Router recommendation

I like where LEDE is going and will want to buy a router which is supported or is going to be supported by LEDE. I find the supported hardware page unfinished and hard to understand.I understand that most builds are still in beta and i may be forced to wait until stable release.

Can anyone point me to routers with AC1750 or AC1900, that are or going to be supported by stable LEDE release?

I was thinking something in the range of Linksys WRT1900AC, but its not in supported hardware section. Cheaper routers like Tp-link Archer C7 are also an option. I just want a stable LEDE experience.

Any help will be appreciated.

Between Linksys (Marvell, mwlwifi) and TP-Link (probably Qualcomm/Atheros only, ath10k) the latter seems to have the wider userbase.

You might find this thread helpful.

Thanks, was helpful indeed.

Well, of course TP-Link models have a wider userbase. They have been around longer and they used to play nice with 3rd party firmware--but that has changed. TP-Link has made minimal effort to support the open community since they adopted those USA non-3rd party firmware requirements. My efforts to flash TP-Links with recent manufacture dates have all failed. I try the same procedure on models with older manufacturer date and it works fine. I have abandoned TP-Link as a result and haven't bought one since. Based on my experience, I think buyer should beware when buying TP-Link.

You're missing the point. The poster asked about well supported AC hardware.

Almost all supported post FCC lockdown TP-Link models have some workaround available so you can load third party firmware on it anyway.

@Borromini

This is good to hear. The "workarounds" you mention must be new because they weren't there in the fall 2015 (I haven't bought TP-Link in over a year cause of the trouble I had with them).

Regarding my "missing the point", do you not think that failure to flash counts as "not well supported"?

It does, but people here won't be recommending him routers that he cannot flash.

Which page exactly? What is unfinished and / or hard to understand?
I seldom get feedback, therefore your thoughts on this are very welcome.

It is there: https://lede-project.org/toh/start?dataflt[Model*~]=wrt1900
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OK, to be fair: It wasn't when you were looking at the ToH, since WRT1900AC was missing the LEDE support status (glitch in the matrix... or something similar). I now added the support status, hence WRT1900AC showing up accordingly.

Am I missing it or does the supported devices chart not tell what driver is used?

I'm afraid, that information is not available in the dataentries.

EDIT: We have of course the ToH with full hardware information: https://lede-project.org/toh/views/toh_extended_all, where you can see the WLAN hardware used in a device, and from that, you should be able to get the driver used.

I see it now grrrh, hate this glitches, happens to me constantly. :smiley:

The page is https://lede-project.org/toh/views/toh_available_864 . I start to understand part of it now actually, but the unfinished /hard to grasp part is the empty fields and this signs "¿". Also the part that in "ideal for LEDE table" there are routers with no wifi working and WIP.

¿ = ?
This is a workaround, since the data plugin used for the ToH can not handle ? queries.
Meaning of ¿ = We don't know.

"Unsupported" column: This is (almost) 100% c/o from the OpenWrt ToH, therefore not 100% accurate for LEDE.
I found c/o better than leaving this column just blank for LEDE, but I agree, this columns content needs to be revised.

Who could do this?

I understand the table now, was a bit harsh to classify it that way, but was a bit overwhelming at first.

P.S. A small bug: when trying to order the routers by flash or cpu clock speed, the order is definitely not correct.

You are right. Sorting is not as one would expect it. I found no quick solution for this.

I got D-link 860l, seems like a nice router. LEDE working great for now. Best regards.

I got an Archer C7 v3 from Amazon and it took Gargoyle straight from the stock web UI so it seems they have backed off from locking it down due to the FCC scare they had.

@flame as a user going to the page I want to be able to quickly find an exact link to a router I can buy and know will work. Take the TP-Link Archer C7 router for example. Version 2 is known to work and it looks like v3 is also know to work now, but how do I know what version the router is that I am about to purchase? It would be better if there were some way to avoid having to do additional research to be able to find a router that matches what is being described on the supported hardware page. Maybe, add a form to the site for submitting successful installs rather than editing the wiki directly. Include in the form a request for the link to where the purchase was made, and when and what hardware/firmware combination was acquired through the purchase, along with the details of what was installed.