MX4300 (LN1301)

I have two of these, but never did DD-WRT/Open-WRT. What benefits do you see over the stock firmware?

Meanwhile, I paid $15 for my Linksys MX4300 and flashed OpenWRT on it. Planning on putting tailscale on it soon.

I got a Linksys MX4300 for $15 from Woot. Loaded OpenWRT on it, and it runs like a dream. Even has SQM. It doesn't have Wifi 6E though. Then again my Google Nest Pro with Wi-Fi 6e is a shitty router that I replaced with the Linksys MX4300 with. I have the Nest Pro router sitting over there, and debating if I should impart the problem onto someone else by donating it to my local Goodwill store.

A few months ago I bought a Linksys LN1301 WiFi Router from Woot Deals. Today, Verizon sends me a brand new router that is equipped with Wifi 6e. Might be a dumb question. If I have wifi 6e or 7. Do I need to get cat 6 or 7 cable?

Well, I can say that I really disliked the Eero 6 because of the cell phone management feature being the only way of managing these things and that there were pay wall things built into the device. So I'd never go back to them because of that. On the other hand though, I think people need this home management Zigbee stuff like they need another hole in their head. We've some how managed without this online crap to control home devices forever so what's changed? I'd use the Linksys devices but you have your own priorities.

Any that can run OpenWrt. Any Wi-Fi card capable of AP mode is also capable of station mode. Most modern Wi-Fi cards capable of AP mode are also capable of simultaneously working in AP and station modes in the same frequency band. But stock firmware may or may not have these configuration options available. So you find an OpenWrt-compatible router, install OpenWrt onto it, and configure it the way you need. I used to do this with a pre-historic Linksys EA3500. Ideally, you want a triple-radio device (say, Linksys LN1301); that way, one radio can be dedicated to the wireless WAN connection, and the other two can operate in AP mode, each in its own frequency band.