My 1st post here as I'm (going to be) new to OpenWRT. I'll be upgrading my setup and came here for an advice before commit and go with any purchase(s).
Background:
I am currently running WRT3200ACM with home, guest and IOT WiFis. I also have a cheap TP AP on the floor to extend my home network. However adding more IOT devices and having some signal issues at the top floor I'm looking to upgrade
New Setup concept
I'm thinking of getting 2 x Flint 3 (gl-be9300) routers. One as a main one, and the other as dumb AP on the floor. As I understand for seamless "fast" roaming nowadays I need 802.11k/r/v which I believe Flint 3 is going to be capable of. I'll want both routers to serve a WiFi partitioned into IOT, home and guest. One issue I'm facing however is that I'm not able to run an ethernet up. As far as i know it complicates things.
Questions
Can I run wireless VLAN trunk between the 2 routers with OpenWRT? Any resources / guide on how to set it up would be really helpful!
Any other pointers or things I should to be able to run 3 WiFis both routers without wired connection?
Are the mentioned routers good choice for what I need or would you recommend something else?
Hmm, I understood that Flint 3 is running vendor customized OpenWRT, Flint 3 being successor of Flint 2 I assumed it would be possible to deduce if stock SW can do what I need based on Flint 2's stock OpenWRT SW. For the sake of future-proofing I wanted to get a WiFi 7 route and was willing to stay with the stock until community versions are out. But if you say it's not OpentWRT may have to reconsider.
brada4, you mentioned Flint 2. But as I understand it has 2 radios rather than 3 recommended by frolic. Are there any other good tri-band routers? Most of the ones from that list are not available (not sure if globally or just UK)
Different SOC/ wireless, and different SOC/ wireless vendor, you can't. There is no support for ipq53xx in OpenWrt so far, no one working on it either (first ipq957x needs to be finished (which is far from working at this point), as ipq53xx depends on that to function), my guess would be 2-3 years (at least), if at all (no warranties in either direction).
Flint 2 is fully supported right now and a good choice, Don't bet on the future, you can only lose - and even if you draw the lottery ticket, it'll take years, at which point the first wifi 8 devices will already be on the market - so you lose twice. Better to go with something cheaper/ lower-end but fully supported now, than spending big on wifi 7, just to recognize that you will have to buy something else instead on top, to get OpenWrt running.
If your intention is to run OpenWrt any time soon (ever), the flint 3 is not fit for purpose.
If you're content with the OEM firmware, this is not the venue to ask about it.
OK, got it. I was OK with stock only in the interim. I thought that it being OpenWRT it'd be 2-3 months not years Anyway, thanks for clarifying! The tri-band selection even on eBay seems limited and it seems Flint 2 is a miracle of a router.
I'm going to get 2 of those. One as main and the other as AP, let the fun begin
it should be, no complaints/remarks for a very long time.
just remember, since you didn't actually buy Odido branded units, the boot loader password prompt might not exist.
I think you'll discover the instructions are pretty much identical, wiki page simply contains additional details.
The 1st received and running OpenWRT 23.05, still need to do the hyperoptic one.
Are there any good guides on setting up WiFi backhaul? The goal is separate networks for home, IOT and guest accessible via main router and the AP one supporting fast roaming with wifi backhaul.
The information is rather fragmented. I've seen some guides related to WDS, other ones talking about B.A.T.M.A.N. so without experience it's difficult to cut through the clutter, hence the request for a bit more of a guidance.
Anyway, thanks for clarifying! The tri-band selection even on eBay seems limited and it seems Flint 2 is a miracle of a router.
