How much wifi and open-source do you really want?

If you are willing to go with commercial hardware + open source firmware (OpenWRT) you might want to check the table of hardware of OpenWrt at https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi and https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_864_ac-wifi. One solid pick for the future might be the Netgear WAX2* line or the GL.iNet GL-MT6000. One of those models is now fully supported the others are on the way. If you don’t mind having older wifi a Netgear R7800 is solid.

For a full open-source hardware and software experience you need a more exotic brand like this https://www.banana-pi.org/en/bananapi-router/. The BananaPi BPi R3 and here is a very good option with a 4 core CPU, 2GB of RAM Wifi6 and two 2.5G SFP ports besides the 4 ethernet ports. There’s also an upcoming board the BPI-R4 with optional Wifi 7 and 10G SPF.

Both solutions will lead to OpenWRT when it comes to software, it is better than any commercial firmware but there’s a catch about open-source wifi. The best performing wifi chips are Broadcom and those don’t usually see open-source software support**. MediaTek is the open-source alternative and while they work fine they can’t, unfortunately, beat Broadcom. As most hardware is Broadcom they have hacks that go behind the published wifi standards and get it go a few megabytes/second faster and/or improve the range a bit.

DD-WRT is another “open-source” firmware that has a specific agreement with Broadcom to allow them to use their proprietary drivers and distribute them as blob with their firmware. While it works don’t expect compatibility with newer hardware nor a bug free solution like OpenWRT is.

Side note: while there are things like OPNsense and pfSense that may make sense in some cases you most likely don’t require that. You’ve a small network and OpenWRT will provide you with a much cleaner open-source experience and also allow for all the customization you would like. Another great advantage of OpenWRT is that with a great router like the BananaPi BPi R3 you’ve the ability to install 3rd party stuff in your router, you may even use qemu to virtualize stuff like your Pi-Hole on it or simply run docker containers.

I personally like mikrotik routers. They have all the features you could wish for and then some and they’re relatively cheap for the things they can do. I have RB4011iGS+ (I don’t think that exaxt model is available anymore) and it’s been rock solid. As I have fiber I just pulled the SPF-module from ISP’s box and plugged it in on my own hardware, so the router ISP provided is just gathering dust right now.

But it depends on what you’re really after. If you just need basic firewall/NAT/DHCP functionality and your connection speed is below 1Gbit pretty much any router will do. If you have fast connection and/or need for totally separate networks/VLAN/something else it’s a whole another matter.

I am using an OPNsense Qotom MiniPC as a firewall/router. I have three Zyxel Wireless APs that I flashed with OpenWRT. I also have two Zyxel switches (8 and 24 port) that I also flashed with OpenWRT. And lastly, I have two Netgear R7000s, also with OpenWRT, that are glorified smart switches. I am very happy with my setup. It works like a champ!

If you want a really good, capable firewall that’s easy to configure, go with OpnSense.

If you want granular control and [near] enterprise grade features for a low price, go with Mikrotik.

I use Asus routers, they have good hardware. But then I install Fresh Tomato on them to give them full professional routing capabilities. It’s amazing what’s included in that, including vlan support, dns masquerade support etc etc.

My friend prepared me a router using OpnSense FOSS software on a APU board with 3 Ethernet ports and some other debug ports (usb and VGA) So my internet input is now like this -> coaxial cabel -> ISP modemRouter in modem mode -> Ethernet-> OpnSense APU -> Ethernet -> WiFi access point / Ethernet switch -> WiFi access point satellites

As wifi access point, I use a Orbi WiFi router in bridge mode. My tv streaming device is connected via Ethernet to Orbi and has the full 600mbit down that arrives at my home 😇

Get a somewhat recent Fritzbox and connect all your hardware to this device and then configure it to use your ISP-provided as uplink in the Fritzbox configuration. Since you already use an AVM repeater it should work well together with a Fritzbox.

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 9 acronyms.

[Thread #487 for this sub, first seen 5th Feb 2024, 16:45] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

Pretty much anything from protectli. Very flexible.

Du you want a plastic box or a pc with your own os on it (like opnsense or Linux)? It anything in between? I would say the 2 ends are between a fritzbox and an AliExpress router PC.

Btw throw your repeater away in case you use it as a Wi-Fi extender. It cuts your wifi performance to 1/4. It only works if you use it with a cable as a separate access point.

If you also want to improve your wifi setup, I can recommend unifi. Aruba is also good but they went cloud only and who knows how long they will keep there old non cloud firmware updated.

Thank you for your extensive answers, now i have more questions than before :-D Due to time and energy i tend to an out of the box, non OSS solution. I’ll keep you updated on my decision and how it went

This is a great community.

Personally I’ve had really good luck with the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and R7800 models. They are supported by openWRT as well if you are into that. An issue might be that they are “only” WiFi 5 units. Some of the newer models in the Nighthawk series might be just as good, but i don’t have personal experience with those…

I’ve been using Openwrt for a while and its pretty solid and has a lot of useful features.

Do you want a WiFi 5 or 6 device? What’s your price range? What performance do you expect?

a router that supports openwrt. relatively new, affordable, good specs/features. non-bs model.

or a computer with NIC that supports AP mode.(if u know how to do that)

I recently switched from my ISP’s combo device to a GL-inet Flint 2 (https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt6000/);;) no complaints with it thus far, and I’ve enjoyed some of the quality of life features it’s got built into it.