Would OpenWRT slow my internet speed down?

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi all. I am using a ZTE ZXHN H168A V2.0 modem and I am currently suffering from bufferbloat. My internet connection has 100 Mbps download and 8 Mbps upload but due to the structural built-in problems I can use 74 Mbps of my total download speed.

Soon, I will fix this issue with an electrician but the main question is that, I am going to buy a Xiaomi Mi Router 4A Gigabit Version and I will install OpenWrt in it, in order to use SQM and get rid of bufferbloat. But I have seen many people suffering from limitations on internet speed after installing OpenWrt.
Why is that happening? If I install OpenWrt, is there a risk for my connection too? I am very very newbie to these terms. Can you help me with it?

2

That router is not very good, see device page - ie unshielded electronics etc.
Try to find something here: https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi

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3

Well, economically I am kinda limited. But I am open to suggestions of other routers which are in the similar price band.

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4

Do sqm works by taking control of the bottleneck link... and properly managing the buffers. For upload/egress that is easy, but for download/ingress the true bottleneck link is from your ISP to your modem, so we need to create an artificial bottleneck in your OpenWrt router, so you will need to sacrifice some potential download capacity to keep bufferbloat under control.
(Bufferbloat is the consequence of over-sized but under-managed buffers, and buffers on the ISP side stay like that, so the goal is to move all relevant buffering to your OpenWrt router but for that to work without too much 'backspill' into the ISP's buffers you typically need to reduce the rate by 10-15%, but this is a policy question so you set these values for your network to strike your desired trade-off between capacity and latency-under-load-increase).
Please post to the forum if you have questions/issues with getting sqm installed/configured...

5

You can find better 20 bucks gigabit+wifi5 device. For 100Mbps they will all be sufficient for SQM, but probably youll need to drop SQM and resort to offloads before 500/500.

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Thanks for quick reply. As far as I understand, there is nothing to do about download speed limitation because this is how ''dealing with bufferbloat'' works, right?

So approximately I can imagine that 10-15% of my total download speed (100Mbps) will decrease. What about upload speed? Would it get effected too?

7

Well I will see what I can find. Are there any specific recommendations of yours? Thank you for your interest.

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https://www.amazon.in/Dual-Band-Wireless-Beamforming-Next-Gen-Dual-Core/dp/B09DQ3RV16/

Double your price but well under eu shop price. Though check local remarks on seller as usual. Nice if they have storefront. it is totally official store.

Basically i got to amazon.in, wifi routers, sort price grow, check 11ac box and check through makers. eg netgear seem wildly overpriced,

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That one fits my price band. Thanks for recommendation, I will see details of it. I am very open other recommendations too.

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There's currently an issue with going back to stock, on the AX23.

You can do it, but then you're stuck with the version you rolled back to..

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ie at present you cannot chicken out if you are unhappy with openwrt....

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I also read some discussions about Mi 4A GE. People say the router is now being producted with a different chip which you cannot install OpenWrt on. Do you have knowledge on this?

13

Yes, thats another problem, like unseen in "old world" but chinese market units are completely different.

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14

Xiaomi have a tendency to swap out components during a products life cycle.

No one knows about it, until some poor sod soft bricks their device.

I'd stay away from Xiaomi.

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15

For upload with a fixed rate link you can approach 100%, but to do that you need to be sure about the exact per packet overhead... but that is something that can be iteratively explored...

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16

Yes, at first I thought a Xiaomi router would be good but now, I changed my mind. I also see that you are not recommending AX23. Is there a specific recommendation of yours? Thanks for helping.

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It will be a kind of trial and error, I guess. Thanks for helping.

18

xiaomi was good https://youtu.be/a4fDwG3aEb8

AX23 is absolutely recommended, just that at present you cannot revert to stock.

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19

Well, as I told earlier I am a newbie to these kind of stuff. I don't know if I would need to revert to stock one day. So, it might be better to check other options. What do you think?

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I dont think youll get such exquisite price often....