Which Router is best for OpenWrt in 2021?

💖💖💖💖

Whats router is the besr for running openwrt with adguard home?

@OneMarcFifty I have a problem with 2 AP in fast roaming 802.11r and WIFI calling service. When I moved from 1 AP coverage to second in the house, wifi calling deactivated and cannot reconnect in new 2 AP coverage. Are there any parameters that can help?

I try to install on DIR-2660. What should I do if I cannot enter the web recovery UI? I have already tried to restore the original factory settings.

@OneMarcFifty The real question is will you consult on the best device and will you supply / specify a supplier for it? My budget is three figures for two devices.

I was just given the Linksys and some mesh routers with wifi6, and I have a 8 port managed switch. I want to run atleast 5 VLans, with 3 wifi networks. I was considering doing this layout.

ONT/Modem > openwrt Vlan 1 > dumb switch > all home entertainment eth.

Openwrt Vlan 1 > Mesh as AP, for wifi 6 and such. (The 2nd wifi would be a guest & 3rd would be IoT, so would I be able to configure these vlans in wrt, and the AP just broadcasts?)

OpenWRT/managed switch/Vlans 4 & 5

Vlan 4/lab

Vlan 5/home servers

Is this viable? I don't really want to use the router as a AP, just the mesh wifi as APs. Than the switches will handle the direct lines. I figure, if need be, I can run link aggregation to the managed switch, and to the lab & server, although it shouldn't be necessary.

My worry is that I won't be able to broadcast multiple ssids for general use, guest, and IoT. Although idk if I'll need it, I'm thinking launching a said for the lab and or home server when/if need be would also be useful.

Thoughts?

I would have used the other routers as clients to test MU-MIMO.

I am surprised one of your criteria wasn't at least 3 radios for backhaul in a mesh. You may have good reasons for that as I am not as familiar with OpenWRT as many are. I was thinking 4 radios would be best in a mesh but I don't see that in the wifi routers I have looked at recently. If you were doing city scale wifi, then it seems more reasonable to me.

Thanks !!!
You saved my day with the flow offloading setting !!

Please make a video for 2023

A Very informative and well-composed video. Opens up a lot of valuable information about routers and their inner functionality. So if we take an average router on the market, say Asus, does it mean that they always use a generic CPU and do no background hardware offloading at all, unless this is mentioned somewhere in the GUI as an option? Is there then any benefit of using a router as a box solution vs a software router on a generic CPU and mainboard?

superb, will be 2023 version "Which Router is best for OpenWrt in 2023" ?

Hi Marc. Great material. How do you think of comparison of Archer C7 (v2 or v5) vs Asus RT-N66U (running Merlin LTS or FreshTomato)? The uses I consider are either AP only (5ghz for phone/laptops/TV + 2.4ghz for IoTs), or AP + WAN-LAN routing, with same use. I also wonder if the fairly newer Xiaomi 4A (50% of their price in the used market) is in the similar league as the other two. Internet connection is 100MBits, but likely to upgrade to 300MBits or 600MBits soon.

maybe you can make an update for 2023?

Does anyone have a recommendation for Outdoor APs?

any update for 2023?

An old PC (x86) and a couple cheap access points works great for me, especially with VPN service.

SQM is not your average QOS it reduces ALL latency by eliminating buffer bloat. That's why a beefy CPU is more desirable then using hardware offloading.

iball-baton-ib-wra300n3gt what custom rom will be ok.....???

Bought a D-Link DIR-2640, but having a devil of a time getting it to flash. The curl command really could work, especially with a long timeout for the 100 Ok. People say it works with a Windows box, but I don't have one. Only macOS and Raspberry Pi. A simple network trace of a regular load would probably show the proper mime header or whatever is needed to get an upload to work. Any thoughts? I haven't tried the Pi yet, but since that is running Chrome, I have my doubts. Of course, so is a new Windows box, so I don't know.

I love the videos. Could you do an updated video for 2022? Thanks Marc

Thank you, as my Archer C7 went up in smoke, i got some interesting hints from here. Next will be a Linksys EA7300 with mediatek base.

Hello Sir.... May I know is it possible to install OPENWRT in Netis AC1200 router?

I am interrested in listening to your choice of routers in November 2022....are there any new models, which you recommend ?

Brilliant video!

Can you do a follow up for 2022/2023? Appreciate all your videos!

Main problems with these routers - versions. Vendors often start with some nice chipsets, lots of RAM and storage. And over time, without external change, the internals change, the same model suddenly runs completely different HW with much more limited RAM, storage, etc. It happened to me multiple times that I purchased some device listed on OpenWRT as supported, just to find out that supported was Version 4 and I got Version 5 (not listed at the vendor site, of course) and my device is either not yet supported, or even worse, never will be.
So, be careful when checking the device, always also check version.

