[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: NanoPi R6S – A Rockchip RK3588S router

so here it is:
CNX Software - Embedded Systems News – 28 Oct 22
NanoPi R6S - A Rockchip RK3588S router and mini PC with dual 2.5GbE, GbE,...
FriendlyELEC has launched its sixth generation router with the NanoPi R6S equipped with a Rockchip RK3588S processor, two 2.5GbE ports, one Gigabit
Est. reading time: 3 minutes

Solved by maurer in post #4
see comments from tkaiser on cnx - it seems it uses a bsp (not LTS) 5.10 kernel with lots of vulnerabilities https://forum.radxa.com/t/lack-of-concern-for-security-in-bsp-kernel/12210?u=tkaiser so please remember this when buying/using it as your gw/vpn
6

[Assistant]
For routing, it is interesting. My RPi4 with 4x Cortex-A72 @ 1800 MHz does Gigabit download with SQM nearly saturating. I do not have symmetrical up/down so this is fine but perhaps this board with 4x Cortex-A76 cores @ 2400 MHz will offer more headroom. Some benchmarks with SQM will be interesting.

1 Reply
1

Looks very interesting. The RK3588S will make the R6S an incredibly performant 2.5Gbit device. The lack of nvme is moot to a lot of people since the 32GB eMMC memory is more than adquate for a small Linux install such as OpenWrt, certainly better than an SD card. Not sure how well supported it'll be on OpenWrt, but hopefully FriendlyWrt provides at least a good baseline.

phinn:
FriendlyWrt provides at least a good baseline
see comments from tkaiser on cnx - it seems it uses a bsp (not LTS) 5.10 kernel with lots of vulnerabilities https://forum.radxa.com/t/lack-of-concern-for-security-in-bsp-kernel/12210?u=tkaiser so please remember this when buying/using it as your gw/vpn

2 Replies
Solution
2


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Summary attempt: The WiFi chip limitation status of Linksys WRT 1900, 3200 and 32X

H, greetings
I am new to OpenWRT installed on the WRT series of Linksys.
I once bought a WRT 32X a while ago, over the time struggling a lot with WIFI packet losses on the stock firmware (some threads on the internet confirmed these packet loss issues, recommended going to OpenWRT), which brought me to switch to OpenWRT. I actually even bought the device at that time, having in mind that there is a large community backing the future of the device.
OpenWRT mostly fixed the packet drops on first sight, but OpenWRT has shown some heavy WiFi restrictions that seem hardware-related.
It took me some days of research, to hunt down the overall OpenWRT WiFi status of the 32X. I would like to try to summarize it and ask for feedback from you guys, if my summary is correct. The following is subjective summary/impression of me. I had a bit of hard time following up in a lot of discussion threads. Please correct me, if my assumptions or impressions regarding the WRT routers collected here are incorrect.
So there are WiFi restrictions affecting Linksys WRT 1900/3200/32X, but not WRT 1200. The 1200 does not seem affected merely because the 1200 is no longer sold and the WRT device WiFi restrictions seemed to have been introduced somewhat around 2017, around the same time when the 1200 went out of stock.
Subvariants of WRT 1900/3200/32X routers seem to exist:
From my understanding at least for the 1900 and 3200 there seem to be variants available ("old" and "new" versions), which seem to differ that the newer versions (since ~2017??) have a regulatory-locked-down WIFI firmware chip, which is the main reason for the current WiFi restriction problems.
It seems like the 32X exists only as WiFi regulatory-locked-down edition.
According to my browsing on lots of GITHUB threads and this forum, also regional variants of the 3 routers seem to exist, where the Wifi chip is prelocked-down to certain regionals (e.g. US or EU). And this seems not due to a regional specific WIFI Firmware blob, but due to a lock-down implemented in the WiFi hardware?
32X seems to be the same hardware as the newer variant of 3200, with just a different case color and different partition layout and different initial vendor firmware and a different initial price tag.
The WRT3200 and WRT32X have a third radio, this 3rd radio can be set to either WiFi n or WiFI AC. The 1900 does not seem to have that third radio. The 3rd radio seems to have a 10-device-connection-limit and has only a single antenna (1x1), while radio 0 (5GHz) is 3x3 MIMO and radio 1 (2.4 Ghz) is 2x2 MIMO.
The primary radios 0 and 1 of all three (1900, 3200, 32X) is a 88W8964, which relies on driver "mwlwifi"
The secondary radio 2 chip on 3200 and on 32X is a 88W8887 and uses driver "mwifiex"
The radio 2 (88W8887) firmware is not that much locked down/crippled, but misses a practical MIMO antenna design, so its just useful as a secondary WiFi.
The main WiFi chip 88W8964 firmware is crippled down heavily, basically preventing a lot of WiFi things, like setting a WiFi country code or configuring certain power settings, even if certain settings would be regulatory-allowed in your country. In the end, this is due to WiFi chip and WiFi firmware restrictions, that ignores most attempts of OpenWRT, to set several custom settings. The device WiFi will ignore that and instead use pre-encoded hardware defaults.
My tests are based on the current OpenWRT version 19.07.7.
Currently it does not seem possible to change or view the correct WiFI region via LUCI GUI on any of the three routers.
You can change the WiFi country code in LUCI, but afterwards "iw reg get" on the SSH command line will still always show "FR" on EU-variants and "US" on US-variants of the router (no idea what other world-wide hardware variant exist and will show). The routers sold in Europe all seem to be locked to country code "FR".
On the EU(FR) variants, the "iw reg show" on command line will always show "98" for the global region on the W32X, while the radios 0 and 1 show "FR". Radio 2 country can actually be adapted individually.
On the WRT3200, it seems like "global" changes to the contry code as the 3 radios, when radio 2 is manually set to the same region code as radios 0 and 1.
Radio 2 on 3200 and 32X (radio 2 being the "third" radio with the 1x1 antenna and 10 device limit) can be freely changed to any region, but this needs a custom command. You cannot use LUCI for that: Instead use command line:
echo "mwifiex reg_alpha2=FR" > /etc/modules.d/mwifiex
(This setting is said to survive reboots and shutdowns, but is currently not in sync with the LUCI GUI settings or the "uci" command line)
If you switch country code of radio 2 (the only one with a customizable country code) to a different country (different from the hard-coded country of radio 0 and 1), the lowest common limitation denominator of the two country settings is said to apply to all radios. So since radio 0 and 1 are hard-locked to a specific country like FR or US (depending on the regional hardware variant you purchased initially), you may need to basically set radio 2 to the same region of radio 0 and 1, to not even further botch down your device on top of the already mandatory WiFi regulatory restrictions of radio 0 and 1.
My own experiments so far with the radio 2 on WRT32X(EU variant with FR country code) showed that several WiFi settings are not possible to be set on radio 2, even though OpenWRT 19.07.7 offers them as choice:
WiFi n with 2.4 GhZ seems not to have any issues running on radio 2.
But several WiFi AC-channels do not seem to work on radio 2. A channel that did work successfully for me was channel 44.
I was unable to fire up radio 2 with a channel width of 80 MHz. 40 MHz did work though for radio 2.
since LUCI country is not in sync with the real country code of the WiFi chip, I cannot set several maximum transmit power settings offered in LUCI GUI.
If radio 2 does not start up, I basically check the log file via SSH "logread", to find out clues which LUCI setting might have prevented the radio 2 start up and try to vary the settings.
Furthermore "WMM mode" on radio 0 and 1 is said to have issues with certain WiFi client device chips (ESP8266). Disabling "WMM Mode" is said to fix some of these problems.
Radio 2 is not having those issues with ESP8266-based client devices.
Furthermore some threads teasered hints that some radio 0 WiFi channel width variants available in "uci" command line are not shown in LUCI GUI. And some of these combinations of WiFi channel (?), width (?) and encryption cipher (?) seem to prevent Linksys WRT radio 0 (5Hgz AC) from starting up on all of 1900, 3200 and 32X. Several owners of 3200 and 32X have pointed out in threads, that radio 0 may not start up and for some that in the end, a lot of try attempts of switching of country code and channel width and channel, combined with reboots in some cases helped firing up radio 0 (the primary 5 GHz AC radio).
I also had some radio 0 issues. For me, several of the following attempts on the command line got my radio 0 up and running:
wifi status
wifi up radio1
/etc/init.d/network restart
(+some reboots)
(my issues were not due to delays of DFS search, I was waiting for 2h before starting to mess with the command line)
Several threads showed that developers are unhappily trying to contact Linksys and the WiFi chip vendor for better open source WiFi support, as originally advertised by the vendor. This being just recent contact attempt activities of early year 2021. So far a dead end. Even unaccepted GIT pull requests are said exist.
Even an unanswered petition exist, to get better vendor support for the dead end device WiFi issues: https://community.linksys.com/t5/Wireless-Routers/Petition-Linksys-WRT-routers/td-p/1438469
so my conclusion is:
The Linksys WRT series 1900/3220/32X has noticable and for some disappointing WiFi restrictions under OpenWRT. Better check these WiFi restrictions first before buying, if the previous mentioned restrictions and the lack of WiFi vendor support bothers you or not.
So again, the previous is just a summary attempt, of what I have understood so far. Please feel free to respond, to correct wrong assumptions or summaries of me.
I think that may help not just me, but others as well, to get a comprehensive summary of what to expect from the WiFi of these WRT devices.
My post is not meant to provide bad talk about the 3 devices, but to be informed better, what the WRT WiFi can do and what it cannot do.
some (not all) of the threads I scavanged for this summary:
WRT32X third radio limited to 10 devices
Network and Wireless Configuration
Source code for the mwifiex driver can be found at: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/drivers/net/wireless/marvell/mwifiex; perhaps there is a clue somewhere around there about this limit: The only (undocumented) parameter that I have used is reg_alpha2, as defined at cfg80211.c. There are some other parameters (debug_mask, cal_data_cfg, driver_mode, mfg_mode, aggr_ctrl) defined at main.c, but these do not seem to be related to the client limit. There are also some constants de…
Problems on third radio (radio2) in wrt3200ACM?
Network and Wireless Configuration
My radio0 has been configured at 160MHz for ages, and I have not detected any issue. But I could not make it work untill I configured all three radios to the same country. You cannot change the country on radio0 or radio1, but you can change it on radio1 (see the link on my previous post). Portugal and France share the same regulations, so you can change radio2 to France, have all three on the same country, and not break any law.
github.com/openwrt/openwrt
mwlwifi: Don't lock system reg domain
openwrt:master ← howl:mwlwifi-free-reg-domain
opened
Sep 10, 2019
howl
+111 -1
mwlwifi forces the firmware hardcoded reg domain and this causes several issues.…
github.com/openwrt/luci
Wifi country value per interface always returns global
opened
Dec 30, 2018
closed
Jan 4, 2019
wapebira
For example:

uci show wireless
```
wireless.radio0.country='US'
...
wirel…
github.com/kaloz/mwlwifi
Keep phy2 and radio2 with Linksys WRT 3200ACM European version on 160Mhz and DTS
opened
Mar 6, 2018
p3x-robot
Hello @yuhhaurlin !

