Openwrt Router Firmware

[xiaofan]

Limitations are mentioned here by the user quarky in openwrt forum, please refer to post #53 and #54.

"Adding OpenWrt support for Linksys EA7500 v2 - For Developers - OpenWrt Forum" https://forum.openwrt.org/t/adding-openwrt-support-for-linksys-ea7500-v2/39416/57

1) slower WiFi speed compared to close sourced driver: 350+ vs 600+ Mbps with iPerf 3 test, WiFi to LAN

2) slower NAT thruput, as H/W NAT not available. Linux native flow offload can only do about 500 Mbps WAN-LAN. Looks like the DSA driver is slower.

3) He managed to compile QCA SFE for Linux 5.4. Using SFE WAN-LAN thruput improves to around 800+ Mbps, with 1 CPU hitting 100%.

 

[xiaofan]

For those using EA8100, this link seems to work.
"Openwrt for Linksys EA8100 - XWiki" https://wiki.codepowered.com/xwiki/bin/view/Linksys EA8100/Openwrt for Linksys EA8100/

And as per the report, the EA8100 Openwrt build above works for EA7500 v2 as well. YMMV.

 

[xiaofan]

I have not used my WRT1900AC v1 (my main router from April 2014 to August 2020). It is one of the better supported OpenWRT router. Linksys WRT1900AC v2, WRT1200AC, WRT1900ACS, WRT3200AC and WRT32X have faster CPUs and may have even better performance. They are also well supported by DD-WRT.

The following is with Gargoyle router, a fork of OpenWRT, right now it is based version 18.06. The interface seems to be pretty smooth and simple. But you can still use ssh to for more advanced functionality.
https://www.gargoyle-router.com/

Wired: download is the same as stock FW, upload is slower.

Wireless: download/upload are actually similar to stock FW for 2*2 AC client.

 

[redglue23]

Networking noob here, been getting the following for my 500mbps M1 using EA7500v2 on firmware (2.0.8.194281). Only 2.4Ghz N mode, 5GHz is disabled. Coz no device using the 5Ghz channel. Auto channel/band mode. Think mid-strength transmission.

I am bothered by the WIRELESS upload speed higher than the download speed, is there some configuration that I can tweak or are these numbers acceptable for 2.4Ghz N mode WIRELESS.

PING ms
3
DOWNLOAD Mbps
19.46
UPLOAD Mbps
32.31
M1
Viewqwest Pte Ltd
Singapore

 

[commandowolf]

Networking noob here, been getting the following for my 500mbps M1 using EA7500v2 on firmware (2.0.8.194281). Only 2.4Ghz N mode, 5GHz is disabled. Coz no device using the 5Ghz channel. Auto channel/band mode. Think mid-strength transmission.

I am bothered by the WIRELESS upload speed higher than the download speed, is there some configuration that I can tweak or are these numbers acceptable for 2.4Ghz N mode WIRELESS.

PING ms
3
DOWNLOAD Mbps
19.46
UPLOAD Mbps
32.31
M1
Viewqwest Pte Ltd
Singapore

You dont have any new phones/computers in the past 4 years? I'll be surprised as almost all can support 5GHz wifi liao, even my old phone can leh.

You need to provide us with more info, how far away / how many walls between you and the router when testing? 2.4GHz band is very congested, especially in Singapore due to HDB style where have families and their routers up, down, left and right.

How many devices do you have connected to the router on wifi when you tested it? If they are all older devices they may not support MIMO even if the router has the functionality, hence the slow speed as router needs to take turns talking to all devices. Just like when you go to very crowded place suddenly 3g/4g no reception or very slow.

Is actually normal for upload speed to be higher than download in my experience, many devices are downloading data because people consume media, less upload.

 

[giraffey]

Networking noob here, been getting the following for my 500mbps M1 using EA7500v2 on firmware (2.0.8.194281). Only 2.4Ghz N mode, 5GHz is disabled. Coz no device using the 5Ghz channel. Auto channel/band mode. Think mid-strength transmission.

I am bothered by the WIRELESS upload speed higher than the download speed, is there some configuration that I can tweak or are these numbers acceptable for 2.4Ghz N mode WIRELESS.

PING ms
3
DOWNLOAD Mbps
19.46
UPLOAD Mbps
32.31
M1
Viewqwest Pte Ltd
Singapore

Your bandwidth speeds are expected of 2.4Ghz. I wouldn't be concern as the difference is minimal.

Also, what devices do you have that you can't turn on 5Ghz. Typically, these are normally IoT devices and basic/old mobile phones and laptops.

