the FCC ruling yesterday got me thinking about my router, it’s probably due for a replacement by the time the theoretical end of firmware updates baked into that (natural eol is likely around the same time) takes effect. I’m having trouble finding good options particularly in regards to openwrt at least.
We currently use two asus rt-ax3000 routers in mesh mode. One attached to the modem because it’s in a really shitty location, and one attached to our home server. I have 3 items that need 2.4ghz for smart home automation and everything else runs 5ghz, 2 laptops phones etc.
Everything I can get in local stores isn’t supported by openwrt (neither are the current routers). Looking at using older hardware we have spare (a MacBook Pro 2012 or rpi4) seem to have a track record of underperforming. What are the recommendations for upgrades from here?
Follow up question is am I overthinking it? Would the MacBook Pro or rpi4 with a second Ethernet nic running a firewall before the routers also fix the issue of not getting security updates?
I bought this one last month when it was on sale for $39: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRK3CYY3
Haven’t deployed it yet, but it’s fully supported by OpenWRT. I would only be using it as an access point, though. My router is a USFF Optiplex with an extra NIC and runs OpenWRT.
That was one of the things I was considering was whether running a router before the WiFi and then just using them as access points might be a better choice.
That’s what I’ve done for years. Makes managing things much easier, and I run multiple APs (all with the same SSID/PSK) and you can just roam to the best one. One upstairs, one downstairs, one in the weird dead zone in my office, and one on the back patio (it’s not hardwired and uses the mesh connection for uplink).
These are all old Aruba APs running OpenWRT but that’s the plan for this Cudy Model. I may pick up a few more and just replace all of my trusty but very old Arubas.