How are you today?

This is something, I found and this…
Solomon Victorino – 16 Dec 19
Troubleshooting a disabled radio on an OpenWRT router
I’ve been tinkering with a Linksys router running OpenWRT, and noticed that by default, only the 2.4 GHz radio was active. It’s funny how much I’ve taken dual-band routers for granted, because the wireless was slow and unusable in that state.

2 Replies
7

[Assistant]
Pico:
From my understanding at least for the 1900 and 3200 there seem to be variants available ("old" and "new" versions)
For the 1900 they actually released a V1 and V2 so they are easily identifiable. The later model had stricter power tables (i.e. hardcoded) if i remember correctly.
For the 3200, the old and new variants were a silent update to the flash or memory modules only. Wifi is unaffected by this change.
Pico:
The primary radios 0 and 1 of all three (1900, 3200, 32X) is a 88W8964, which relies on driver "mwlwifi"
No.
1900 = 88W8864
3200/32X = 88W8964
Yes both are mwlwifi.
In your list of sources, no where did you mention the OpenWrt Wiki/ToH, which would have provided at least an introductory background to most things you've mentioned. If you feel you've uncovered additional information, you should put it back into the wiki.

Just one addition: radio 2 can be disabled completely (by uninstalling the corresponding packages) to avoid interfering with the operation of the other two.

Pico:
And this seems not due to a regional specific WIFI Firmware blob, but due to a lock-down implemented in the WiFi hardware?
Is this really true (i.e in OpenWrt)? My understanding was that this is purely a function of regdb i.e.user-space software and not even the firmware blob, far be it hard-coded in hardware. Can current owners of the WRT series on this forum share their experience, if this limitation exists in OpenWrt and if so, where exactly does it reside?


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Are there actually many truly stable SOCs left?

Hey guys,
I'm a big fan of OpenWRT, and for ages my "go to" device has been the Archer C7, which has a single core 720-775Mhz MIPS QCA95xx SOC (slightly different SOCs for different versions). But it is getting long in the tooth, and it seems like newer builds have issues with 2.4Ghz WiFi:
Archer C7 2.4 GHz wireless dies in 24~48 hours
Network and Wireless Configuration
For what its worth, I found out that 80MHz on 5GHz is buggy and if you don't need 866Mbps+ speed then switch to 40MHz and setting channel to 44 is working great for me. I also have 0 problems on 2GHz channel set to 1 at 20MHz. Both radio power levels are maxed out. I'm on snapshot build with default kmod and QCA packages (-ct pre-installed) on Archer C7 v5.
I run a small IT support business in the UK - and most people here can only get a 80Mbps download, 20Mbps upload VDSL2 connection maximum through an Openreach based provider (Openreach runs the old national telecoms infrastructure and FTTP rollout is a complete mess and way behind where it should be). There is Virgin Media for DOCSIS asymmetric 10:1 ratioed cable (100/10, 200/20, 350/35, 500/50) - but their network is unreliable and they are overpriced - and they don't care as they basically have no competition purely on speed and know it. There are a few independent FTTP providers (Hyperoptic, Gigaclear etc.) but they barely have any coverage (mostly newly built flats - Hyperoptic actually use ethernet runs inside blocks of flats run from an ONT on the side of the building I believe).
Anyway, I digress.
I frequently look at the "What's your favourite cheap LEDE/OpenWrt device?" and "What's your favourite enthusiast LEDE/OpenWrt device?" for ideas to replace the venerable Archer C7, and it seems to boil down to these SOCs (with my notes):
MT7621 - can be found in the Edgerouter-X, Mikrotik Hex (RB750GR3) (no WiFi on these) as well as some cheap imports that also have WiFi. They tick the "cheap" or "cheapish" box at about £50. But... it just looks like they aren't stable at all:
Issue with mtk_soc_eth on mt7621?
Hardware Questions and Recommendations
Hi, Out of sudden I started to get some strange ethernet issues on my mt7621 based router. Every couple of days I have to reboot it due to as the wan ethernet stops to work. lan and wlan side of things continue to work fine Mon Nov 2 07:37:52 2020 daemon.info dnsmasq-dhcp[1935]: DHCPACK(br-lan) 192.168.1.100 8c:85:90:b0:21:80 Gregorys-MBP-2 Mon Nov 2 07:38:09 2020 kern.warn kernel: [74270.255011] ------------[ cut here ]------------ Mon Nov 2 07:38:09 2020 kern.warn kernel: [74270.259649] …
Mtk_soc_eth watchdog timeout after r11573
For Developers
I am not sure this issue after which update. [100892.575808] mtk_soc_eth 1e100000.ethernet eth0: port 1 link down [143070.000845] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [143070.010252] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 7 at net/sched/sch_generic.c:320 dev_watchdog+0x1ac/0x324 [143070.026913] NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0 (mtk_soc_eth): transmit queue 0 timed out [143070.040973] Modules linked in: pppoe ppp_async pppox ppp_generic nf_conntrack_ipv6 mt76x2e mt76x2_common mt76x02_lib mt76 mac80211 iptable_nat ipt_REJECT…
Mt7621 / mt7530 programming: Disabling Flow Control on all ports
For Developers
Transmit queue timeouts are unfortunately still a thing on devices with a mt7530 switch, as evident from this thread: Mtk_soc_eth watchdog timeout after r11573 One patch that has made a big difference in how often this issue is triggered, is the disabling of Flow Control on the CPU port: https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=498f1f4f5df2d077ba524f5735906bb52c12d580 However, this patch does not disable flow control completely. It only disables it on the CPU port. Devices con…
I don't want to use EdgeOS on the ER-X - I tried V1 and didn't like it anywhere near as much as OpenWRT, and I also managed to brick a device through the simple act of flashing a firmware update from the web GUI (it ran out of space as it keeps two firmwares on the device at once, supposedly for a "recovery" boot - in fact I ended up having to take off the cover and restore EdgeOS using a serial USB adapter). And if you look at the Ubiquiti forums, it looks like EdgeOS V2 is a hot mess...
IPQ40xx - the two main devices that seem to come up are the Fritz!Box 4040 and the Gl.iNet GL-B1300 (Convexa-B). These still seem to be available in the UK (about £80ish). However, there have been issues with VLANs:
VLAN tagging on ipq40xx (GL-B1300) no longer works
Installing and Using OpenWrt
You can easily switch to 4.19 kernel on master. The patchset is still deployed. But now I saw that this is a backport from 5.4 kernel and it was never applied for the 4.19 master.
Also, the GL-B1300 stock firmware is based on 15.05 Chaos Calmer with backports:
GL.iNet – 2 Jun 19
Firmware 3.022 on GL-B1300 is OpenWrt Chaos Chalmer 15.05.1 r48067
Technical Support for Routers
Any plans to update to 18.06.02? Is there and updated imagebuilder somewhere?
Reading time: 2 mins 🕑
Likes: 3 ❤
They say they are stuck there due to QSDK. I can't seem to find any verifiable reports on this forum about the WiFi performance of the B1300 on newer vanilla 19.07.x builds.
(There is also the EA6350v3, which for a time was only £30 in the UK. But it is now really hard to get hold of for less than £50, and apparently there is also a v4 that doesn't use the IPQ40xx SOC, so it's not a "dead cert" buy).
Marvell mvebu a53 - these are in the Linksys WRT1200/1900/3200/32X routers, but apparently WiFi is not a hot point. They are also quite expensive and hard to find in the UK. One device that caught my eye is the Gl.iNet Brume, which has a 1Ghz clocked version (no WiFi). But it's £120...
Raspberry Pi 4 - a bit of an outlier... Once you factor in a PSU, case, MicroSD card (or SSD as it now boots via USB) and a USB3 ethernet adapter (unless you do router on a stick, but then you have to have a managed switch too) you are at over £100. I don't like the idea of running an edge device directly off of a MicroSD card either. It all just seems a bit fiddly and not the solution.
X86-64 - I myself run a clown car setup - I have an Asus Chromebox with a Celeron 2955u, 16GB mSATA drive and 4GB RAM. It's massive overkill - I only have 200/20 cable (from Virgin), but I retired my Archer C7, which I was using with SQM on just egress, in favour of the Chromebox (which I used to use as an HTPC with Kodi before I got my Fire Stick 4K). I run the Chromebox as router on a stick - and I use a BT Home Hub 5 flashed with OpenWRT as a managed switch to trunk everything (cable modem, LAN, Unifi AP) on one cable connected to the Chromebox's single Realtek NIC. I really only tried this setup as a test - I expected it to just fall over and not provide a stable connection (so many "wrong" elements - the Realtek NIC, single port, weak old router as the managed switch). But it actually works great - I can easily shape both ingress and egress with cake and piece of cake and it doesn't break a sweat. And it hasn't locked up or crashed or had any issues at all after about 4 months.
However, I still wouldn't be confident to deploy my hacked together setup for clients - too much to go wrong. In terms of other X86 hardware - sure, there are plenty of cheap old SFFs on eBay I could buy and whack a decent Intel NIC in - but this would be large and loud and a hard sell for most residential IT clients. Most of them are used to a tiny plastic box, not a honking great one as big as their main PC!
I found
@jeff
's excellent post comparing throughput of various SOCs really helpful:
Comparative Throughput Testing Including NAT, SQM, WireGuard, and OpenVPN
Hardware Questions and Recommendations
Overview While there's been a lot of individuals testing various routers, the question still always seems to come up, "What can I expect from Router X?" I won't say that my testing is going to definitively answer those questions, but at least it should be a self-consistent data set. To be very clear, this is a benchmark. Like most benchmarks, the performance you get in your own environment may be different. If you have a craptastic ISP, a lossy ISP connection, a flakey cable, hosts pummeling y…
But also a little confusing - it seems like there is little difference between ath79, ipq40xx and mt7621 when it comes to SQM as it seems to be purely single threaded?
For most clients I actually only use a router without WiFi enabled and then either setup multiple Unifi or TP-Link Omada APs if they have a way to run a wired backhaul, or a consumer mesh system like TP-Link Deco, BT Whole Home or Eero if they don't. The router is mainly a way to break away from the terrible free routers most ISPs in the UK give to customers - OpenWRT allows me to set a custom DNS easily, as well as configure SQM with cake and piece of cake - the main reason I deploy OpenWRT is really for SQM to make the most of the limited speed offered by Openreach.
