Kitz Forum
Broadband Related => Broadband Hardware => Topic started by: Pauljbl on August 09, 2019, 11:05:51 AM
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Hi
Can anyone recommend a good router that has good openwrt support that can be picked up for a good price on flebay
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Can you be any more specific about what you would like from it?
- Whats a good price to you? Compatible devices can be had for as little as £10 or up to £100+.
- What do you want to do with it - how fast is your connection? Do you want to shape it (QoS)?
- Would you like to host a VPN on it so you can dial in when away from the house?
- How technical do you want to get? Do you need something that you just flash and forget or do you like fiddling?
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Hi
Can anyone recommend a good router that has good openwrt support that can be picked up for a good price on flebay
David C supports a few Linksys (https://dc502wrt.org/) and kong (http://www.desipro.de/openwrt//) supports Netgear R7800 and Linksys EA8500
I would avoid a Broadcom based router: https://openwrt.org/meta/infobox/broadcom_wifi
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David C supports a few Linksys (https://dc502wrt.org/) and kong (http://www.desipro.de/openwrt//) supports Netgear R7800 and Linksys EA8500
I would avoid a Broadcom based router: https://openwrt.org/meta/infobox/broadcom_wifi
Have read that dave c has given up trying to work out the problems with wireless on the WRT3200 etc models. Most people recommend the R7800 with its well supported qualcomm chips, but this is at the top end of what I would pay for an embedded box... when you are talking close to £100 you may as well find a low power x86 solution.
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Archer C7, can be had for £20 or so last time I checked, hardware fully supported.
All gigabit ports, AC wifi, ram and flash spec future proofed for future openwrt releases.
You want V2 ideally, there is 4 versions of this device. (seems now 5)
https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer-c7-1750
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I do like to fiddle with it yes.
I have a 36mbp fibre connection
Not worried about wireless as was thinking of keeping that as a add-on ap
I may want to shape it with QoS
A VPN to host on it would be good
Was thinking around £50 but may be more if its worth paying a bit more for better.
Can you be any more specific about what you would like from it?
- Whats a good price to you? Compatible devices can be had for as little as £10 or up to £100+.
- What do you want to do with it - how fast is your connection? Do you want to shape it (QoS)?
- Would you like to host a VPN on it so you can dial in when away from the house?
- How technical do you want to get? Do you need something that you just flash and forget or do you like fiddling?
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Ok the two devices others have mentioned would be my gotos.
The TP-link Archer C7 should be meaty enough for your needs, 780mhz 128MB of ram, anywhere from £20-40 on ebay. Lots of people use this device so finding solutions to problems should be pretty straightforward.
The netgear R7800 if you want a fast box for what ever reason, 1.7ghz dual arm core, 512MB of ram. In the past few months they have gone for as little as £60, but you'd have be patient/get luck to get one that cheap. They seem to go from £70-100.
Was going to suggest a BT Home Hub 5a if you were handy with a serial adapter, they used to go for less than £10, but it appears all thats on ebay these days are devices people have unlocked already for ~ £20. So probably not worth it.
Then of course you could look at x86 machines (most people would call them overkill for OpenWRT will tell you to use pfsense, but I like to run a hypervisor and have openwrt in a VM, then the always on box can do more interesting things as well), but that can get expensive fast. But if you like fiddling with things can be hours of fun. You can look for thin clients with pcie slots for an extra network card, or intel NUC units with more than 1 NIC.
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Would the archer c7 have enough flash as it sates they have 16mb
Did think about the BT homehub how does it compare to the archer c7 which ones best
Ok the two devices others have mentioned would be my gotos.
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Would the archer c7 have enough flash as it sates they have 16mb
Did think about the BT homehub how does it compare to the archer c7 which ones best
Its a little on the small side, but the latest version of OpenWRT still fits on 8mb flash devices.
The BTHH5a has 128mb of nand flash, same amount of ram but a slower 500mhz CPU.
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Do you think the archer c7 or BT hub would be powerful enough for openvpn and QoS and maybe other things
Its a little on the small side, but the latest version of OpenWRT still fits on 8mb flash devices.
The BTHH5a has 128mb of nand flash, same amount of ram but a slower 500mhz CPU.
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From experience the HH5a could shape my 25/1 connection with 80-90% load when maxing out both ways. It can probably handle more than that though.
This thread suggests the Archer C7 can shape up 100-200mbit/s with SQM:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/solved-openwrt-performance-on-tp-link-ac1750-archer-c7/23239/10
Another user in that thread says around 20mbit/s throughput with openvpn. Since your upload is less than that it shouldnt pose a problem with a dial in VPN. If you wanted to use it as a gateway to a VPN service for all your home devices performance should be a lot better with WireGuard.
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What is wireguard?
From experience the HH5a could shape my 25/1 connection with 80-90% load when maxing out both ways. It can probably handle more than that though.
This thread suggests the Archer C7 can shape up 100-200mbit/s with SQM:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/solved-openwrt-performance-on-tp-link-ac1750-archer-c7/23239/10
Another user in that thread says around 20mbit/s throughput with openvpn. Since your upload is less than that it shouldnt pose a problem with a dial in VPN. If you wanted to use it as a gateway to a VPN service for all your home devices performance should be a lot better with WireGuard.
