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66
Cheap, OpenWrt compatible routers with WiFi 6? (infosec.pub)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I am looking for suggestions of cheap, OpenWrt compatible routers that may have Wifi 6, for future proofing. My idea was to use it as a main router, but also as a travel router so I can plug it whenever I travel somewhere else.

I also want to learn how to use OpenWrt (I have an old router at home to test it out, but it's not ideal for everyday use since it's 100Mbps and doesn't have gigabit ports).

It'd be nice to have:

  • Wifi 6
  • OpenVPN or WireGuard support
  • Compatibility with OpenWrt
  • Ideally less than 60 EUR

A small form factor is also appreciated but not a requirement.

I checked the device tables and lists on the OpenWrt wiki, but it's hard to decide. A beginner's guide to the operating system recommended some routers but most of them are too expensive for my use case.

Currently, I'm leaning towards the GL iNet Opal (1200) but it doesn't support OpenWrt, the other option is the BananaPi BPI-WIfi 6. What would be your suggestions?

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

The 60 EUR price limit may be your limiting factor. Everything else can be covered by the GL.iNet devices available on Amazon. I've got a couple of the older 'n' travel models, and they work pretty great. I flashed vanilla OpenWRT over top of their customized one, but the original OpenWRT-based software works fine too.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=GL.iNET

I usually separate my router functions from my AP to make finding hardware easier, so I'm not well versed in router+AP combos these days, but those seem to be well-reviewed and my experience with an older model is also good.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

I got my mt6000 waiting for me at home i cant wait

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Not every GL.iNet device supports vanilla OpenWrt, though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Yeah, I recently bought the GL-MT6000 and it's been great.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

ASUS RT-AX53U

https://openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ax53u

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

160 MHz 5GHz bandwidth not supported

How relevant is this?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I guess Wifi 6 doesn't work in 5GHz band?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I think that means the access point can only run at up to 80Mhz bandwidth, so not full bandwidth.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have Dynalink DL-WRX36, running openwrt since day 0. Iirc it was 60 euro year ago. Everything works, wireguard too. No complaints. I believe there is openwrt stable build for it already, though I an still running snapshot as I am too lazy to update.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Second this router! It had the fastest CPU and antenna vs price when I last looked. I run zerotier as a VPN on it an it works great. Plenty of ram and flash for packages too.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Do you need 6Ghz as well? Because I don't think there are any that OpenWRT supports yet.

The Flint 2 suggestion is reasonable, although the firmware situation is currently a bit problematic with the stock version using an out of date Openwrt version due to issues with the open source drivers. But it should get resolved in the long run.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

The BPI-WIFI6 is currently half price and good value for what you get imo. Not sure on true performance yet as I need to rewire my house but it's way more reliable than any of my other routers at least.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Any glinet routers will do the trick. They have overall good routers in a wide range of prices. Note that all of them have openwrt installed by default.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't think you will get a good router VPN performance at 60bucks tbh

You need a cpu that can handle your desired bandwidth. If this is a critical functionality, you need to start there IMHO

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

The VPN bandwidth doesn't need to be that good, I was checking the GL iNet models and 200 Mbps on WireGuard is enough for me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

There's a cheap zbtlink openwrt wifi6 3000Mbps 'z8101ax-d' on AliE for around 50 $. (https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-zbtlink-openwrt.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.search.0)

I don't know how long, and haven't tried the product, but maybe some here have tried it ?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Cudy WR3000 is around 49 EUR, sometimes down to 33.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

where?