I got a PHICOMM K2 PSG1218 from eBay for the grand price of 22 USD. I couldn't resist trying. It arrived in a week, pretty fast, not the usual slow boat. It comes with a modiefied OpenWRT installed, root // admin was the default user / password, default firmware is broken, dmesg has the weirdest errors (why am I seeing references to a Pi??) but I'd gotten rid of it anyways, never trust a factory firmware (also, while the router has Luci installed, I needed to go http://192.168.1.1/index.html for it to kick in. As I said, weird all around.).
Anyways, I took the firmware from https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/phicomm/phicomm_k2_psg1218 scp'd it to /tmp then forced sysupgrade to flash the firmware because it didn't recognize the router automatically -- it complained the system is K2 and the firmware is PSG128. Pfffft. Flashed without the problem.
The problem is the 100 mbit switch. You obviously can't get faster wired speed, I got a bit above 90mbit when wired and around 85-87 when wireless testing with a Lenovo TP25 (like a T470 just with better keyboard). My old, old TP-Link TL-WDR4300 v1 reaches a bit above 100mbit/s at the same distance. (Laptop sitting in the same dock, routers are in the cupboard in the entrance hall using speedtest.net to, well, speedtest.)
For 22 USD, I do not think you could get a better router. It runs OpenWRT flawlessly and reaches close to 90mbit and gets you out of 2.4GHz.
This router is now everwhere on eBay under various titles and descriptions, most of them having nothing to do with this specific router. The pictures are the same and the box with the K2 emblazoned on it is recognizable though.
Anyways, I took the firmware from https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/phicomm/phicomm_k2_psg1218 scp'd it to /tmp then forced sysupgrade to flash the firmware because it didn't recognize the router automatically -- it complained the system is K2 and the firmware is PSG128. Pfffft. Flashed without the problem.
The problem is the 100 mbit switch. You obviously can't get faster wired speed, I got a bit above 90mbit when wired and around 85-87 when wireless testing with a Lenovo TP25 (like a T470 just with better keyboard). My old, old TP-Link TL-WDR4300 v1 reaches a bit above 100mbit/s at the same distance. (Laptop sitting in the same dock, routers are in the cupboard in the entrance hall using speedtest.net to, well, speedtest.)
For 22 USD, I do not think you could get a better router. It runs OpenWRT flawlessly and reaches close to 90mbit and gets you out of 2.4GHz.
This router is now everwhere on eBay under various titles and descriptions, most of them having nothing to do with this specific router. The pictures are the same and the box with the K2 emblazoned on it is recognizable though.
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