Hello. I have seen Raspberry Pi 4 being recommended as a wired router for OpenWRT for its powerfull CPU, but it's WiFi is usually simply described as poor/bad. I understand that it's unwise to use it as a primary AP and that it's no replacement for the actual WiFi AP/router, but what the actual throughput (and stability) might I expect out of its WiFi module in 802.11ac mode (with current openwrt builds) and how useful is it if e.g. I were (to buy it and) to place my primary AP in a diferent room and use RPi as a router and a secondary AP? My most critical/important devices are hardwired anywhay, but there are many WiFi devices in my home and because of the way it was built, I do have wifi signal strength issues even with 2 APs right now, so I'd suppose any more APs/radios (even the slow ones) might be better for smartphones and whatnot. Can it be used for that or would it be too slow (<100-200mbps) or too unstable for it in AP mode?
(I have no plans in changing/buying anything for now, I'm just curious)
if you can give it an isolated band... then 2-3 nearby devices using standard wpa2-psk @10-30Mb/s would work ok...
afaik... without lowlevel workarounds 1-client-ac-max is 52Mb/s
fancy/legacy encryption or crowded airwaves compound known caveats...
any available cheap AP will likely outperform and make your life much, much simpler...
you can buy second hand devices like HH5a for 10$ and it offers great AP range - that would be my go to device if I'd need to extend my wifi network.
AFAIK rpi4 is only good as a wired router until someone designs/produces a cheap board with gb nic and pci expansion based on rpi CM4
I never had much success with the onboard wifi on my RPi4 but now use BT mesh discs to handle the wifi and works great.
~200 £ - definitely not cheap...
I brought mine used £80 for 6 still not cheap but work great. Mine are the first version, they now do mini or premium versions too... I might upgrade when a set cones up reasonable money.