So I guess where I'm at is - I'm still tempted to use an Archer C7 (or other ath79 device), even brand new. Sure, the single core MIPS is weak and old, but the key thing for me is stability (especially for wired only deployments where WiFi is handled by APs or mesh). Sure, mt7621 and ipq40xx SOCs are newer and more powerful, but what's the point of putting them in for clients if the router keeps rebooting or the WiFi is poor (when needed)?
If the Marvell stuff (especially the Brume) drops in price, I guess that could be an option. But a brand new Archer C7 (which will likely be a V5) is only about £50-60 in the UK, will happily shape an 80/20 VDSL2 connection without WiFi enabled, and will run stable.
For a brief moment Eero caught my eye as they implement SQM in their firmware. However, two big issues are:
A) they don't support PPPoE in router mode, which is what Openreach use. That means you either have to use them purely in "AP Mode" (therefore forgoing SQM) or put the main Eero in a DMZ. Neither works for me...
B) Amazon owns them and I'm not confident about the future of the product now.
So, what am I missing? Is there a device or SOC that can actually fulfil my needs other than the old ath79 target? That is stable, can shape 80/20 connections without issues and costs about £50-60 new?

2 Replies
6

[Assistant]
GreenSystemAdmin:
However, there have been issues with VLANs:
The ip40xx issues are no problems, just decisions that devs want to use nested vlans instead of port isolation. Waiting for DSA, so I don't have to revert the ethernet driver changes to get port isolation working again.

1

@PolynomialDivision
that's good to know. Which specific device are you using? It does seem like the ipq40xx target is in the lead from the list above.
The only other issue for me specifically is UK availability; only Amazon sells the Fritz!Box 4040 - for about £80 but it comes with a 2-pin Schuko plug so there would be the need for a converter (yuk) or a UK PSU on top of that. For a time they had some in Amazon Warehouse deals for about £40 (also with 2-pin PSU), so adding a UK PSU on top still brings you home under £50. No stock anymore though. I guess they ship them from German warehouses as AVM are a German brand and way more popular over there...
The EA6350v3 was discussed above, so that really leaves the Gl.iNet GL-B1300, which is sold on Amazon with a UK PSU for about £80. That works for wired only but I'm still a bit concerned that once you flash vanilla OpenWRT you lose the Qualcomm drivers so performance might drop.
I keep hoping for a two gigabit ethernet port version of the Pi4. It would be perfect. I know there is the NanoPi R2S, but it doesn't look ready yet - still on snapshots and I'm seeing that it needs a mini (loudish) fan as it runs hot (but then so does the Pi4 under load...)
Also, a standard 5 port device like the Archer C7 means no need for a separate gigabit switch, which is a win for the Fritz!Box 4040 - the GL-B1300 has 3 ports.
The search continues...

1 Reply

Definitely Keep away from mt7621 and devices supported by mt76. Only issues and each fix contains new bugs.

2 Replies
1


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Top ten routers currently in use?

WNR2000v4 with 18.06?
It may be time to upgrade devices.
Indeed, it may be time. I was trying to follow the thread of Favorite Devices to see if there was a general consensus on what's "good", but it was hard to come to any conclusions other than, "Boy, there sure are a lot of different devices available."
Is there a list of the top ten most popular hardware models? Has anyone ever considered something like Debian's "Popularity Contest"? That is, a package that, when installed, automatically votes in a poll once a week with machine statistics. That way there'd always be a current list of what hardware is being used and with what version of OpenWRT.

Solved by slh in post #4
I agree with that, any kind of popularity contest will inevitably be skewed by older devices - which aren't necessarily a good recommendation to buy today. E.g. for a long time (and even until 1-2 years ago), the tl-wr841nd (ar71xx, 4 MB flash and 32 MB RAM, so basically in the same boat as your w…
1 Reply
1

[Assistant]
Given the number of people posting about wanting to put OpenWrt on their WRT54GL or whatever... I'm not so sure what's in use is all that relevant. What matters is what's available today and how fast of internet can it handle...
The WRT32X is a lot of capacity for not much cost. Up from there I'd probably go dual LAN mini PC. Down from there I'd look at GL iNet devices.

3 Replies
3

dlakelan:
Given the number of people posting about wanting to put OpenWrt on their WRT54GL or whatever... I'm not so sure what's in use is all that relevant.
I see your point. But, I doubt there are many people using the WRT54GL with the latest firmware. A popularity contest would also determine the most common hardware being used for current versions of LEDE/OpenWRT.
Thanks for the WRT32X suggestion. I will look into it.

1 Reply

dlakelan:
Given the number of people posting about wanting to put OpenWrt on their WRT54GL or whatever... I'm not so sure what's in use is all that relevant. What matters is what's available today and how fast of internet can it handle...
I agree with that, any kind of popularity contest will inevitably be skewed by older devices - which aren't necessarily a good recommendation to buy today.
E.g. for a long time (and even until 1-2 years ago), the tl-wr841nd (ar71xx, 4 MB flash and 32 MB RAM, so basically in the same boat as your wnr2000v4) was very common and even recommended by many (despite the strongly repeated 4/32 warning ("but it worked fine in 15.05…")), because it was cheap (this mattered especially for larger deployments, like e.g. freifunk, who tend to buy devices in larger quantities; yes, they are now facing a pretty serious problem as well, even worse, because many of their participants have bought these below-spec devices until very recently or even just now…). For obvious reasons these devices with 4 MB flash or 32 MB devices can't be recommended anymore, even if the existing install base might be rather large.
Yes, it does matter which SOCs and devices are popular, but that list also needs to be cross checked against devices that are available for sale today - and whose hardware is good enough for the expected lifespan of that device and your actual needs in terms of performance and/ or budget.
Personally I'd condense the recommended set of readily available devices to (medium- to highend, non-exhaustive):
ipq40xx
AVM Fritz!Box 4040
ZyXEL NBG6617
…
ipq8065
Netgear Nighthawk r7800
ZyXEL NBG6817
…
or the older ipq8064 generation
Linksys EA8500
Netgear Nighthawk r7500v2
TP-Link Archer c2600
…
mvebu
Linksys WRT1200ACM
Linksys WRT1900AC/ WRT1900ACS
Linksys WRT3200ACM/ Linksys WRT32x
…
x86_64
there are quite a few low-power (<6-10 watts idle) devices with multiple ethernet cards on the market, mostly directly from asia; wlan is often more difficult here, meaning you usually need to outsource it to a dedicated AP (e.g. from the list above).
Both mvebu and x86_64 can be used for 1 GBit/s WAN speeds.
Additionally there are also cheaper options available:
mt7621
Xiaomi Mi Router 3g (mir3g)
ZBT WE1326
ZBT WG3526
…
ar71xx/ ath79
TP-Link Archer c7 (hardware revisions v2 and above)
… (for supported devices, as long as it comes with >8 MB flash and >64 MB RAM)
lantiq
BT Home Hub 5 Type A
… (for supported devices, as long as it comes with >8 MB flash and >64 MB RAM and good wlan (QCA/ Atheros))
Obviously there are many well supported devices matching or exceeding the minimum systems requirements beyond these - including different archs/ SOCs.
hackerb9:
But, I doubt there are many people using the WRT54GL with the latest firmware.
While you are right that these 16 MB RAM devices aren't fit for actual usage anymore, you'd be surprised how often support for these is still requested (or even demanded). Yes, even today, it's not uncommon to see support requests for these once or twice a day.

1 Reply
Solution
11


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: A new dual 10G router based on Filogic 880 (Banana Pi BPi-R4)

The Banana Pi BPi R4 just announced:
SoC – [MediaTek MT7988A (Filogic 880)] quad-core Arm Corex-A73 processor @ 1.8GHz with AI-powered packet accelerator
System Memory – 4GB DDR4
Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, 128MB SPI NAND Flash, microSD card slot, M.2 Key M for NVMe SSD (see Expansion section for details)
Networking
2x 10GbE SFP cages (option for 1x 10Gbe SFP cage and 1x 2.5Gbe PHY)
4x Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports (1x WAN and 3x LAN)
USB – USB 3.2 port
Expansion
M.2 Key-B slot with USB 3.2 interface for 5G or 4G LTE connectivity plus three nanoSIM slots
M.2 Key-M slot with 1-lane PCIe 3.0 for NVMe SSD
2x mini PCIe slots with 2-lane PCIe 3.0 for Wi-Fi 7 NIC (Network Interface Card)
26-pin GPIO header for expansion
https://wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana_Pi_BPI-R4

9

[Assistant]
If the RJ45s were all 2.5G, it would be perfect.

9

If it already needs a ~60w psu for the current setup I would imagine it would jump to 75w or more for 4x 2.5g ports

Isn't the 60W power supply mostly to cover the additional stuff like WiFi add-in cards etc.?

5


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Netgear WAX202 WiFi 6 $30 at Amazon

This seems like an interesting deal for $29.99:
NETGEAR 4-Stream WiFi 6 Dual-Band Gigabit Router (WAX202) – AX1800 Wireless Speed (Up to 1.8 Gbps)
I don't see official OpenWrt support, but a quick web search suggests that maybe this commit just needs to be ported to official OpenWrt:
ramips: add support for Netgear WAX202
That commit claims that the device has 512MB of RAM and 128MB of Flash.

Solved by edwrap in post #8
From the commit message, you should be able to flash the factory image (https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7621/openwrt-ramips-mt7621-netgear_wax202-squashfs-factory.img) with the Netgear webui. From then on, any subsequent upgrades will use the sysupgrade image (https://downl…
6

[Assistant]
Looks like a pull request is already in progress.

1 Reply
3

I've took some pictures from the inside:
Bilder

Not the best, but maybe someone finds them helpfull at some point in time.
TokenBucket:
Looks like a pull request is already in progress .
I've succefully flashed the WAX202 with a openwrt factory image from the PR through the vendor web-ui.

2

My image wasn't plain OpenWRT (it was a Firmware build with Gluon to get a Freifunk Darmstadt Firmware). So it most certainly wouldn't be of much use for you.
But since the PR got merged a snapshot image should be available under https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7621/ tomorrow.

2


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: R68s a new openwrt arm device. RK3568 2*2.5G+2*1G

It's also like an imitator of friendlylec r4s, but i think it is much biggger than r4s to contain 4 Rj45 ports.Volume is a deduction item.
This is a product launched by a small hardware manufacturer in China. It may be released in June.
At present, the price is not clear, but the manufacturer said it would be released on May 1. And the manufacturer said it would be a very surprising price. I guess it should be cheaper than j4125. I'm thinking about which is better, j4125 or this.
I didn't get the material object. I can only refer to the introduction of the manufacturer and translate.I may buy one r68s next month, and do more tests.
