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Topic: What's the best/most hackable newer router?

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What are opinions on what is the most hackable/moddable newer router? By newer I mean something with gigabit ethernet ports and at least wireless n, preferably dual band. I know the Linksys WRT54GL is probably the gold standard of hackable routers in terms of what has been done with it, but it's also getting to be pretty long in the tooth with limited RAM, Flash, and only 100 MB ethernet ports and a wireless G radio. It's not totally obsolete, but I'm looking for something a little better, and I'm wondering if there is any consensus on what is the most moddable nextgen router?

I've been hunting around, and I wonder if it is this:

http://www.amazon.com/RT-N66U-Dual-Band … s_300189_2

Does anyone have any experience with this (ASUS RT-N66U)?
600 Mhz Broadcom processor
256 MB DDR2 of RAM
32 MB of flash
MicroSD slot
2 x USB 2.0 ports
Gigabit Ethernet / Wireless N
It also has three external antennas which can be replaced with better antenna's. It looks like ASUS may have designed this with the hacker/enthusiast market in mind, given the design. Maybe that's why it's the number two seller out of all routers on Amazon. With those kind of specs you could do an awful lot with it, both on the hardware and software side.

Note: It looks like there is also a newer model supporting the latest AC draft standards, although I prefer to wait until standards are finalized before buying hardware.

(Last edited by AlgebraicMirror on 8 Oct 2013, 01:44)

AlgebraicMirror wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with this (ASUS RT-N66U)?

There're actually no good opensource drivers for this device and won't be in near future.
Also iirc users reported overheating with this device.

EUA wrote:

What about TP-Link WDR7500?

Current revision of this device uses an outdated revision 1.0 of an 802.11ac wireless card which is not supported in opensource ath10k driver and won't ever be. So you can play around with this device, but 5GHz wireless band will be unavailable.

What about WNDR3800, the beefed up version of WNDR3700v1/v2?
16 MB flash, 128 MB RAM.
The series is well supported in Openwrt, dual-band radios work ok, it has a good built-in recovery mode, and it even has a proper header for the serial console inside the router.

Yes, that Netgear device is really well supported and properly designed.
The drawbacks are quiet old CPU and quiet high price.

tl-wdr3600 ?

EUA wrote:

What about TP-Link WDR7500?
http://bit.ly/1glHRF5
Doesn't it better and cheaper?

Yes and if you meant this TP LINK TL-WDR7500 (direct link) from AliExpress. This is what I plan to get, preferably the v1 (with three external antenna).

Doesn't It meaningless if it's not possible to use 5Ghz equipment with OpenWRT???

(Last edited by EUA on 9 Oct 2013, 00:29)

I use WNDR3800 it is fully supported with 128MB so you can run a lot of stuff on it.
5Ghz network is working perfect.

I am curently looking for a more complete build for this router then the default openwer in manual
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3800

What I miss is additional USB port.

RT-N66U-Dual-Band to bad this one is not supported - yet

(Last edited by adbat on 12 Oct 2013, 02:39)

>> Does anyone have any experience with this (ASUS RT-N66U)?

I ran one of these for 1-2 years, and found the radio to be flaky (overheating or ?).

Currently running netgear 6300, which has amazing radio, and is very stable (but I need to figure out how to run openwrt on it!)

Best means cheap in price also!
So TP-Link is way to go for me. (Does any other brand make it cheaper?)

TL-MR3420v2 has 533 Mhz CPU, USB and good signal reception, comes with dual 5dBm antenna... Comes nearly ~$35 locally
*It is really good specially if you could solder new RAM (for make it 32MB->64MB) and change Flash chip (I prefer usıng USB stick for better space).
Disadvantages of this router is, "doesn't have 5Ghz Radio" sad
Also don't have a "Gigabit switch" but who uses good and old wires this days specially after WDS invented?

Any alternatives available for this one? I think will buy one of this and wait 802.11ac get cheaper If I couldn't find any cheap 5Ghz supported 802.11n router from similar prices.

(Last edited by EUA on 15 Oct 2013, 00:33)

i think people are missing the point here.. the point is to have something you dont have to pay $150 to get good use out of.. one thing that made the WRT54G so popular was that it was so versatile and under $50.. so to look for its replacement id say youd have to look for the most versatile router under $50

my vote would probably go with the WR1043nd.. it has 8gb flash, double that of the mr3420, and it has a more utilitarian shell to it.. the wrt54g certainly wasnt pretty, but most workhorses arent.. also offers vlan as well if thats important to anyone

and for about $60 you can get the WDR4300 which is a 450mbps router offers two usb ports and simultaneous dual band as well, probably a beter value than anything else ive seen

(Last edited by justin22885 on 28 Oct 2013, 17:23)

justin22885 wrote:

i think people are missing the point here.. the point is to have something you dont have to pay $150 to get good use out of.. one thing that made the WRT54G so popular was that it was so versatile and under $50.. so to look for its replacement id say youd have to look for the most versatile router under $50

my vote would probably go with the WR1043nd.. it has 8gb flash, double that of the mr3420, and it has a more utilitarian shell to it.. the wrt54g certainly wasnt pretty, but most workhorses arent.. also offers vlan as well if thats important to anyone

and for about $60 you can get the WDR4300 which is a 450mbps router offers two usb ports and simultaneous dual band as well, probably a beter value than anything else ive seen


I prefer the TP-Link routers.  Things are generally heading towards simultaneous dual-band, which I think makes single-band routers a bad investment if you're looking for something that will be useful for the same sort of service life that the WRT54G variants have had.

