Hello, I am considering replacing my current WiFi-5 OpenWRT router(s) and have been doing some looking in the forums and ToH over the past few months. If possible I am hoping to purchase something that's fairly future proof + I'd like to play with the 6GHz spectrum. This narrows things down to a WiFi 6e or WiFi 7 router. The below look like potentially good possibilities:
Adtran SDG-8733 - on paper this one looks great. Also has 2GB memory + stable OpenWRT. It looks difficult to get ahold of and expensive, but seems like it offers a lot.
Gemtek MXF-W1700K / Quantum Fiber W1700K - great specs but is still on snapshot only and I'm a little concerned if the radios will give good coverage (seems like the unit will operate best standing up? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)
ASUS ZenWiFi BT8 - looks like it's gained a lot of traction recently and is probably the best-supported WiFi 7 OpenWRT router out there right now. It has 1GB memory, which is one reason I'm hesitating a little bit. I'm sure that is PLENTY for OpenWRT, I am toying with the idea of running one or two docker containers on any new router I get, however, and I feel like an extra GB of RAM would certainly be helpful for that.
I had been shying away from the Banana Pi BPI-R4 due to heat concerns and somewhat mixed reviews of stability and longevity I was seeing in the forums.
Would anyone familiar with this models and/or the latest hardware be willing to weigh in on these routers and factors I'm looking for (WiFi 6e/7 + good OpenWRT support + possible Docker container running in the future)?
Thanks for any/all advice and for those who put in a lot of hard work to make OpenWRT possible!
Thank you, @frolllic and @cookiemonster for weighing in. I appreciate the insights!
Ok, so it looks like if I want WiFi 7 I should go to the BT8. That's clear and helpful. I will chew on that.
In the interest of saving a few bucks and because I almost certainly don't need WiFi 7-level performance, I also dived into the ToH and looked for WiFi 6e 6Ghz-capable devices so I could at least scratch the 6GHz itch I have. After some more research I ruled a lot of them out for one reason or another (there didn't seem to be a ton of stable-looking options, based on my limited experience). One unit that stuck out to me as a potentially good option is the Linksys MX8500.
This unit looks to have pretty solid hardware specs and is available relatively cheaply second-hand. Would you have any reservations going with one of these as a main router if I don't opt for WiFi 7 yet? This would be replacing my current Linksys WRT3200ACM which has overall been a good router for my family. We'd be jumping from WiFi 5 to WiFi 6e, so that'd be a decent little hop in itself, right?
Open to any more insights/thoughts anyone may have. I'm trying to move ahead cautiously with hardware selection. I want to build with an eye toward the future but also not break the bank where unnecessary. I like tech but I also don't have the need to be on the bleeding edge (though it's also sometimes fun to have something powerful to mess around with if I can afford it).
The one other potential option I see would be the Acer Predator Connect W6. It's on eBay refurbished for around $80 USD. This one certainly won't have much in the way of wife-appeal, though, (the router has to sit out in the open in our home) so I'm leaning toward not going that route.
This one also requires soldering to the serial header it looks like.
Edit: I'm reading things on the forum about the Predator Connect W6 that give me further pause. I won't be going this direction. (Seeing bad experiences with secure boot)
Thank you both again! I'll keep all of this in mind. I think I'll just wait for the time being and see how everything shakes out with the newer models/etc.
If anyone has feedback/experience with the Linksys MX8500, input there would still be helpful for that option if possible. Thanks!
6 GHz without wifi7 and MLO is kind of pointless, unless you're living in an extremely congested area with many other 5 GHz WLANs active. In practice, 6 GHz under wifi6e terms isn't any faster than 5 GHz, but lacks all the range (wall penetration) - it's there, but doesn't gain you anything. Now with wifi7 and MLO5+6, you get a real boost (>>1.5 GBit/s in practice, as long as you are in the same room), but it's still very early days for that.
Again, if you are in a high-rise and a small apartment, it might give you the edge over your neighbours nevertheless.