R68s
SOC RK3568B2
Memory LPDDR4 2GB
Hard disk EMMC 8GB/16GB
Network port
1000M *2 （RTL8211F-CG）
2500M *2 （RTL8125BG-CG）
Interface USB 3.0 *2
rk3568's aes-128-gcm Multiprocessor Score is equal to Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 3865U @ 1.80GHz : 2 Core 2 Thread
aes-256-gcm Single processor Score: 111254.13k

The merchant's channel has more introduction:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCd3JHNT3B2KdhakLmMkYqA

4

[Assistant]
looks good, but most patches to enable peripheral of rk3568 haven't been merged into mainline yet.

1

The price is expected to be announced on May 1, with the aim of opening pre-sale in mid-May and official shipment in June.

Looks good but it is out of my budget. I am more concerned with cheap used routers (MT7621 / IPQ4019), which should be enough for my personal use.
These dedicated single board devices are much more powerful, even enough for enterprise usage, but I highly doubt if my company can buy them from China. On the other hand, it only takes me 1 week for anything from China to ship to my door.


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: NanoPI R6S with OpenWRT

I bought a NanoPi R6S a few months ago and has been running the FriendlyWRT software on it. I was able to import the backup from OpenWRT running on Raspberry Pi 4B, and everything has been working great. It has two 2.5 Gbps interfaces and on 1 Gbps interface. In tests on Youtube reviews, it can push 2.3 Gbps LAN to WAN with firewall enabled. It's not bad for a home router at all; definitely much more powerful than Raspberry Pi 4b.
I know that people look down upon FriendlyWRT, and I would love to run an official release of OpenWRT on this device. Is there a hope that OpenWRT will support this device? Also, what exactly is a problem with FriendlyWRT that people have? Again, I would love to run a stable release of OpenWRT on the NanoPi R6S.

3 Replies
1

[Assistant]
sirizha:
Also, what exactly is a problem with FriendlyWRT that people have?
The problem with forks in general is that we don't know what modifications were done to the OpenWrt codebase. Therefore, people are directed towards either the manufacturer or the other project with their question. This is the reason why you often see this message:
It appears you are using firmware that is not from the official OpenWrt project.
When using forks/offshoots/vendor-specific builds that are "based on OpenWrt", there may be many differences compared to the official versions (hosted by OpenWrt.org). Some of these customizations may fundamentally change the way that OpenWrt works. You might need help from people with specific/specialized knowledge about the firmware you are using, so it is possible that advice you get here may not be useful.
You may find that the best options are:
Install an official version of OpenWrt, if your device is supported (see https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org).
Ask for help from the maintainer(s) or user community of the specific firmware that you are using.
Provide the source code for the firmware so that users on this forum can understand how your firmware works (OpenWrt forum users are volunteers, so somebody might look at the code if they have time and are interested in your issue).
If you believe that this specific issue is common to generic/official OpenWrt and/or the maintainers of your build have indicated as such, please feel free to clarify.

5

sirizha:
Also, what exactly is a problem with FriendlyWRT that people have?
what
@andyboeh
said.
would you go to Lexus to claim the warranty for your BMW ?

1 Reply

I'd expect the R6S to be supported once OpenWRT switches to kernel 6.1.
In the meantime you can use this (use the version based on kernel 6.1): https://github.com/mj22226/openwrt/releases
Been using that for weeks now and it's been rock solid.

1 Reply
2


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: GL.iNET Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) discussions

Flint 3 is coming soon!!!
I didn’t expect it anytime soon but we know the reason
gl-inet.com – 11 Dec 24
Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) | Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 Home Router
Explore Flint 3 Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 Home Router, delivering fast wifi speeds, parental controls, VPN, and exceptional performance tailored for smart homes and workplaces.

2 Replies
8

[Assistant]
I also see Slate 7 listed in GL.iNet's website.
gl-inet.com – 14 Oct 24
Slate 7 (GL-BE3600) | Portable Wi-Fi 7 Travel Router
Discover the first portable Wi-Fi 7 travel router, offering speeds up to 3600 Mbps. Perfect for travel, business, and families needing reliable connectivity.
Is it mentioned anywhere if Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) and Slate 7 (GL-BE3600) use Mediatek (mt76) chipset or Qualcomm (ath12k) chipset?

1

As far as I know, no. We just have a teaser with barely information. I hope they both use MediaTek because I’d like to see them supported officially. MediaTek is my guess

3

GL.iNET Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) discussions
Hopefully it's similar in size, maybe it'll be called GL-MT7000
Close:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/gl-inet-flint-2-gl-mt6000-discussions/173524/2186?u=darksky

1


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Best Wireless AC router for LEDE?

I'm looking for the best and presumably most powerful, recent router to use with LEDE. Right now I'm using a Netgear R8000 (the last Netgear product I will buy; I have nothing but problems with this company) and I'm thinking about replacing it. I'm also trying to plan for when I move out of my parents' place, and I'll need a router for myself. What would you guys recommend for the best overall Wireless AC (or better) LEDE-compatible router?

[Assistant]
I have a Linksys WRT3200ACM and I can highly recommend it. It runs super stable with LEDE. The only problem I have recently is that DFS doesn't seem to work properly (but my wifi module is a bit outdated, maybe that issue is resolved already). Only real downside I see is the price.

1 Reply

Overview of devices which
are available (you can buy them somwhere)
have >4MB flash
have >32MB RAM
AC supported
-> https://lede-project.org/toh/views/toh_available_864_ac-wifi

1

Considering that the R8000 was more expensive at release than this was, that shouldn't be too big of a problem. I had avoided the Linksys because I had problems with the firmware in the past, only to find out about OpenWRT and later LEDE after the Netgear (which I knew I shouldn't have purchased because they give me even more trouble than any other brand) started acting up.
I hope the latest development branch of LEDE keeps my wireless running right for now though; my wireless kept cutting out in the latest stable release.


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Raspberry Pi 4 released

So, the Pi 4 has just been released. It's an immense upgrade over the 3/3+
Broadcom BCM2711, Quad core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.5GHz
1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4-2400 SDRAM (depending on model)
2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz IEEE 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 5.0, BLE
Gigabit Ethernet
2 USB 3.0 ports; 2 USB 2.0 ports.
Raspberry Pi standard 40 pin GPIO header (fully backwards compatible with previous boards)
2 × micro-HDMI ports (up to 4kp60 supported)
2-lane MIPI DSI display port
2-lane MIPI CSI camera port
4-pole stereo audio and composite video port
H.265 (4kp60 decode), H264 (1080p60 decode, 1080p30 encode)
OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics
Micro-SD card slot for loading operating system and data storage
5V DC via USB-C connector (minimum 3A*)
5V DC via GPIO header (minimum 3A*)
Power over Ethernet (PoE) enabled (requires separate PoE HAT)
Operating temperature: 0 – 50 degrees C ambient
From this link:
The Ethernet controller on the main SoC is connected to an external Broadcom PHY over a dedicated RGMII link, providing full throughput. USB is provided via an external VLI controller, connected over a single PCI Express Gen 2 lane, and providing a total of 4Gbps of bandwidth, shared between the four ports.
All of the bottlenecks that made the 3/3+ a bad idea for router/NAS/etc usage are gone. No more shared LAN/USB bus, no more hamstrung LAN throughput. Lovely.
We now have a completely capable gigabit LAN port out of the box and two USB3 ports that could each use a gigabit LAN USB adapter... That's three ports right off the bat, and we're not even considering a vlan capable switch yet. Plenty of storage thanks to the microSD card and the remaining USB2 ports, plenty of RAM (and we're no longer limited to only 1GB, too).
I believe this little beast could be a pretty serious router with OpenWRT. I mean, quad A72 @ 1.5GHz puts any IPQ hardware to shame on the brute force aspect of it... it should have no issues with most home connections, neither doing gigabit speeds without any offloading tricks... It could also be a pretty good NAS, too. It's not too power hungry either.
What do you think? Assuming it gets supported in the future as the previous RPIs did, I think this is the perfect upgrade for any of us stuck with puny, weak single core MIPS hardware. Say, Archer C7 and the like. Such devices could now make for great APs while doing all the heavy lifting on the RPI4.
At $35 for the 1GB model, it won't break the bank either.
The only thing that bothers me is the possibility of the SD card getting corrupted due to a power cut/brownout/bad shutdown, but oh well. That's not much of a downside considering the rest...
edit 23/06/20
Some performance results from
@dlakelan
. The Pi4 turned out to be as impressive as it looked on paper during launch day for these duties.
RPi4 routing performance numbers
Network and Wireless Configuration
Ok, all, some final numbers I guess... In the end I decided to run the RPi as my main router, in hopes of eventually retiring the j1900 based device I've been using and saving some power consumption and extending the life of my UPS. Also, having my router and my nfs fileserver be one-and-the-same box was causing problems (whenever I needed to do something to the internet... I'd also lose LAN connectivity as my machines would freeze waiting for NFS to come online). So, my situation is a bit comp…
It's insane what this little thing can do, with the correct LAN USB adapter.
edit 22/10/20
Some more performance results:
Raspberry Pi 4 released
Hardware Questions and Recommendations
Just installed daily snapshot. Added an itec USB nic and put as WAN. Installed addons like collectd, wireguard and openvpn. Setup guest vlan for wifi and configured pbr. Added the optimizations in this thread. Overclocked to 1750 at overvolt 2. Got around 700 Mbits worth of WG. Added the irqbalance and BOOM!!! The little fricking thing at 5 watts routed 1 gbit of wireguard traffic in on wan and unpacked it and on via portforward to the requesting server on lan. Thats so impressive I need to sit…
edit 18/09/21
Pretty nice thread detailing dos and don'ts if you intend to get the most out of the Pi4.
tl;dr:
Avoid ASIX based dongles, use realtek based ones (go-to is TP-Link UE300, rtl8153 based, uses kmod-usb-net-rtl8152), much lower CPU usage and interrupts
Packet steering and irqbalance help and are pretty much required when pushing for gigabit speeds
Instantiate SQM on the WAN physical interface as per the documentation, for best results
Terrible results using RPi4 + SQM to control buffer bloat... anyone else with this setup comment?
Installing and Using OpenWrt
My ISP provides 1 gigabit downstream. Using a RPi4 to run SQM, I am finding that with either cake/piece_of_cake or fq_codel/simplest_tbf or fq_codel/simplest (750000 down and 22000 up), the best downstream I can achieve is around 565 Mbps. Watching htop on the RPi4, I see core0 is consistently loaded >99%. I read about the RPi4 being able to shape gigalan symmetrical connections so am wondering why mine is falling short. Can someone with a fast connection and a RPi4 confirm the claim? I am …
Interesting discussion on modern USB3.0 dongles:
tl;dr: you can rely on them.
