What's your favourite cheap LEDE/OpenWrt device?

Pre-release, with "Estimate Delivery: Late August 2018" https://store.gl-inet.com/pages/slate-gl-ar750s-ext-gigabit-travel-router, presently priced at US $65, so pushing the "cheap" category, but not a lot more than some of the other "travel routers" out there.

Among other "tweaks", the AR750S provides GigE, in contrast to the AR750 with 100BASE-T

They may have pushed me over the edge to buy another router than I don't really need :wink:
(Bah, getting through checkout there's a US $10 shipping charge at this time.)

If anyone owns one of these already, would you PM me?

_Edit: https://openwrt.org/toh/gl-inet/gl-ar750s_
ar71xx: add support for GL.iNet GL-AR750S -- May, 2018

  • Powered by Qualcomm QCA9563 SoC, 775MHz CPU
  • 300Mbps(2.4G) + 433Mbps(5G) high speed Wi-Fi
  • DDR2 128MB RAM
  • Support external MicroSD card storage up to 128GB
  • 16MB Nor flash + 128 Nand flash

https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/hardware/ar750s/

100mmX68mmX24mm, 86g (very roughly 4" x 3" x 1")

V2 Mango build: https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.1/targets/ramips/mt76x8/openwrt-18.06.1-ramips-mt76x8-gl-mt300n-v2-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

1 Like

Huh. Would you look at that? Serves me right for not double-checking; the last time I looked the V2 support was still in development.

Cheers! I'll try it out this weekend.

1 Like

Thanks for all the information.

IKEv2/IPSec is that also possible to configure in OpenWRT instead of OPENVPN or do I still need some juicy hardware for a bit better speed?

I assume your seemingly out-of-context post is a follow-on to your previous question

Answered at that point in the thread, it continues to be pretty much "no" -- nothing I have seen in this category of wireless routers in late 2018 has enough CPU power to encrypt more than a couple dozen Mbps with the AES ciphers, or something in the 50-100 Mbps range for the ChaCha20 cipher (such as WireGuard uses). Transport cost of the encrypted packets is minimal by comparison to encryption.

1 Like

Currently (as of today) running a TP-Link Archer C7 v2 on a 1Gbps AT&T fiber connection. The router cost me $30 (used).

I'm running a snapshot build compiled by Juppin that includes software flow offloading. This alone more than doubled the router's throughput.

The CPU is overclocked from the stock 720MHz to 1000MHz using the method outlined by Pedro here.

Here's an internet speed test taken earlier this evening. This is from a computer connected via Cat6 to a gigabit switch which is connected to a LAN port on the router. Wifi is slower, averaging under 300mbps. But I'm happy with this ethernet performance at the moment, from a router that didn't set me back much.

30%20PM

3 Likes

Just did a couple more tests, got 832/732 over ethernet and 373/293 over 802.11ac.

1 Like

I need a dual band accespoint for a satellite receiver, which doesn't have wifi. Wifi reception is very bad there, but I would like to use videostreaming.

What could you recommend?

My choice could be the TP-Link Archer C7 AC175.

trying to learn the basics with this

Bests

P.

Even if you're just looking for an AP, I'd rather suggest an ipq40xx device (e.g. AVM Fritz!Box 4040 or ZyXEL nbg6617) for just about the same price instead, quad-core ARMv7 CPU and newer (wave2) wireless chipsets.

2 Likes

I ordered an AVM Fritz! Powerline 1220E Set, but I fear it doesn't work in my old house. I chose AVM because I read TP-Link don't work with ipv6, although delivery time is 1-3 months for AVM. I think I am coming back to this discussion.

It looks like that AVM 4040 is not so easy to flash with openwrt, read something about soldering. ZyXEL nbg6617 looks better for me, but is a lot more expensive here. Maybe the price falls in the next time, when the new Armor 2 is more available. 1-3 NBG6817 I will choose in a next step. when I exchange old TP-Link TL- WR1043ND which do not have dualband.

Installing should be possible without soldering or using a serial console, by using the bootloader's recovery mechanism (a ftpd like implementation), which takes the EVA image.

Great discussion.
I was looking for a cheap travel router compatible with OpenWRT, which is the only firmware allowing the following combination

  • cheap router
  • small router, easy to pack into travel bag
  • VPN split tunneling
  • strong cpu for VPN split tunneling for media streaming
  • good sensitivity to capture hotel wifi on 2.4 GHz via travelmate (captive portal)
  • optional: broadcast on 5 GHz (or alternatively use virtual 2.4 GHz AP or USB 2.4 GHz)

The best turned out to be AVM Fritz 4040 and with the help of chunkeey (ath10k-firmware, 18.06.1) it runs perfectly :slight_smile: , unfortunately it was not cheap :frowning:

  • 30 MBit/s down/upload as repeater with openvpn aes-128-cbc turned on

Initially I bought a Youhua WR1200JS with Mediatek MT7621AT, MT7603 (2.4GHz), MT7612 (5GHz) for 30 bucks, with MT7621AT suggesting fast aes-xxx-cbc

  • BUT as wireless repeater the 2.4 GHz doesn't work as wifi client (STA) with broadcom wifi as wifi source to connect to,
  • and 2.4GHz drops sometimes and restarts (tested as AP to verify whats going on)
    -> i.e. I cannot rely on it as travel router
  • it works with atheros wifi as wifi source (no idea for how long)
  • openvpn aes-128-cbc as repeater with atheros wifi source (2.4GHz as wifi client, 5Ghz as AP) is around 20 MBit/s (fast enough for media streaming !)
    -> so I don't know if one day MT7603 will be able to connect as wifi client to broadcom wifi source or if this will be forever due to broadcom ?

Maybe my experience helps, depending on your requirements.

cheers blinton

I tried AVM 1220E home plugs now, it works, but they are slower than my old TL-WR1043ND with openwrt, so I am back to my question. Which cheap router as ap for a linux-dvb-box?

I forgot to mention, that I want beamforming, if it is not getting too expensive. A feature which could be interesting later. The AVM 4040 doesn't have it, and the Archer C7 doesn't have it too, but the Archer C9 should have it, also the C9 is too expensive probably. The recommended Zyxel is too expensive here and for another floor I have ordered a Armor Z2 NBG6817 already.

All, this is my first post here. I have just bought a Linksys WRT1900ACS I believe it is v1 because running the OEM 1.x firmware. Have I bought a good router to run OpenWRT?

Thanks for your advices in advance.

Please keep this topic for recommendations of cheap OpenWrt devices.
For questions regarding specific devices, please open a new topic.

2 Likes

I've just finished replacing my TP-Link TL-WR1043ND v1 after 5 years of glorious service (I'm upgrading to a WDR3600 to add 5GHz capability). It's true I did not drive it as hard as other users here (encrypting traffic) and I've even demoted it to a "dumb AP", but for all these years of torrenting, serving DLNA, DHCP server and SSH tunelling, coupled with the ability to turn its WAN port into a LAN port while keeping 1 Gbps throughput is fantastic.
Prior to OpenWRT it's been running for 4 years with the stock firmware, so I could say it was highly reliable, and pretty cheap.

I'll be keeping it around for any side projects or maybe give it to a friend.

Recently picked up the GL.iNet GL-AR750S-Ext Gigabit Travel AC Router (Slate) router and built myself a openwrt fw (nand), fw weighs in at about 25mb... Running all the bells and whistles my WRT1900ACS is... Highly recomend this travel router, it's awesome!! Got if for 79.99 CAD off Amazon

80 CAD in not really cheap...:-1: