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Comment by mkopec | Hacker News Reader

It's fun until you try to add Wi-Fi to the mix :) OpenWRT seems to have patches and better out-of-the-box configs for hostapd and related packages.

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The sweet spot in my opinion is to use an ordinary Linux box as the router and just wire up whatever wireless router(s) you have lying around for the APs (give them a static address in the appropriate subnet and you're done). No need to run OpenWRT on on the AP, since it's just mindlessly pushing packets around on the internal network.

For bonus points, block it from accessing the internet itself.

This is definitely the way. I used to use UniFi, but have kicked it to the curb. Omada is my AP Zen now.

Why Omada over Unifi? Aren’t they mostly the same? Both need a controller running somewhere, and not sure why one would be better/worse than the other.

Actually not true. Omada has the ability to be controlled from a controller, but it is not required. It has a built-in web administration panel. Beyond that TP-Link just puts out a solid product, at a solid price point, without all the constant issues you tend to get with how Ubiquiti keeps mucking with their firmware.

I'm also an Omada fan. I just have two APs right now but I love controlling them from a single dashboard and look forward to adding their ER605 router so I can put my security cameras on a separate VLAN.

I had been shaky in my opinion of them, being a China-based company, but after hearing the rave reviews I had to give them a shot. I've been nothing but happy and impressed. Wi-Fi APs are supposed to serve a few basic purposes, and serve them well. TP-Link has a winner so far in Omada.

I just need to get my controller setup now, so I can play with the dashboard. I had heard some features are missing from the controller that are on the AP web interface though. Which of them had you noticed missing?

I have a PC Engines apu2 board (x86 based) with a Mediatek Wi-Fi 6 card, running OpenWRT. Can do gigabit over Wi-Fi with PPPoE based WAN. If I had to get another AP it would probably be another apu2, too bad these are outrageously expensive now.

(should probably disclose that I am one of the devs that maintained the apu2 coreboot boot firmware)

My problem with APs running proprietary FW is that I don't trust them to be secure, even if the vendor does updates, you never know what they're doing in the background. E.g. some APs have a hidden secondary SSID for their proprietary mesh implementation. With OpenWRT I can set them up exactly the way I want to, using open standards (mesh, roaming) instead of vendor-specific crap.

Interesting, which Mediatek card are you using? I'm thinking about doing the same thing.

I've got this one from AsiaRF: https://www.asiarf.com/shop/wifi-wlan/wifi_mini_pcie/wifi6-4... . OpenWRT has drivers for it in the repository, so it's pretty simple to set up.

I'm happy with it, but I did have to get a heatsink for it, since otherwise it overheats easily. Since I got it they released a couple of dual-band dual-concurrent cards like this one: https://www.asiarf.com/shop/wifi-wlan/wifi_mini_pcie/wifi6e-... , which is pretty neat, since you don't need to get a separate card for 2.4GHz devices.

Thanks. There's a message on the page of the newer card "Main board Power Supply design please provide 3.3V 3.5A, minimum 3.3V 3A" - do you think this would be a problem for an APU2?

One more thing - how is the signal range for you?

I imagine with a sufficient power supply it should not be a problem, at least I haven't had any problem with mine yet. I have a friend who's using one of their DBDC cards in an apu2 and he also hasn't had power issues yet.

> One more thing - how is the signal range for you?

With four 5dBi antennas it's sufficient to have >800mbps in every corner of my single bedroom apartment. Other than that I have no means to test, sorry :)

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