Switching from DD-WRT to OpenWRT with a new network setup

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hi All,

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

  1. 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!
  2. Any other pointers or things I should to be able to run 3 WiFis both routers without wired connection?
  3. Are the mentioned routers good choice for what I need or would you recommend something else?

Any feedback would be MUCH appreciated.

2

FYI, gl.inet is lying, about the "OpenWrt Pre-installed".

it isn't running OpenWrt, and won't, for quite some time.
we have no idea what the QSDK based firmware gl.inet is using is (un)capable of.

for wireless back haul you ideally want triple radio devices - "tri band" (triple interface) router list.

3

KVR is not demanding significant resources. glinet firmware may support those in a non-standard way if at all.

go with flint2, that is fully supported already.

1 Like
4

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)

5

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.

2 Likes
6

Try used ones, on eBay.

1 Like
7

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 :joy: 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 :slightly_smiling_face:

8

If you haven't already bought them already, check how much it'd cost you to buy two T-56's from wifilinks in NL.

They're less than half the price of the Flint 2, but I don't know if you have to pay customs etc when importing from EU.

1 Like
9

I've not bought them yet. Interesting, bar the storage they seem to be identical routers, so with OpenWRT they should perform the same.

wifilinks don't ship to UK it seems, but I could pick a used one up from eBay for as little as £30 :thinking:

10

they do, but you'll have to ask them for a quote.

Hyperoptic branded ?

11
12

that's not the same device, this is: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267253830520.
and so is this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157068487726, keep in mind this is a T0, you'll get a SFP+ port too.

here's another one, but it's from an untested (as in tried flashing OpenWRT) ISP: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/277041877104.

grab those, and you get two devices for the price of one (new) Flint 2.

13

It's too early for me, only now noticed the "-B2" in the link I've posted :joy:

Thanks for clarifying. Looks like going from Flint 3, I'm going to end up with 2 x Zyxel EX5601-T0. Well worth asking the question. Great advice!

14

the B in this case stands for Broadcom, not only would it have been unsupported, but also "unsupportable".

the Hyperoptic device is a T1 - no SFP port, from an Openwrt point of view, it doesn't matter, they use the same image.

1 Like
15

The deed is done. I bought both the routers from the link.

Now time to get the details on how to flash them. Is https://openwrt.org/toh/zyxel/t-56 up to date? I've seen some discussions regarding flashing it that differ slightly, like this one Adding OpenWrt support for Zyxel EX5601-T0 - #305 by bezeria. But this post is a year old so I assume I just go by wiki instructions, right?

16

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.

1 Like
17

Lovely, thanks frollic.

slh, thanks as well for clarifying my initial mis-assumptions.

1 Like
18

if you have issues during the installation, post your question(s) in the EX5601-T0 thread you linked to earlier.

1 Like