Raspberry PI 4 vs EdgeRouter X
Hardware Questions and Recommendations
Hi, I am fairly new to getting my hands dirty with networking and want to get the right device to avoid any bottlenecks. Is there any downside to using an RPI4 over an EdgeRouter X or can you recommend me anything else in the price range and form factor. My desired set up I have a small coms cab in the wall so I need to stick to something smaller rather than larger. I intend to have a range of IoT devices, NAS and a few PC's on the network so nothing major in this department. My biggest mu…

5

[Assistant]
Back-ordered from newark, will check it out
Still so far behind GX-424CC on all aspects except for power...
I'm watching this board.. ideal for router build but SO expensive...

First of all you should wait 2-3 weeks for experiences from real people, putting it to real world tests rather than believing the marketing blurb; theoretical and real world figures often do differ.
Yes, this new design finally improves upon the biggest flaws and weaknesses of its predecessors. But it's already apparent that cooling will remain quite an issue, if you want to push it to maximum without the CPU scaling down. There will be many use cases which will considerably profit from these changes, so would using it as a router - but it's still not really an ideal target for these things (single WLAN card, SDIO connected (so not the fastest of the bunch, additional USB WLAN cards are not ideal for AP purposes), single ethernet port (yes, you can add USB cards, but at >20 bucks a pop, it gets expensive pretty soon)). Will it be better than its predecessors, without a doubt - can it compete with ipq806x/ ipq807x, from the processing point of view, yes - from a routing I/O point of view, probably not so much (neither if you'll look at the final cost of all required components, which do add up very quickly).

2

@slh
It's already been reviewed.
Tom's Hardware – 24 Jun 19
Raspberry Pi 4 Review: The New Gold Standard for Single-Board Computing
A must-buy for makers, hobbyists and tech enthusiasts everywhere, the Raspberry Pi 4 features a faster processor, more RAM and 4K video output.

Tom's Hardware – 23 Jun 19
Overclocking the Raspberry Pi 4
We'll walk you through overclocking both the GPU and GPU of the Raspberry Pi 4. It's not hard, but good results requires more than just cranking things up to 11.
Tom's isn't what it used to be, sure, but it's what we have on launch day. I just cited the maketing blurb because it's easy to read and to point out the performance improvements over the previous generation.
We'll just have to wait for more reviews and real world experiences as you point out.
Of course, as a router the Pi4 won't be as good an overall package as an IPQ8xxx based device can be, neither can it come close to what x86 can do, that's obvious, but the potential is there. As always, when it comes to the value proposition, it depends. There are markets where IPQ based devices (or decent x86 thin clients) are hard to get or are outrageously expensive (my country, Argentina, for example), where otherwise unremarkable hardware like the Archer C7 is readily available... and so are Pis.
In such cases, this little board can do its fair share to help. Leave the wireless part to the AP, let it do the rest. As for the final cost, again, it depends. We now have another possibility to consider going forward, and that's great (for a home setting, that is).
Cooling isn't really a problem. You can always attach a heatsink on the CPU. If more cooling is needed, a little 40mm fan @ 5v (silent) off GPIO pins 4,6 providing airflow is more than enough. You can easily cut a hole in a case...


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: 10G Router/High End?

Is there any 10G Ethernet capable Router that OpenWRT supports?
I'd like to manage local network and have some containers inside .
If not any other suggestion accepted, it seems TL-WDR4900 is good for the price
Thanks

1 Reply
2

[Assistant]
john300:
If not any other suggestion accepted, it seems TL-WDR4900 is good for the price
What makes you believe that this eight year old router would do 10 GBit/s, it doesn't even have the ports to (theoretically) do so (let alone having a fighting chance to deliver in practice). While the SOC is not sluggish, it's rather exotic and has been plagued by growing kernel sizes vs the limited bootloader for a couple of years, apart from boring 802.11n/ wifi4 wireless.
tl;dr, these aren't the droids you're looking for.
10 GBit/s is firmly in the mid-end x86_64 team, the Marvell ARMADA A8040 series might be able to compete - but I'd still choose x86_64 for these requirements.

2 Replies
9

slh:
What makes you believe that this eight year old router would do 10 GBit/s, it doesn't even have the ports to (theoretically) do so (let alone having a fighting chance to deliver in practice).
Not to mention the fact TP-Link officially calls it a dual band gigabit router, without even looking in the specs.
But for the original question? Are you sure you actually need a 10Gb router? If you can afford that ISP connection speed you have the money to buy a 10Gb device which will automatically be a 19” rack device. And then you need 10Gb switches and accesspoints and so on.
You can forget about finding a home wifi router for 10Gb.

3

flygarn12:
Are you sure you actually need a 10Gb router?
In some European countries you could get actual home connections faster than 1Gbps (up to actual 10 gig in select cities in Poland or Switzerland) for pretty normal prices. Maybe OP lives there?
flygarn12:
a 10Gb device which will automatically be a 19” rack device. And then you need 10Gb switches and accesspoints and so on.
That's absolutely obvious

2 Replies
1


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Power consumption of routers and associated networking equipment [collection]

This thread is intended to collect information about power consumption by OpenWrt routers as well as associated network equipment. Depending on the measurement devices available anything from immediate power (Watt) to energy (Joule or Watt Second) is fair game.
NOTE: This post should be editable by all, please feel free to add your own numbers to the table
To make a start (? denotes "missing"/not measured values):
type         ; device                   ;    energy/h;   min_power;   max_power;      energy;    duration;  mainspower;  powermeter;  date  ; reporter      ;details
             ;                          ;      [Wh/h];         [W];         [W];       [kWh];         [h];      [V@Hz];         [#];        ;               ;
modem        ; BT HomeHub 5A            ;        6.89;         2.2;         7.5;       0.376;       54.55;      230@50;           1; 202209 ; @moeller0     ;"OpenWrt r18441-ba7cee05ed, bridged-modem, WiFi disabled, VDSL2@PTM with vectoring and G.INP, 116.7/37 Mbps sync"
router       ; Turris Omnia             ;        7.98;         4.0;        12.0;       0.187;       23.43;      230@50;           1; 202209 ; @moeller0     ;"Turris OS 5.4.2, based on OpenWrt 19 dual core ARM a9 mvebu @1.6GHz, 2 radios 2.4GHz & 5GHz, 3 devices connected to switch, SQM/cake on wan 105/36 Mbps"
router       ; Mikrotik RB5009UPr+S+IN  ;        8.51;         8.2;        10.3;       1.2  ;      141   ;      230@50;           ?; 202209 ; @Arie         ;"OpenWRT 23.03, dual gigabit WAN, one gigabit LAN port connected."
router       ; Custom-built x86         ;           ?;         9.0;        20.0;           ?;           ?;      230@50;           3; 202209 ; @pico         ;"OpenWRT 22.03rc5, Pentium Gold G5600(8.Gen Coffee Lake 2+2HT 4GHz), Asrock B365 Pro4F, 1x8GB RAM, USB-Stick for OpenWRT, 1TB Corsair P510 for ksmbd, Broadcom PCIe 1GBit Lan x4 (74Y4064), Leike PSU (on German 230V)+Pico150 PSU, no WiFi, no input devices, no undervolt, no SQM so far, 1 LAN-device, ""max value"" = when routing 900MBit/s IPv6 (not tested: CPU burn-in likely ~50-55W)"
VoIP-base    ; Gigaset C610-IPA         ;        0.98;           ?;         1.4;       0.038;       38.73;      230@50;           1; 202209 ; @moeller0     ;"VoIP-basestation with a single DECT handset connected, used rarely"
NTP-server   ; Raspberry 4B             ;        2.00;       ?2.9?;         4.6;       0.080;       39.55;      230@50;           1; 202209 ; @moeller0     ;"Raspberry Pi 4B 4GB ram, with Uputronics Raspberry Pi GPS/RTC Expansion Board, operated as GPS disciplined NTP-server; odd readings with W readings not matching the aggregate energy usage"
switch       ; Zyxel GS1900-8HP         ;        4.99;         4.0;         6.2;       0.688;      137.83;      230@50;           1; 202209 ; @moeller0     ;"8-Port managed PoE switch; Zyxel firmware (V2.60(AAHI.3) | 01/05/2021); 5 ports connected, 0 devices powered over PoE"
router       ; TP-Link C7 v2            ;        6.28;         6  ;         7  ;       0.29 ;       47   ;      230@50;           4; 202209 ; @fodiator     ;"OpenWRT 22.03rc6, primarily AP with dynamic VLAN and 802.1x, dual band. No DHCP, DNS, USB or wired clients"
router       ; FriendlyElec ZeroPi      ;        1.39;         1.3;         1.8;       0.375;      269.6 ;      230@50;           5; 202209 ; @Barney       ;"FriendlyElec ZeroPi with TP-Link UE300; Download 50 MBit/s, upload 10 MBit/s, OpenWRT 21.02.0, 10-20 devices"
router       ; Belkin RT3200            ;        4.35;           ?;           ?;       5.01 ;     1152   ;      120@60;           6; 202211 ; @efahl        ;"Belkin RT3200, OpenWrt SNAPSHOT updated every Monday and rebooted, 2x1Gbe connections, 5G WiFi only, 2.4 radio turned off"
router       ; Custom-built x86         ;       16.45;        3.8;        22.3;       2.785;    169.3 ;     230@50;           7; 202211 ; @thejoker8814 ;"OpenWRT 21.02.3, Dual band Wifi 4/5, VDSL modem, Mitac PD10-RI, 4GB LPDDR3, 64GB SSD, (DNS, DHCP, NTP, BanIP, SQM, VPN), all measurements during normal operations (3-6 clients, mixed Wifi/ LAN)"
modem        ; Fritzbox 7520            ;        5.94;        2.6;         7.0;       1.034;    174.0 ;     230@50;           1; 202304 ; @moeller0     ;"OpenWrt SNAPSHOT, r22256-14334c222e, VDSL2 modem (VRX518) bridged to , WiFi: 2.4GHz disabled, 5GHz active, VDSL2@PTM with vectoring and G.INP, 116.7/37 Mbps sync"
homeassistant; Raspberry Pi 4           ;       12.00;       10.0;        15.8;       0.29 ;     24   ;     236@50;           8; 202307 ; @KOA          ;"Homeassitant 2023.7.3 with ice tower cooler with larger vertical fan. The fan was switched off and used a separate 4inch fan( not measured on the same port). Externally powered USB hub with generic RTL-SDR USB stick + ADATA 256GB SATA SSD connected directly to the RPI4."
router       ; CWWK N5105 x86           ;        8.80;           ?;           ?;        lots;       2000+;      120@60;           6; 202310 ; @efahl        ;"OpenWrt SNAPHOT updated weekly, 4x2.5GbE with 2 plugged in, 8GB DDR4, WD Blue SN550 250GB NVMe SSD"
accesspoint  ; TP-Link EAP615-WALL      ;           ?;         3.9;         7.5;           ?;           ?;      50-57v;           ?; 202401 ; @ed8          ;"OpenWrt 23.05.2, measuring comes from the PoE switch
Column description:
type: what kind of device, like router, modem, switch, AP, more details go into the details column
device: short identifier of the device under test
energy/h: average power usage [Wh/h -> W]
min_power: minimal power draw during measurement period [W]
max_power: maximal power draw during measurement period [W]
energy: total energy consumed during the measurement in kilo Watt hours [kWh]
duration: duration of the test in hours with decimal fraction (so not hours.minutes)
mainspower: information about the AC mains power, specifically nominal voltage and frequency [V@Hz]
powermeter: code of the used powermeter according to the table below
date: concatenated year and month of measurement (e.g. 202209 for September 2022)
reporter: forum name of who reported the data
details: any details worth reporting that might be relevant for the power consumption, e.g. software version, which/whether radios were enabled, how many devices where connected
If any column should be missing or be ill defined, please let me know, always happy to add/correct columns.
power meter device codes [powermeter]:
#       model name
1       LogiLink EM0003 v.2
2       Voltcraft 4000
3       Perel 305EM5-G/TS electronic 45-25111
4       Brennenstuhl PM 231 E
5       Globaltronics GT-PM-04 (compatible with Logilink EM003)
6       Poniie PN1500
7       Voltcraft SEM 6500
8       Sonoff Dual R3
Initial measurements were taken with a LogiLink EM0003 v.2 energy meter that according to a July 30th 2022 article in German c't magazine has a deviation against a high quality reference of <= 5% (for loads in the 1-20 W range) and measures energy and real/active power.
