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OpenWrt 18.06.4

openwrt.org

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Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#31

Post by gnomesteel »

escanda wrote: post #20

This week due a wifi network intrusion I bought a Linksys Wrt3200acm. It looks good on paper and it has two boot partitions so it doesn't brick. I installed a device specific distribution recommended on the forums. Well, the 5ghz wifi range is total crap with Openwrt because the wifi driver is not as advanced as the one shipped by default and with the open source driver it can't transmit at full power. I ditched Open…

Ubiquiti. Check out the UniFi Dream Machine for all in one. It’s early access right now.

Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#32

Post by mopsi »

dhruvkar wrote: post #5

What exactly are the benefits of having Openwrt installed on your router? What additional functionality does it provide the average HN user?

It's much more configurable than stock software. Even the cheapest devices support VLANs and multiple wireless networks on hardware level (useful for isolating private / iot / guest parts of the network), but stock software usually does not expose such advanced features.

Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#33

Post by Nextgrid »

mikepurvis wrote: post #21

How is the UX story on OpenWRT these days? I have an Archer C7 running stock FW in my basement that keeps acting up, and my default would be just to flash DD-WRT. I'm not opposed to a little bit of CLI fiddling, but I definitely also like my router to be a set and forget type of device. As far as what to do with it, I could picture house-wide ad/tracker blocking, sending traffic analytics to elastic, potentially some…

I didn’t touch the CLI at all configuring my OpenWRT devices. They are all configured through the GUI.

The only reason I use the CLI is because I know how to and it’s quicker to backup the configuration (ssh root@ uci export > backup) and restore it (uci restore The GUI is a nice combination of ease of use and advanced features. You can configure the basics easily, but the advanced stuff is also there if you need it (and if not just keep the defaults which are sane).

Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#34

Post by jotm »

mikepurvis wrote: post #21

How is the UX story on OpenWRT these days? I have an Archer C7 running stock FW in my basement that keeps acting up, and my default would be just to flash DD-WRT. I'm not opposed to a little bit of CLI fiddling, but I definitely also like my router to be a set and forget type of device. As far as what to do with it, I could picture house-wide ad/tracker blocking, sending traffic analytics to elastic, potentially some…

It's good these days. Slightly less logical than DD-wrt, but pretty great overall.

See other people's comments on running Openwrt on the C7, seems to have issues with 5ghz WiFi?

Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#35

Post by darkpuma »

escanda wrote: post #20

This week due a wifi network intrusion I bought a Linksys Wrt3200acm. It looks good on paper and it has two boot partitions so it doesn't brick. I installed a device specific distribution recommended on the forums. Well, the 5ghz wifi range is total crap with Openwrt because the wifi driver is not as advanced as the one shipped by default and with the open source driver it can't transmit at full power. I ditched Open…

I've been partial to the Buffalo brand for years, but I have no idea if they're still considered reasonable. The last time I bought one was a few years ago.

Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#36

Post by mangix »

escanda wrote: post #20

This week due a wifi network intrusion I bought a Linksys Wrt3200acm. It looks good on paper and it has two boot partitions so it doesn't brick. I installed a device specific distribution recommended on the forums. Well, the 5ghz wifi range is total crap with Openwrt because the wifi driver is not as advanced as the one shipped by default and with the open source driver it can't transmit at full power. I ditched Open…

It's even worse. Driver development has stopped: https://github.com/kaloz/mwlwifi/commits/master

Many like the R7800. I do not.

The XiaoMi 3G is also a good option. The driver is open source and actively developed. (The USB3 port can cause interference in 2.4Ghz though).

Anything based on ipq806x and ipq4xxx should have excellent WiFi performance. (Including the R7800)

Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#37

Post by Fnoord »

escanda wrote: post #20

This week due a wifi network intrusion I bought a Linksys Wrt3200acm. It looks good on paper and it has two boot partitions so it doesn't brick. I installed a device specific distribution recommended on the forums. Well, the 5ghz wifi range is total crap with Openwrt because the wifi driver is not as advanced as the one shipped by default and with the open source driver it can't transmit at full power. I ditched Open…

I would recommend a Ubiquti UniFi [1]. Although I'm so pissed off that I can't deeplink to their UniFi product page that I'm almost not making this very post. Which specific one depends on your needs and budget.

[1] https://www.ui.com/products/#

Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#38

Post by kpU8efre7r »

escanda wrote: post #20

This week due a wifi network intrusion I bought a Linksys Wrt3200acm. It looks good on paper and it has two boot partitions so it doesn't brick. I installed a device specific distribution recommended on the forums. Well, the 5ghz wifi range is total crap with Openwrt because the wifi driver is not as advanced as the one shipped by default and with the open source driver it can't transmit at full power. I ditched Open…

This is my exact experience. Wireless performance with OpenWRT is severely lacking.

Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#39

Post by mangix »

mr_sturd wrote: post #19
mangix wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes DD-WRT remains a hacky codebase with several things breaking all the time. I'm aure some people are running it just fine though. It also uses close-source drivers for some equipment. Last time I tried it on an Archer C7v2, the 5ghz didn't work properly.

Thank you. I did some digging and my router, the Asus RT-AC68U C1, being Broadcom-based, has no working WiFi. Guess I'll stay put.

Broadcom based routers require closed source drivers as Broadcom does not release documentation.

DD-WRT and Tomato/Merlin might interest you. The latter tend to work better.

Re: OpenWrt 18.06.4

#40

Post by jotm »

mr_sturd wrote: post #10

Running DD-WRT on my router, currently. Would people tend to recommend OpenWRT, these days? I haven't been in the loop WRT open router firmwares in a while...

Yes, I used to prefer DD-wrt, as it came with everything pre-installed. But Openwrt has all that and more, while being very actively developed compared to DDwrt.

Installation is just as easy, and there's an integrated safe mode (which saved my ass, fiddling with uboot, trying to overclock).

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