Mesh/New router research

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Potential home nodes

TP-Link TL-WA801ND

Downsides:

  • Only the v5 version is usable and it's hard to guarantee that we get the v5 version when ordering
  • Only 2.4 GHz
  • Only 100 Mbit ethernet
  • Only one ethernet port
  • Non-detachable antennas

Upsides:

  • Cheap
  • Still being made
  • External antennas
  • Flashable over TFTP without exploits
  • Supported by stable version of OpenWrt

TP-Link Archer A6

This is a U.S. version of the Archer C6 v2.

Downsides:

  • Kinda expensive
  • Non-detachable antennas
  • From 2017 so who knows when they'll be discontinued

Upsides:

  • 5 gigabit ethernet ports
  • 4 external antennas
  • Still being made
  • Flashable over TFTP without exploits
  • Supported by stable version of OpenWrt

ASUS RT-ACRH13

Upsides:

  • Qualcomm ipq40xx chipset (really good reputation)
  • Supported by stable OpenWrt version
  • 5 Gbit ethernet ports
  • 4 external antennas
  • MU-MIMO support
  • USB 3 port

Downsides:

  • Expensive
  • Flashing is a multi-step semi-annoying process
  • Apparently 128 MB ram is small for a device with two atk10k radios which required special fix to work from OpenWrt

Xiaomi Mi Router A4

This really looks to me like it could be a replacement for the My Net N600. These are 802.11 ac so next-generation devices. Everything is a bit better except fewer ethernet ports.

Upsides:

  • Cheap
  • 4 external antennas (2x2 mimo)
  • 128 MB ram
  • 3 ethernet ports
  • Gigabit ethernet (only gigabit model)

Downsides:

  • Looks like 100 Mbit version is not supported by OpenWrt at all currently
  • OpenWrt support is very new and not yet stable
  • Flashing requires exploit

Xiaomi Redmi Router AC2100

This is like the fancy bigger sibling of the Xiaomi A4. We might want this for places that we expect to pull a lot of bandwidth. E.g. that youth center close to Internet Archive Richmond.

Upsides:

  • Cheap for what it is
  • Very new device (couple of months old as of June 1st 2020? less?)
  • 6 external antennas
  • Fast dual-core processor
  • 128 MB ram
  • 128 MB flash
  • 4 gigabit ethernet ports
  • Can probably realistically handle gigabit speeds on wifi

Downsides:

  • OpenWrt support is very new and not yet stable
  • Flashing requires somewhat complicated exploit
  • Case design indicates that it runs hotter than we're used to

GL.iNET GL-MT300N-V2

Upsides:

  • Cheap
  • Supported by stable OpenWrt
  • Super easy web-based OpenWrt installation
  • Manufacturer is OpenWrt friendly
  • USB port
  • 4 unused GPIO pins and a repurposable two-position switch

Downsides:

  • 2.4 Ghz only
  • Internal on-PCB antenna
  • 100 Mbit ethernet

NanoPi R1 or R1S or R2

  • Not an OpenWrt device
  • NanoPi R1
  • NanoPi R2
  • NanoPi R1S
  • $20, $25 or $29 including case, not including required microSD card, power supply and shipping
  • Has been ordered: No

These are more like Raspbery Pis than routers. These are probably not great routers since one of the two ethernet ports and possibly also the wifi is attached internally via USB 2. This puts a bunch of extra load on the CPU and is kinda hacky.

These don't run stock OpenWrt (but can run a "FriendlyWrt" fork) and are meant to run a full Linux distro like Armbian.

These might be more useful for running services on the mesh.

Downsides:

  • Single-antenna 2.4 GHz only WiFi
  • USB-attached ethernet

Upsides:

  • Powerful quad-core processor
  • 512 MB to 1 GB of ram
  • Boot from microSD with full operating system
  • 2x Gbit ethernet (except for the R1 which has 1x 100 Mbit and 1x Gbit)

Others

I also looked at the Ubiquiti Aircube ISP which is cute and supported but $30 and 2.4 GHz only with no external antennas: https://openwrt.org/toh/ubiquiti/ubiquiti_aircube_isp

If we need a stable high quality high-speed device for e.g. a gigabit link then we might want to go with a Ubiquiti ER-X or ER-X-SFP: https://openwrt.org/toh/ubiquiti/ubiquiti_edgerouter_x_er-x_ka

These don't have any WiFi but have more ram and flash than other devices in this class + the SFP option is great if we need fiber optics.

You can buy refurb/used Linksys EA6350 for $35 which also have the ipq40xx chipset but that model seems to be recently discontinued otherwise

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