Here are the priorities (most important to least important):
First, let me take a step back. I get the sense that there are 3 camps of users-- good bang for the buck, privacy motivated, feature motivated. I am primarily privacy motivated.
Easy to install the latest version of openwrt on. Well supported by the wiki. I also want to get reasonable security settings applied- maybe I am on my own with that in that the device doesn't matter.
Inexpensive. Definitely less than $75. Ideally less than $35.
future proof- will continue to be supported.
3+ or more lan ports, 1+ wifi channel with wpa3 personal. I don't care much about speed.. I guess 500+ mbps for the LAN ports?
Without a specific recommendation, look at this thread or its 2024 counterpart:
The poster clarified that "newcomer" doesn't mean "new on the market as of [year]" but rather "best recommendation for people new to OpenWRT." So being well-supported, having good documentation, and having a one-step installation mechanism is a must.
Specifically, look at what's written under "honorable mentions," because all the recommended ones are over your budget. However, some of the honorable mentions are within your budget—they're just not easy to install, so they don't fully meet the criteria of the thread.
rant1: product pages on manufacturer's website these days are cringe.
rant2: amazon product titles at top of a product listing are even more cringe.
On the Cudy downloads website,
(I don't understand why this forum links to the German page instead of English. I have always put the English link.)
I only see
WR3000 1.0
WR3000E 1.0
WR3000H 1.0
WR3000S 1.0
(nothing beyond version 1.0)
For this model, I do see 2 versions.
M3000 1.0
M3000 2.0
so, the v1 "specification" is just to future proof the post?
