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Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.?

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Re: Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.?

#11

Post by ljoshua »

zhan_eg wrote: post #2

For now, by my research the best candidates are - TP-Link Archer C7 (supported by both DD-WRT and OpenWRT, and recommended by the latter) - Linksys WRT1200AC/1900AC (supported by both DD-WRT and OpenWRT) - Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LITE/LR/PRO (OpenWRT, diffrent models depending how much speed/range do you need. No routing here, just access points.) For any models discussed, please keep in mind that depending on the hardware v…

I have a TP-Link Archer C7, and while it has generally been pretty good, the last six months or so it will simply drop all connectivity and require a reboot. Pretty frustrating (happens 2-3x/week) and has me looking for another replacement. This is with stock firmware though, so I would hope, but haven't tried, that alternative firmwares would fare better.

Re: Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.?

#13

Post by mdasen »

I have the Asus RT-AC68U/TM-AC1900. I bought it from T-Mobile for $60 and flashed it to stock and then put Asuswrt-Merlin on it (but you can use Tomato or DD-WRT). It does take a little work to flash it to stock (like Telnet'ing into the router), but it wasn't bad and for $60 I ended up with a wonderful router. There are guides online for flashing it back to stock.

If you're looking for information, I suggest SmallNetBuilder. They have very thorough reviews: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/router/view. It looks like the RT-AC68U is their #1 pick for AC1900 router now. It used to be their #2 pick under their previous testing methodology (after the R7000 Nighthawk from Netgear). That's slipped to #3 under the new testing and the Asus has taken the top slot.

Asuswrt-Merlin isn't such a radical departure from stock, but it has some nice features and allows me to do things like edit the etc/hosts to block certain things.

The Asus RT-AC68U is probably one of the top 2 AC1900 routers out there and T-Mobile is selling it for a song (even if you're not a T-Mobile customer). It's a little work to re-flash it so read a guide and see if you're comfortable with that. Or you could buy a stock RT-AC68U and get SmallNetBuilders #1 AC1900 router overall, for 2.4GHz avg throughput, 2.4GHz max throughput, 2.4GHz range, 5GHz avg throughput, and 5GHz range.

Re: Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.?

#14

Post by emilecantin »

FussyZeus wrote: post #5

I bought the Buffalo N300 not long ago: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IB8IVDQ/ref=oh_aui_deta... I've been extremely happy with this purchase, admittedly I'm a bit of a high-demand user (I host a number of minor services for myself and friends including TeamSpeak, minecraft, as well as operating two Xbox Ones) so I needed something with good port forwarding support and UPNP. Rock solid, straight DD-WRT interfa…

I'll second Buffalo. I have the N600 [0], and I'm pretty happy with it. I started with the built-in DD-WRT firmware, installed OpenWRT soon after, and recently moved to LEDE, without any issues. I don't really use many advanced features, but I find it's really stable. One really nice thing I appreciate is dnsmasq. It puts your DHCP entries on the local DNS, so you can access your machines by their hostnames via straight DNS, no WINS or Bonjour needed.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-AirStation-HighPower-Wireless...

Re: Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.?

#15

Post by alimbada »

TwoNineFive wrote: post #7

The first thing you need to know is that the OpenWRT project is basically dead and that 95+% of the developers went over to the LEDE Project. However, LEDE has not yet published a stable release yet. You can get nightly builds that are in pretty good shape though. I would highly recommend an ipq806x-based system, if you can afford it. Almost always matched with qca9880 radios. These are modern 802.11ac wave2 systems.…

As an OpenWRT user it's a little worrying to find that many of the developers have left the project. Do you have any more info on why this happened?

Re: Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.?

#17

Post by roseltraut »

fnj wrote: post #8

A router has nothing to do with providing WiFi. You should have a separate router and WAP. For the router, any fanless mini-PC with two ethernet ports. Run OpenBSD or pfSense.

I wonder, are there simple powerful just AP's comparable to the already mentioned routers? Just with less features...

Re: Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.?

#18

Post by feistypharit »

I used to run a modified advanced tomato (advancedtomato.com) on a few Asus routers. But the build process is terrible and I got sick of maintaining it. Looked at openwrt and lede, but still a pain to maintain.

I recently decided on the ubiquiti edge router x ($49), ac-lr access point($90), and pihole($50) on a raspberry pi for DNS. The pi also runs DNS crypt. But now everything gets regular updates and the firewall config and stats on the edge router are great.

Re: Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.?

#19

Post by Gruselbauer »

alexvoda wrote: post #9
douche wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll second the recommendation on the TP-Link Archer C7. It's a really nice, not too expensive, piece of kit. Bought one for my folks to replace a cheap old Walmart-grade LinkSys, and it was night and day better - now my dad can pick up usable signal in his garage, 500 yards away from the router.

Here are 3 links that might be usefull: http://rooftopbazaar.com/routerfirmware/ https://www.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/423rn6/best_2015_o... https://www.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/36s530/better_ac_r... Initially I was also planning to buy the Archer C7 but it seems OpenWRT is not flawless on it. This is unfortunate since that appears to be the recommended router for OpenWRT, so there is nothing on which OpenWR…

I am running an Archer C7 v2 on OpenWRT. Works flawlessly. Some notes though:

- 5ghz only worked after manually inserting the latest firmware blob for the qca9880 chip and setup only works via shell for it, setting any options for it from the web interface breaks stuff

- it's fast enough... I'm running a freeradius2 server on it, SMB shares on two 32gb USB pendrives, miniDLNA, DHCP for ~50 physical and virtual clients, a VPN tunnel to a VPS and so on. Never hits full load.

- 2.4ghz range is massive, 5ghz less so obviously...

- it is absolutely stable however, uptime exceeds two months and the only reason for shutting it down back then was a move, almost nine months before that

If you're simply looking for APs I would recommend Unifi UAP-AC-Pros though.

Re: Ask HN: Best current model routers for OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.?

#20

Post by the_rara_avis »

alimbada wrote: post #15
TwoNineFive wrote: post #7

The first thing you need to know is that the OpenWRT project is basically dead and that 95+% of the developers went over to the LEDE Project. However, LEDE has not yet published a stable release yet. You can get nightly builds that are in pretty good shape though. I would highly recommend an ipq806x-based system, if you can afford it. Almost always matched with qca9880 radios. These are modern 802.11ac wave2 systems.…

As an OpenWRT user it's a little worrying to find that many of the developers have left the project. Do you have any more info on why this happened?

This seems to be pretty comprehensive: https://lwn.net/Articles/686767/
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