Hey all,
I want to get started with OpenWrt. The first step is to find a router. I have spent a considerable amount of time looking at the forum, reddit and at the hardware table.
I think I narrowed down to two devices: Netgear R7800 and Linksys MR8300. The problem is: The R7800 is not available where I'm (Europe). The Linksys one is on Amazon for 115 bucks. I found a used R7800 for 100 bucks.
I'm unsure what to do. Buying used is risky as there's no return or the like. The MR8300 I can return if I don't like it or if something doesn't work with OpenWrt (I assume I can restore the stock firmware..).
I also considered the Archer C7 but I think it's too little power and I wanted something more future proof. My intended setup is:
Current Internet speed: 75 Mbit/s
5 lan clients
A couple of IoT devices that I want to be in a sep VLAN
Game consoles, also on their own VLAN
Guest WLAN
Nice to have: VPN, ADBlock..
So what would you recommend me? The used Netgear R7800 or get a new Linksys MR8300?
I have no experience with the Linksys but I have been using the same R7800 since ~2016 and it is bullet proof. Too bad they are not making them any more. An alternative to consider is the Archer A6 V3. I purchased one to play and it seems pretty decent as an access point. Since your internet speed is pretty low, it would be fine for you I think for SQM if you wanted it. Maybe someone else can recommend the MR8300 since you have the option to buy it new.
Hey thanks for the reply.
Yeah there are tons of posts around the R7800. In general it seems the best one so far? Is it running stable for you? How's the wifi? I'll be mostly connected with it via Wifi as there's no sockets around in the flat. Since I'm not experienced with networking (I think I know the basics..) I fear that if it's not stable, I might lose time and etc. It's fine in the beginning until I figure out everything but once it's setup should run smoothly. That's what I fear with the Linksys, seems not much content around.
The r7800 is higher end (faster SOC, faster WLAN, faster throughput, working VLANs), what the mr8300 has going for it would be the triple-radio hardware (good for wireless repeaters/ mesh situations).
I'd say that ipq806x is in better shape than ipq40xx. qca8k is mainline (and its PR just waiting to be merged), VLAN tagging works as intended and performance is better (~650 MBit/s vs 360 MBit/s routing throughput). The remaining (non-backport) patches for ipq806x are rather straight forward (thanks a lot to Ansuel's work).
Yes, ipq40xx also works well - but the wired networking side is ...difficult (especially in regards to VLANs). If you don't need custom VLAN setups, it's fine (and DSA, which is supposed to fix the deficiencies of the out-of-tree ethernet+switch driver, for it is slowly taking shape, but not quite ready for prime time, yet).
EDIT: Let's be clear, functionally both are working pretty nicely - and both are still improving, but ipq806x is higher end (faster) and more versatile with fully working switch drivers (ipq40xx will improve/ get on par with this in the future). For <300 MBit/s (without SQM) both will do, for AP uses the lower prices and the tri-radio option might swing the decision towards ipq4019.
Hum interesting. Could you point me maybe on what is the issues with VLANs in IPQ40xx? I would be using VLANs, both for wired and wifi clients (wired most likely only PS4 and chromecast).
I can't find the R7800 to buy anymore, not even used.. so will have to find another model.
If you're located in North America, https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/askey/rt4230w_rev6 would be a viable alternative (starting around 20 USD on the used markets), apart from that there are several less popular (supported) ipq806x devices that can occassionally be found rather cheaply (e.g. ZyXEL Armor Z2 NBG6817, ASRock G10, Linksys EA8500, …).
Thanks all for the suggestions. Still looking into it. I was browsing the forum and bumped into this other model: https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/e8450 (Belkin RT3200). Seems to be well supported? Do you know anything from it? A bit pricy but.. (150 Germany). Between paying 100 for a used R7800 and this..I feel more inclined to this one but again, not sure.
The rt3200 is snapshots only until the next major release, development still appears to be a bit bumpy as well - but it's an interesting device (the normal price is ~95 EUR, not the ~155 EUR amazon is asking for right now).
Yeah it's gone in Amazon.de now. I have the chance of getting a Netgear R7800 for 100bucks. I've been researching and that one seems like a no brainer, well supported model. Lots of community content on it.
With that said, what would you recommend me now? Take this used one (Used for 2 years the seller said, used with OpenWRT as well, now shipped with Stock firmware). 100 bucks is not cheap, but this router was for 200+ so.. guess price is OK. I'm just a bit concerned of the years starting to creep in.
Yeah I saw that, never ordered something from Amazon that would incur taxes. But as far as I saw this one is still only supported in snapshot? I'm pretty much dependent on working internet these days due to WFH, and would suck if the router starts to behave funky. I didn't find much content around it here.
The g10 is working nicely, but it's an older generation (ipq8064, 2*1.4 GHz, with the EOLed QCA9980 wireless - versus ipq8065, 2*1.7 GHz and QCA9984 which is regularly getting firmware updates from QCA). I bought a used one (albeit for a fraction of that price) as backup device and I'm rather happy with it for the intended purpose - but ipq8065 is a worthwhile update nevertheless.
