I’m totally lost with the discussions in these forums. I don’t know much about these things but I did a speed test for buffer bloat and was getting over 300ms of latency using my ISP modem. I have my PC frame time down to 5ms but noticed a huge delay between what I’m seeing in online games BO6 Multiplayer and Warzone and what’s happening, which caused me to look into this. I have a 1Gbps setup but I know I don’t need it based on my reading here and obviously what it’ll likely cost.
What I’m looking for and my usage:
Best bang for the buck for gaming primarily. (SQM?)
I do stream 4k content.
There will be less than 3 people on my internet at any given time.
In line with the simple needs, I’d like it to be in the lower range of price.
Hopefully good enough to be relevant for at least 3 years to avoid having to replace often.
Would like to be able to receive it quickly. So maybe not ordering from china? Unless it can be received relatively quick? I’m unsure as I don’t have experience with this.
Used market if not in a retail store. Or Amazon express delivery?
Aliexpress can be reasonably quick if you pick the right courier. I go DHL but eh... But then it's no longer cheap =P
Are we talking next day, one week, two weeks or "not stuck in customs for eternity" =P
4k -> what matters is the bandwidth of the 4k stream, and how far you are away wirelessly, which creates different issues.
Lower in the price rang isn't compatible with SQM @ 1gbps. But nat / hardware nat at 1gbps would be fine.
Mediatek filogic platform, followed by mt7621 platform in terms of pricing if you want wifi. I would start with figuring out whether the following two are within your budget:
openwrt one
gl. inet mt-6000
Another option is go x86 router, separate switch, and separate AP. (i.e. gradually build out a more modular network)
Best thing is to give the following:
hard number on budget. Please define the currency.
Approximate location( i.e. continent / country etc) so people can advise on deals local to your area.
Noise
how much wireless range / speeds do you need, or are you primarily caring about wired gaming performance.
mechanical
sizing
heat load
mounting requirements,
temperature range,( in the sun, condensing environment, freezing environment,)
Power consumption limit (i.e. are you limited by price of electricity, or upfront cost....)
There's another thread in terms of long term support. Basically anything in snapshot now should be in 24.10. Having something with a mainline release will make things easier. But if you don't want to have issues in the interim until 24.10 is released, find something that is supported by 23.05.5 and will be supported in 24.10. Basically don't get something that has 8MiB of storage or less than 128M of ram. Preferably much more ram and much more storage if you want any big packages....
I don’t have an issue with going used. I’d prefer new and prefer to be able to get it within a few days from order or like Amazon since I’m a prime member but not committed to it.
As for the lower in price I’m fully aware of not being able to get SQM at 1Gbps for what I’m trying to spend
WiFi is important but for the gaming in particular I am always Ethernet. Not sure how to really search for the things you posted. I searched them and found banana pi?
Anyway. I’d like to be under $75USD but of course I know how this goes. You give a number and someone always wants to hit the highest you put instead of looking at needs. Like I can’t see realistically needing more than 250Mbps for my needs but someone will try to show me the rabbit hole. I’m big into audio and that rabbit hole is stuffed lol.
I’m in Central Florida. I’m not restricted on power or temp issues.
mt7621a is not going to be game for sqm at 1 GBit/s (without sqm, yes, but not with it - maybe a quarter t a third at most), filogic 830 should be, filogic 820 might be; (reasonable) x86_64 will be.
Just want to make sure everyone is understanding. I just stated what my system has. I am by no means considering using it all which is why I provided my use cases because I don’t see really even needing 250Mbps for gaming or streaming but I got a good deal on it. I’m primarily looking to purchase this for better online competitive gaming while still be able to stream 4k and what not without any issues with like 2 or 3 devices max.
You guys may have to speak to me like a 5 year old because unlike audio and video tech I know nothing about this stuff lol I’m dying inside right now,
Get a low end mini PC. Something with an N100 and two ports. Amazon has this sort of thing for $130-140. GMKtek or Beelink or similar.
Get a tp-link sg-108pe PoE managed switch. (Not ideal, but acceptable for LAN use).
Get an Omada access point of your choice.
Install OpenWrt on the PC, set up one port as the WAN and the other port as LAN, plugged into port 8 on the switch.
Plug the Omada access point into the switch, where it'll get power.
Plug other devices, especially gaming devices, into the switch, do NOT game on WiFi.
Total cost about $300, will be future proof for at least a decade. You can expand to a second or third access point. You can add PoE cameras or other nice things. you can run VLANs, you can do a lot of great stuff.
One additional option, with some downsides, would be to run Proxmox on the mini PC and run OpenWrt in a VM. Then easy to clone, change settings and test, or upgrade, with fallbacks.
Cheapest option is an older PC, 5th or 6th gen Intel i5 or i7 with an additional pcie NIC.
Use the existing router as a switch and dumb access point.
Gives you gigabit routing and sqm for stuff all $$. As long as power use isn’t a consideration this setup will crush any all in one device in the sub $100 range, new or used
Cheapest option is the GL.iNet Flint 2 (GL-MT6000). Should have plenty horsepower for what you need. Is probably going to sell for around 100 of your local currency around black friday.
Please also see this thread for other recommendations: Best "newcomer routers" - 2024 - #2 by richb-hanover-priv
GL-MT6000 is top tier right now. From OEM simply flash a sysupgrade image to OpenWrt 23.05.5 (or 24.10-snapshot if you know what you're doing). Install Luci, SQM, Adblock-fast, etc. all the usual goodies. Configure SQM as per this guide. This is the best latency you will ever see from a home networking standpoint. The rest will be ISP/server/tickrate upstream related. This target being Filogic 830 can do up to around 900Mbps with SQM, or 2.5Gbps with HFO.
Can be because of your ISP. There are many factors out of our control latency wise.
However please post your SQM configuration here (cat /etc/config/sqm).
Or take iterative approach: https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat -> latency and up/down without control
Set qos upload/egress to half of achieved and rise up towards achieved speed until take one step back when latency starts to go up.
If download is still not under control redo in download direction.
