What's your favourite cheap LEDE/OpenWrt device?

Not much help when a router is discontinued, and you will get targeted ads everywhere you go afterwards.

I'd love recommendations for a router with roughly similar price ($15 used on eBay) and specs (1Ghz, 128M/128M, dual band N, USB) as the Linksys Cisco EA4500, but without that router's overheating and wifi instability problems

Netgear r6100 comes up on ebay cheap from time to time. It has Ethernet 100M. Depending on your internet speed it may not be a problem.

1 Like

Recently I setup router with Luci, IPsec (Strongswan) and some other services basing on RouterBoard RB941-2nD. It is cheap (about 20$) device with 16MB flash storage and 32MB RAM build on solid ar71xx platform. It works very well for me, I can recommend this device.

32MB RAM is borderline and can not really be recommended for future use.
https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/432_warning

2 Likes

My favorite brand is TP Link. I don't know if it's just me but they appear to have most support for OpenWRT/LEDE. Availability is also a factor, I can order them from amazon and they arrive within 2 days.

841ND: It was the cheapest openwrt supported router. But FW size got bigger off late, so this has moved to 'tiny' builds. Not very useful anymore if you are adding any custom packages.

1043ND: Most widely available openwrt router with 8 MB flash + 64MB RAM.

Archer C60: My latest favorite. The cheapest 1350M dual band router which supports openwrt. It has same HW spec as 1043ND (except for only 100M ports, somewhat a bummer). Both bands WiFi has been pretty stable.. hopefully the known legacy WiFi issues with 1043ND are fixed in this.

1 Like

T-mobile TM-AC1900 = Asus RT-AC68U
Routinely found for $50 USD on eBay and Amazon (new or refurb)

unfortunately support for rt-ac68u is very bad on openwart/lede due to broadcom's closed source drivers so NOGO

1 Like

Still can't decide between the GL.iNet MT-300A, WNDR-3800, and the tired-but-true Airlink AR-670W. Probably the GL.iNet, because although it's a 2011 router in 2018, the devs are completely OS and designed it around OWRT/LEDE. Thanks, @alzhao.

1 Like

hello.
few weeks ago I bought used Archer C2 v1 (cca 20$) for his giga ports and 5ghz radio, but... its not fun with him and really I don't have any use for 5ghz ...so I ordered good classic wr1043nd v2 (cca 15$) ...yaaa!... well and now it needs only 18.06 final ; ) ps. my all-time favorite is wr841n v9 (cca 10$)

I'm keeping my BEST supported OpenWRT router-AP [ar71xx], spent USD. 20 to adblock, dnscrypt-proxy and also run VPN on it, yet I'm still able to saturate my ISP bandwith with encrypted traffic by:

https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.0-rc1/targets/sunxi/cortexa53/openwrt-18.06.0-rc1-sunxi-cortexa53-sun50i-h5-orangepi-zero-plus-squashfs-sdcard.img.gz

With its single gigabit port VLAN configured, the Allwinner H5 soc is capable to transform approx 500+ mbps of packets to aes-128 stream.

1 Like

@jkthas can you share your benchmark results for the sunxi/cortexa53/orangepi-zero-plus?

time -v openssl speed -evp aes-128-cbc -engine cryptodev

I have just signed up to the forum to thank everyone that has contributed to this thread so far - some great ideas here.

Currently have a stack of multiple: A5-V11 (new), WT3020 (new), EE Brightbox 1 (original version, exUK ISP CPE, 3/4years old?), BB Homehub 5a (exUK ISP CPE - 1 to 4 years old), DIR615d (exUK ISP CPE - very old now - 8 years?) to sort out for some locals.
The DIR615 may need custom builds -edit:in the future, due to lack of flash space-but will mainly be APs edit: and therefore should have 600kB or more flash free) Hoping the EE BB1s will be OK for simple routers or APs. None of these cost more than 10-11 Euros (CPEs are used/Ebay, rest are new)

The DIR615d were around 5 Euro in years gone by from Ebay but are very tight on flash space now (4/32)

Personally I'm looking at BT Homebub 5a for personal use and WT3020 for travel. edit: I've been testing these in use for 2-3 months - all fine so far with 3 examples of each in use.

