Archer A7 wifi range & WDS performance on openwrt/stock firmware

[guest123]

I am planning on getting Archer A7 to add to my existing setup of two archer C20 connected via wds. I understand that wifi range depends on a lot of factors so it is practically impossible to predict accurately the wifi range unless you actually use the router in your home but still just a rough estimate should be doable. My home has two floors & currently the archer C20 is located on upper floor & I get a moderate to good strength signal in the room located just below on the lower floor. I have another archer C20 on the same floor which I have connected via wds to primary C20 just to test wds & currently it is working fine. Now I plan to add one more archer router on the lower floor in the room just below the primary C20 via wds & use that for covering the lower floor.

If I get archer A7 & use wds to connect to my existing setup will it work smoothly.

Is there any major advantage of using openwrt over stock firmware just considering wds & wifi range(I have read some where that openwrt implementation of wds is not as smooth as manufacturer implementation on some routers especially if some routers are running stock firmware & some running openwrt)?

Is there a better alternative to what I mentioned above within a budget of 3.5k?

 

[guest123]

@a.c any suggestions regarding your experience of running archer A7 with openwrt.

 

[a.c]

Still going strong. No issues seen so far. Best is the adblock which hijacks all local DNS queries so it even blocks ad on tv and other devices.
Would definitely recommend moving to openwrt

 

[guest123]

Still going strong. No issues seen so far. Best is the adblock which hijacks all local DNS queries so it even blocks ad on tv and other devices.
Would definitely recommend moving to openwrt

Any suggestions on better alternative/comment on range?

 

[a.c]

I am not aware of any better alternative in terms of the firmware.
Range is pretty much same as stock firmware.

 

[guest123]

I am not aware of any better alternative in terms of the firmware.
Range is pretty much same as stock firmware.

Any detailed tutorial/video for openwrt install & any tips/common mistakes to look out for while installing openwrt on A7? Also will wds work fine while receiving wifi signal from another TP-Link router running stock firmware or sending signal to one.

 

[a.c]

Never used wds so can't say. you can check openwrt forum for it.
Nothing much there to look out for during installation just pick one of the firmwares that has been tested by other users (and directly installable over stock), and then it's as simple as going into the stock ui picking openwrt firmware as the upgrade firmware and that's it.

 

[TinTinSnowy]

Is A7 able to run openwrt properly? I understand the hardware is not top notch and may bottleneck the performance.

 

[ishanjain28]

Also will wds work fine while receiving wifi signal from another TP-Link router running stock firmware or sending signal to one.

This will work fine. TP-Link also supports onemesh on A7 and that'll not work if one router is running opewrt.


Wifi performance is almost the same, Ethernet performance after enabling software/hardware offloading is the same. But it'll tank significantly if you even try to use any basic QoS algorithm.

 

[guest123]

This will work fine. TP-Link also supports onemesh on A7 and that'll not work if one router is running opewrt.


Wifi performance is almost the same, Ethernet performance after enabling software/hardware offloading is the same. But it'll tank significantly if you even try to use any basic QoS algorithm.

As I understand OneMesh is more of a gimmick than a practically useful feature just like other brands(except Asus I think whose AiMesh is considered best among this category). My main usage of A7 would be to replace my existing archer c20 currently using wds to connect to primary internet router(another c20) & use the existing c20 in another location using wds to extend the signal coverage area. I am not that interested in running openwrt as currently I have no plans of utilizing openwrt capabilities beyond basic functions which I think are also available in stock firmware but still nice to have the option to try in future.