Mesh Router Shopping [TP-Link Deco AX3000]

Greetings,

First time poster. Trying to find a OpenWRT supported router that the minimum features:

  • Mesh system (largish two story house)
  • Minimum of one ethernet port on each device
  • Dual band (5 Ghz speeds up to at least 1200 Mbps - don't want my 1200 Mbps fiber speed to be bottlenecked by the router)

I'm hoping some users may have already done some research that I can piggyback off of. I feel like my wishlist isn't too unreasonable. A nice-to-have feature would be a built-in VPN but I can live without.

Thanks in advance!

My eyes were set on TP-Link Deco AX3000 but according to the table of hardware, it is not supported.

These are popular.

https://www.amazon.com/Dynalink-DL-WRX36-8-Stream-Wireless-3-6Gbps/dp/B096K9SVCT/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=wrx36&qid=1684255535&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc

Fast CPU so you can run other services on them too.

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@d687r02j8g Dang that certainly has at of great features but seems to be missing the meshing capability. Any recommendations for extending?

The meshing ability will be taken of in software.

See

Will your devices be connected using a wire? You'd get better performance if you had a wired backbone.

@d687r02j8g some might be but most of my initial constraints are actually tailored toward a device that cannot be wired (I have no physically wired ethernet port in my office space and want something that functions as such).

You can connect them wirelessly using mesh software.

Sure other people will chime in with more advice.

Most WiFi 6 clients are 2x2 mimo only.

The Netgear WAX206 maybe worth considering

The ZyXel WSM20 (also branded Multy M1) is available pretty cheaply in a 3 pack (£90/€100).

It has WiFi 6 @ 1800, MT7621 dual core, 128MB flash, 256MB RAM, 4x gigabit Ethernet (including the WAN port). It’s sold as a mesh system. Support available on master.

The main limitation for you (which applies to all hw in your spec) will be that 1200 WiFi won’t come close to saturating a 1200 WAN - you’ll likely max out at about half, and the mesh backhaul will eat some of that too. In fact as the WAN port is 1Gbps you won’t be able to max out even with wired clients.

Gigabit plus internet requires pretty beefy hardware if you want to max it out. My question is, do you need to max it out? If so you’ll need to invest. If not then 500Mbps symmetric is plenty for a family streaming multiple 4k movies while also online gaming. I’d suggest reading

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@timothyjward We have a lot of simultaneous users - not to mention 24/7 video surveillance that has to be trafficked back to the server. So, I would certainly be interested in what your suggestion would be if I wanted to max out.

I strongly suggest a wired connection between the access point where the cameras are talking and the server. Whenever you can have a wire it will generally be more reliable.

You’re going to need some moderately pricey/powerful equipment for what is effectively mid-level business use. I agree with those saying that you should wire in the cameras for reliability.

I don’t have anything more useful to add than is in the linked thread I’m afraid.

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