EDIT: I confirm all the are currently running 17.01.4 (and have been soak tested for a couple of months in real/intended environments) "Hoping" was meant to be more like "hoping will be useful" for the recipients

mmc/gpio phrase removed

Can we please keep this topic for recommendations of your favourite cheap routers on which you already installed OpenWrt, and not make it a list of devices you have lying around somewhere in a dark corner?

In case of questions regarding a specific device (e.g. not working, which kmods to install, etc.), please open a new topic in the appropriate subsection of the forum.

2 Likes

I've edited my above post to make things clearer: I have around 90+ routers in total to flash for other people but all versions (all release stock versions of 17.04.1 for the larger flash devices, compiles without LuCi for the 4/32 ones) have been soak tested on at least three devices, for a couple of months.
Those represent my current go-tos for ultra-low-cost devices for domestic or SOHO use.

Thanks, that's better now :slight_smile:

UNAME

root@Allwinner_H5:~# uname -a
Linux Allwinner_H5 4.14.54 #0 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jul 14 13:48:14 2018 aarch64 GNU/Linux
SINGLE CORE openssl speed
root@Allwinner_H5:~# time -v openssl speed -evp aes-128-cbc -engine cryptodev
invalid engine "cryptodev"
548643420636:error:25066067:lib(37):func(102):reason(103):NA:0:filename(/usr/lib/engines/libcryptodev.so): Error loading shared library /usr/lib/engines/libcryptodev.so: No such file or directory
548643420636:error:25070067:lib(37):func(112):reason(103):NA:0:
548643420636:error:260B6084:lib(38):func(182):reason(132):NA:0:
548643420636:error:2606A074:lib(38):func(106):reason(116):NA:0:id=cryptodev
548643420636:error:25066067:lib(37):func(102):reason(103):NA:0:filename(libcryptodev.so): Error loading shared library libcryptodev.so: No such file or directory
548643420636:error:25070067:lib(37):func(112):reason(103):NA:0:
548643420636:error:260B6084:lib(38):func(182):reason(132):NA:0:
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 16 size blocks: 18961971 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 64 size blocks: 12741057 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 256 size blocks: 5298997 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 1664532 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s
Doing aes-128-cbc for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 224876 aes-128-cbc's in 3.00s
OpenSSL 1.0.2o  27 Mar 2018
built on: reproducible build, date unspecified
options:bn(64,64) rc4(ptr,char) des(idx,cisc,2,int) aes(partial) blowfish(ptr) 
compiler: aarch64-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc -I. -I.. -I../include  -fPIC -DOPENSSL_PIC -DZLIB_SHARED -DZLIB -DOPENSSL_THREADS -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/target-aarch64_cortex-a53_musl/usr/include -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/target-aarch64_cortex-a53_musl/include -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/toolchain-aarch64_cortex-a53_gcc-7.3.0_musl/usr/include -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/toolchain-aarch64_cortex-a53_gcc-7.3.0_musl/include/fortify -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/toolchain-aarch64_cortex-a53_gcc-7.3.0_musl/include -znow -zrelro -DOPENSSL_SMALL_FOOTPRINT -DHAVE_CRYPTODEV -DUSE_CRYPTODEV_DIGESTS -DOPENSSL_NO_ERR -DTERMIOS -Os -pipe -mcpu=cortex-a53 -fno-caller-saves -fno-plt -fhonour-copts -Wno-error=unused-but-set-variable -Wno-error=unused-result -iremap/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/build_dir/target-aarch64_cortex-a53_musl/openssl-1.0.2o:openssl-1.0.2o -Wformat -Werror=format-security -fstack-protector -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1 -Wl,-z,now -Wl,-z,relro -fpic -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/feeds/base/package/libs/openssl/include -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -DSHA1_ASM -DSHA256_ASM -DSHA512_ASM
The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed.
type             16 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
aes-128-cbc     101130.51k   271809.22k   452181.08k   568160.26k   614061.40k
	Command being timed: "openssl speed -evp aes-128-cbc -engine cryptodev"
	User time (seconds): 15.01
	System time (seconds): 0.00
	Percent of CPU this job got: 99%
	Elapsed (wall clock) time (h:mm:ss or m:ss): 0m 15.01s
	Average shared text size (kbytes): 0
	Average unshared data size (kbytes): 0
	Average stack size (kbytes): 0
	Average total size (kbytes): 0
	Maximum resident set size (kbytes): 10816
	Average resident set size (kbytes): 0
	Major (requiring I/O) page faults: 0
	Minor (reclaiming a frame) page faults: 146
	Voluntary context switches: 1
	Involuntary context switches: 37
	Swaps: 0
	File system inputs: 0
	File system outputs: 0
	Socket messages sent: 0
	Socket messages received: 0
	Signals delivered: 0
	Page size (bytes): 4096
	Exit status: 0
MULTICORE openssl speed
root@Allwinner_H5:~# time -v openssl speed -multi 4 -evp aes-128-cbc -engine cryptodev
invalid engine "cryptodev"
548080191964:error:25066067:lib(37):func(102):reason(103):NA:0:filename(/usr/lib/engines/libcryptodev.so): Error loading shared library /usr/lib/engines/libcryptodev.so: No such file or directory