This was motivated by discussions in other threads about the relative merits of using consolidated all-in-one WiFi-routers versus de-centralized solutions with dedicated devices for typical functions, like wired-only router, AP(s), managed switch, modem, NAS?... The idea is to simply collect energy use information that can be used as additional dimension when designing/deciding about a home-network's device zoo.
Changes:
20220917: reordered columns, to make the most relevant information fits into view without requiring horizontal scrolling. Also added ";" as column separators to make CSV import simpler.

10

[Assistant]
Most of the consumer level measurement devices, i.e. AC socket power meters, are unbelievably inaccurate at sub 10W levels. Some are cheap enough to only measure apparent power in VA, instead of real power in Watts, completely ignoring Cos Phi power factor. So it kind of makes sense to post info about your measuring technique as well.
IMHO in case of 24h connected home network appliances, the only number that really matters is idle power usage.
A few numbers for random networking gear, idle power:
Netgear R7800, OpenWRT 22.03, both radios on, 9.3W
TP-Link TL-SG108PE, 3 non-PoE ports up at 1GBit/s, 3.5W
D-Link DGS-1005D I1, 2 ports up at 1Gbit/s, 1.3W
Measured with Voltcraft 4000 with a following accuracy:
1% at 5+ Watts
5% at 2-5 Watts
15% at <2 Watts.

4

notgood:
IMHO in case of 24h connected home network appliances, the only number that really matters is idle power usage.
I consider "long term average consumption will match idle power times duration" a hypothesis that can be easily tested, simply by collecting and averaging longer term data (say at least 24 hours to cover all usage periods). Especially for devices without a priori information about the idle power usage I see no way around measuring it. I added the min and max power readings (with all their issues, the power meter averages somewhat and does not give instantaneous power) to give a feel where in the continuum from min to max the average sits.
notgood:
Most of the consumer level measurement devices, i.e. AC socket power meters, are unbelievably inaccurate at sub 10W levels. Some are cheap enough to only measure apparent power in VA, instead of real power in Watts, completely ignoring Cos Phi power factor. So it kind of makes sense to post info about your measuring technique as well.
Well the LogiLink EM0003 v.2 I used was just tested by a reputable German computer magazine to have measurement errors <= 5% under low power conditions (20-1 Watt, but complete failure for a 0.1W load) average deviation from high quality references was at 2%. While not usably for a scientific study, I think that errors <= 5% are totally fine for the purpose of this thread (but then I opened this thread). But since you seem to know more about the details, please correct any misconceptions in the above.

1 Reply

energy      duration    energy/h    min_power   max_power   device                      details
 [kWh]           [h]      [Wh/h]          [W]         [W]
   1.2           141        8.51          8.2        10.3   Mikrotik RB5009UPr+S+IN     OpenWRT 23.03, dual gigabit WAN, one gigabit LAN port connected.

1


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: LinkStar H68K – RK3568 dual 2.5GbE, WiFi 6

CNX Software - Embedded Systems News – 19 Nov 22
LinkStar H68K - A Rockchip RK3568 "multimedia" router with dual 2.5GbE, dual...
Linkstar H68K is a Rockchip RK3568 multimedia router with two 2.5GbE ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, an optional WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module, a few
Est. reading time: 3 minutes

6

[Assistant]
I saw it a few day ago in: https://www.seeedstudio.com/LinkStar-H68K-1432-p-5501.html

2

mt7921 wouldn't be a bad wireless option at all, but I don't think it supports DBDC (well, only 2 antennas, so 'no'), meaning you'd better skip that for the cheaper wired-only model and add a decent OpenWrt support AP. It's a bit unclear how far towards 2.5 GBit/s the RK3568 can really go (I've seen measurements around 1.7+ GBit/s) - and even less how far into those value it might be able to do sqm/ cake, but it's certainly an interesting device.

I now this Router,
its a hinlink H68K.
doc.hinlink.cn
Hinlink-H68K-C/D/F 型号 快速入门指南
I do not now what that "LINKSTAR" Label ist for. If you sell a Hinlink Router than call it Hinlink.
Now its more difficult to find the right information!
It looks like that seeed studio guys and girls are very special.
It is possible to buy the Router on:
parcelup.com
Parcel Up: Buy from China Taobao in English, Taobao agent
Taobao shopping service: how to buy from Taobao website in English, Taobao agent, international shipping from China Taobao English version Taobao.com
-> this is for all people who do not have the "LINKSTAR" Brand on the Top of the box.
It looks like they take openwrt and write the code by themselves:
GitHub
Release R22.11.13 Release : Let's Rock !~ · coolsnowwolf/lede
支持以下 RK3568 型号： 电犀牛 R66S TF 卡刷（兼容Web刷）版本 电犀牛 R68S EMMC 线刷版本 友善 R5S EMMC 线刷版本 Hinklink H68K OPC-A/B EMMC 线刷版本 ( 兼容 Hinlink H68K OPC-A ) Hinklink H68K OPC-C/D/F EMMC 线刷版本 ( 兼容 Hinlink H68K OPC-B/C/D/...
or
https://www.123pan.com/s/9a5rVv-VUwsH
I get the most information about this box from:
wifilu.cn
WIFI之路 - HinLink H68K OpenWrt更新记录和下载
支持以下 RK3568 型号 [start-plane type=
It would nice to now; are there any connections with the "official" openwrt community?

1 Reply
1


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: R7800 performance

With latest snapshot or even latest release, wifi tops out at ~300 mbps as does wired from lan->wan. I ran top and CPU is not even close to being maxed out when I do a speedtest, so doesn't seem like a lack of hardware forwarding as the issue if I analyzed correctly. Where is the bottle neck here?
I put the stock firmware back on and then I see 620mbps wifi, and 920mbps wired. (1 gbps cable modem)
Could there be any mis-configuration on my part? Please help I want openwrt firmware back.

[Assistant]
My understanding is with OpenWrt 18.06 or Master builds, kernel 4.14 has flow offloading enabled and you should have no problem reaching 900Mbits. It won't be quite as fast as OEM firmware because of proprietary hardware NAT but it should be close.
Did you try hnyman's latest build: Build for Netgear R7800

phinn:
has flow offloading enabled
Needs to be toggled on in firewall config.

2 Replies

Thanks. Try that, enable it, and report back on your speed, curious how it does My cable is "only" 500Mbits.


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Overclocking router devices

The reason why I started this thread is to combine all information regarding overclocking from the OpenWrt Forums as well as other sources.
This is a running thread so hopefully any new information can be added as part of discussion.
Why Overclock?
To squeeze more performance out of your device if your ISP subscription is 200Mbps and currently your router is hitting 180Mbps perharps you can reach 200Mbps with a little overclocking
Overclocking improves Wireless performance since WPA2-AES encryption is de-facto standard, computing power is required
Because you can, people have been overclocking ever since the old Intel Celeron Era, it is fun
Manufacturers do not test each chip individually so maximum stable clock difers from chip to chip as well from board revision to board revision.
You want to increase the clock rate and keep the stability.
General strategy for Overclocking
Increase by Minimum Stepping (Depending on SoC Architecture) Eg. +10MHZ
do memtester, do iperf test over LAN/WAN, do iperf test over WiFi
test using heavy bittorrent workloads
If it does not crash/reboot suddenly you can repeat step 1
If it crash, reverse the last working value and that is the safe limit
AR71xx MIPS Overclocking
AR71xx MIPS is very overclocking friendly, clockspeed is determined by a register value initialised in the uboot
There are 3 Clock Parameters
-CPU
-DDR
-AHB
There are currently 2 types of AR71xx MIPS:
The old eg. AR7240, AR7100, AR9132, AR7242, AR7241
For these Routers all 3 Parameters are tied together meaning
eg: CPU = 400MHZ, DDR = CPU = 400MHZ, AHB = DDR/2 = 200MHZ
The new eg, AR9344, AR9341
For these Routers all 3 Parameters are NOT tied together meaning
eg: CPU = 535MHZ, DDR = 400MHZ, AHB = DDR/2 = 200MHZ
General strategy for AR71xx MIPS Routers (for uncompressed uboot)
Backup your uboot
Open the uboot using a HEX Editor
Search for unique hex value string loading the clockspeed value in the uboot
Replace the string by incrementing the value and save to another copy
Overwrite the uboot with the modified copy

5

[Assistant]
Backing up uboot
First you have to find your uboot, SSH into the router and
root@lede:~# cat /proc/mtd
dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00050000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd1: 00010000 00010000 "dtb"
mtd2: 002a0000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd3: 00ce0000 00010000 "rootfs"
mtd4: 009b0000 00010000 "rootfs_data"
mtd5: 00010000 00010000 "config"
mtd6: 00010000 00010000 "caldata"
mtd7: 00f80000 00010000 "firmware"
mtd0 is usually the uboot
Then copy out mtd0 using dd to /tmp/ as in LEDE /tmp is a RAM mounted directory
root@lede:~# dd if=/dev/mtd0 of=/tmp/uboot.bin
256+0 records in
256+0 records out
Then using SCP copy out uboot.bin into a PC you can hex edit with
Flashing uboot
Please note that if the uboot is corrupted you need to reprogram the Flash Chip using an external programmer.
