this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
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Apologies if this isn't the best community for this question, I wasn't sure where else to put it.

I am looking to replace my WiFi router. It will only have a few devices on the wireless side, with the majority of my network data going between wired devices. Any gaming or latency-sensitive stuff will be on a wired device as well. The range doesn't have to be all that much, the total square-footage it needs to cover is pretty small, and there is nothing wifi-blocking to deal with (no metal/brick internal walls, etc). The only part that might be somewhat picky is: I either want good customization/configuration options or the ability to install a custom router OS (last I checked, openwrt is still popular?). Also, there are a couple older devices that I want to be able to connect still that only support up to 802.11n. I am very price sensitive.

From my looking so far, I've found

  • TP-Link Archer A7, which supports openwrt, but I don't think supports WiFi 6
  • TP-Link Archer AX10/AX1500, which does support WiFi 6, but I can't find info about openwrt support
  • TP-Link AC1200 A6 V3, which is dirt cheap but I can't find info on openwrt support, and I can't tell what WiFi version it supports

I don't think I've used a TP-Link router before so any opinions there would be welcome (apologies if I butchered the naming scheme on the routers, it seems they all have several A___ numbers associated with them); they are at the top of my list currently due to their price and having the features I need.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If your getting a TP-Link router for the purpose of installing openwrt, be extra careful with selecting the router to buy and note their hardware revision. TP-Link has a habit of naming different routers with similar name, so if you're not careful you might ended up buying an incompatible router.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind!