What exactly are the benefits of having Openwrt installed on your router? What additional functionality does it provide the average HN user?
Regular updates.
Excellent documentation.
https://openwrt.org/docs/start
And a whole set of packed applications and tools. There are about 6,000 packages in total, ranging from device-specific and kernel support to advanced applications such as media servers. Link below is just the larger apps.
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/start
Re-romming my DSL modem (500 Mhz dual-core CPU, 64 MB RAM, 8 MB Flash), as advantages over stock vendor firmware, I get:
- SSH access, rather than periodically-enabled telnet
- adblock
- remote logging capabilities.
- performance and activity monitoring.
- consistent interface with my router (also running OpenWRT).
- Full-featured shell tools rathee than barebones Busybox versions, if I like.
- Remote filesystems / additional storage.
Depending on your device(s) and capabilities, your modem, router, or other hardware can serve as a home server: NAS, UuuNextCloud, Webserver, VOIP services, media server, PXEBoot (useful for testing images/deployments), guest network(s), VPN, proxy servers, email, mesh networks, messaging, captive portals, and far more.
...and continued updates for much longer than you will get from most manufacturers.
There's also a security aspect to it. Stock firmware typically uses outdated and unsupported kernels.
May be the updated drivers or the removed junk, but WiFi, NAT and USB speeds are better on all the routers I had (my first step - install Openwrt, DD-wrt or Tomato). And no latency spikes.
Lots of configuration options, extra capabilities via packages, and it can run for months without losing speed, losing the connection, becoming non-responsive or rebooting.