Suggestion for a router with two USB ports and 512M RAM

Hi, I need suggestion for a router with two USB ports and at least 512M RAM. WiFi 5 support is good enough. I will probably buy used one from eBay to keep the cost down. No, I don't want to build one from a RPi or something similar. Thanks.

Archer AC2600, the one with 4 external antennas.
Netgear R7800

you could also try the improved ToH at https://soif.github.io/OpenWrtTOH/?view=normal, use the custom tab to specify the amount of USB ports.

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Thanks! Didn't know the existence of the improved ToH.

Or Linksys WRT1900 series

Asus RT-AX59U

I would reconsider if you really want to go with wifi5, as good wifi6 devices aren't necessarily more expensive, but give you faster speeds (wireless, CPU, etc.) as well (but USB is less commonly found there).

Just to expand the list of ipq806x devices, nbg6817 and g10.

Thanks for the suggestion. It is an intrigued router (with eSATA port). I definitely will check it out.

mvebu wifi lives on borrowed time though, doesn't it ?

Yes, my next router upgrade definitely must have WiFi6. Right now I am just looking for something that has two USB ports, WiFi and more RAM to replace a Netgear R7000 which isn't my main router but in a special purpose use.

In what sense? The router that will be replaced is a Netgear R7000 whose wifi doesn't work at all (with OpenWrt). :slight_smile:

mwlwifi is only marginally better than that. Yes, it kind of works, for a limited definition of working while being very picky in terms of what can connect to it. The driver/ firmware is bugridden, problematic and not really maintained anymore, so it won't learn (m)any new tricks (courtesy of the abandoned firmware) nor be fixed.

If the stars are well aligned (and you don't dare to think about wpa3), it can work - and be fast at that. If one of your clients (and IoT/ smart**** stuff is among the things notoriously not interoperating with mwlwifi) doesn't work with it, it won't work - ever.

Apparently 5GHz band having more issues, and....avoid WRT3200ACM, the 1900 one is doing better (I have both) with newer driver. It does have it's problem but yesterday when I tried with 24.10.0-rc5 in the office I felt that was doing a lot better than when it's in 23.05.x, now I have WPA3 working again! And in the office the signal can cover another floor which I never expected.

For IoTs, most are still on 2.4GHz band so it's not really a problem

In fact I own a 4-bay eSATA HDD tower, connect to the Linksys and was able to use all 4 of them (I'm surprised when I knew the eSATA port supports port multiplier)

Asus one are nice but also very expensive, I believe OP's budget won't allow it.

Thanks for the detailed explanation about wifi situation. Very much appreciated. After some research, I found that WRT1900 series have armel cpu, which I try to avoid. I think I will go with G10 or R7800.

It uses a cortex A9 derived core, which does meet ARMv7/ armhf ABI requirements.

ipq806x uses KRAIT300 derived cores, which are very similar to cortex A15 - which does meet ARMv7/ armhf ABI requirements as well.

You are right. WRT1900ACS is back in the game. Thanks.

@fakemanhk, is it possible for you to check this file name /lib/ld-musl-.so,1 in your WRT1900AC (via SSH) and see what the '' is? "arm", "armhf" or something else. Thanks.

It is armhf (I still advise against the wrt1900/ wrt32xx series because of mwlwifi). It's one thing to make do with what you already own, but another to actively buy something that is quite 'inhibited' by its wifi driver - you will find better, in similar price ranges.

Definitely it's armhf.

Thank you for the confirmation of being armhf.