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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.?

#71

Post by alimbada »

zhan_eg wrote: post #40
alimbada wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There was a pretty detailed discussion on HN on the split [0] I personally hope that the situation won't become as [1]. [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11624374 [1] - https://xkcd.com/927/

Sure, having competing standards isn't always a good thing but we're not talking about a standard here. It's a new router firmware distribution and I think having more of them is a good thing as it gives people more choice.

The major problem that I do see here is that LEDE has been forked from OpenWRT, but has nowhere near the level of device support that OpenWRT has. I have a TP-Link WDR4300 which I bought specifically because it was one of the routers which are highly compatible with OpenWRT. However, LEDE doesn't list this router amongst its supported devices (though there are newer WDRXXXX devices listed).

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

#72

Post by [deleted] »

mavrc wrote: post #70

I know others have recommended this already, but I would also say that your best bet is to buy some Ubiquiti hardware. An EdgeRouter X + UniFI Pro dual-band AP is on the order of $200 from Amazon and has way, way better functionality than SOHO hardware of same price point, with the principal issue that it is enterprise hardware, and is very much not point-and-click to set up. I think the tradeoff in functionality and…

[deleted]

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

#73

Post by nulagrithom »

ino wrote: post #41

Does anyone want to share their experience / recommendation for a router with 4G / LTE SIM card slot? I think I'm going to be needing one soon.

Not an open source one, but we use Cradlepoint routers for our remote offices that need to fail over to 4G / LTE. I quite like them.

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

#74

Post by sopium »

sashk wrote: post #25

I use two devices to handle usual definition of the router: 1. Mini PC[1] running as a router (pfSense); 2. eero to handle the wifi. Why? I've tried many times to use dd-wrt, openwrt and tomato firmwares on my routers, but every time I failed miserably: it's either something stops working, or I need to schedule routers reboots and so. So I gave up. Since that time, mini pc [1] is the third system which routes my traf…

I use a mini PC as router too, running Ubuntu though. It works really well for me. I chose linux instead of pfSense because it is a lot more flexible, and I was already quite proficient in managing linux systems.

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

#75

Post by RockyMcNuts »

It's an answer to a different question but Wirecutter did a nice roundup of all the new (proprietary) mesh WiFi systems

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-mesh-networking-...

HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13102698

If LEDE has a stable release that supports mesh networks it will be nice.

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

#76

Post by Diederich »

feistypharit wrote: post #18

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…

DNS crypt? The google came up with several possibilities.

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

#77

Post by drewg123 »

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.…

How is a potential user supposed to figure this out?

If I go to what LEDE calls "ideal hardware for LEDE", at https://www.lede-project.org/toh/views/toh_available_864, none of the above routers are listed (with the possible exception of the Netgear R7500, but there is no mention of v1/v2).

I guess the docs are just out of date?

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

#78

Post by NetStrikeForce »

I'm using Nexx WT3020 https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/nexx/wt3020 for my easy VPN project, but I've got the GL-iNet in mind also.

The idea of these is to connect them to your main router and have a "protected Wi-Fi network" that routes all traffic through VPN, while you can always go back to your normal Wi-Fi network to not use VPN.

If anyone's interested in talking about it, hit me up at hello@tscr.io

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

#79

Post by djsumdog »

I highly recommend just building a Thin-ITX router. I have a post of how I built mine here:

http://penguindreams.org/blog/building-a-thin-itx-router/

I paid too much for parts. You can easily construct one of these for under $200. I'm sick of ARM and needing a different image per device.

AVOID the ClearFog and BPI-R1:

http://penguindreams.org/blog/review-clearfog-pro/

http://penguindreams.org/blog/banana-pi-bpi-r1-fails-into-an...

I cannot recommend either of them (although if I had to, the BPI-R1 is better than the ClearFog. Just don't expect it to be stable)

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

#80

Post by riobard »

chx wrote: post #32
sashk wrote: post #25

I use two devices to handle usual definition of the router: 1. Mini PC[1] running as a router (pfSense); 2. eero to handle the wifi. Why? I've tried many times to use dd-wrt, openwrt and tomato firmwares on my routers, but every time I failed miserably: it's either something stops working, or I need to schedule routers reboots and so. So I gave up. Since that time, mini pc [1] is the third system which routes my traf…

I found https://www.amazon.com/Qotom-Q190G4-Celeron-Processor-Barebo... a fantastic device for the price. There's a non-Atom Celeron, a Broadwell chip and four Intel LAN ports in a <$150 package without moving parts. My home is small so this also handles the wifi for me.

How do you make it do WiFi? USB WiFi adapter?
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