openwrt seems pretty alright, but i don't think the web interface will ever grow on me.
your eagerness to deploy the software on multiple devices to form an "ultimate solution" should also be commended.
i will acknowledge the attractiveness of the boot process when using serial.
my belief is that openwrt's biggest contributions aren't the software itself, but rather the innumerable patches made by @blogic, @rmilecki, @981213, etc that enable others outside of this ecosystem to use their hardware in a different, albeit similar, manner.
OpenWRT on Mikrotik hAP ac does wonders. 802.11r Fast Transition finally works, and my ISP´s IPv6 SLAAC as well, unlike on RouterOS. The only two hiccups I had were:
5Gz radio won't start with a cryptic message unless the country is set.
PoE is not enabled by default, but echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio3/value even lights up the red LED.
It looks like Amazon (USA) doesn't stock the R7800 and WRT32X anymore. The closest thing I see is WRT32XB, is that identical to the WRT32X?
I'm looking to get something with the following:
Good WiFi 5GHz performance in a crowded apartment building
Good SQM performance
Good OpenVPN performance (at least 100mbps)
Don't care about 802.11ax
Don't care about USB ports
I'm assuming the R7800 has a successor (probably not very mature drivers with OpenWrt), but if I can find it at another retailer should I pick it over the WRT32X/32XB? Or is there a new "preferred enthusiast" device?
The WRT32XB is identical to the WRT32X, it's just marketed at xbox users. Functionally it's no different and even uses the same oem firmware. The WRT3200ACM is the same hardware too. Any of those 3 or the R7800 will meet your needs. The WRT32X will do SQM Cake at over 600Mbits and I read somewhere the R7800 will get there now too with an NSS build.
Well said. Asus has a very big presence here where I live. AsusWRT. Though I never bought one.
USB ports is night and day for me. Especially since I jumped on the X86 router bandwagon. I had to see what these X86 fan boys was on about. So I finally bough one. The usb ports have so many uses for me. Clonezilla back up, usb powered fan for my cable modem, usb hard drive etc. It's definately a no brainer for me.
I know not many people have the priviledge to have an Ethernet Network, but the performance of Ethernet is just unbeatable.
Melbourne to Sydney around 800+ km using QoS OpenWRT
This x86 XCY OpenWRT router can really pull, sometimes pulls over 1Gbps. I had to QoS it and tone it down a bit due to bufferbloat. I needed to get A+ A+ A+ on dslreports.com/speedtest website
I am planning to setup a proper wifi mesh/repeater network for guests only when they request it, I'll turn it on when needed.
I will be getting the Xiaomi AX6000 as my main wifi when my guests will need it. Just saving up for a new computer at the moment
To answer @plh, the new "preferred enthusiast device" is basically anything with ipq40xx or ipq806x. Those are stable, well-supported and reasonably priced.
Please mind that this topic is only for recommendations of your favourite enthusiast OpenWrt device, i.e. "I can recommend device XYZ, because...".
If however you have a question like "Which device should I buy?"
please open a new topic in the Hardware Questions and Recommendations category of this forum.
Just reporting back. My XCY Mini PC router has been going strong and solid so far. I'm thinking of getting another X86 router as a backup to replace my draytek.
Not really, it's top-end for 802.11ac/ wave2 devices and still a very good choice - there is not a whole lot better in this category (unless you lose wifi and go wired-only).
The 802.11ax class of devices is still under development, mt7622bv+mt7915e (just adding a new wireless chipset to an already supported SOC - rather than using new components for SOC and wireless) has had a head start so far, ipq807x is still facing some problems (but seems to be progressing). Once these are fully supported, they'll bring a lot more performance to the table, but that will take a bit more time (an unknown amount of it).
Yea it's definitely not ideal. It's because there are no WiFi 6 routers with newer SoCs supported by OpenWrt yet, so the R7800 is still one of the top options. I use the WRT32X and it's mostly great too, faster in some regards, wifi is not as good though.
If you're into other 3rd party firmwares, like Asuswrt-Merlin, then the Asus RT-AX58U and RT-AX88U are great choices. Newer SoCs and great WiFi 6 support for better wifi (faster, TWT, etc.), that firmware can do SQM cake now too. Of course it's vey different in that it uses proprietary code.
Yes fair enough. But what targets and what feature set: single login? airtime fairness? target wake time? OFDMA? wpa3? etc. My isssue with the E8450 is the relatively slow SoC and lack of USB 3.0.
Lol it wasn't a claim, I didn't realize support was in yet. Then I asked what features are in and you apparently don't know. Haven't seen any of those features I mentioned as check boxes in LuCI yet. I doubt what you posted is coming in 21.02, which means master builds only for a long time.
I use USB 3.0 literatlly every day with samba 4 shares on an external drive, get 120 MB/s read-write on my WRT32X, faster than many NAS boxes. Wouldn't switch to a newer device unless it keeps USB 3.0.
