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]

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

Which model in your opinion is required as minimum to run openwrt smoothly if even C7/A7 are not cutting it?

 

[guest123]

@a.c Just found out that A7/C7 supports only the typical 4 channels(36,40,44,48) on 5GHz. This is not good as nowadays 5GHz has also started crowding & it will only increase in future.

 

[ishanjain28]

6E :stonks:

 

[guest123]

@ishanjain28 6E routers are too costly to consider especially when 6GHz band is practically of no use today for a typical user.

 

[imdarkray]

I would suggest keeping both the routers on OpenWRT and configuring OpenWRT fast roaming with 802.11r. This would solve all your range issues. I have bought an A7 just a few weeks back. The range is almost the same as other similar price range routers.

 

[guest123]

@imdarkray I don't have any openwrt compatible router currently & it seems that A7 is the cheapest openwrt router available. My current setup is working fine with two C20 connected via wds & I am pretty sure that any cheap even 300mbps N router with wds on lower floor will solve the range issue on that floor. The thing is, TP-Link removed wds option from latest hardware version of WR840/841N otherwise I would have simply bought one of them for the lower floor where wifi AC speeds are not required.

 

[imdarkray]

@guest123 I have WR840N v6. I had OpenWrt installed on that for few months. It was working fine without any issue. And If I am not wrong, about your C20, that is also OpenWrt compatible.