When I hit 32 clients, the 33rd device will try to sneak in while I update a device on my network then the device being update won’t manage to make it back on the network. It becomes a game of who sneaks in first…
I managed to plug an extra router I had laying around as an AP and I can now get beyond the 32 devices limitations…
Are you sure about your 16.000 device claim? I doubt it can be achieved with custom firmware… We’re talking about active connection (connected devices) not only IP attribution on a network.
That’s obviously the software limit in openwrt - if your hardware runs into a bottleneck before (running out of RAM for example) you will never reach the maximum
I have no idea what limits your device but I can tell you that even super budget (<$10) usb powered pocket routers with only 32MB of RAM and 4MB Flash (the things you shouldn’t buy anymore) can have easily 50+ devices on the wifi radio (tested that myself years ago…)
Looks like your new router has it’s hand break activated or the manufacture messed up bad with the firmware (they actually to often ship buggy *ware that’s I don’t even waste time with that and always directly flash openwrt )
My main router is presently a Nighthawk R7200 and I just installed a cheap TL-WR841N as an access point for the main router. The cheap TL-WR841N with stock firmware has a maximum of 15 connected devices.
I have nothing against Openwrt FW, honestly I prefer custom firmware. I simply wanted to apply a quick solution before choosing a decent alternative to use as an AP.
Could you suggest a cheap router to use as an AP? That AP will not be use for any 5,0Ghz devices, I only want to connect 2.4Ghz IoT devices on that AP.
Pickup a used/refurbed TM-AC1900 and load DD-WRT or OpenWRT onto it. Danged reliable piece of hardware, I used two or three of them for many years before they finally succumbed to hardware rot.
Actually, they are 2 different predefined-size tables. The router’s DHCP table records what IP address it has issued to each device throughout the LAN it is controlling (though 16K sounds like a business grade device); whereas each Wireless Access Point keeps track of those devices which are directly connecting to it, over its wireless channel.
Back when 802.11B was the bees knees and all types of data was going through the wi-fi and RAM was expensive, 32 devices seemed a reasonable limit (or 16 for home-grade equipment). To have more devices simply add another WAP up the other end of the office/home.
But now every apartment and office has one or more WAPs (all trying to use the same 11 channels) - hence the rush back to 5GHz and lots of fancy tech to boost throughput. And IoT uses the old cheap 2.4GHz wifi modules. The market has changed, but manufacturers focus on selling new and better equipment.
I am using an old TL-WR743ND router as a secondary WAP. I don’t need or want most of the router functionality built into the default firmware, and had assumed that OpenWRT (or similar) may have a version trimmed down to WAP functionality - with the space previously reserved for other router data tables now available for keeping track of more Wi-Fi devices. No go! In fact old models are not supported because they don’t have enough memory for everything … fair enough, but no sign of a spin-off project or even a tutorial for using an old router as WAP only.
So much for using open source firmware to extend the useful life of old equipment
With newer openwrt version (v21, v22) indeed many “old” routers/ap were dropped due to space requirements for newer kernels. If your router has less than 8MB flash (which is the case with yours) you can not make use of newer openwrt versions.
Your TL-WR743ND with only 4MB of Flash (see the big fat warning on the site ) is limited to OpenWRT 18 which is old (and even end-of-life) but still much newer than the last firmware shipped from TP-Link which looks like to be 10 years old (from 2013) if I looked right.
Not really, I only have (dirt) cheap used and old stuff in use. But why not convert (free ) one of your devices (both look like to support openwrt) to see if you can break free of the limits
I’m more then confident that this doesn’t include a hard limit of 15 connected devices like the stock fw (if it is not because of hardware/blob limitations of course)
That also looks capable of running the latest openwrt btw.
Maybe you wanna try to “fix” broken software before getting more hardware
Because I do not live in USA where channel 13 is legal.
After several people suggesting to use old routers as WAPs i was hoping for a simple solution … but yeah, that’s a rabbit hole instead. If it were simple as it is obvious, I’m sure someone would have posted a firmware long ago.
I’ve learnt my lesson with open source - to only go down one rabbit hole at a time … and at the moment I’m still trying to get to grips with home automation.
Regarding the mysterious channel 13 (and 12) North America is kind of the only place in the world were channel 13 should be “avoided” (only allowed under low power conditions).
I’m not aware of any other place in the world that limits the use of the channels 12 or 13. The last channel 14 on the other hand is indeed limited to japan (legacy 11b only )
So you can blast with full power on channel 13 if you want Don
That can be true, but as you found out your (almost) stoned age device is short on flash and ram
Indeed. Taking full control and ownership is nothing that comes for “free” (maybe monetary wise) but it is a tough path to take.
Regarding openwrt: Choose your device on the “level” of support. There are not only (old) ones which are not compatible with newer (and supported) openwrt versions but some brands also make it easier (or harder) to initial flash the openwrt firmware over the stock one
While featuring the same Soc rev 14 only comes with half the ram and flash (4/32) which doesn’t work with newer openwrt versions because the kernel grown to big over the last years
Yup, if you can flash OpenWRT on the device you’ve already got, DEFINITELY do that first. Save your money, unless it’s a necessity. THEN consider the inexpensive used hardware market.
)
) is limited to OpenWRT 18 which is old (and even end-of-life) but still much newer than the last firmware shipped from TP-Link which looks like to be 10 years old (from 2013) if I looked right.
) one of your devices (both look like to support openwrt) to see if you can break free of the limits 
(legacy 11b only 
Indeed. Taking full control and ownership is nothing that comes for “free” (maybe monetary wise) but it is a tough path to take.
)? 
