Openwrt Router Firmware

[tanchoo1]

Openwrt 18.06.2 is out.

https://openwrt.org/releases/18.06/notes-18.06.2

 

[Ah-Pin-Kor]

Been playing with davidc502's builds (https://dc502wrt.org) on my Linksys WRT1200ac and WRT32X lately.
Quite impressed with the Luci web interface and opkg.
Once I confirm that it is stable, I might migrate my main router to the WRT32X.

 

[tanchoo1]

Been playing with davidc502's builds (https://dc502wrt.org) on my Linksys WRT1200ac and WRT32X lately.
Quite impressed with the Luci web interface and opkg.
Once I confirm that it is stable, I might migrate my main router to the WRT32X.

Nicely done. Openwrt is the future.

In fact, from now onwards I will only use routers that support Openwrt.

 

[tanchoo1]

I've been using the snapshot releases of the Openwrt firmware for Xiaomi Mi Router 3G (mir3g) and I'm very pleased with it. The wireless is more stable compared to 18.06.2.

 

[DarthGW]

if anybody is interested, i have a spare set of qotom q355g4 for sale.
meant to be used to run open source firewalls such as pfsense, opnsense or untangle due to its hardware (i5 5200u, 4x intel gigabit nics).
wont break a sweat running vpn or ips/ids modules

 

[yawyeetan]

anyone can help with the vlan setting for singtel? Tried using the guides found online, but all of them seems to be outdated ( unable to get miotv working)

 

[tanchoo1]

WPA3

Got WPA3 (SAE) working on my Openwrt 19.07.0-rc1:

 

[deepakmayekar@gmail.com]

Anyone using openwrt on Linksys EA8100?
Version 12.1 updated by Leon Poon.

 

[xiaofan]

Today I got the chance to flash my TP!-Link RE350 AC1200 Range Extender (with Ethernet) to OpenWRT, now that I have TP-Link Deco M4 units and no longer need the two range extenders. The other cheap one RE305 (with 100M Ethernet) does not support OpenWRT yet.

It has two operation modes.

1. Access Point mode, this is very easy to set up.

Configuration.
Linksys WRT-1900AC -- AV2000 Power Line Adapter -- AV2000 Power Line adapter --- RE350 AP mode.

Speed is limited by the Power Line adapter, about 160Mbps.

2. Wireless repeater mode.
It takes me quite a bit of time to set it up correctly by following the tutorial using relayd package, which apparently is not a very good tutorial based on Google.
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/relay_configuration

Performance is on par with stock firmware, using 5GHz as the client mode to bridge the host 5GHz network. Then adding a switch and my stuff (old desktop, Raspberry Pi boards and Android TV boxes) can use the Ethernet connection.

Speed is good, tested with a Ugreen USB Gigabit adapter on the desktop and it can reach about 300Mbps.

 

[ugene]

Anyone using openwrt on Linksys EA8100?
Version 12.1 updated by Leon Poon.

Installed it then gave up cos I have no clue how to get pass dependecies error while installing LUCI over cli on a snapshot image with no luci built in

Could i ask, does this image cos with 802.11k/v/r support compiled?

 

[xiaofan]

Today I got the chance to flash my TP!-Link RE350 AC1200 Range Extender (with Ethernet) to OpenWRT, now that I have TP-Link Deco M4 units and no longer need the two range extenders. The other cheap one RE305 (with 100M Ethernet) does not support OpenWRT yet.

It has two operation modes.

1. Access Point mode, this is very easy to set up.

Configuration.
Linksys WRT-1900AC -- AV2000 Power Line Adapter -- AV2000 Power Line adapter --- RE350 AP mode.

Speed is limited by the Power Line adapter, about 160Mbps.

2. Wireless repeater mode.
It takes me quite a bit of time to set it up correctly by following the tutorial using relayd package, which apparently is not a very good tutorial based on Google.
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/relay_configuration

Performance is on par with stock firmware, using 5GHz as the client mode to bridge the host 5GHz network. Then adding a switch and my stuff (old desktop, Raspberry Pi boards and Android TV boxes) can use the Ethernet connection.

Speed is good, tested with a Ugreen USB Gigabit adapter on the desktop and it can reach about 300Mbps.

I have not used this setup for a while. Just tried to reset the RE350 and follow the wireless bridge guide again to set up. This time it is pretty smooth.

Set up as a wireless bridge using 5GHz to connect to the main router (client) and both 5GHz and 2.4GHz (AP).

Without switch, tested with laptop with Ugreen USB to Gigabit converter.

Same as above but with cheap D-Link DGS-1005D Gigabit switch

5GHz wireless speed will be limited because it is also used to communicate with the main router.

BTW, RE350 V1 has dual MIPS core MT7621 CPU at 880MHz, 8MB Flash and 64MB RAM. Flash size is rather small.

 

[xiaofan]

In the afternoon I started to play with my 6.5 years old Linksys WRT1900AC v1 now that it is retired as the main router. I want to replace it with a better main router and temporarily I use SingTel Mesh Router (Consumer) rated at AC1900 as the main router. It actually has pretty decent wireless coverage similar to my Huawei AX3 Pro AX3000 AP, and so far proved to be stable, unlike the older Singtel AC Plus.

The openwrt experiment with WRT1900AC is a complete failure and I have tried ooenwrt 18/19 release and davidc502's build. I could not even pass the step of setting It up as an AP. Somehow changing the LAN configuration will result the non response of the router. Google says it could be related to Flash corruption but it has been rock solid in the past 6.5 years (since April 2014). So I have to wait for next weekend to debug the issue. Today I am using the GUI, next time I will try CLI with SSH.

