Pro-sumer WiFi 6/6E routers with support for VLAN, VPN, SSH, and some custom firmware

[SDF07S]

I wanted a replacement to Ubiquity's UniFi Dream Machine (non-Pro), which was a pro-sumer router with support for many customizations, VLAN's, SSH access, VPN's, and allowed use of custom on-boot scripts, but it suffered from some major deal-breaker issues.

I ended up with ASUS AX86U Pro, which supported most of what I wanted with the latest 3.0.0.6 firmware, but that was my choice because I wasn't able to find an alternative within $200 range. Most routers that include features I want are expensive enterprise business routers and I wasn't able to handle pfSense as advised in another thread I made. DD-WRT stopped supported newer routers. ASUS was the only alternative I could find.

Are there any WiFi 6/6E routers within $200 range that at least support VLAN, VPN, and SSH CLI commands?

 

[Tech9]

Check GL.iNet GL-MT6000. It's currently $123 on Anazon US. Runs OpenWrt base firmware and has vanilla OpenWrt image available.

Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) | High-Performance VPN Router

Experience blazing-fast VPN speeds and full OpenWrt customization with Flint 2, our best Wi-Fi 6 router yet. A new realm of power, freedom, and security.

www.gl-inet.com

New hardware on MediaTek Filogic ARMv8 SoC inside, 2x 2.5GbE ports, two 2.4GHz/5GHz 4-stream radios, 1GB RAM with 8GB eMMC.

I have one GL-MT2500 gateway with similar firmware, by the way. Plenty of options and nice UI on top of OpenWrt base. Used as VPN exit point in another country currently, no complaints about speed and stability, uptime in months. Mine runs on stock firmware, good enough for the use case.

 

[SDF07S]

Thanks!

Do they support Secure Boot and similar technologies? Secure Boot and locked firmware are some of the main reasons DD-WRT and OpenWRT stopped supporting newer WiFi 6 routers.

 

[Tech9]

This is what they use:

GL-MT6000 - uboot source

Couple of folks were concerned... Discussed with the GL-Inet folks, so here's the u-boot source code... https://github.com/gl-inet/mt798x-boot For devs, feel free to review the source...

www.snbforums.com

OpenWrt support page:

[OpenWrt Wiki] GL.iNet GL-MT6000

openwrt.org