Openwrt Router Firmware

[tanchoo1]

Sharing my limited knowledge and also asking for contributions.

What are the current available routers for OpenWRT in SG with the following requirements:

1. Mediatek hardware for solid support.
2. Not too expensive (ideally under SGD 200, better if under SGD 100 or under SGD 50).
3. Easily available in SG on Shopee / Lazada / Aliexpress / Taobao.
4. Easy to flash (no opening the device, connecting a UART cable, etc.)
5. Wifi 6 support (Wifi 7 is still too expensive and niche).

Here is my tiny list:

1. Xiaomi AX3000T. Must get the RD03 (CN) or RD23 (global) model; the RD03v2 model is NOT supported because it uses Qualcomm hardware. Can get for about SGD 50. Not the easiest to flash but no need to open the device; just need to follow a specific set of steps.
2. GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000). This is super easy to flash because the original firmware is also based on Openwrt. Costs USD 86.90 on their official website. This is a small travel router.
3. GL.iNet Flint 2 (GL-MT6000). Also super easy to flash. Costs USD 139.90 on their official website. This is a pretty powerful home router.

Appreciate any other suggestions please specific for the SG market!

 

[BBCWatcher]

Sharing my limited knowledge and also asking for contributions.
What are the current available routers for OpenWRT in SG with the following requirements:
1. Mediatek hardware for solid support.
2. Not too expensive (ideally under SGD 200, better if under SGD 100 or under SGD 50).
3. Easily available in SG on Shopee / Lazada / Aliexpress / Taobao.
4. Easy to flash (no opening the device, connecting a UART cable, etc.)
5. Wifi 6 support (Wifi 7 is still too expensive and niche).

The OpenWrt One wireless router costs about S$139 on Aliexpress (including GST and shipping).

 

[xiaofan]

If we look at OpenWRT forum, GL.iNet Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) seems to be very popular as a mid-range device. Alternative may be Asus TUF-AX6000 and TUF-AX4200 but both are not as good as GL-MT6000. All of them use MediaTek Filogic 830 chipset.

For Filogic 820 chipset based routers, indeed Xiaomi AX3000T is more readily available in Singapore.

On the high end, Banana Pi BPi-R4 may be of some interests with 10Gbe and WiFi 7.
https://forum.openwrt.org/c/hardware-questions-and-recommendations/13?ascending=false&order=views

 

[xiaofan]

Still personally I tend to think OpenWRT wired router (mainly with low power Intel CPU based mini PC, but possible with Arm based devices as well) plus an WiFi AP can be a good option. Then you have the freedom to use whateve AP you like, including WiFi 7 APs.

Dual band WiFi 7 APs are pretty cheap now, at below S$100, like TP-Link Archer BE230. Even 10G capable triband WiFi 7 AP can be at reasonable price, like TP-Link HB710 at S$192 from Starhub.

For my Singtel 5Gbps Fibre Internet plan, I use an Intel N100 CPU based mini PC running virtualized OpenWRT as the main router, then I have Asus RT-AX86U + TUF-BE6500 as AP (or RT-AX86U + TP-Link Archer BE805). RT-AX86U is for legacy devices, TUF-BE6500 or Archer BE805 is for newer devices.

 

[BBCWatcher]

Here’s another one. The Cudy TR3000 is a Wi-Fi 6 travel router that currently costs about S$76.50 on Lazada (including shipping). It’s possible there’s an even better price elsewhere. The variant with 128MB of flash storage is supported in OpenWrt mainline. The 256MB flash version has a snapshot build at this point (and costs a little more); I don’t think it makes much sense since you could expand storage via the USB port (or via NAS) for special use cases. Cudy officially cooperates with the OpenWrt community to facilitate OpenWrt installation.

It looks like the Cudy TR3000 is extremely similar to the GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000), but I see two hardware differences: availability of a 128MB flash variant (the GL-MT3000 always has 256MB of flash), and the TR3000 has a third antenna dedicated to monitoring DFS channels. That’s slightly nice, I guess, if OpenWrt supports fast DFS channel changes with that third antenna. The price is nice.

