Linksys - WRT1900ACS

Linksy WRT1900ACS was great for it's time. However it is WiFi 5 and old. In the U.S. the Linksys MX4300 WiFi 6 is what I'd recommend especially at the bargain basement price of $25. You maybe able to find it or it's foreign equivalent cheap before it gets popular again. If you are on a budget then just want a cheap OpenWRT thing for you to play with, the Google WiFi 1st gen is everywhere and dirt cheap. Support of it ended years ago and I'm sure you can pickup 2 for $40... even less. Just be sure to get the one with USB-C. Both that I suggested are QualComm based with hardware accelleration support with custom builds. I personally use them and they are SOLID. I'm still waiting for woot to have more of the MX4300s. With Amazon's backing, it's just a matter of time. They have already restocked twice, maybe three.

As wired router the wrt1900 is still OK, the wireless doesn't get a lot of updates. Was there something wrong with the Sophos you got suggested at the forum?

Linksys WRT1900ACS (2nd Hand) is my Favourite Platform but I must admit that it's starting to show its Age with relatively High Power Consumption and Wifi5 I believe (\*\*NO\*\* 802.11ax). I never tested that many WiFi Clients though. Nevertheless I use it as my Upstream Router towards the Fiber Box and it's easy to install OpenWRT on it and get it working. 512MB or RAM which is quite high compared to other Products. EDIT 1: I must admit that the Cudy WR3000s looks good when you just fly over the Specifications. But I did NOT read all the Details about it etc.

The linksys WRT1900ACS v2 has been solid and reliable for me. Only issue i’m having is speedtests not being consistent and reporting occasional packet loss. But this might be in the ISP router which is in bridge mode.

Networking equipment should not be BIFL. Technology changes and gets better. Just because something CAN work doesn't mean you should still use it. My old Linksys WRT router was awesome, but it could never go faster than 54mbps on wireless. Later devices were faster, but struggled with more than a few wireless devices. My old router would max out at 10 devices and then pretty much self destruct. My current stuff can handle hundreds of devices, but I have access points that are gen 5 and can't do the faster speeds. Even now, I'm wishing I had 2.5gb or 10gb ethernet capabilities, and if I could actually come up with a practical use case where 2.5 or 10gb would make my life better, I would drop $200-400 on a new switch to allow me to upgrade.

Rule of thumb I tell customers is you can usually troubleshoot issues if it’s younger than 5 years. 5 years and beyond if you have trouble you can put a bandaid on it but start making plans to replace it. My favorite thing is when customers call and they’ve got N150s / WRTs / etc like “WHY AM I NOT GETTING MY SPEEDS”, no fucking kidding you aren’t