[Fr0styMatt88]

I hadn't actually put those thoughts together - which is funny considering I've been working a lot with embedded boards lately.

So.... how could you custom-build something akin to say, the Netgear Nighthawk (Netgear R8000)? I'm thinking multiple 802.11ac antennae with all that new multi-user beamforming stuff that's been released lately. Is there open firmware that supports that / do the commodity Linux drivers support controlling and fine-tuning that kind of function?

Added: Interesting.... There's an x86 port of DD-WRT:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/X86

[keeperofdakeys]

All the fancy wifi stuff is part of the wifi chipset, which most router vendors tend not to have any hand in - especially for consumer stuff. (also, beamforming is a very misleading term). You can basically buy a card that does all this stuff 'off the shelf', and could even plug it into a laptop. Though, antenna placement may be something you'd need to do some research on.