 

[BBCWatcher]

The Cudy WR3000S is S$79.46 on Shopee. That's a MediaTek Filogic 820-based Wi-Fi 6 router with 128MB of flash and 256MB of RAM, and it's similar to the Xiaomi AX3000T. However, it has one additional spatial stream in 5 GHz, one additional 1000BASE-T Ethernet port, and is easier to flash with OpenWrt.

The "v3" variant of the Mercusys MR80X is supported by OpenWrt. But I think this variant is hard to find in Singapore. Amazon.sg has the MR80X listed for as little as S$32.85 after coupon (assuming a S$100+ Amazon.sg order), but it says "Qualcomm" in the description.

The Xiaomi Redmi AX6000 is a MediaTek Filogic 830 device, and it's pretty reasonably priced in China at least if you can find it. Stock seems a little spotty, but I'm finding it a few places such as Taobao for roughly S$75. OpenWrt installation is a little tricky (similar to the AX3000T), but it appears doable. It's got a more powerful CPU, more RAM, and more spatial streams than the AX3000T has. Caution: There's a Qualcomm-powered Xiaomi Mi AX6000 which is a different wireless router. The MediaTek-based Redmi AX6000 has a "flat box" appearance and looks quite different than the Qualcomm-based device.

 

[BBCWatcher]

The Linksys E8450 is about S$72 on Taobao. It’s a fairly competent MediaTek-based Wi-Fi 6 router with 128MB of flash, 512GB of RAM, the usual 4+1 set of 1000BASE-T Ethernet ports, and a USB port — useful if you want to attach a printer, storage, or a mobile data modem. It’s only USB 2.0, but that’s better than USB none.

 

[BBCWatcher]

Here's an interesting one: the EDUP EP-RT2960S. Apparently it's a rebadged Haier HAR-20S2U1 wireless router. Aliexpress has the RT2960S listed for US$22.89 (about S$30) with free shipping. It comes preinstalled with a customized OpenWrt build. According to the OpenWrt community documentation (and the anecdotal reports I can find) you can simply flash it from within the factory's OpenWrt firmware to the latest Haier HAR-20S2U1 Sysupgrade version of mainline OpenWrt (currently 24.10.2).

The RT2960S/HAR-20S2U1 is a MediaTek MT7621-based Wi-Fi 6 router with 128MB of flash, 256MB of RAM, and 3+1 Ethernet ports (1000BASE-T: 1 WAN, 3 LAN). Nothing fancy, but for ~S$30 it's hard to complain. The MT7621 is a 32-bit MIPS instruction set dual core processor running at 880 MHz.

 

[tanchoo1]

D

Here's an interesting one: the EDUP EP-RT2960S. Apparently it's a rebadged Haier HAR-20S2U1 wireless router. Aliexpress has the RT2960S listed for US$22.89 (about S$30) with free shipping. It comes preinstalled with a customized OpenWrt build. According to the OpenWrt community documentation (and the anecdotal reports I can find) you can simply flash it from within the factory's OpenWrt firmware to the latest Haier HAR-20S2U1 Sysupgrade version of mainline OpenWrt (currently 24.10.2).

The RT2960S/HAR-20S2U1 is a MediaTek MT7621-based Wi-Fi 6 router with 128MB of flash, 256MB of RAM, and 3+1 Ethernet ports (1000BASE-T: 1 WAN, 3 LAN). Nothing fancy, but for ~S$30 it's hard to complain. The MT7621 is a 32-bit MIPS instruction set dual core processor running at 880 MHz.

Thanks, I came across this too. Only downside for me is that I'm not entirely sure of the build quality compared to the other options. Famous brands like Asus Xiaomi Banana Pi etc. will have more testing and use better components than an unknown brand option.

Having said that this could double up very nicely as a cheap travel router.

 

[tanchoo1]

The Linksys E8450 is about S$72 on Taobao. It’s a fairly competent MediaTek-based Wi-Fi 6 router with 128MB of flash, 512GB of RAM, the usual 4+1 set of 1000BASE-T Ethernet ports, and a USB port — useful if you want to attach a printer, storage, or a mobile data modem. It’s only USB 2.0, but that’s better than USB none.