 

[xiaofan]

The openwrt experiment with WRT1900AC is a complete failure and I have tried ooenwrt 18/19 release and davidc502's build. I could not even pass the step of setting It up as an AP. Somehow changing the LAN configuration will result the non response of the router. Google says it could be related to Flash corruption but it has been rock solid in the past 6.5 years (since April 2014). So I have to wait for next weekend to debug the issue. Today I am using the GUI, next time I will try CLI with SSH.

Turns out this is a new feature of openwrt 18, and apparently I did not Google enough.

Ref:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/solved-how-to-correctly-change-router-lans-ip-address/21654/2

Fire up ssh command from my Windows Msys 2 installation (Mingw-w64 distribution) and nano /etc/config/network immediately sort out my issue.

Setting it up as a router and wireless AP function -- no issues

Setting it up as an wireless AP only (to avoid double NAT) -- no issues

Next task: to set it up as a wireless bridge.

 

[xiaofan]

Setting it up as a router and wireless AP function -- no issues

Setting it up as an wireless AP only (to avoid double NAT) -- no issues

Next task: to set it up as a wireless bridge.

Wireless bridge set up is okay using OpenWRT 19.07.04 official FW and relayd.
Ref:
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/relay_configuration

I set it up in a way that the WRT1900AC connects to the main router (SingTel Mesh Router AC1900) using 5GHz band, and provide the internet access to local LAN clients. Then I also set it up to act as an wireless AP using 2.4GHz band.

2.4GHz performance seems to be better than stock Linksys FW (which has always been poor from the very beginning).

5GHz performance is strange for the LAN clients. Upload is very fast (in the bed room, 5m away from the main router in the living room), on par with the stock FW wireless bridge function, but download seed is very poor. Strange.

I do not have the reported DHCP and poor upstream speed issues. Strange that download speed is the issue.

Need to dig further.

 

[xiaofan]

Popular ISP routers with OpenWRT support

EA7500 V2 snapshot support only.
https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/linksys/linksys_ea7500_v2

Unofficial EA8100 snapshot
https://wiki.codepowered.com/xwiki/bin/view/Linksys EA8100/Openwrt for Linksys EA8100/

 

[xiaofan]

5GHz performance is strange for the LAN clients. Upload is very fast (in the bed room, 5m away from the main router in the living room), on par with the stock FW wireless bridge function, but download seed is very poor. Strange.

I do not have the reported DHCP and poor upstream speed issues. Strange that download speed is the issue.

Need to dig further.

Similar report here, slow WiFi client download speed reported recently.
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/wrt1900acs-v2-wifi-client-mode-slow-down-speed/74973

 

[RLWZ21]

Popular ISP routers with OpenWRT support

EA7500 V2 snapshot support only.
https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/linksys/linksys_ea7500_v2

Unofficial EA8100 snapshot
https://wiki.codepowered.com/xwiki/bin/view/Linksys EA8100/Openwrt for Linksys EA8100/

but does the fimware for EA8100 be reflash back to original?

 

[xiaofan]

Yes, no problem to flash back to original. Linksys router has double protection, you can even flash 8100 firmware on 7500 v2, i tried but can not boot though

The snapshot firmware is just a snapshot, i remembered last time I tried it can not boot, you need a normal openwrt firmware, not snapshot.

Unfortunately no stable release for EA7500 V2 yet.

And not even official snapshot release for EA8100 yet.

The double protection feature works well for my Linksys WRT1900AC, but I have got rid of stock FW and have two versions of OpenWRT to compare (one 19 and one 18) and I can choose the version to use.

 

[xiaofan]

Yes, no problem to flash back to original. Linksys router has double protection, you can even flash 8100 firmware on 7500 v2, i tried but can not boot though

The snapshot firmware is just a snapshot, i remembered last time I tried it can not boot, you need a normal openwrt firmware, not snapshot.

You are absolutely right. Just tried the snapshot today and it does not boot. Linksys EA7500 v2 is smart enough to revert back to stock FW.

For now I will use it as a wireless bridge. Its wireless coverage is not my good as my Huawei AX3 Pro but it is very good as a wireless bridge in the bedroom.

 

[xiaofan]

Good openwrt support routers with gigabit Ethernet and AC1200 and above if with wireless.

Seems to me none of the popular Asus and D-Link routers here in Singapore are well supported by OpenWRT. Please correct me if I am wrong.

None of the WiFi 6 routers are officially supported now.

*****

Ref: ooenwrt recommended routers
https://openwrt.org/toh/recommended_routers

Note: please check HW revision and Openwrt site for the support of different HW revisions. TP-Link can switch chipsets between HW revisions.

1) X86 based mini PC

2) Maker boards, Single Board Computers
Raspberry Pi 4 is promissing(3B+ will be limited by the USB 2). Nano Pi R2S is another interesting low cost board

https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_single-board-computers

3) Marvell based.
Linksys WRT 1200AC, 1900AC V1 and V2, WRT1900ACS, WRT3200ACM, WRT3200ACM and WRT32X

4) Many MTK7621AT 880MHz dual core MIPS CPU based routers

Xiaomi R3G
Hopefully Redmi AC2100 support will soon be official (now snapshot only)

TP-Link Archer C7 (check HW revision and Openwrt site)

TP-Link Archer C9

TP-Link range extender: RE350, RE650

5) Qualcomm based

TP-Link Archer A7 and A9

TP-Link RE450 v1 and v2, v3 is in snapshot

6) Broadcom based
None (no good support)

(To be updated).