What's your favorite enthusiast LEDE/OpenWrt device?

Ok I am going to just open a can of worms and ask for some advice. 1U Server. It is generally known that while intel j1900 is the standard for x86 builds - I wanted to see if there is a better option. I did not intend to build another PC to serve as a server and I did not intend to buy a 10,000 cisco router. What I am seeing is that these generally use the denverton atom chip from the 300 to 3000 systems. If I wanted to build a gigabite switch capable of ips/ids or purchase a prebuilt one what are my options? I see these are generally the same and are common within the home router enthusiast market:

Netgear XG-7100
Neatgear SG-5100
Supermicro A1SRi

Once again, since not everybody has seen it:

Please use this topic for hardware recommendations only.
For questions please open a new topic.

Thanks!

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Never mind the design and don't judge a book by its cover!

Like "amq" said: you will get a fast and reliable router, with enough RAM and flash for the next couple of OpenWRT releases.

And especially if you're living in Germany, you should take a close look at the 4040, because it blends in perfectly with the router that your ISP has most probably provided you with. Standing side by side in the shelf those two routers make an unbeatable team!

I just hit the annoying 2.4GHz issue with the WRT3200ACM. I am going to try the WMM 0 workaround but I dont know if it will cut down my N performance.

It will, as far as I remember 802.11n and newer have WMM as a requirement, by disabling WMM your AP will need to fall back to 802.11[a|b|g] speeds so expect a gross rate <= 54 Mbps (with achievable goodput as seen e.g. in speedtests around 540.5 = 27 to 540.7 = 37.8 Mbps, assuming all your links qualify for 54 Mbps gross rate).
This might still be acceptable if you currently have no working 2.4GHz wifi, but it will not be pretty...

+1 for the GL.iNet MV1000 Brume. Only problem is it hasn’t been added to the OpenWrt project yet. I had to manually modify the 19.07 branch to build my own image. But I use it with a Unifi nanoHD AP and managed switch and it’s great. The Marvell SoC (mvebu) is a nice improvement from my old R7800. And having a separate AP means I can keep the COTS firmware on there. I was having issues with the Wi-Fi on the R7800 whilst running OpenWrt. I think the Brume not having Wi-Fi is a good thing. It’s a router that’s just a router.

is the speedtest.net test done on wifi?

I just loaded OpenWRT onto a Cudy WR1000 V2 (with lots of help), running for a couple of days now and it seems like a winner - $18 USD on Amazon for a dual band access point.

Caveats:

  1. Running as an access point so can't comment on routing performance
  2. As I said, need to solder in the serial header and load via tftp using u-boot console
  3. Only has 100Mb Ethernet

But, with an old house that has lead paint in every wall I need lots of APs to get coverage inside so a cheap AP that runs reliable FOSS software is a welcome change.

ARM NanoPi R2S RK3328 $ 30


nanopi2

  • CPU: Rockchip RK3328, Quad-core Cortex-A53
  • DDR4 RAM: 1GB
  • Network:
    • 10/100/1000M以太网口 x 1
    • USB3.0转10/100/1000M以太网口 x 1
  • USB2.0 Host: Type-A x1
  • MicroSD Slot x 1
  • MicroUSB: 供电和Slave功能
  • Debug Serial Port: 3.3V TTL电平,3Pin 2.54mm间距排针
  • LED: LED x 3
  • KEY: KEY x 1 用户自定义功能
  • PC Size: 55.6 x 52mm
  • Power Supply: DC 5V/2A
  • Temperature measuring range: 0℃ to 80℃
  • OS/Software: U-boot,Ubuntu-Core,OpenWrt

Could you give a global opinion feedback about the nanopi r2s?
Sadly this board is not supported by openwrt.
Do you use friendlywrt?
So the nanopi r2s powerful?
I have been see on telegram group a lot of pictures with added fan, the r2s run too hot?
Coould you run the following benchmark.

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/perf_and_log/benchmark.openssl

Please keep this topic free of unsupported devices and questions about unsupported devices.

Thanks!

3 Likes

This thread has been very informative. Thanks for everyone's input. :grinning:

My prefered device is the Banana Pi R1, a cheap powerhouse, 1GB of memory, Dual Core ARM CPU, and i got a 32GB SD card in use.

By far the LibreRouter.org, an open source software and open source hardware wireless router for communities!

6 Likes

i have two favorites i have obtained from friends who have upgraded so they gave me their old routers. i know they are old but they remain gold for me.

  1. netgear wndr3700v2. a neighbor gave me this and thanks to hnyman for the years i have been using his builds until i adopted wireguard. i now use the image builder so i can include wireguard in the image.

  2. netgear wndr4300sw. a friend gave me this after she switched isp. hardware is exactly the same as the netgear wndr4300v1 but with board id of wndr4300sw (surewest -- northern california isp). there is no existing community build hence i have to use the image builder to create a wndr4300 image but it requires the header and checksum to be changed to wndr4300sw before it can be flashed. once on openwrt, wndr4300 sysupgrade.tar can be safely flashed without any modification.

Initial support of OpenWRT on the NanoPi R2S is there and the first test results are promising.

3 Likes

VERY cool.

I bought a Glinet B1300 Convexa-B after reading this thread.


https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/gl.inet/gl.inet_gl-b1300

IPQ4028 Quad-core ARM, @717MHz SoC
Memory / Storage DDR3L 256MB / FLASH 32MB
|Protocol |802.11a/b/g/n/ac|
|Wi-Fi Speed |2.4GHz(400Mbps), 5GHz(867Mbps)|
|TX power |2.4GHz: 20dBm (11b) Max, 5GHz: 20dBm (11a) Max|
|Ethernet Port |3 x 10/100/1000M|
The device has native support for OpenWRT (older version) with custom add-on.
I reflased it with OpenWRT latest release.

So for, I am very happy with it as it is rock solid and fast.
Ethernet ports are able to route Gigabyte fiber at full speed.
I am using it for mesh networks with WPA3.

The GLinet B-1300 is the size of a hand and has 4 antennas, with good coverage.

The only drawback is that it does not support hardware AES encryption, which does not make it a good choice for a VPN. I did not test and VPN yet.

A very good deal for 80€ on Amazon. Thank you for pointing me this nice appliance and OpenWRT support.

Are you using just one GL-B1300 or do you have more for mesh networking?

I am only using one GL-B1300 as main router and the other is a TP-Link re450 with custom firmware, but I am still testing. The mesh is initialized on the GL-B1300 and seems to work. I admit I have been too quick.

[Edit : I just purchased a second GL-B1300 and I will tell you shorly if dual band mesh works.]

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