I need a new router, because the time machine I have been using for so long is finally giving up. It was a pretty strong machine. God bless her soul. Now I'd like to have something like this as a router:
solid run
https://www.solid-run.com/product/clearfog-pro/ But that's pricey and needlessly powerful, it costs extra to add wifi, box, power and so on.

OpenWRT

Since I found out OpenWRT exists I have continuously rooted my routers. OpenWrt is minimalistic linux made especially for routers. I don't like the fact that it's not a full-fledged linux - they had to minimize the footprint and some packages are incomplete/different. But it does its jobs perfectly.

There is a hardware compatibility list which now features devices with 1gb ram and 4gb flash. Unfortunately they either have no wifi, or not enough lan ports. Even the Bulgarian producer Olimex is featured close to the top.

Starting from top to bottom, here's how I chose my router:
(I skip all that have no wifi)

FLASH MB/RAM MB/NAME/Reasons
256/1024/Gateworks Ventana GW5xxx/only two GbE ports;hard to buy
16/128/EnGenius ECB1750/no GbE
16/128/Belkin F9K1115/hard to buy
32/128/WZR-HP-AG300H/no ac
32/128/Meraki Z1/no ac
16/128/EnGenius ECB1750/no GbE

Possibilities (all of them are available in local shops):
(all of them support some type of ac on 5Ghz)

FLASH MB/RAM MB/NAME/PRICE
128/512/Linksys WRT1900AC/€235
128/128/Cisco-Linksys EA6300/€106
128/256/Buffalo WZR-600DHP2-EU/€100
128/128/Netgear R6100/€100
16/128/ZyXEL NBG6616/€85
16/128/TP-LINK Archer C7/€98
16/128/TP-LINK Archer C5/€75
16/128/D-Link DIR-860L/€53

In the table I didn't put CPU type and whether they have USB 2/3 ports.

Month: August 2016

Buying a new openwrt-compatible router. Howto

OpenWRT