 

[yusoffb01]

Networking noob here, been getting the following for my 500mbps M1 using EA7500v2 on firmware (2.0.8.194281). Only 2.4Ghz N mode, 5GHz is disabled. Coz no device using the 5Ghz channel. Auto channel/band mode. Think mid-strength transmission.

I am bothered by the WIRELESS upload speed higher than the download speed, is there some configuration that I can tweak or are these numbers acceptable for 2.4Ghz N mode WIRELESS.

PING ms
3
DOWNLOAD Mbps
19.46
UPLOAD Mbps
32.31
M1
Viewqwest Pte Ltd
Singapore

why havent change router for 8 years? get huawei ax3 $40 can increase speed

 

[redglue23]

Only mobile phones using 5Ghz (all working professional during the day, so home internet only comeback evening/night usage), all the laptops/PC still on 2.4Ghz.

Dunno why last time the laptop can see both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, but dunno when suddenly cannot see the 5Ghz, so I just turn off the 5Ghz. Yes, I turn off 5Ghz after I no longer see the 5Ghz option in my old win7 laptop. Is it because I am still on windows 7 on this old laptop?

Also, one of the reasons, because 5GHz is very weak in the bedrooms, so not much practical use, other than the living room where the router is.

Recent weeks, sometimes watch youtube 1080p on 2.4Ghz, the video will buffer and downgrade me to 480p. So abit annoyed.

Asked the M1 technician, when he came to change the modem, he see me super networking noob, tell me to buy some $200 asus router, say can increase wireless speed. Really meh, not my router configuration issue ah?

So, M1 500mbps, on 2.4Ghz wireless 19++mbps download is acceptable and typical? Tested with 2 device connected only, laptop and phone. The phone not in use.

Thanks for all the experts pointers.

 

[commandowolf]

Only mobile phones using 5Ghz (all working professional during the day, so home internet only comeback evening/night usage), all the laptops/PC still on 2.4Ghz.

Dunno why last time the laptop can see both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, but dunno when suddenly cannot see the 5Ghz, so I just turn off the 5Ghz. Yes, I turn off 5Ghz after I no longer see the 5Ghz option in my old win7 laptop. Is it because I am still on windows 7 on this old laptop?

Also, one of the reasons, because 5GHz is very weak in the bedrooms, so not much practical use, other than the living room where the router is.

Recent weeks, sometimes watch youtube 1080p on 2.4Ghz, the video will buffer and downgrade me to 480p. So abit annoyed.

Asked the M1 technician, when he came to change the modem, he see me super networking noob, tell me to buy some $200 asus router, say can increase wireless speed. Really meh, not my router configuration issue ah?

So, M1 500mbps, on 2.4Ghz wireless 19++mbps download is acceptable and typical? Tested with 2 device connected only, laptop and phone. The phone not in use.

Thanks for all the experts pointers.

Doesnt matter how quick your internet plan speed is, is a matter of physics, theres a lot of interference on the 2.4GHz band with all the routers of other homes in close proximity. Yes, 2.4GHz is expected to perform rather poorly, generally under 50Mbps in my experience.

Where your router is placed, how many walls in between you and the router, how many routers around you, all this can affect. As for your laptop, honestly dont know since we cannot physically diagnose.

 

[giraffey]

Only mobile phones using 5Ghz (all working professional during the day, so home internet only comeback evening/night usage), all the laptops/PC still on 2.4Ghz.

Dunno why last time the laptop can see both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, but dunno when suddenly cannot see the 5Ghz, so I just turn off the 5Ghz. Yes, I turn off 5Ghz after I no longer see the 5Ghz option in my old win7 laptop. Is it because I am still on windows 7 on this old laptop?

Also, one of the reasons, because 5GHz is very weak in the bedrooms, so not much practical use, other than the living room where the router is.

Recent weeks, sometimes watch youtube 1080p on 2.4Ghz, the video will buffer and downgrade me to 480p. So abit annoyed.

Asked the M1 technician, when he came to change the modem, he see me super networking noob, tell me to buy some $200 asus router, say can increase wireless speed. Really meh, not my router configuration issue ah?

So, M1 500mbps, on 2.4Ghz wireless 19++mbps download is acceptable and typical? Tested with 2 device connected only, laptop and phone. The phone not in use.

Thanks for all the experts pointers.

For 2.4Ghz, this is normal. This is a very congested band. Tweaking the configuration might help a little. However, If you need better speeds, use 5Ghz. Also means dont use 2.4Ghz clients. You might need more than one wireless router or need a mesh system to expand the coverage.

