I was browsing privacy tools and Found out about this project. It looks great! I as considering giving it a go on my router but reading the info page found out about the MT7615N Issue on 5Ghz Networks.
So not I'm not sure. The stock firmware does mostly what I need it to do. Besides providing higher than SMB1.0 for the network drive.
I've set up an old laptop as a NAS. Its already running Blocky as a DNS with a ad blocker.
I've also set up a Wireguard client on the NAS that allows me to access my home network.
So basically, going to OpenWRT would give me the following if I understand correctly:
VPN on the router
SMB3.0
Better security and Firewall? (Maybe?)
So I'm wondering in your experience is it worth the hassel? Do I have enough to gain?
Also If the 5Ghz network ends up not working. How difficult it is to flash back the firmware for this router. Apparently I need to run it through a decryption software to be able to flash it.
If you're able to do most with the stock firmware and it's working fine for your needs then it's probably not worth it. But don't let me stop you from experimenting. Like you've said 5Ghz driver for mediatek is not very stable and there will be bugs, it might not perform like 5Ghz at all. Aside from that.
VPN on the router
Yes... if you want VPN up and running most of the times.
SMB3.0
Yes, even SMB4.0 is there... there's also new package called KSMBD, a light version of SMB with same features and less CPU load.
Better security and Firewall? (Maybe?)
Yes, Basically you will get plenty of options to customize the firmware for your needs. There're tons of packages you can install.
Flashing a third party firmware always comes with the risk of bricking it, some recover easily some don't. So please be vary about that.
Sounds good. Thanks for clarifying. Seems I was on the right track.
I'm definitely wary of bricking the router. I don't have a back up and unfortunately just bought this one less then a year ago before I started really looking into setting up a functional home network.
Well I think I'll stick with it as is for now. But I'll be keeping OpenWRT in mind in case things ever start going south.
Back in the LEDE days there used to be a great wiki document with the reasons you may want to switch from the OEM firmware to OpenWrt.
I don't have your router, so besides pointing to ToH with how to flash OpenWrt and what is and isn't supported on it, I can't help you with the particular device, but overwall OpenWrt is better because:
OpenWrt code is open source, so anyone wishing to inspect/improve it -- can. Versus the OEM code which in most cases is closed source and some firmwares are known to contain intentional or unintentional back doors, putting your entire home network at risk.
Firewall is restrictive by default and you can inspect/delete/add firewall rules, versus OEM firewall which if you don't have shell access to your router you can't even know what firewall settings/rules are.
OpenWrt to most OEM firmwares is like a smartphone OS to a "feature" phone OS. With OpenWrt you can add and remove packages you need, you are likely to be using the most up-to-date/patched packages versus outdated packages with OEM firmware.
In your specific case, you can save electricity by moving your DNS with ad-blocking and your wireguard from your laptop to your router. Since you seem to be rightfully concerned over your privacy/security, a big standout feature would be DoH/DoT support (thru packages) on OpenWrt to encrypt your DNS requests and prevent your ISP from snooping on (and reselling) your DNS requests.
just a note with early versions of v21
samba4 wont fit in the available flash space
KSMBD is very buggy crashes often
can't seem to access a 2nd file from another pc while 1st one is accessing a file
it's not quite there yet