Why I am changing my router?
Until recently I was using my (not so) old router - Netgear R6220 with OpenWRT 19.xx. Device has plenty of power for small local network like mine. The issue was (on some devices) instablity and speed of connecting to WiFi.
You can read more about that here and here
The biggest issue were all devices based on esp8266 - Sonoff (tasmota) switches.
What are possiblities if we want to choose our alternative software?
Using software delivered by OEM is (usually) the least problematic when device is supported. We may have quite a trouble after this period end and vulnerability is found. It is not wise to leave such hole in our network - custom software may be the only option.
Not necessarily for my device but in the general, there are a few:
1) OpenWRT
One of the most popular - everything is open source. Because of that development takes some time and is dependent on userbase and donated devices. Surely a bad idea to use with Broadcom based router, mediocore with Mediatec (hit or miss, I have first hand experiece). Very wide scope of supported and not officially supported devices - shared hardware. List can be found here.
My advice, it may be much easier to change some settings in CLI instead of web interface (eg. router IP address).
2) DD-WRT
Another very popular firmware that is even delivered as main/supported by OEMs. Works much better with devices based on Broadcoms, Mediatecs chipsets. The reason is usage of non-free drivers included from manufacturers binary blobs. List of supported devices can be found here
3) Tomato
This firmware is formally not maintainted anymore. But after the spike of popularity (Asus decided to based ASUSWRT on it) community had a different opinion. The last supported fork is called FreshTomato. It supports only ARM/MIPS Broadcoms chipset based routers. List can be found here
4) Padawan
Like Tomato original russian firmware is not maintained. At the beginning it was only supporting Asus devices. Depending on fork the list may be a little larger (devices with similar hardware). Quite a few alive forks can be found here, here and here.
Non-standard (more advanced) option - RouterOS
My personal choice was RouterOS by Mikrotik. You need to buy their device but if you are careful enough, it would still be possible to flash it later with e.g. OpenWRT if devices goes EOL. As far as I know it should not be the case in near future but it is still better to be as feature/future-proof as possible.
Mikrotik hAP AC2 (AC^2)
Mikrotik has reputation of device maker for more demanding users. Those things have more industrial or boring/ugly design depending who you ask.
Specification can be found here.
Determining factors for me were:
- hardware specification for price - ~260 PLN (~65$) is delivering very stable computing power, in comparison to my old Netgear with similar iperf3 test: Load 0.15 (4 core) vs 1.7 (2 core)
- opinion of colleagues and experience as user is small companies - simply works (failovers, VPNs etc.)
- RouterOS configuration possibilities - at first it’s a little intimidating, I’m sure 90% of options like routing protocols, RADIUS, mesh and CAPsMAN will be not used in my home
- small form factor (~65% smaller) and a little ’thinkpadish’ vibe - my personally best remembered laptops
- option to use POE as power source - I haven’t done exact research but it may be the cheapest option that has fully fledged configurable OS
New router surely delivers more that competition for the same money. Configuration is defdefinitelyinetely harder if you try to go from ‘blank’ device - the answer could be usage of preconfigured profiles (I opted for setting everything by hand).
For everyone a little more interested/experienced in networking I can only advice this device. Wireless could be faster/better but for that there are newer models or ‘as it should be’ standard AP from manufacturers that specialize in wireless only.
Marek Pawlak