My old one doesn't work anymore and I just got a deal on a new cable modem so I can stop paying TWC $infinity to rent their shit cable modem/router combo.

I am looking for something with:
- Gigabit ethernet (4+ ports)
- Support for WiFi guest network
- Supported by DD-WRT/OpenWRT/Tomato

I have never used any of the custom firmwares, but what I want to do is set up a guest WiFi network and route everything from the guest network over a VPN provider (my VPN provider supports OpenVPN and PPTP) so that I can access netflix/amazon video/youtube on my Roku and FireTV without getting throttled into oblivion.

I am not to worried about WiFi speed, since I don't have any AC devices and I have everything that supports it connected to gigabit ethernet.

I was looking at TP-LINK TL-WDR3600. Anyone have experience with it or another suggestion?

2/1/2015 8:34:20 AM

What is your price range?

Why do you care about custom firmware support?

Don't you expect to have 802.11ac-compatible devices within the router's expected lifetime?

2/2/2015 10:16:09 AM

Quote :

"I was looking at TP-LINK TL-WDR3600. Anyone have experience with it or another suggestion?"

this is what i've been using for several years now...started with openwrt for giggles, found it a little buggy and moved to dd-wrt and it's been rock solid

2/2/2015 11:09:09 AM

^^ Not terribly picky on price as long as it does what I need it to do. I wired my whole house for gigabit Ethernet, I only use WiFi for streaming video and incidental web browsing. 802.11n is good enough for that. Custom firmware+guest network means I can set up the openvpn client and force all of the traffic from the guest network over the VPN tunnel (I.e. circumnavigating the bottlenecking that occurs when accessing YouTube or Netflix during prime hours from twc. I would not be opposed to an off-the-shelf router with that capability. I pay for a VPN service specifically for this reason, but I suppose I could hook up a WiFi adapter to my Linux NAS and run it as an access point.

^ Which hardware rev and what version of DD-WRT are you using?

2/2/2015 1:30:53 PM

DD-WRT firmware v24-sp2 (12/22/14) std

the DD-WRT interface only reports back that it's hardware v1, but since there's isn't a v2 (that i'm aware of), it could be 1.1, 1.2, etc...the cpu is reported as Atheros AR9344 rev 1.2, so it might be v1.2 of the hardware (i can check when i get home)

2/2/2015 1:45:43 PM

I ordered the TP LINK off amazon with a gift card. If it sucks I can always send it back.

2/2/2015 5:44:39 PM

mine's a hw v1.1, btw

2/3/2015 7:59:04 AM

Quote :

" this is what i've been using for several years now...started with openwrt for giggles, found it a little buggy and moved to dd-wrt and it's been rock solid "

2/3/2015 10:16:50 AM

Asus RT-N66U

2/3/2015 8:43:25 PM

^ That came up in my searching. It costs a good bit more though. If this TP-LINK doesn't work out I may try that next.

2/3/2015 9:36:27 PM

^^ What I have and am happy with it running stock firmware. The only qualm I have with it is the guest network either is always on or can have from a 0-24 hr lifetime. I'd rather be able to set it for any amount of hours so I can turn it on when I leave the house for the weekend and the dog sitter can get access and then I don't have to remember when I get home to turn it off.

2/3/2015 10:09:01 PM

I have an ASUS RT-AC68U. I know you can flash Tomato to it (or at least a beta), but I haven't bothered. No clue whether you can tunnel a guest network through a VPN connection, because I have no need for that. It's a great router, but it's probably too much gun. It does tick your other boxes, though (Gigabit LAN with 4 ports, guest network). But if the RT-N66U is more than you want to spend, forget it.

2/4/2015 8:09:58 AM

in related news, the WDR3600 is $45 with free shipping through 2/9 using code EMCANAP92: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=33-704-144

2/4/2015 9:32:57 AM

I had a USB 802.11n adapter lying around, so I plugged it into my Ubuntu-based NAS and set up the access point on there. The wired connection was already bound to the VPN so that it always connects to the VPN when the enabled. All I had to do was create the wireless connection and change the mode to 'ap' in the networkmanager configuration file. It's isolated from the rest of the network and tunneled since it was already set up to route all traffic over the VPN unless it originated from the wired network. I don't know why I didn't think to do that sooner.

So for now the TP-LINK is up and running with the stock firmware and guest network disabled.

2/4/2015 6:37:10 PM

Just buy anything made by Netgear and not made by Asus. I've bought 4 Netgear home wireless products in the recent past and they've all been near flawless. I was skipping around brands until I got to Netgear and stuck with them. Only reason I upgraded my WNDR3700 is because a damn dying cable modem fried the ethernet port so it won't do gigabit anymore.

I've never bought any Asus networking shit but I do have one of their monitors and it is truly garbage. Cheap, flimsy plastic, light leaks around all the edges leading to poor color uniformity, just a poorly made product all around. I can't imagine their net gear (heh) is any better.

2/4/2015 8:06:16 PM

^ Love that you make a strong recommendation followed by "I've never used any of these products".

FYI Netgear and Asus wireless gear (at least the >100 dollar options) are all virtually carbon copies of each other. Same chipsets, same radios, and in many cases exactly the same boards. The only thing differentiating most of their models are slightly different cases and slightly different firmware.

I have a Netgear 3500L as my main inbound router (because it runs open linux) and an Asus RT-AC68P that is replacing an older Asus RT-N56U. The 56U still works perfectly, but it's a first-gen N wifi router, so dual band but single channel. I have too many wireless devices in the house for it to handle anymore.

2/5/2015 1:06:10 AM

^^credibility: - 5

2/6/2015 2:57:45 PM

We upgraded to the Netgear Nighthawk about a month ago and now want to buy our own modem instead of renting from TWC. Any modem recommendations? And do I have to ensure any specific modem compliance with TWC, or should any modem work?

3/20/2015 10:22:20 AM

any docsis 3.0 modem should work, though the only ones i know for a fact (from experience) will work with TWC in raleigh are the motorola surfboard 6121 (4 bonded channels, max of 172Mbps) and 6141 (8 bonded channels, max of 344Mbps)

the 41 shouldn't be more than $5-10 more than the 21 on any given day - and i would recommend it for better compatibility later on down the road - but if you find a good deal on the 21, it will be fine for the vast majority of people

3/20/2015 10:55:51 AM

Thanks. The 41 is on amazon today for $89, not bad.

3/20/2015 11:17:59 AM

this one is cheap and seems to be getting good reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BUSDVBQ?tag=wcarstsynd-20

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/03/from-the-wirecutter-the-best-wi-fi-router-for-most-people-anyway/

3/23/2015 2:48:09 PM

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bump.

My wifi signal is pretty weak in my garage/bonus room above my garage. Any recommendations for a wireless solution to boost the signal out there? I can get specifics on my current router tonight. New (more powerful?) router in the house or a repeater/extender in the bonus room above the garage?

3/31/2015 11:42:17 AM

i had a similar problem trying to cover my backyard with my single router in my house - i setup an old router on dd-wrt as a repeater bridge with about 5 minutes of googling - can buy a cheap used router or find someone that has one laying around instead of replacing your existing one

the only downside of a repeater is you will only get half of the throughput but rarely is that a real problem

3/31/2015 1:51:16 PM