TP-Link firmware sends six DNS requests and one NTP query every 5 seconds

oh, f--k, every TP-link box on the planet is hitting nz.pool.ntp.org every 5 minutes? you guys know we only have a couple of cables connecting us to the rest of the world right?

Please don't buy TP-link, you're DoSing an entire country

I consider that a feature ;)

TP-Link plastic routers have nice cheap hardware and they make it really easy for you to flash it with LEDE/OpenWRT.

Some OSs (I'm looking at you Windows) can get 'sticky' and refuse to fail over to the stronger AP even if it does have the same SSID and passphrase. The only solution is to force disconnect and reconnect the wifi on your device, and even then it doesn't fix it all the time.

I've found the most 'reliable' arrangement is to not only have the same SSID and passphrase, but to have them all on the same frequency and if you can, make them all from the same vendor.

Also, if you are going to re-purpose an old router as an access point, make sure you turn everything off on it except the access point service. It mustn't hand out IP addresses or offer any DNS resolution. You want your devices IP to be provided by the main router regardless of which AP you connect to. It sounds obvious, but this the main stumbling block people encounter when trying to do this.

It's not so clear cut. You need to benchmark before and after.

Often acceleration modules on Broadcom, Qualcomm, Mediatek etc are proprietary and without acceleration in OpenWrt/Lede the router is going to be dog slow.

The wifi modules are also proprietary and need be well supported by Openwrt/Lede or you will see throughput drops.

Of late it's just best to use what's in the router and not bother. And we move to faster connections on consumer routers with slow main SOCs the proprietary accelerators will become even more important.

I fail to see the problem with affiliate links in that context. The site openly disclosed that they use affiliate links to amazon. The site provides a value, a ranked list of compatible devices. I might actually use it if I were shopping around for a device. Building and maintaining it probably takes some effort. It deserves to get paid. If you think that all for-profit pages should be banned from mention then this here would be a barren place, devoid of links to useful services.

added after the parent modified his post:

Even after you changed your comment, I fail to see a problem. The poster explicitly says "I maintain", openly disclosing his affiliation with the site. The site does not recommend a specific device as "the best", it provides a list, ranked by a disclosed set of criteria from which you can pick. You can actually change the filters and the sort order - cheapest, graded by performance, ... We can agree or disagree on the specific sort criteria picked or the completeness of the list, but the grandparent actually does sometimes engage into discussions about this, soliciting feedback (and I presume implementing it). It adds value over the device lists that LEDE and OpenWRT provide.

The grandparent does mention the page every time the context makes sense, but alas, when else would he mention it? Would you prefer if the grandparent just posts the link as a reply to each and every post? He built something that adds value, so why not mention it? It's not like it's the only thing the GP ever posts. Seems more like a lurker from the comment history, but come on, the last mention was 141 days ago, it's not like it's spammy.

All in all your comment comes off as being jealous someone built something that provides a little income.