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OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

openwrt.org

101–110 of 338 posts

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#101
post #79
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your OpenWrt ecosystem knowledge seems oudated; upgrades are a solved problem since the advent of "Attended Sysupgrade": https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/attended.sy... It's been included in all suitable default image configurations starting with OpenWrt release 25.12. I do run OpenWrt on my x86-based router, on my AP, and even on my managed switches, and have no regrets.

So an image released in March? I’m not sure I’d proclaim it completely solved when it’s been ga for all of three months.

With the 25.12 release, the luci app to use ASU for upgrades became installed by default in OpenWrt's "vanilla" images the project builds and provides for supported hardware and devices.

Previous OpenWrt releases at least as far back as 21.02 could be equipped with the same degree of ASU support by installing a single package (luci-app-attendedsysupgrade) and its dependencies.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#102
post #94
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your OpenWrt ecosystem knowledge seems oudated; upgrades are a solved problem since the advent of "Attended Sysupgrade": https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/attended.sy... It's been included in all suitable default image configurations starting with OpenWrt release 25.12. I do run OpenWrt on my x86-based router, on my AP, and even on my managed switches, and have no regrets.

What switches are you running it on?

Netgear GS308T, Netgear GS108T v3, and HPE JG925A.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#103
I started down my “custom” home network journey with OpenWrt and some aftermarket hardware routers. Enjoyed my time using / playing with it.

After some time though, I eventually moved over to using OpenBSD directly. My small brain has a much better understanding of all the moving parts compared to that of OpenWrt :P

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#104
post #54
post #22

How about OPNSense on open hardware of your choice, and passing messy wireless to separate AP? OpenWRT is very good, but the installation and upgrades are not easy. There is a zoo of images for different hardware, installation options and tools. It has to run on small devices, so there are limitations. The documentation on Wiki is scattered and could be improved. I had to search forums for weeks for a custom package…

> How about OPNSense on open hardware of your choice Yes, it's a possibility, but if you want to tinker, I think a plain Linux distro like Debian is better. Turning it into a router is literally a couple of kernel parameters and a few iptables rules to set up NAT. Nowadays that's less than fives minutes of work with Claude. This buys you much better performance and hardware compatibility relative to a BSD system, as…

But what if you don't want to tinker? I switched to OPNsense as a direct replacement for our Asus "WiFi routers", and it has been phenomenal, reliable, and does everything needed - when you just want it to work, it really just does. But when you want more advanced functions, there are tons of plugins and stuff that you can run natively, while still having a true CLI.

I suppose it comes down to what you said - "if you intend to run other stuff on the same hardware." Is it a good idea to run all sorts of extra stuff on your literal firewall/router? And if you did, I'd assume using a hypervisor is safer anyway? That way you can have the GUI and reliability of OPNsense but have a Linux distro beside it.

You also said that Linux has much better performance vs BSD, which seems rather far fetched. Got any data for that?

One other thing: OPNsense comes with a ton of helpful rules to eliminate bot traffic, allow IPv6, different NATs, VLANS, etc which you'd have to add manually. Not the end of the world, but worth considering.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The planned specs are here, they say it will be made by GL.iNet: https://openwrt.org/voting/2025-02-12-openwrt-two Otherwise this router from GL.iNet has OpenWRT preinstalled, Wifi 7, 5x2.5G: http://www.gl-inet.com/en-gb/products/gl-be9300

Why do they always have to look like some unholy blend of a cybernetic spider and a Knight Rider? What happened to a plain unassuming looking piece of industrial hardware...

I couldn't agree more. It makes it difficult to attach my reputation to when making suggestions for hardware purchases.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#106

They are working on an OpenWRT Two at the moment which will be Wifi 7. OpenWRT runs on a lot of hardware and its a great way to extend the life of a router past the manufacturers patches as well as gain a lot of capabilities. I wouldn't buy a commercial router that wasn't supported by OpenWRT now.

The planned specs are here, they say it will be made by GL.iNet: https://openwrt.org/voting/2025-02-12-openwrt-two Otherwise this router from GL.iNet has OpenWRT preinstalled, Wifi 7, 5x2.5G: http://www.gl-inet.com/en-gb/products/gl-be9300

In my opinion, get the Flint 2, the Flint 3 doesn't work with vanilla OpenWRT (but it does work with GL.iNet's OpenWrt fork). Then again, I don't need the 5x2.5G ports or Wifi 7 since my internet only goes to 1G.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no cheap commodity routers that can run OpenWrt, have modern Wi-Fi features, and are reasonably available (in the sense that you could buy one if your router fails). OpenWrt is vastly superior to the proprietary software in commodity routers. Proprietary software gates software features behind more expensive models, even though the cheap hardware can handle them. You also get software updates. Your hardware…

For a around two years there, the dynalink dl-wrx36 was selling between $50 & $85 for comparable/better hardware. Still running a pair with an nss-enabled fork. Still effortlessly maxes out a gigabit fiber line with qosify. Configured it so the 2.5gbe port connects towards the lan where a cheap wifi 7 AP can broadcast the additional signal if anything feel like it needs it. But practically speaking nothing does. Whil…

> Dynalink DL-WRX36

Not available outside the US :(

> Long-long term availability is a different problem, but different manufacturers move on.

Open hardware solves this. You've been able to buy the OpenWrt One from China and ship it anywhere in the world for a reasonable price, every single day since it was released, even when there were better options available. If no one's selling, there are factories willing to make very tiny batches.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The planned specs are here, they say it will be made by GL.iNet: https://openwrt.org/voting/2025-02-12-openwrt-two Otherwise this router from GL.iNet has OpenWRT preinstalled, Wifi 7, 5x2.5G: http://www.gl-inet.com/en-gb/products/gl-be9300

Why do they always have to look like some unholy blend of a cybernetic spider and a Knight Rider? What happened to a plain unassuming looking piece of industrial hardware...

The WRT54 is still one of my favorite pieces of industrial design. Small case, ~~purple~~blue and grey, two antennas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I loved it because it allowed me to boost the signal above FCC-approved power requirements and saturate my house with that sweet 2.4GHz connection everywhere.

It is basically always better to run more APs at lower power in the areas where you need coverage, than to boost the power. Especially today with the radio spectrum being so congested. Despite this, I could expect 3-5 people to hunt me down at PyCon when I was running the wireless to tell me that I had misconfigured the wifi because it was set to low power. More reports of that than reports of wifi not working, IIRC.…

Please travel back to 2003 and talk to old me when I could only afford one AP and had no idea how to make them work in concert together. :)

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#110

$106usd or $84usd without a case and antennas. That’s a solid price. Wish it had more than 1gb ram - goddamn datacenters.

Without performing any work at all to optimize RAM usage: My all-singing, all-dancing OpenWRT router projects have always used less than 100MB of RAM. These days, they usually occupy less than 64MB.

1GB is a ton of RAM for this kind of application. :) What do you anticipate needing more for?

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