548080191964:error:25070067:lib(37):func(112):reason(103):NA:0:
548080191964:error:260B6084:lib(38):func(182):reason(132):NA:0:
548080191964:error:2606A074:lib(38):func(106):reason(116):NA:0:id=cryptodev
548080191964:error:25066067:lib(37):func(102):reason(103):NA:0:filename(libcryptodev.so): Error loading shared library libcryptodev.so: No such file or directory
548080191964:error:25070067:lib(37):func(112):reason(103):NA:0:
548080191964:error:260B6084:lib(38):func(182):reason(132):NA:0:
Forked child 0
Forked child 1
Forked child 2
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:16
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:16
Forked child 3
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:16
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:16
+R:18949341:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:64
+R:18949458:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+R:18932754:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:64
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:64
+R:18948852:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:64
+R:12741610:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:256
+R:12742297:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:256
+R:12740871:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:256
+R:12734610:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:256
+R:5298041:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:1024
+R:5298225:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:1024
+R:5299120:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:1024
+R:5299203:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:1024
+R:1664679:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:8192
+R:1664695:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:8192
+R:1664585:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:8192
+R:1664326:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+DT:aes-128-cbc:3:8192
+R:224862:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+R:224890:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
+R:224854:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
Got: +H:16:64:256:1024:8192 from 0
+R:224876:aes-128-cbc:3.000000
Got: +F:22:aes-128-cbc:101063152.00:271821013.33:452099498.67:568210432.00:614023168.00 from 0
Got: +H:16:64:256:1024:8192 from 1
Got: +F:22:aes-128-cbc:101063776.00:271805248.00:452191573.33:568178346.67:614001322.67 from 1
Got: +H:16:64:256:1024:8192 from 2
Got: +F:22:aes-128-cbc:100974688.00:271835669.33:452115200.00:568215893.33:614099626.67 from 2
Got: +H:16:64:256:1024:8192 from 3
Got: +F:22:aes-128-cbc:101060544.00:271671680.00:452198656.00:568089941.33:614061397.33 from 3
OpenSSL 1.0.2o  27 Mar 2018
built on: reproducible build, date unspecified
options:bn(64,64) rc4(ptr,char) des(idx,cisc,2,int) aes(partial) blowfish(ptr) 
compiler: aarch64-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc -I. -I.. -I../include  -fPIC -DOPENSSL_PIC -DZLIB_SHARED -DZLIB -DOPENSSL_THREADS -D_REENTRANT -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/target-aarch64_cortex-a53_musl/usr/include -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/target-aarch64_cortex-a53_musl/include -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/toolchain-aarch64_cortex-a53_gcc-7.3.0_musl/usr/include -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/toolchain-aarch64_cortex-a53_gcc-7.3.0_musl/include/fortify -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/staging_dir/toolchain-aarch64_cortex-a53_gcc-7.3.0_musl/include -znow -zrelro -DOPENSSL_SMALL_FOOTPRINT -DHAVE_CRYPTODEV -DUSE_CRYPTODEV_DIGESTS -DOPENSSL_NO_ERR -DTERMIOS -Os -pipe -mcpu=cortex-a53 -fno-caller-saves -fno-plt -fhonour-copts -Wno-error=unused-but-set-variable -Wno-error=unused-result -iremap/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/build_dir/target-aarch64_cortex-a53_musl/openssl-1.0.2o:openssl-1.0.2o -Wformat -Werror=format-security -fstack-protector -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1 -Wl,-z,now -Wl,-z,relro -fpic -I/build/openwrt-18.06/slaves/phase2/aarch64_cortex-a53/build/sdk/feeds/base/package/libs/openssl/include -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -DSHA1_ASM -DSHA256_ASM -DSHA512_ASM
evp             404162.16k  1087133.61k  1808604.93k  2272694.61k  2456185.51k
	Command being timed: "openssl speed -multi 4 -evp aes-128-cbc -engine cryptodev"
	User time (seconds): 0.01
	System time (seconds): 0.00
	Percent of CPU this job got: 0%
	Elapsed (wall clock) time (h:mm:ss or m:ss): 0m 15.01s
	Average shared text size (kbytes): 0
	Average unshared data size (kbytes): 0
	Average stack size (kbytes): 0
	Average total size (kbytes): 0
	Maximum resident set size (kbytes): 10560
	Average resident set size (kbytes): 0
	Major (requiring I/O) page faults: 0
	Minor (reclaiming a frame) page faults: 188
	Voluntary context switches: 7
	Involuntary context switches: 4
	Swaps: 0
	File system inputs: 0
	File system outputs: 0
	Socket messages sent: 0
	Socket messages received: 0
	Signals delivered: 0
	Page size (bytes): 4096
	Exit status: 0
CPUINFO
root@Allwinner_H5:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo 
processor	: 0
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 cpuid
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x0
CPU part	: 0xd03
CPU revision	: 4

