Router replace?

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hi all,
I'm new to OpenWRT but, after lurking for a while, I've really liked the community and the great job behind the project, so I'd like to migrate from other firmwares.

What I have at home is an ISP modem that NATs to my main router, a Netgear R6400v2 with Fresh Tomato.
A TL-WR841ND with dd-wrt is wired to the main router to act as a bridge and extend the wifi to the ground floor.
As clients, a lot of smart switches, a couple of smartphones and notebooks, a domotic server, a media server and a file sharing server.

I've been using this Netgear R6400v2 with Fresh Tomato for a while but I'm really not happy with it: the 2.4 GHz wifi can give up to 20 Mbps while via eth (or directly from the modem wifi) I can get 90 MBps.
Client to client file copy on 2.4 GHz is also a PITA, with a speed around 300 KBps
It also happens to have disconnections and no internet connection.
To note that the wifi channels are not crowded.

So, I was looking around to put a new firmware on it when I realized that it's not the best piece of hardware for open ones, as I need 2.4 GHz wifi.
I also have the old TL-WDR4300 with dd-wrt as backup router, but it also had some issue and needed frequent restarts.

If I needed to replace the main router, I'd have found these two devices:

  1. Netgear R7800
  2. Linksys E8450 / Belkin RT3200

The Linksys seems impossible to find where I live, but I could wait and see.

What do you guys think? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

2
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3

Please see https://openwrt.org/faq/which_router_should_i_buy before asking for recommendations. This way you will get better recommendations and come to a quicker solution.

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4

Thank you, I've just done and I've noticed I've been quite messy in my request.

I'll try to be as precise as I can.

  1. I have a FTTC connection, at the moment my max speed is about 110mps.
  2. There are about 50 clients connected while I'm writing (lots of IoT sensors and stuff), almost all via wifi, but just my 4 or 5 of them could use bandwith (smartphones, TV Sticks, notebooks...). The number is increasing in the future.
  3. No needs for USB ports, I have a media server, a smarthome server and NAS server.
  4. VPN had been useful while on holyday to check and fix some issues I had had, but it's not an all-day need.

I've ended up here https://forum.openwrt.org/t/best-2021-openwrt-wifi/84674/42 but where I live I can't find any of the mt7622b routers and R7800 seems abandoned.

I think I'll have a look at the ZyXEL nbg6817, quite expensive but it could be worth it to have a stable network.

5

defo look at having 2 AP's minimum... ( one dedicated for non-human devices )... generally that can be done with one of your legacy units...

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6

That's the kind of setup I use.

IoT devices connect via a completely isolated 802.11n network, and the other clients connect via AC2600 routers set up as APs.

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7

So you don't rely simply on an isolated subnet, you've dedicated an entire AP, with its dedicated wifi network, to your IoT devices.
But why, if the router has enough power to manage subnets, or at least multiple wifi networks?

8

because of the often limited requirements for minimal devices and their effect on more fully featured devices...

for instance... for an old (not-that-old) minix x8-hplus... I had to downgrade my whole wifi baseline settings...

think of them like 'cyclists on a busway' ... give them a cycleway and everythings runs alot faster...

9

That's right.

Probably, but there are other reasons too, my DNSes (piholes) have a 2 million records block list, sometimes it blocks to much, and instead of temp disabling the DNSes, I simply switch to the
IoT network, which uses other DNSes than the main LAN.
This doesn't happen very often, though.

I've also had issues with 802.11r when there was more than one wifi SSID configured on the radio,
instead of trying to figure it out, I bought a AC1200 device (openwrt capable of course), for $15 :slight_smile:

I also use the IoT network for guests, since it's isolated from the main LAN - whatever happens in IoT, stays in IoT.

All runs via a x86_64, so no regular router device.

Plus what wulfy23 said, the IoTs are low band with devices, but they're still there, and require attention.

10

I see, lots of devices connected querying for addresses, mqtt messages plus arp table and stuff to manage.

I really like the idea and I'm going to implement this in the next future, this will imply adding two AP, on for each floor, and right now I'm still searching a main router.

What I've found by now:

  • R7800 seems dismissed by Netgear
  • Linksys E8450 / Belkin RT3200 are not to be found here
  • ZyXEL nbg6817 had given some trouble: the first three results on the forum are about issues

Is there any good router fully compatible with OpenWRT by a clean and linear installation?

11

The nbg6817 is fine, with flashing straight from the OEM firmware.

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12

Thank you for the confirm, I was in doubt due to those posts.
I admit, knowing this could be the right router I'm even more torn: I can find it at around 260€, out of the budget, but it could be the right choice...