 

[xiaofan]

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/mesh/start

Just wondering if anyone tried the above mentioned methods.

Previously I was thinking to use 802.11r support in openwrt to form mesh with different brand of routers in AP mode and manually tune the transmission power.

But then I got the low cost TP-Link Deco M4 Mesh (S$99 a pair) and then did not proceed with the idea.

 

[xiaofan]

https://forum.openwrt.org/t/802-11r-fast-transition/68599/2
802.11r support in openwrt

https://forum.openwrt.org/t/what-is-the-state-of-802-11r-k-and-v-support-in-openwrt/62363
State of 802.11 r, k, v support in openwrt

 

[xiaofan]

I have another unused TP-Link repeater (used to function as the wireless adapter for cheap Android box with 100M Ethernet). I tried the snapshot but the GUI says that the FW is not of the correct format. I wanted to try very low end configuration to see how it goes.

https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/tp-link/tp-link_re305_v1

architecture:mipsel_24kc
CPU:MediaTek MT7628AN
CPU Cores: 1
CPU MHz: 580
Flash MB: 8
RAM MB: 64
Ethernet: 100M

 

[xiaofan]

As this is still a snapshot (downloaded today) and the performance may not be as good.

The following test is done with Acer Swift 3 Windows 10 laptop (boutght in Dec 2010, Core i5-8250U), with Ugreen USB to gigabit adapter and Intel AX200 wireless adapter.

1) LAN speed takes a hit. This may still be good for 500Mbps users but not so good for 1Gbps plan. I am testing with my Singtel 1Gbps plan.

2) wireless performance is actually decent for a 2x2 AC client.

I just notice that the FW actually has SW/HW NAT support as this is also based on MT7621. So I enable SW/HW NAT support and the LAN speed is reaching gigabit speed.

So I will say actually this snapshot is pretty usable.

 

[commandowolf]

I just notice that the FW actually has SW/HW NAT support as this is also based on MT7621. So I enable SW/HW NAT support and the LAN speed is reaching gigabit speed.

So I will say actually this snapshot is pretty usable.

Oh thats great news, sorry is that the HW/SW offload option? I dont rmb what its called been a while since i looked at openwrt on the tp link router i have.

 

[xiaofan]

Oh thats great news, sorry is that the HW/SW offload option? I dont rmb what its called been a while since i looked at openwrt on the tp link router i have.

Yes, that is correct.

The results I got are in line with the report in openwrt forum that reached 930Mbps with HW offload and only 500+ Mbps without.

Ref:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/buying-a-mt7621-router/74006/8

 

[hwzlite]

Yes, that is correct.

The results I got are in line with the report in openwrt forum that reached 930Mbps with HW offload and only 500+ Mbps without.

Ref:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/buying-a-mt7621-router/74006/8

Cool
How's the result if SQM is also enabled?

 

[xiaofan]

Cool
How's the result if SQM is also enabled?

HW offload is not compatible with SQM. You have to remove all SQM rules in order for HW offload to work.

 

[newfrog]

hi, intermediate networking noob here with 2 related questions. I have got openwrt working on a few routers, Netgear, Asus and Linksys. Am familiar with Luci GUI config now. Am now trying to set up guest wifi isolated from home LAN. Also tried searching on info to setup VLAN on each LAN port. Managed to follow several websites but still having no internet access. In both cases of guest wifi and VLAN setups, the clients can connect and have IP address but no internet. This link for guest wifi gives a good summary which I also tried to use for VLAN setup, especially the Interface and firewall sections. I followed all instructions and rechecked several times but still no internet access. Am I missing something obvious? Thanks

https://oldwiki.archive.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/guest-wlan-webinterface

 

[xiaofan]

hi, intermediate networking noob here with 2 related questions. I have got openwrt working on a few routers, Netgear, Asus and Linksys. Am familiar with Luci GUI config now. Am now trying to set up guest wifi isolated from home LAN. Also tried searching on info to setup VLAN on each LAN port. Managed to follow several websites but still having no internet access. In both cases of guest wifi and VLAN setups, the clients can connect and have IP address but no internet. This link for guest wifi gives a good summary which I also tried to use for VLAN setup, especially the Interface and firewall sections. I followed all instructions and rechecked several times but still no internet access. Am I missing something obvious? Thanks

https://oldwiki.archive.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/guest-wlan-webinterface

Maybe you want to refer to the latest wiki here to see if there are any differences in the latest guide.
I am relatively new to openwrt myself and I have never used guest wifi myself (only tired to set up in router, AP and repeater mode).

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/guestwifi/start