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.

Okay, sure. The router I have is a few years old at this point, it's a Linksys WRT 1900ACS, and it is running a current build of OpenWRT. A new one would be outside of your $100 budget (it's $200 new), which is why I didn't recommend it, but, being a few years old, used and surplus ones can be found on eBay and the like for as little as $70. Performance wise, it puts a strong 5 GHz signal into my whole house (also about 1200 square feet, but multi-story, so the horizontal spread is not quite as far) and a usable 2.4 GHz signal into my entire yard (150x120, with the house pretty close to the center). I haven't tried it on a gigabit connection, but I can max my 300 Mbit fiber on a speed test over the wireless. There's also an updated version, but I don't remember its model number. 3200 something, I think? That would not be available on the used/surplus/refurb market, though, and would clobber your budget. But definitely do both. OpenWRT *and* a router upgrade.

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.