In LEDE important partitions like uboot are protected by default, this is a good thing.
To flash the uboot your have to disable Read-Only protection in the flash layout
In TP-Link Routers the file that controls this is tplinkpart.c
https://git.lede-project.org/?p=source.git;a=blob_plain;f=target/linux/ar71xx/files/drivers/mtd/tplinkpart.c;hb=refs/heads/master
parts[0].name = "u-boot";
parts[0].offset = 0;
parts[0].size = offset;
parts[0].mask_flags = MTD_WRITEABLE; <-- Remove this line and compile to Enable Write
After that sysupgrade using the firmware you compile and the partition will be Write Enabled.
Overwriting new uboot
After that you can use tools such as mtd to write the new uboot
mtd -r write uboot_new.bin u-boot

1

are you sure the "increase by 10" methodology works for all routers (or just ar*)?
I know that on some Broadcom devices ( r7000, ac68u) we had to step in 200mhz increments as that's what the chipset supported.
with that said, I have an r7000 that has a 200mhz oc for a few years now, no issue. (so I baked it into the cfe)

For AR9341 device with 25MHz crystal (like MR3420V2)
In HEX-editor search line "3C 0C 29 AC 3C 0D 2A 80 " and replace "AC" to "E0" for 600MHz.
"+1 hex" = "+1.25MHz CPU clock".
i.e. 29ACh=535MHZ, 29E0h=600MHz, 2A30h=700MH

2


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Which 8-port switch?

There are a few switches which are supported with OpenWRT, With the 21-release there will be support for RTL8380M, devices are release candidates already.
Netgear GS108T v3 and ZyXEL GS1900-8 could fit my needs, but both are confusing me, when searching the net.
Netgear wants an annoying registration and LED are not supported.
Do I have to register before, if I want to flash OpenWRT?
Looks like no:
https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/netgear_gs108t_v3 The switch will prompt you to create a Netgear cloud account to manage the device and offer you 'limited access' to the device until you do so. According to the Netgear knowledge base, however, this 'limited access mode' should still allow you to update the firmware.
supports PoE
easier to install with OEM - https://openwrt.org/toh/netgear/netgear_gs108t_v3
There is the GS308T v1 too, looks like to be a GS108 without PoE.and is listed: https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/netgear/netgear_gs308t_1
A little bit strange, that LEDs are supported, or maybe forgotten to mention. Also not understandable whiy the 108 is rc, while the 308 not.
ZyXEL stock firmware should have problems with VLAN
does not support PoE
not so easy to install: Installation method(s): U-Boot TFTP + serial recovery
bigger size
Are there any known differences in function using OpenWRT?

1 Reply
2

[Assistant]
The lines you quote literally state the limited access mode, which is what you get until you register with Netgear, will still allow you to update the firmware. I already explained the GS308T v1 support in your other topic. You shouldn't be spreading your related questions over separate topics. Only makes it more confusing (or you as well). As for the GS1900-8, it has a PoE sibling, the GS1900-8HP, which supports PoE if you need it. Note the GS108T v3 doesn't do PoE either. It only supports PoE PD (it can be powered over PoE).

1 Reply
2

linuxuser:
Netgear wants an annoying registration and LED are not supported.
Do I have to register before, if I want to flash OpenWRT?
Looks like no:
Definitely no if you install from console. But you'll have to solder a header on the Netgears. Not sure if registration is required for install from stock web GUI. I did register my GS108Tv3 at some point to see what I got from the Netgear UI. Don't remember if I tried the firmware upgrade before that or not.
The ZyXEL models are much friendlier in every way - not requiring any such registration for stock firmware and also having a presoldered console header accessible without opening the case.
EDIT: eh, looks like the last comment applies to the GS1900-10HP I have but not the GS1900-8. It has a header, but the case must be opened to access it.
The ZyXEL GS1900-xx can definitely be upgraded to OpenWrt from stock web GUI without console. Just flash the OpenWrt initramfs image to "Flash Partition 0" (first system partition), boot into it and then sysupgrade to the OpenWrt sysupgrade image to get a writable rootfs.
You can keep a version of the stock firmware in "Flash Partition 1" (second system partition). OpenWrt won't interfere with it, and you can easily switch back by simply changing the bootpartition variable using fw_setsys bootpartition 1

2 Replies
1

bmork:
But you'll have to solder a header on the Netgears
I am not experiecend with such things.
bmork:
The ZyXEL GS1900-xx can definitely be upgraded to OpenWrt from stock web GUI without console.
Without soldering and without serial cable?
https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/?version=21.02.0-rc1&target=realtek%2Fgeneric&id=netgear_gs108t-v3
offers sysupgrade only with 21.02.0-rc1 (r16046-59980f7aaf)
So how do I need to start with stock FW?
Borromini:
You shouldn't be spreading your related questions over separate topics
Sorry, thought, it are very specific question with a newly supported device.


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Does OpenWrt firmware support Beamforming + MU-MIMO- just for the record?

Hi All,
I have read many threads regarding this topic.
After reading them, yet I still not sure my answer.
I am not technical person, just really a noob.
I just want to set the record straight once for all.
Hopefully someone can correct me statement.
Please use low-tech language if you want to help out.
My question is:
If my router has advertised to support Beamforming + MU-MIMO (for Wave2 AC products),
and I flash it with OpenWRT firmware, will l lose this features?
Answer:
Yes, because even though your router has the hardware capability to support Beamforming + MU-MIMO,
however without having proper open source drivers to run them, you will never enjoy these features.
Thank you.

[Assistant]
So, does for example ath10k (or ath10k-ct) not support mu-mimo and beamforming?

I hope I can answer your question.
But I can't because I am not a developer.
I was hoping that someone who is a developer can help out

ath10k and hostapd both support beamforming and MU-MIMO. There's actually not much to it other than listing a few capabilities in hostapd. See:
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/ath10k/configuration#mu-mimo_configuration
I don't know whether that has been implemented in OpenWrt as don't have any device that supports MU-MIMO or beamforming. But you could easily check that if you are running OpenWrt on a device that supports it. Just connect via SSH and run:
grep vht_capab /var/run/hostapd*.conf
If the output includes the options SU-BEAMFORMER, MU-BEAMFORMER and BF-ANTENNA-* your device should operate in MU-MIMO and beamforming mode (the *-BEAMFORMEE options refer to the client capabilites, afaik).
You could also verify that by capturing the the beacon or probe response frames with wireshark, see:
Cisco Meraki – 5 Oct 20
Meraki MR SU-MIMO, MU-MIMO, and Beamforming
This article is an overview of MIMO and beamforming technologies, and their operation on MR access points.
The wireless access point will advertise MU-MIMO and beamforming capabilities in these frames.

2 Replies
4


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: “tri band” (triple interface) router list

can we have a list of triple+ wifi interface routers supported by openwrt?
these devices should have 3 full-featured interfaces, not 2 plus some crippled slow interface for DFS compliance.
help me build it! i'll start...
--------------- 2.4 / 5 GHz ---------------
Qualcomm IPQ4019 (4x ARM Cortex-A7 @ 717 MHz)
Linksys WHW03 V2
Flash 512 MB, RAM 512 MB.
https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/whw03_v2
two 5 GHz radios with very limited channel support and no DFS.
channels (23.05.3 and previous builds):
32: unsupported
36 ~ 48: supported
52 ~ 68: unsupported
96 ~ 144: unsupported
149 ~ 165: supported
169 ~ 177: unsupported
EDIT: it seems that these devices should support the same channel ranges as the EA/MR8300 and that the restricted channel support is the result of a bug in the official openwrt port. i will try getting one of these devices to debug channel support.
EDIT: got the device and fixed the issue. the changes were accepted into the master and 23.05 branches, so all builds after 23.05.3 will support the usual channel ranges for these architecture.
channels (builds newer than and excluding 23.05.3):
32: unsupported
36 ~ 64: supported
68: unsupported
96: unsupported
100 ~ 165: supported
169 ~ 177: unsupported
Linksys EA8300 and MR8300
Flash 256 MB, RAM 256 MB.
https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/ea8300
https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/mr8300
Note: EA8250 and MR8250 seem to be versions of the routers above using the same hardware but with 256QAM modulation disabled by software.
two 5 GHz radios:
32: unsupported
36 ~ 64: supported
68: unsupported
96: unsupported
100 ~ 165: supported
169 ~ 177: unsupported
ASUS Lyra (MAP-AC2200)
Flash 128 MB, RAM 256 MB.
https://openwrt.org/toh/asus/lyra_map-ac2200
two 5 GHz radios:
32: unsupported
36 ~ 64: supported
68: unsupported
96: unsupported
100 ~ 140: supported
144 ~ 165: conflicting info (please help clarify)
169 ~ 177: unsupported
NETGEAR RBR50 / RBS50
Flash 4 GB, RAM 512 MB.
https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/netgear/netgear_rbr50
https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/netgear/netgear_rbs50
GL.iNet GL-B2200
Flash 16 MB SPI + 8 GB eMMC, RAM 512 MB.
https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-b2200
two 5 GHz radios, channel support unknown. (help me!)
NETGEAR SRR60 / SRS60
Flash 4 GB, RAM 512 MB.
https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/netgear/netgear_srr60
https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/netgear/netgear_srs60
MediaTek MT7621AT (2x MIPS 24KC @ 880 MHz)
D-Link DIR-3060 A1
Flash 128 MB, RAM 256 MB.
https://openwrt.org/toh/d-link/dir-3060_a1
two 5 GHz radios, channel support unknown. (help me!)
Qualcomm IPQ8174 (4x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1400 MHz)
Linksys Linksys MX4200 V1 and V2
Flash 512 MB, RAM 512 GB.
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=46a2490e8f24a1ad47e53b0b4ee875fa3658f2c1
radios:
5 GHz AX 2x2@80MHz / 2x2@160MHz channels ???
5 GHz AX 4x4@80MHz / 2x2@160MHz channels ???
2.4 GHz AX 2x2
Qualcomm IPQ8072A (4x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 2200 MHz)
Linksys MX5300
Flash 512 MB, RAM 1 GB.
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=70fd815e57dc98cef88828faa5ce71717540e99e
radios:
5 GHz AC 4x4 channels 100 ~ 169
5 GHz AX 4x4 channels 36 ~ 64
2.4 GHz AX 4x4
Xiaomi Mi Router AX9000
Flash 256 MB, RAM 1 GB.
https://openwrt.org/toh/xiaomi/ax9000
radios:
one 2.4 GHz (QCN9024 4×4 ax)
two 5 GHz (QCN5024 4×4 ax + QCN9024 2×2/4×4 ax)
one AIoT (QCA9889 1×1 ac/n)
partial support for this device currently exists in openwrt. among the issues, the QCN9024 low 5 GHz band radio does not work (there seems to be a workaround).