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Why would I want v2. I see v4 is slightly faster clock speed?
Archer C7, can be had for £20 or so last time I checked, hardware fully supported.
All gigabit ports, AC wifi, ram and flash spec future proofed for future openwrt releases.
You want V2 ideally, there is 4 versions of this device. (seems now 5)
https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer-c7-1750
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What is wireguard?
Its the new hotness in VPN protocols. Easier to set up, less resource intensive and much faster than openvpn. Some people are apprehensive to use it as its really new, but its adoption is growing.
You can google for more info.
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Have you used many routers with openwrt?
If you had the choice of a router that runs openwrt which one would you get?
Its the new hotness in VPN protocols. Easier to set up, less resource intensive and much faster than openvpn. Some people are apprehensive to use it as its really new, but its adoption is growing.
You can google for more info.
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In recent memory I have used a TP-link WDR3600, a BTHH5a and 2 different x86 machines with OpenWRT. Back in the day I used it along with dd-wrt and tomato on an actual WRT54g.
If I was starting with no compatible hardware now I'd probably buy the Archer C7 and have a play with that (would watch ebay for a few weeks if need be to get the cheapest I could). If it didn't meet my needs (it probably would if all I wanted to do was SQM) I could use it as a wireless AP and look at beefier hardware.
For me the killer feature of openWRT is the SQM with cake QoS, it turns my terrible 25/1 connection from one only suitable for a single user into one that can cope well with several people streaming/gaming/downloading and it just works.
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Do you know if the Linksys WRT AC1900 is any good for openwrt it seems good specs at not too bad price
In recent memory I have used a TP-link WDR3600, a BTHH5a and 2 different x86 machines with OpenWRT. Back in the day I used it along with dd-wrt and tomato on an actual WRT54g.
If I was starting with no compatible hardware now I'd probably buy the Archer C7 and have a play with that (would watch ebay for a few weeks if need be to get the cheapest I could). If it didn't meet my needs (it probably would if all I wanted to do was SQM) I could use it as a wireless AP and look at beefier hardware.
For me the killer feature of openWRT is the SQM with cake QoS, it turns my terrible 25/1 connection from one only suitable for a single user into one that can cope well with several people streaming/gaming/downloading and it just works.
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Do you know if the Linksys WRT AC1900 is any good for openwrt it seems good specs at not too bad price
Yep it has nice specs, but from a quick skim of ebay it looks to be priced similarly to a netgear R7800.
I own neither, but have read in several places people complaining about its wireless under OpenWRT, with people preferring the R7800. If you don't intend to use the wireless or can find it for a great price then its an option.
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Would the archer c7 have enough flash as it sates they have 16mb
Did think about the BT homehub how does it compare to the archer c7 which ones best
It has plenty of flash, but even if you are concerned you can use usb stick storage, even to the point the OS files can boot of the usb stick. I use a usb stick anyway to preserve the flash erase cycles, for things like storing graph data and logs.
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Why would I want v2. I see v4 is slightly faster clock speed?
v2 has easiest install process, and the most mature full support.
v4 might be better now than it was, but at time I got my v2 it wasnt as easy as v2 for recovery etc.
increasing clock to 775mhz if that bothers you should be trivial to do on a v2.
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Do you boot off the USB stick?
It has plenty of flash, but even if you are concerned you can use usb stick storage, even to the point the OS files can boot of the usb stick. I use a usb stick anyway to preserve the flash erase cycles, for things like storing graph data and logs.
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I dont, but its possible to do so.
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What modem do you use Johnson?
Yep it has nice specs, but from a quick skim of ebay it looks to be priced similarly to a netgear R7800.
I own neither, but have read in several places people complaining about its wireless under OpenWRT, with people preferring the R7800. If you don't intend to use the wireless or can find it for a great price then its an option.
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What modem do you use Johnson?
Currently a VMG1312-B10A with modified firmware for 1508 MTU, updated modem code and stats server - details here (https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,21545.msg381478.html#msg381478).
Syncs the best of any modem I've tried.
Also have an 8324 & 3925, the 8324 being almost identical to the 1312 in performance.
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I've just installed Openwrt on an Archer C7 (V5) with original factory firmware, using this image (http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.4/targets/ar71xx/generic/openwrt-18.06.4-ar71xx-generic-archer-c7-v5-squashfs-factory.bin) .
Installation was simple, I just used the "Upgrade firmware" option in the web interface. I've got no previous experience with Openwrt, but everything seems to work properly, and it fixed an IPv6 problem which I had with the factory firmware.
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Currently a VMG1312-B10A with modified firmware for 1508 MTU, updated modem code and stats server - details here (https://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,21545.msg381478.html#msg381478).
Syncs the best of any modem I've tried.
Also have an 8324 & 3925, the 8324 being almost identical to the 1312 in performance.
What's the filename of the one you used I have one of theses modems on the way.
Does it matter what firmware the modem is on before upgrading?
[Moderator edited to move the query to after the quotation, to which it relates.]
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Have you considered Merlin (https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net) lots of cheapish Asus hardware (https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Supported-Devices) can run it, its tomato based.
I had an AC68U for a while which I fiddled with (admittedly I didn't like the hardware that much) and I liked the software.
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johnson do you use this one
1312-B10A-AAJZ16-jumboframes-x6.bin