Btw, good idea for testing speed instead of iperf3 (a bit more visual) is to run open speed test on some docker-capable machine in your network.

Excellent video, very interesting stuff! Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Most ath79 targets including the C7 do not support DSA which is pretty disappointing. This may change in the future but as such I don't necessarily recommend it for new openWRT builds.

I am running wrt3200acm with OpenWRT OS for 5 years so I would like to share my thoughts on it.

I bough it because vendor claimed: "Open source ready with OpenWrt and DD-WRT"
It is clearly bullshit from their side because of mwlwifi driver no-development/bugs. If somebody claims it is open source ready I would expect that is means open source including drivers.

However it is great router and I would like to highligh Dual Firmware Flashing feature. From my POV it is MUST have feature for WRT upgrades. For example I have upgraded OS and girlfriend complained about something is not working. So I rolled up to known good configuration in 30 seconds! When I am alone at home I can continue with changing and troubleshooting. Who has experience with girlfriend did not have internet on her phone known what that means.


Next router I will buy will be definitely with OpenWRT OS however I will triple check that wifi driver (or any other drivers) on that device is decent sort (definitely not Marvell).

I got a DIR-2660 based on this video... unfortunately it seems the ones you get these days are "V2" and that the bootloader has changed somewhere between the first V1 and now.
So there seems to be 2 issues with this device:
1) The recovery page does not accept the current images. (something with image headers and encryption?)
2) You can't upload from Linux since there's some weird TCP issue which makes the router stop answering. People are reporting that it works from Windoze.

Marc, would you still recommend the D-link DIR-3060 in 2022? Could you please please do a video on this router? Many thanks.

It would be awesome if openwrt would make firmware for a in-wall ap for a fast roaming network, there are lots of them on ali for cheap and the in-wall thing it sounds even better

Hey man thanks for all the info , but im really needing help with an experienced user I have a asus ac3100 . I am really really wanting to be able to use SQM but openwrt doesn’t say it’s for ac3100 but they do have an ac88u which apparently is the same hardware that I have . So is this possible to use this firmware and get SQM ? Please help

I bought a Eero Mesh to solve my bufferbloat issues on the network. Seems to have done the job thanks to SQM.

I haven't seen anything better than Turris Omnia for OpenWrt...

does anything change for 2022, what do you recommend for people who only need wifi capability?

Hallo i have tp-link wr-941nd when i go to software to install sqm pkg I can’t find it when i do update list nothing happens i need help pls

Hi there. I've ordered the TP-Link Archer C7 V5, but it arrive as V4. Should I return it or keep it? I don't really care about the 2 usb ports. I see in another OP video about the DIY mesh setup where the archer C7 V5 supports a feature that is needed for the mesh setup. Does the V4 supports it as well? Read online that there is no difference between the V4 and V5 other than the 2 usb ports on the V4. The difference is in the firmware itself was what I read.

You can also install openWRT on an x86 platform.

I can buy routers that supposedly have OpenWRT pre-installed such as ones from GL.iNet. GL.iNet puts a simplified GUI over the full OpenWRT, but I can install LuCl, one of the packages that are available for these GL.iNet router to get the full GUI of OpenWRT (is this what is called side load?). Can you do video on the a pro and con of doing this compared to just get a compatible router and flash OpenWRT on it? Speaking of which, can I get a GL.iNet router, but instead of installing LuCl as a side load, I would flash OpenWRT over the stock simplified GUI, replacing it altogether to get that “pure” OpenWRT experience?

Hello how are you? Is it possible to install openwrt on a router with little space, immediately install rclone, mount goodrive, put it to mount as a disk at boot, then install packages to run on that disk, such as using services like openvpn, ddns, samba? I really like your videos. Thank you very much!

I have bought the Belkin RT3200 and installed OPENWRT and now looking for 2 Access points. Which one is the best to buy to make access points? TP-LINK Archer C7 or the XIAOMI MI A4 Gigabit edition? Please help!!!

I have 200mbps broadband. Which one the Best Buy and the best for mesh

Would you be able to recommend a router that can work 100% wifi giving both bands for Client-AP-Router functionality. I live on a boat and going from marina to marina I run into many different APs some 5 and some only 2.4. and all the letters of the alphabet, also run a number of Arduino sensors and 2.4 cameras on my boat that I need to be able to communicate with them back to my router. I would like to be able to go into the setup and connect with whatever the marina has to offer while at the same time maintaining my internal 5/2.4 boat network. Last I would like it to have changeable antennas as I use outside mounted antennas to capture the marina signal and internal antennas to capture the sensors. Range is actually a problem. The boat is only 60 feet long but wifi penetration is a problem through the density of hardwood and and fiberglass. Sound like a challange?