WARNING: some versions of this device ship with secure boot enabled, meaning you are not free to run the software you want on the device. while there might be loopholes for some bootloader versions, the intentions of xiaomi are clear. you might want to boycott this model because of this, if not xiaomi as a brand entirely.
it can be argued that secure boot, if correctly implemented, guards against persistent exploits of the router, just as it does for PCs and phones. however there is no reason to tolerate a company that locks secure boot down without allowing the device owner to disable it or customize the public key it uses to verify the boot chain. x86 PCs and respectable phones allow secure boot disabling (ie, bootloader unlocking) if confirmed by physical access to the device (such as typing on the terminal or pressing phone buttons). this precludes a software exploit from achieving the unlock, and thus invalidates the argument that locked down secure boot is required to improve security.
xiaomi has a history of locking down bootloaders to be able to sell geographically-restricted devices in china at cheaper prices than internationally (eg, its newer vacuum cleaners). in no case it allows bootloader unlocking by the owner of the device.
also, just like d-link, xiaomi violates the GPL by not providing source code of the GPL-licensed software they use, such as linux kernels and modifications done to them, just because no one is suing them. for this reason alone you might want to boycott these two companies.
--------------- 2.4 / 5 / 6 GHz ---------------
Qualcomm IPQ8072A (4x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 2200 MHz)
Linksys MX8500
Flash 512 MB, RAM 1 GB.
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=9bdaebaff323e554046ce354092832c956b2ad5e
radios:
6 GHz AX 4x4 channels 33 ~ 229
5 GHz AX 4x4 channels 36 ~ 177
2.4 GHz AX 4x4
has one 5 Gbps ethernet port.

11

[Assistant]
NETGEAR RBS50 / RBR50
NETGEAR SRS60 / SRR60
Asus Lyra MAP-AC2200

1

The EA8300's two 5GHz radios have non-overlapping coverage of the available spectrum.
In the US,
radio0: 100 104 108 112 116 120 124 128 132 136 140 144 149 153 157 161 165
radio2: 36 40 44 48 52 56 60 64

1 Reply
1

5GHz regulations state that supported channels are 36 to 64, and 100 to 165. So it's not necessary to write such thing like "68 not supported".
MR8300 support 36 to 64 on ipq4019, and 100 to 165 on qca9886.

1 Reply


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: TL-WR841N v13 WiFi not stable?

It is stated here, https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr841nd that the WiFi is not stable for v13.
Could someone elaborate further? Did anyone experience it first hand? What is the instability like?

1

[Assistant]
I think the Wiki is not updated yet. However I don’t have this router, but other devices using the MT7628AN SoC I own have no stability problems anymore. It’s true that the open source MT76 had some problems before, but as far as I can tell these problems have been fixed.
If this model specifically still has some problems you can always use the proprietary driver that is available in another thread as an intermediate fix until the MT76 is fully stable for your device.

1 Reply

Maybe
@JamesT42
(the user who has added the comment about unstable wifi) can shed some light on the current status?
Sidenote
@tjthomas101
: You were linking to the old wiki that does not receive any updates any more. Corresponding page in the new wiki https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr841nd (which shows the same as old wiki, but new wiki can be updated)

1 Reply

Where can I find the proprietary driver? I searched "TL-WR841N driver" on this forum but couldn't find any.


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: Best USB WiFi adapter for OpenWrt

What is the best compatibility USB adapter for OpenWrt? I am searching and can't find good working adapter, all of them is not fully works with OpenWrt as Access Point, just works only as client. Have tried RTL8812AU — as client it's no problem, but it did not works as AP at all.
Now looking on RT3572L, but i am not sure is it works good as AP?
Please, recommend a good USB adapter for Access Point that work without problems on current master branch of OpenWrt (2.4 GHz 802.11n 300 mbit is suitable for me).

2

[Assistant]
There are no good USB wlan cards for 24/7 operations, even less in AP mode.

2 Replies
1

Really no support for all USB adapters in AP mode at all?

1 Reply

The firmware for USB devices is usually not tested and tweaked for the needs of AP mode, which often results in problems with AP mode specific functionality (e.g. supporting powersaving clients, DFS, etc.). The only USB wireless cards that were better in this regard (but still weren't stable in my own tests) were Atheros AR9170 and AR7010/AR9271, neither of them is still available on the market - and even those had quite a few hardware quirks to consider (4 or 8 connected clients at most, due to on-device RAM limits). Another issue is antenna quality (typically too small and too close to each other for effective MIMO support) and a tendency to overheat in long term usage, resulting in instability.
The various Realtek USB wlan cards don't support AP mode at all (their drivers require a proprietary hostapd backend, which isn't available in upstream hostapd and requires an ancient/ insecure hostapd 0.4.8(?) fork).
The traditional RaLink/ rt2800usb don't support powersaving clients (firmware limitation), so basically anything smartphone/ tablet, IoT or notebook like. I'm not up to speed about Mediatek's current mt76-usb chipsets, the caveats regarding antenna design or overheating probably apply though.
I've used AR9170 and AR9271 in AP mode for about a year, yes, it works, but there were multiple issues in daily operations (connections stalling, timing out, taking ages to auth, ...).

2 Replies
5


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: OpenWrt One production release announced

Software Freedom Conservancy
First Router Designed Specifically For OpenWrt Released
Today, we at SFC, along with our OpenWrt member project, announce the production release of the OpenWrt One. This is the first wireless Internet router designed and built with your software freedom and right to repair in mind. The OpenWrt One will...
Regardless of where you buy from, for every purchase of a new OpenWrt One, a US$10 donation will go to the OpenWrt earmarked fund at Software Freedom Conservancy. Your purchase not only improves your software right to repair, but also helps OpenWrt and SFC continue to improve the important software and software freedom on which we all rely!

19

[Assistant]
Any idea how many Mbps can flow with SQM turned on?

1 Reply

Any word on when it would ship from Canada or US? Maybe from Amazon? $26 shipping isn't ideal.

If you’re in Canada -
Available at corpshadow.biz (BPi partner in Canada) $188.00CDN including shipping and 13%VAT.
Amazon.com $99US + $43US shipping +37% Exchange = $195CDN + 13%VAT = $221CDN
AliExpress Sinovapi $122CDN + $22CDN = $144CDN no VAT/Duties

1 Reply
2


[System] You are an OpenWrt support assistant; use the following forum posts as background but remember they may be incomplete or outdated—if you’re unsure, flag the uncertainty and point the user to the official OpenWrt documentation.

[User]
Title: R6220 miniPCIe mod

Hi
I'm presenting to you a simple mod to add a single mini PCIe port to the Netgear R6220 router. Maybe someone will find it useful.
Netgear R6220 is build using MT7621. The CPU itself contains one USB 2.0, one USB 3.0 (unconnected) and a single PCIe x1 port.
The CPU generates three lanes for the port, so it can be split into three physical PCIe ports. Two of them are already used for the 5GHz and 2.4GHz wireless cards. There is however another unsoldered mini PCIe connector on the board. To make use of it, you will need:
1xhigh profile mini PCI-e socket (they are available on Aliexpress for instance, look for the high ones, like 6.8mm or 9mm, otherwise you will have problems inserting any card),
2x0.1µF 0402 capacitors,
2x0Ω 0402 resistors,
2x51Ω±1% 0402 resistors preferably paired.
Steps:
Solder the 0Ω resistors to R81 and R85, located in the middle of the underside of the board (image),
Solder the 0.1µF capacitors to C131 and C132, located on the top side of the board near the CPU (image),
Solder on the mini PCIe connector to CON1. The location is pretty straight forward.
Solder the 51Ω resistors to R117 and R92, located near the first pins of the PCIe connector (image).
The locations are marked with red ellipses.
There is unfortunately no easy way to add screws, but you can use a cable tie, as I did in the pic to ensure a proper connection. Just make sure it's not too tight, as to not damage the card or the connector.
Afterwards you can see the device being enabled in the beginning of the log. The PCIe initialization log should change from:
PCIE1 no card, disable it(RST&CLK)
to:
PCIE1 enabled
The attached card should also be visible when checked for using the lspci utility:
root@Polaris:~# lspci
00:00.0 PCI bridge: Device 0e8d:0801 (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Device 0e8d:0801 (rev 01)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: Device 0e8d:0801 (rev 01)
01:00.0 Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. MT7662E 802.11ac PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (rev 35)
03:00.0 Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. Device 7603
The mod itself is pretty simple and easy. Unfortunately I am not so good with soldering and my soldering is abysmal. I could not use the hot air to melt the solder, because the heat was being dissipated too quickly. Any attempt to heat the board up was met with failure due to it's enormous mass. About 10s after heating up a spot for several minutes it was cool to touch. I'm guessing you have to use a heat bed to keep the temperature up constantly, however I don't have access to such tools. Instead, I used an I-type thin soldering tip, 0.5mm solder and tweezers.
What can be done with this mod is unfortunately limited: you can attach only miniPCIe devices which don't use USB pins. This means that most of the combo devices like WiFi+BT or WWAN are impossible to make work and will lack the USB part of it's functionality.
But what will work are pure PCIe devices. There are dozens of them, like USB/Ethernet controllers, SD card readers. There are also some Intel cards offering 2GB of flash memory for any of your ext-root needs. You can also add a riser with a conventional PCIe port and attach theoretically anything, when supplied with enough power. It'd be amazing to see a graphics card connected this way, though essentially pointless.
You can also attach a miniPCIe to 4x USB 3.0 controller, which is actually why I was doing this in the first place.
UPDATE: If you go for the USB 3.0, you will need to add a shield on the 2.4GHz WiFi card. Otherwise the interference from USB will make 2.4GHz nearly unusable. Luckily there is a spot to solder it on and should be enough. Unluckily, making the shield itself will require some creativity.

1 Reply
10

[Assistant]
So did you ever get the USB 3.0 working?
I'm planning to attempt the same on R6260 which seems to have similar hardware.
Any already working flow might prevent potential failures.

CptHindsight:
What can be done with this mod is unfortunately limited: you can attach only miniPCIe devices which don't use USB pins. This means that most of the combo devices like WiFi+BT or WWAN are impossible to make work and will lack the USB part of it's functionality.
for full functionality just solder wires from D+ D- on mpcie to some of the USB port inputs

Could you help me understand why not?
Also what about this?
You can also attach a miniPCIe to 4x USB 3.0 controller, which is actually why I was doing this in the first place.
UPDATE: If you go for the USB 3.0, you will need to add a shield on the 2.4GHz WiFi card. Otherwise the interference from USB will make 2.4GHz nearly unusable. Luckily there is a spot to solder it on and should be enough. Unluckily, making the shield itself will require some creativity.