new router recommendation for NZ

[pricerc]

So I figured out how to use wget to create a text file with the names of all the sysupgrade.bin files in the 1.15 branch - a file that I could then grep.

This made it much easier to find things. It was still a tedious process, but not nearly as tedious as using the web browser.

It seems I may be able to get the ASUS RT-AX53U, which is on the list.

https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/asus/asus_rt-ax53u

How do I tell if it's any good?

[ispyisail]

The more CPU the better

[pricerc]

The more CPU the better

but even that's a bit murky... e.g. I was looking at the Banana Pi router comparison chart.

The R2 has a 32 bit 4-core A7 running at 1.3GHz and has 2GB of DDR3.

The R64 has a 64 bit 2-core A53 running at 1.35GHz and has 1GB of DDR3.

It's not clear to me that, as a computer, the R64 has an advantage over the R2. In general, while it does depend on the exact workload, I would expect a 4-core 32 bit computer with 2GB of RAM to offer better overall performance than a 2-core 64 bit computer with 1GB of RAM.

That is certainly true in general-purpose computing, where the single major advantage of a 64 bit cpu is the memory address space.

If the R64 had more RAM, say 8GB like my Pi4, then the balance shifts dramatically.

Of course a router isn't a general purpose computer, but I wouldn't have thought that routing functions would benefit enough from wider integers to offset the loss of memory and CPU cores.

I tried searching the InterWebs for "openwrt performance 32bit vs 64bit" and got nothing useful whatsoever

[pricerc]

I should really get back to work...

but OpenWRT allows you to sort the supported hardware list by VPN performance (sort-of; it sorts the column alphabetically).

There aren't many that have WireGuard performance figures, but an interesting sample are:

AVM Fritz 4040, with a 4-core IPQ4018 at 638MHz with 256MB RAM. Gets 280Mb/s.

NETGEAR R7800, with a 2-core IPQ8065 at 1700MHz and 512MB RAM. Gets 240Mb/s.

Ubiquiti ER-X, with a 2-core MT7621AT at 880MHz and 256MB RAM, gets 232Mb/s.

[pricerc]

what a rabbit hole

Extrapolating that to the options readily available to me, which are the ASUS RT-AX53U with an MT7621AT, and the MikroTik hAP ac3 or Teltonika RUTX10, both with a IPQ4019...

... All have 256MB of RAM

The ASUS has WiFi 6, but otherwise, I don't see much practical difference for a typical home user?

[ispyisail]

In the same boat.

[ispyisail]

It's a small target to support, so it is a little wasteful, but if you're set on it I'll add it.
The only thing would be that no one else would be able to test it, you'd be the guinea pig. I can't make any guarantees.

Is there any chance of adding this router?

MikroTik hAP ax3, Wireless Router/Wireless Access Point, Wi-Fi 6 (AX)

https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecifi ... mID=666092

It's the wifi 6 that I like and I can purchase it in NZ.

[pricerc]

It's a small target to support, so it is a little wasteful, but if you're set on it I'll add it.
The only thing would be that no one else would be able to test it, you'd be the guinea pig. I can't make any guarantees.

Is there any chance of adding this router?

MikroTik hAP ax3, Wireless Router/Wireless Access Point, Wi-Fi 6 (AX)

https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecifi ... mID=666092

It's the wifi 6 that I like and I can purchase it in NZ.

That's certainly an upgrade from the hAP ac3, but it's not even on the OpenWRT list yet.

In fact there don't seem to be any IPQ6010 routers there yet.

[ispyisail]

It's a small target to support, so it is a little wasteful, but if you're set on it I'll add it.
The only thing would be that no one else would be able to test it, you'd be the guinea pig. I can't make any guarantees.

Is there any chance of adding this router?

MikroTik hAP ax3, Wireless Router/Wireless Access Point, Wi-Fi 6 (AX)

https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecifi ... mID=666092

It's the wifi 6 that I like and I can purchase it in NZ.

That's certainly an upgrade from the hAP ac3, but it's not even on the OpenWRT list yet.

In fact there don't seem to be any IPQ6010 routers there yet.

oops

Got confused with the other MikroTik router you listed earlier.

I was looking for AX AP to match with ubnt ER.

AX AP are hard to find, you can tell they are all going proprietary eco systems

[pricerc]

Is there any chance of adding this router?

MikroTik hAP ax3, Wireless Router/Wireless Access Point, Wi-Fi 6 (AX)

https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecifi ... mID=666092

It's the wifi 6 that I like and I can purchase it in NZ.

That's certainly an upgrade from the hAP ac3, but it's not even on the OpenWRT list yet.

In fact there don't seem to be any IPQ6010 routers there yet.

oops

Got confused with the other MikroTik router you listed earlier.

I was looking for AX AP to match with ubnt ER.

AX AP are hard to find, you can tell they are all going proprietary eco systems

To be fair, it's just a matter of time - from the snippets for OpenWRT forum I read, the IPQ6xxx is almost just a variation of IPQ8xxx.