germany? Here in Russia you can get adapters everywhere almost for free. Most likely you can order an adapter from China too for a couple of pennies.

Bought from Aliexpress.

Problem might be the wrong word. I just rather want to check that first before I order, so maybe I can directly get the correct plug instead of needing to use an adapter (which I don't like that much) or buying a fitting plug (which is expensive).

In this case you can be certain that Xiaomi will come with a Chinese plug.

Most likely, but there are traders at least on Aliexpress who ship with a EU plug. But probably you are right.

My vote would go for the ea6350 wrt1900ac wrt3200acm.

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You mean WRT190ACS

They seem to be all good devices, but I was looking for cheap ones.