processor	: 1
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 cpuid
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x0
CPU part	: 0xd03
CPU revision	: 4

processor	: 2
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 cpuid
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x0
CPU part	: 0xd03
CPU revision	: 4

processor	: 3
BogoMIPS	: 48.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 cpuid
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x0
CPU part	: 0xd03
CPU revision	: 4

(aes is included on aarch64 instructions)

CRYPTO
root@Allwinner_H5:~# cat /proc/crypto 
name         : crct10dif
driver       : crct10dif-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 100
refcnt       : 2
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : shash
blocksize    : 1
digestsize   : 2

name         : crc32
driver       : crc32-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 100
refcnt       : 2
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : shash
blocksize    : 1
digestsize   : 4

name         : crc32c
driver       : crc32c-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 100
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : shash
blocksize    : 1
digestsize   : 4

name         : ecb(arc4)
driver       : ecb(arc4)-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 100
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : blkcipher
blocksize    : 1
min keysize  : 1
max keysize  : 256
ivsize       : 0
geniv        : <default>

name         : arc4
driver       : arc4-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 0
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : cipher
blocksize    : 1
min keysize  : 1
max keysize  : 256

name         : aes
driver       : aes-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 100
refcnt       : 2
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : cipher
blocksize    : 16
min keysize  : 16
max keysize  : 32

name         : des3_ede
driver       : des3_ede-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 100
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : cipher
blocksize    : 8
min keysize  : 24
max keysize  : 24

name         : des
driver       : des-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 100
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : cipher
blocksize    : 8
min keysize  : 8
max keysize  : 8

name         : sha1
driver       : sha1-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 0
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : shash
blocksize    : 64
digestsize   : 20