Be aware that 6 GHz is effectively single-room only, you only profit from it, if you have one 6 GHz capable AP per room - otherwise 5 GHz will (almost) always be preferred.
All of these should raise the question if you really want to spend big on wifi6e now - or go with 'cheap wifi6' now and defer the 6 GHz topic once affordable wifi7 devices are fully supported by OpenWrt (I know this will take a while). Just as a general word of caution, don't try to be an early adopter (unless you want to become a developer), you only end up paying through the nose, deal with immature software and by the time it does become actually usable, there'd be better devices for (much) less on the market, which just work.
--
…and yes, I am aware that we won't see 'cheap' wifi7 with 6 GHz capabilities soon, just because the third radio does cost money and currently only ends up in pricey high-end prosumer gear.
Great advice, @slh. Thanks for the sanity check and explanation.
After hearing all of this, I've narrowed things down to:
GL-iNet GL-MT6000
ASUS ZenWiFi BT8
Maybe Acer Wave 7 at some point if/when it gets OpenWRT supportEDIT: I don't think I want to go with this one any more
All in all, based on @slh's post, I think the GL-MT6000 may be the device I go with. It isn't terribly expensive and has very good support from this community. I don't need to be the speed king or cutting edge. I think this device would probably do great for me and meet the needs just fine for now and into the foreseeable future.
The Spectrum SAX1V1K (Askey RT5010W) also looks like a super capable WiFi 6 router, but the install looks more on the difficult side (though it looks like @Lanchon and others have done a TON of work to get it to where it is).
That hardware can be had for around $40-80 in the US
The Spectrum SAX1V1K (Askey RT5010W) is almost identical to Dynalink WRX36, my WRX36 is currently running the Qualcommax NSS Build (AgustinLorenzo build) and it's very powerful with NSS; Spectrum SAX1V1K is very difficult to flash and can be had for very cheap off ebay.
I think I'm narrowing things down to these two. They appear to both be easy to flash and have good support/speeds/etc. Downside is that they are $170-300 each at full price. I'm going to keep pondering and seeing what goes on sale soon.
GL-MT6000 (~$170 USD - Amazon)
ASUS ZenWiFi BT8 (~$275 USD - Amazon)
The Spectrum SAX1V1K (Askey RT5010W) does look like a cool device. Plus it's cheap. The flashing process gives me a bit of hesitation, though. I'd need to buy the gear to do this and learn how. I've never flashed anything over serial before/worked with serial much at all. Learning this certainly isn't a bad thing(!), but not sure that's where I should put my time right now. I've done a little soldering in the past. That part doesn't intimidate me too much. Gear is only like $20 on Amazon on the plus side (USB Serial TTL Adapter + cables). Does that look like the right stuff?
What @Twingo shared is helpful. Though I'm reading that with NSS enabled it cannot do Bridle VLAN filtering like I'm used to. Plus custom build is needed. It feels like it'd be nice to go with the GL-MT6000 that has Offloading built in and functional w/ stock.
Feel free to chime in/correct me if I'm wrong in any of this. Thanks!
well, it is not ideal. on one hand, the port is solid and the CPU is very capable and has lots of ram and storage; not to mention you can get it new for $50 including tax and shipping sometimes, and for less used.
the problem is the network hardware acceleration: the qcomm NSS module is not and will never be supported by mainline linux or openwrt. in fact, qcomm gave up on it and replaced it with different hardware that is easier to mainline, and work on that is underway.
the NSS module gives you 2 options:
either use official openwrt, with the full ecosystem and all its packages available, and use it for CPU/RAM/storage bound needs
or use the NSS fork (without maintenance guarantees), with an outdated swconfig build (instead of DSA) and without transparent access to the official package repos, but with network hardware acceleration.
for these reasons, i would consider a mediatek device instead.
which have always worked well and feature long cables. note that these adapters are fixed 3.3V, which is what you want 99% of the time. the previous ones also allow 5V which should never be needed because any real 5V TTL should be compatible with 3.3V signaling. then one in amazon says it also supports 1.8V which might come handy once before you grow old and leave the planet.