This is a very interesting option. However the Openwrt guide seems a tad more complicated than I'd like. Probably just me being wimpy more than anything.

 

[tanchoo1]

The Cudy WR3000S is S$79.46 on Shopee. That's a MediaTek Filogic 820-based Wi-Fi 6 router with 128MB of flash and 256MB of RAM, and it's similar to the Xiaomi AX3000T. However, it has one additional spatial stream in 5 GHz, one additional 1000BASE-T Ethernet port, and is easier to flash with OpenWrt.

The "v3" variant of the Mercusys MR80X is supported by OpenWrt. But I think this variant is hard to find in Singapore. Amazon.sg has the MR80X listed for as little as S$32.85 after coupon (assuming a S$100+ Amazon.sg order), but it says "Qualcomm" in the description.

The Xiaomi Redmi AX6000 is a MediaTek Filogic 830 device, and it's pretty reasonably priced in China at least if you can find it. Stock seems a little spotty, but I'm finding it a few places such as Taobao for roughly S$75. OpenWrt installation is a little tricky (similar to the AX3000T), but it appears doable. It's got a more powerful CPU, more RAM, and more spatial streams than the AX3000T has. Caution: There's a Qualcomm-powered Xiaomi Mi AX6000 which is a different wireless router. The MediaTek-based Redmi AX6000 has a "flat box" appearance and looks quite different than the Qualcomm-based device.

All very decent options, thank you!

Think we're a little too late though for the Redmi AX6000 as they no longer sell or produce these and you're mostly getting second hand ones that could have been used for two or three years. Would have been a decent option if we could get our hands on a brand new one.

The v3 variant of the Mercusys is still too new. Perhaps it will start appearing in SG after a couple of months.

How's the build quality of Cudy routers?

 

[BBCWatcher]

Thanks, I came across this too. Only downside for me is that I'm not entirely sure of the build quality compared to the other options. Famous brands like Asus Xiaomi Banana Pi etc. will have more testing and use better components than an unknown brand option.
Having said that this could double up very nicely as a cheap travel router.

Haier evidently attached their name to the same product rolling off the same assembly line, and that’s a big brand in China. It’s also about S$30, so you can get a spare or three. Or get one in combination with another wireless device to defend against model-specific issues.

This is a very interesting option. However the Openwrt guide seems a tad more complicated than I'd like. Probably just me being wimpy more than anything.

It‘s really because the Linksys E8450 (and its rebadged twin the Belkin RT3200) has a longer history of OpenWrt releases than a lot of other Wi-Fi 6 devices, and consequently the OpenWrt community shook out some “leading edge” bugs along the way. It’s a popular device for OpenWrt, and that’s a good thing.

Think we're a little too late though for the Redmi AX6000 as they no longer sell or produce these and you're mostly getting second hand ones that could have been used for two or three years. Would have been a decent option if we could get our hands on a brand new one.

Taobao still has some new ones listed.

But used isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you want to try that route. You can pay a lower price for effectively “burn in tested” equipment, and that can be a very good thing. I recently bought some gently used high-end office furniture at a ~75% discount. I’m extremely pleased. But OK, please don’t buy used stuff. That’ll help keep the prices lower for me and for other savvy shoppers.

The v3 variant of the Mercusys is still too new. Perhaps it will start appearing in SG after a couple of months.

Actually there’s a v4 variant of the Mercusys MR80X already, so v3 isn’t the newest. Only v3 has OpenWrt support at this point in time.

How's the build quality of Cudy routers?

Not sure.

If you’re concerned about build quality, just get MikroTik hAP ax2 wireless routers (for example). They make great stuff that’s a cut well above the mass market consumer crap, but their prices are still amazingly reasonable. I think you can get the hAP ax2 from distributors in Europe (Getic for example) for about US$90 each including shipping and import duty. (Avoid North American suppliers since they’re a little more limited in wireless configuration choices, although I don’t think that matters much in the Singapore regulatory domain.) If you want to order one from the local distributor it’s a still reasonable S$170, less possible Shopee or other promotions/coupons. It runs RouterOS instead of OpenWrt (no OpenWrt builds yet for the Wi-Fi 6 models), but MikroTik is really, really good about long-term firmware support. They’re still providing RouterOS security updates for extremely old devices at no charge. And RouterOS has tons of features. If for example you want to set up wireless roaming with full 802.11r/k/v support, MikroTik has you covered. Full r/k/v wireless roaming is much harder to configure in OpenWrt.

