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:
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.
The r6100 I have in uSa is not GBE only 10/100