Netgear R7200 vs Broadcom chipset

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello forum, first post here.

I have a Netgear R7200 (I live in Canada) that I contemplate to install OpenWRT on. I read that the router is in the database, but I also read that it is not because it is in the database that OpenWRT should necessarily be installed. One drawback of the router seem to be the Broadcom wireless chipset. I believe I read it would only work at 2.4GHz and not 5G.

So should I give it a whirl or simply seek another model? I would hate breaking the internet, some people will be be happy in here, yet I need to implement some internet control on a machine basis for certain timeframe and current R7200 does not seem to offer such a feature.

Thanks

2

It's a Mediatek device, according to the R7200 wiki entry.

1 Like
3

Gee I see that now @frollic I swear I saw Broadcom somewhere. I suppose Mediatek would be better? Broadcom does not seem to be very FOSS...

4

Any day of the week.

They're not.

3 Likes
5

And I suppose OpenWRT has capability to say open (or deny) 10.0.0.3 machine on Saturday, Sunday from 6h to 10h per exemple? Honestly I haven't read the docs yet...

6

yes, you can define traffic rules based on the clock.
the hard part is to keep the devies the rule should be applied to, apart from all the others.

7

Should MAC addresses not prevent this? What if I assign fix IPs?

8

you'll need to tell your clients not to use randomized MACs, this is the default for Android and Apple devices.

have a look at https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/firewall/fw3_configurations/fw3_parent_controls#time_restriction_of_internet_access

2 Likes
9

Yes, I had briefly see the command lines instructions in the page you cite awesome. If the user change intentionally his MAC he just screw himself, not to his advantage. In essence, if the MAC is not listed, it will be rejected. I guess that should be doable.

10

He could clone one of your other device MACs, thus impersonating a user that has higher privileges. Security based only on MAC address is very weak.

Without going to rather complex per-user cryptographic authentication, the best way to do this is to set up a separate kids SSID which is part of another network, and block that whole network at night. Only give kids the PSK password for that AP.

11

@mk24 e does that and will loose his access for good and that is not negociable. But thanks for the heads up.

12

Vote for returning that Netgear.

That R7200 makes use of MediaTek MT7621AT/MT7615N SoC.
Routers with that SoC combo has numerous complaints re: 5 GHz WiFi.
There is also the issue of questionable recovery method employed by Netgear routers, which can be a hit or miss.

13

MT7615 is my - and lots of people's - go-to MediaTek 802.11ac radio, so please do not mistake your and other people's issues for a general or even widespread one.

The ones not having problems never complain.

3 Likes
14

I'm also happy with my MT7621

 13:15:20 up 37 days, 19:00,  load average: 0.24, 0.12, 0.09
Linux ****net 5.10.161 #0 SMP Tue Jan 3 00:24:21 2023 mips GNU/Linux
1 Like
15

Me too:

I only use 5.4 GHz, been running excellent on version 23.03.3.

root@OpenWrt:~# uptime && uname -a
 01:25:04 up 26 days,  5:20,  load average: 0.21, 0.22, 0.19
Linux OpenWrt 5.10.161 #0 SMP Tue Jan 3 00:24:21 2023 mips GNU/Linux