Yes, RouterOS’s learning curve is a bit steeper than OpenWrt’s. But I like how they arrange command sets in a consistent hierarchy, and it’s a lot harder to brick a MikroTik device.

 

[SkyShroud]

If want Filogic 830 routers, can just go get second hand asus tuf or tx ax6000 on carousel. Pretty sure can hoot one at $80 or even $70 since the demand for 2.5Gbps is low, pretty much only openwrt users will get those router.

 

[xiaofan]

I upgraded the secondary OpenWRT virtual router from 23.05 to 24.10 last week and it was running fine.

Just upgraded the main OpenWRT virtual router from 23.05 to 24.10 tonight.

Both run on top of Proxmox VE 8.x version (not yet using PVE 9), using two Intel N100 CPU bases mini PCs. One with dual 10G SFP+ ports and dual 2.5G ports, the other one with quad 2.5G ports.

Actually I was not in a hurry to upgrade the main virtual router. Then I was playing with Snort3 (only IDS and no IPS) today. No issues on OpenWRT 24.10 but just couldn't get it to work under OpenWRT 23.05. So I decided to upgrade.

I also installed NetData on both installations.

Edit to update: upgraded PVE 8.4.11 to PVE 9 the next day (23-August-2025).

 

[xiaofan]

OpenWRT snort3 guide: I am only using IDS only and not IPS.
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/snort#auto-configuration

root@OpenWrt18:~# cat /var/snort.d/snort_conf.lua | grep mode
  mode            = 'tap',
      mode      = 'passive',

 

[xiaofan]

OpenWRT banip -- still not sure how to check out the report yet.
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/banip

Support thread.
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/banip-support-thread/16985

 

[xiaofan]

OpenWRT Netdata and Netdata Cloud tutorial

 

[xiaofan]

OpenWRT ad-blocking: you can see that it has Adguard Home package. But of course you can use your own Adguard Home instlaation or your own Pi-hole installation.

I was using Pi-hole and then Adguard Home with OpenWRT. Now I am using the simple Adblock-Fast package. But I am still thinking of going back to Adguard Home or Pi-hole because of the nicer GUI.

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/ad-blocking

Adblock​

• Packages: adblock, luci-app-adblock
• Configuration: LuCI → Services → Adblock
• Follow: documentation, forum

Adblock-Fast​

• Configuration: LuCI → Services → Adblock-Fast
• Follow: documentation, forum

AdGuard Home​

• Packages: adguardhome
• Follow: documentation, forum

Adblock-lean​

adblock-lean is a powerful and ultra-efficient adblocker for OpenWrt

• Follow: documentation, forum

 

[xiaofan]

You will be amazed to see the full functionalities of OpenWRT. But then I guess some of the stuff may be better offload to another machine (like NAS and Media Server).
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/start

A few interesting ones (not including core services like DNS, VPN, DDNS, SQM/QOS, or even ad-blocking and other common functionalities)
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/banip (installed)
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/snort (installed)
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/tls/acmesh (to be installed)

Maybe not the following -- or maybe I will try.
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/network_monitoring/zabbix (??)
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/geoip-shell (??)
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/crowdsec (??)
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/telegraf (???)

 

[hwzlite]

You will be amazed to see the full functionalities of OpenWRT...

+ not forgetting Running a RIPE Atlas Probe on OpenWRT

& zram-swap a lifesaver for low RAM issues triggering OOM killer (which I experienced in Xiaomi AX3600 running both RAM hog AdguardHome & Tailscale(Subnet routers)
Refs:
- https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/adguard-crashes-all-the-time-out-of-memory/52828/31
- https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/14441#issuecomment-1983525657