What is the best AX router for OpenWrt future stable support?

I prefer the simplicity, that's why I want an all-in-one router and access point. Currently, I convert my ISP modem to a converter although it's bulky. I just don't want to add two other ones into my home network setup.

if you want simplicity, you should probably stay away from AX devices (in conjunction with openwrt) for another year or so.

Even as a dumb ap?

The issue isn't the router/SoC, it's the radio support/stability/maturity.

I mean, they work... But people are still experiencing issues.

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Thanks for the headsup, was just about to buy one

I'm sure it improves by every snapshot, but if you just want to flash it, plug it in, and forget about it, AX probably isn't for you . Yet.

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Currently, I'm using ASUS AX58U with ASUS-WRT Merlin firmware. It's enough for most of my needs. The disadvantage of my current setup is the ASUS router does not support Wire-guard yet and the instability of the router to reboot randomly. Therefore, I'm looking for another setup with OpenWRT. Before ASUS, I was trying AX1800 Flint from Gl.inet. Frankly, the official firmware of this router is not mature at the point I tested it. Recently, the devs released the beta which based on 21.02 OpenWRT. I'm not sure it's stable yet. Finding a AX router that supports OPENwrt is already limited, the one with stable functions is even more difficult.

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I seperated out my wifi and routing to avoid crap like this. running an AC-Lite ubiquiti AP and its on their firmware. But i could switch to OpenWrt if they EOL it. Wifi6 standards still arent fully set and now they are talking about wifi7. Honestly just get a decent AP and hook it into your OpenWrt network. Then its separate and can be swapped in or out as required/upgraded.

Not sure it ever will, those Broadcom devices all use the same old v2 or v3 Linux kernel, and I don't think WG ever will be ported so far back.

Unless there's a non-kmod version of it available.

FTFY :innocent:

The EA8450 and it's RT3200 sibling are very popular but installation isn't the easiest.

That being said, I have no issues with my 802.11ax EAP615-Wall. Drop-in replacement for my EAP235, easy peasy. Lots of people seem to be rather happy with MediaTek AX stuff. Me included, so far.

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I'm sure people are happy with their AX devices, just saying the fw might not be mature enough, for some...

Was considering the WAX206 myself, it's cheaper than the EAP615-Wall here, and comes with a 2.5gbit port, but it's not supported yet :confused:

Guess I'll have to wait a little longer, or for once, actually contribute :slight_smile:

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It isn't too bad as long as you follow the instructions. The github for it explains it really well. I have 2 RT3200 devices that I hammer every day with traffic with offloading enabled and I can't seem to make them crash or oops.

I am running snapshots from this week though, but I'm going to keep one of them on this week's build to make sure it can stay running without a reboot every week or so with a new build.

They seem to be hard to find now, and the signal reach isn't the best, but I've been impressed with the little router/AP that could.

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Community support is contributing as well :wink:.

The new Synology RT6600AX looks promising. Nice design and great SoC via the IPQ6018. Qualcomm based, so should someday have good OpenWrt support, although probably not until kernel 5.15 move happens and ath11k (their open source mac80211 wifi6 driver) matures. Maybe 1+ years away realistically.

No one has even started working on ipq60xx so far, while it will profit from the efforts going into ipq807x, it will also require more dedicated porting as well. 1 year is probably overly optimistic.

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Ah ok didn't realize that, thanks. If IPQ807X is the most promising will keep an eye on that when it comes to upgrade someday.

you said stay away Broadcom, does this include raspberry pi 4B too?

Broadcom, when it comes to wifi (in)capable devices.

so no problem with RPi 4 right...suddenly i got scared, i spent almost 100 $ to get hands on this.

Yes just for wifi devices. RPi 4 works great with OpenWrt and has top tier performance. Just throw on a USB gigabit adapter, gigabit switch, and U6-Lite and you can beat any all in one router. If only they made a dual ethernet version. The R4S is gaining momentum for that reason, and their upcoming R5S with 2.5Gb.

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