I've been running my ASUS RT-16N for a decade or more using Tomato and I think its about time to consider an upgrade.
I've been interested in switching to OpenWrt from Tomato for sometime and thought upgarding the hardware at the same time might be the way to. I don't really need WIFI built in but that seems to be the best option so will likely turn that off. I would like to setup a vpn connection. We have lots of streaming in our house and have a NAS in the basement for photo storage/backup.
I took a quick at the supported device list and thought I'd ask for recommendations so I can narrow the options down. I was hoping to not spend lots of money and had started to look at the Ubiquiti EX-X as I can git it for around $70 in Canada but was not sure if there should be other options I consider.
I have a 75 mbps connection and usually get between 65-85 normally. (Have thought about upgrading to 150 mbps plan but have not plans yet to go up )
I would like Gigabit Ethernet, and do have a swtich behind my current router.
There is 3 of us at home and maybe a dozen-ish devices.
I would like to setup a VPN, one of the reasons I'm looking to upgrade from Tomato.
For price range, I would like to be in the $100-150 CAD but can wait and budget if a really good option is outside that range.
@M10 I originally thought about flashing openWrt on the RT-N16 but thought it just might be time for an upgrade soon.
Basically, I started looking and it seems there are so many more options then 10 years ago when I last did this.
Fortunately 100-200 MBit/s is relatively easy by today's device standards, although VPN -depending on your performance expectations and choice (wireguard is faster than IPsec, both are much faster than OpenVPN)- does need considerable hardware power. Both ipq40xx (important, at least 256 MB RAM are required, most devices meet this criteria, sadly the most common one sold in North America (rt-ac58u) doesn't) and ipq8065 would (easily) meet (and exceed) the WAN throughput requirements, with a healthy margin on top, both should also provide reasonable performance figures for VPN (at least with wireguard). Depending on your expectations and budget, I'd decide between these two (SOC-) options, there should be several opportunities for either (ipq40xx being below your budgetary range, ipq8065 right at the top or slightly exceeding it).
@slh Thanks for the advice. I would like to try wireguard for the VPN. It is also good to know to look for 256 of RAM. I can dig a little deeper ingo the SOC options you have mentioned.
If you can find a good offer for a Netgear r7800 or a ZyXEL NBG6817 (both very similar ipq8065 devices), either of them would provide the best service (better than needed, so ipq40xx remains a cheaper option).