Personally, I think the TL-WDR3600 is a good compromise between features and cost.  It may not be quite $50, but it's still in the same price ball-park.  I see a couple buy-it-now listings on eBay for $55 shipped, and typical prices seem to be around $65.  While that's technically over the $50 budget, I would argue that it's worthwhile.  This is especially true since this is what the TL-WR1043ND sells for.

TL-WDR3500 (2T2R on both bands, only 100Mbps ethernet, no built in USB hub so only 1 USB port)
TL-WDR3600 (2T2R both bands, gigabit LAN, 2 USB ports)
TL-WDR4300 (2T2R on 2.4GHz, 3T3R on 5GHz)
TL-WDR4310 (3T3R both bands)

All have USB 2.0, simultaneous dual-band Atheros radios (with excellent RX sensitivity!), an AR9344 SoC clocked at 560MHz, 128MiB RAM, 8MiB flash, excellent OpenWrt support, and vary from $55-$90 depending on features.

If you can afford it, Archer C7/TL-WDR7500 sounds tempting, though you will need to source and replace the Mini-PCIe radio.  If you can forgo 5GHz or deal with using a USB dongle for that, you could probably even stick other cool PCI-Express stuff in, like maybe a crypto accelerator or something.

Hi everyone,

as we talk about hardware hacking let me tell you we are now waiting for a new board that is currently in development phase and is called Cubiejet. As they had a road map where they already develop and sell the Cubieboard and soon the Cubietruck they will now develop the Cubiejet that will normally become a router / server on which OpenWRT will run.
If at least the same existing Cubietruck specifications will be respected I think this Cubiejet will become the board that everyone must have.

As the Cubieboard and Cubietruck already have GPIO I am sure that our router / server could become a real autonomous home / small enterprise router / server (file, printer, mail, web, home automation).
http://www.cubieboard.org

Have a nice day,

Miguipda ;-)

I have a TL-WDR4300 that works great with OpenWRT 12.09

I was thinking of picking up a TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 (N600).  The price seems good for the level of performance.  I don't need 450Mbps wireless  so wasn't considering the N750 (unless I find a fantastic price on one).

Currently I have an old WRT54GS v2.

Primary reason for changing is that I'm upgrading from 7mbit DSL to 50mbit cable and I'm doubtful the WRT54 will handle this.   I have two tagged vlans (from a Netgear GS716T-200 switch) into the WRT54 at present.

I'm not sure how much of the vlan support is off-loaded to the hardware?   Does anyone know?

The WRT54 has been remarkably stable/reliable and I'd like the replacement to be equally as good.   Recommendations/advice appreciated.

(Last edited by crazybrit on 9 Apr 2014, 21:51)

crazybrit wrote:

I was thinking of picking up a TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 (N600).  The price seems good for the level of performance.  I don't need 450Mbps wireless  so wasn't considering the N750 (unless I find a fantastic price on one).

Currently I have an old WRT54GS v2.

Primary reason for changing is that I'm upgrading from 7mbit DSL to 50mbit cable and I'm doubtful the WRT54 will handle this.   I have two tagged vlans (from a Netgear GS716T-200 switch) into the WRT54 at present.

I'm not sure how much of the vlan support is off-loaded to the hardware?   Does anyone know?

The WRT54 has been remarkably stable/reliable and I'd like the replacement to be equally as good.   Recommendations/advice appreciated.

I recently picked up the WD My Net N750 which is almost identical to the TL-WDR3600 except for having internal antennas (a con perhaps) and having 16MB of flash (a plus unless you are doing usb storage out of the gate) and it is working pretty well so far.  Iperf shows 120+Mbps of NAT performance which is good enough for me.  I let my GS728TS handle all the VLAN heavy lifting so I cant comment on vlan port performance specifically.

jeffmeden wrote:

I recently picked up the WD My Net N750 which is almost identical to the TL-WDR3600 except for having internal antennas (a con perhaps) and having 16MB of flash (a plus unless you are doing usb storage out of the gate) and it is working pretty well so far.  Iperf shows 120+Mbps of NAT performance which is good enough for me.  I let my GS728TS handle all the VLAN heavy lifting so I cant comment on vlan port performance specifically.

I ended up getting a TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND v2.1      Primarily as it has a 720Mhz cpu.     It was $43 shipped. 

I got the cable internet installed.  speedtest using the existing WRT54GS showed it maxed out at 19Mbit/sec   Directly connecting a PC to Motorola cable modem was 57Mbit/sec.

(Last edited by crazybrit on 15 Apr 2014, 21:21)

Does everything work fine on the TL-WR1043ND with OpenWRT flashed?

brando56894 wrote:

Does everything work fine on the TL-WR1043ND with OpenWRT flashed?

Yes,   zero issues getting it setup.  Getting over 50mbit/sec from vlan to wan.   Downside is that openvpn performance is significantly less than I would have wished.     See my other threads.

(Last edited by crazybrit on 1 May 2014, 01:47)

brando56894 wrote:

Does everything work fine on the TL-WR1043ND with OpenWRT flashed?

At least the v1.x models suffered the usb 1.x bug of the ar933x. This should have been fixed some months ago, but I didn't check that so far. Common workaround was using a usb 2.0 hub.
Also, the 32 MB RAM can be a serious limit these days. The last time I imported a MySQL-database, I had to add some swap space. Besides that, it works quite good.

1.x has ar9132, not 933x... i don't think it's the same problem...

brando56894 wrote:

Does everything work fine on the TL-WR1043ND with OpenWRT flashed?

WR1043 V1.x is really bad with OpenWrt, you will have nothing but trouble! I had it for over a year and couldn't get it to work. I have tried EVERYTHING.

Some say that new 2.x is ok, but I haven't tried it.

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