Router compatible or should I buy a new one?

Hello,

I wanted to set up my Router so that I have universal VPN like FlashRouters. My question now is, is it worth buying a new router or should I set up my current one with OpenWRT? I live in Germany and have a FritzBox 7360 SL. On the hardware compatibility page it says for v1 devices the version number starts with 111 but mine starts with 109. Is it still compatible? I guess if no, I'm gonna buy a new ISR.

Looking forward to your replies.

Two things to consider , a) raw line speed available to your home , and b) vpn speed you would be happy with as the processing required will likely take a hit on the speeds if youre in shooting range of Gb speeds.

Also are you interested in SQM ? I highly recommmend it - but again for very high line speeds you need a very powerful device (particularly if also doing vpn as well)

E: I can’t comment on whether your 7360 is supported , but I’d say it would probably start to struggle with maintaining speeds on vpn

2 Likes

Speed doesn't really matter that much to me. I have 100MBit VDSL, just need it to download the occasional game and such. What kind of an impact would you expect from a VPN?

1 Like

I haven't tested a Lantiq SoC, but MIPS-based SoCs tend to run around 20-50 Mbps for WireGuard, and 10 Mbps or less for OpenVPN, with SQM enabled.

If just for "occasional" use, running the VPN client on the "desktop" or "laptop" (or in a VM) would likely provide higher performance.

lantiq tends to be to the slower end of mips, it generally has a hard time doing modem+routing+NAT+simplefirewalling tasks at 100 MBit/s (not at all without softflowload --> ~85 MBit/s without, around 55 MBit/s on devices with FXS ports, such as yours), before even thinking about VPN. No, you don't have any clock cycles left to spare on a 100/40 MBit/s line using that device (that doesn't imply that it wouldn't work, but slowly and seriously performance constrained).

Thanks for your answers, so I might buy a new one then. What can you recommend for a reasonable price point? (One that works in Germany obviously) :slight_smile:

A couple questions to help guide the suggestions:

  • Would you consider using a separate modem?
  • What is "reasonably priced" for you?
  • What bandwidth do you have now? In a year or two?
  • Do you need/want VPN? If so, at what speed?

It seems like there is little choice for routers with integrated modems. But VDSL modems are also pretty expensive on their own. Is there a way to use my current FritzBox as modem so I can use another router?
I guess 200€ would be reasonable for a fast router.
Bandwidth is VDSL, probably not going to change.
I don't really need VPN, but want it just for privacy reasons.

I don't know if the FritzBox 7360 SL can function as a "transparent" modem (no NAT), but if so, that seems like a good option for freeing up your choices for a router. Personally, I prefer a separate modem so that I can "pick the best for the job" for each function, as well as being able to swap one or the other in or out when it fails. I've had water run down the cable and ruin a modem, as well as messing up the config on my router. Being able to swap in a spare router (even a 20€ one) or just plugging in directly to the modem means that I can still access the Internet to find out how to fix what I botched up.

200€ is a healthy budget.

I'd suggest looking at multi-core, ARM-based routers, such as those based on the ipq40xx, ipq806x, or mvebu platforms. There is some concern around ongoing support for the Marvell-based wireless after the recent acquisitions. I don't have any personal experience with the state of the wireless rivers for Marvell, so I can't comment meaningfully on that.

2 Likes

Well outside of the 200 EUR limit, the turris omnia offers a mvebu SoC combined with two ath10K radios, so independent of the marvell wifi issues. Nice unit, but also pretty pricy.

1 Like

OK, so the FritzBox can't be used as a modem. But I found one for 120€ that supports Supervectoring and all that. So basically 80€ left for the router.

Some fritzboxes allow PPPoE passthrough, while not the same as bridge-mode it might do at the beginning?

If your 7360 is supported by OpenWrt, it could be configured as plain VDSL2+vectoring (profile 17b --> up to 100/40 MBit/s) modem, but the hardware isn't capable of super-vectoring (profile 35b --> 250/40 MBit/s).

I don't have this box, but I would say chances are good. According to BoxMatrix, these variants exist:

Model Firmware version
FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7360 SL 109.xx.yy
FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7360 v1 111.xx.yy
FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7360 v2 124.xx.yy
FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7360 EWE 111.xx.yy

When support for the 7360 was introduced to OpenWrt, the commit message referred to the 7360 SL variant explicitly.

With this in mind, I understand the OpenWrt wiki as warning about the 7360 v2 being unsupported.

On OpenWrt: yes, by setting up a bridge. For improved security, you can assign the bridge to the wan firewall zone, and manage the box via the lan or a separate management interface as usual. Connect both VLANs to the router using a single cable and VLAN tagging, or using two cables.

On FritzOS: maybe. Some models run as a bridged DSL modem after a factory reset, or can be coerced into bridging mode with a patched config file. This configuration is not supported by the vendor.

1 Like

Thanks for all the answer, guys.
Alright, I'm gonna try setting up the FritzBox with OpenWRT. I do have a backup if something should go wrong :wink:
Now for the router recommendation, what about the ASUS RT-AC58U? Seems to have a good price/performance ratio.

Good SOC, but this particular router ships with a totally insufficient amount of RAM, making it one of the worst choices you could make. Basically all other ipq40xx devices ship with >=256 MB RAM instead (and you need at least that much).