name         : md5
driver       : md5-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 0
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : shash
blocksize    : 64
digestsize   : 16

name         : digest_null
driver       : digest_null-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 0
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : shash
blocksize    : 1
digestsize   : 0

name         : compress_null
driver       : compress_null-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 0
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : compression

name         : ecb(cipher_null)
driver       : ecb-cipher_null
module       : kernel
priority     : 100
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : blkcipher
blocksize    : 1
min keysize  : 0
max keysize  : 0
ivsize       : 0
geniv        : <default>

name         : cipher_null
driver       : cipher_null-generic
module       : kernel
priority     : 0
refcnt       : 1
selftest     : passed
internal     : no
type         : cipher
blocksize    : 1
min keysize  : 0
max keysize  : 0
HWRNG
root@Allwinner_H5:~# cat /dev/hwrng 
cat: read error: No such device

(I have to install haveged to compensate)

DEVICES
root@Allwinner_H5:~# cat /proc/devices
Character devices:
  1 mem
  2 pty
  3 ttyp
  4 /dev/vc/0
  4 tty
  4 ttyS
  5 /dev/tty
  5 /dev/console
  5 /dev/ptmx
  7 vcs
 10 misc
 13 input
 14 sound
 29 fb
 81 video4linux
 89 i2c
108 ppp
116 alsa
128 ptm
136 pts
180 usb
189 usb_device
248 ttySDIO
249 watchdog
250 iio
251 ptp
252 pps
253 rtc
254 gpiochip

Block devices:
  7 loop
179 mmc
259 blkext
INTERRUPTS
root@Allwinner_H5:~# cat /proc/interrupts 
           CPU0       CPU1       CPU2       CPU3       
  1:          0          0          0          0     GICv2  25 Level     vgic
  3:       6573       4365       3223      11356     GICv2  30 Level     arch_timer
  4:          0          0          0          0     GICv2  27 Level     kvm guest timer
  6:          0          0          0          0     GICv2  82 Level     1c02000.dma-controller
  7:        947          0          0          0     GICv2  92 Level     sunxi-mmc
  8:         89          0          0          0     GICv2  93 Level     sunxi-mmc
 10:          0          0          0          0     GICv2 104 Level     ehci_hcd:usb1
 11:          0          0          0          0     GICv2 105 Level     ohci_hcd:usb2
 12:          0          0          0          0     GICv2 106 Level     ehci_hcd:usb3
 13:          0          0          0          0     GICv2 107 Level     ohci_hcd:usb4
 19:        767          0          0          0     GICv2 114 Level     eth0
 20:          0          0          0          0     GICv2  97 Level     sun6i-spi
 22:          6          0          0          0     GICv2  32 Level     ttyS0
 96:          0          0          0          0  sunxi_pio_edge  38 Edge      1c0f000.mmc cd
134:          1          0          0          0  sunxi_pio_edge  76 Edge      usb0-id-det
IPI0:      1053       2150       2735       1352       Rescheduling interrupts
IPI1:        10         53        698       1648       Function call interrupts
IPI2:         0          0          0          0       CPU stop interrupts
IPI3:         0          0          0          0       CPU stop (for crash dump) interrupts
IPI4:         0          0          0          0       Timer broadcast interrupts
IPI5:         0          0          0          0       IRQ work interrupts
IPI6:         0          0          0          0       CPU wake-up interrupts
Err:          0
1 Like

oh

what about cryptsetup benchmark results ?

mine seemed low

@jkthas did you also compile openwrt yourself ?

How do I get this?

I think a proper power suppy along with high quality cable makes the difference.

No, its taken from latest stable (18.06 RC2)
Note: openssl speed result shows openssl-1.0.2o

Xiaomi Mi Router 3G is the best for me.
128 MB ROM + 256MB RAM
4x880 Mhz CPU
AC1200 and has gigabit ports.
5Ghz work proper on OpenWRT.
And has USB 3.0 Port!

Only downside of this beauty is has only 3 Gigabit ports 1 WAN and 2 LAN.

All of those came for $37.