I'm looking for a router hardware that will function as dumb AP with switches for some cabled devices. That is to say, hardware offloading functions and such are wholly unnecessary. I need two units, and the second one maybe okay with just AP hardware. Wi-Fi 6 to maybe help with wireless congestion; nothing to do with upstream ISP bandwidth (only 200 Mbps, may upgrade later to 500).
What are good options from brands with international presence like D-Link, Netgear, TP-Link, etc? I think TP-Link AX23 is a really good fit, but I can't find the supported hardware version on the local market, and of course no way to tell which version I'll get online. Budget is about 100 USD per device, but I could go above if there's compelling justification.
MT 79 or MT78 for cpu
7621 will forwars at curtent required speed, run 300Mbps openvpn or ipsec vpn but slow cpu will not be able to run wireguard or qos you might want from the office equipment.
As such it can run as a secondary extender with main router doing the rest.
"some cabled" - maybe a srparate switch?
That's the plan if I can't find any router that fits the bill. Want to avoid it just to for the unnecessary hassle of extra power cable and physical object to place though...
What's the sentiment on WAX206? It looks like it ticks all my boxes. Though wiki says 2.4 GHz has no ax; is that consequential?
D-Link COVR X1860 also looks fine, but I can't find it online with the model no and I've no idea what crappy mesh branding it's sold under.
What's with RT-AX59U? Beside its CPU, but it looks almost equivalent to WAX206 at double the price.
And finally, there's Cudy WR3000 and WR3000S. Honestly, this is the first I've heard of this brand, so I don't know what to think of them. But it's really cool they support OpenWrt flashing within OEM, even if it's their own variant.
These models are what I think meets my requirements (ax and relatively easy to flash OpenWrt), but I'd want to hear your opinions about them.
I use the Belkin variant at home. For its price (when I purchased in 2023), I was disappointed its USB port was only a 2.0. Probably overkill as an AP in the office, but so is WAX206, but that's somehow cheaper... (compared to current price of AX3200/RT3200).
These Filogic devices were < $100 in the past but I don't know about current situation with tariffs.
Asus RT-AX52
Cudy WR3000S / WR3000H / M3000
D-Link M30 Aquila Pro AI
Not overly concerned about the budget. There's enough flexibility so as to meet the requirements. That said, I'm not keen to spend more on an essentially identical device.
Nope. But tariffs aside, local currency is pegged to the USD, so the price (sans tariff) is essentially the same. Also helps that stuff from Amazon US, et al are directly available through local Amazon. (Recently ordered 64 GB RAM kit, and it shipped from UK even though it was purchased from Amazon Germany through local Amazon site)
I've been using a Cudy WR3000H as an AP for a few months now, very impressed. Cost about £40 here in the UK. Initially on 24.10 SNAPSHOT but its just gone into official support on 24.10.2. I believe the WR3000E is now also supported as of 24.10.2.
I've been using the WAX206 for quite some time as an AP/Switch and it's been serving me well. No complaints on stability or troughput, but we're not heavy users...
It indeed does not do ax on 2.4GHz (the WAX202 does), but that's no problem in my use case.
And I'm using a Cudy TR3000 as wifi router, but Cudy has put the same hardware in many of their devices. So most are well supported by OpenWrt now. The company was apperently founded by some ex TP-link staff. At least they provide good support (so far) to be able to flash vanilla OpenWrt on their devices.
I think only WR3000 (no letter) and WR3000S is available here. They are my point of comparison for me as well, because only those two have device pages anyhow.
