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OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

openwrt.org

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Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#201

Post by kennywinker »

ssl-3 wrote: post #172
kennywinker wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blocky/pihole type stuff is what comes to front of mind, which probably fits but add anything else and now you’re hitting the limit.

How many blocklists does one need to have in order for them to use >900 megabytes of RAM?

I mean, there is a lot of spam on the internet.

But pihole asks for a pi with 512gb ram. Add openwrt’s 100mb, now your ram budget for running something else (file server, pairdrop, irc, tailscale, etc) is <400mb. One nodejs app could use all of that.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#202

Post by faster »

stasomatic wrote: post #144
draygonia wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I got the Flint 3 because I wanted 6E for my Quest 3. It’s not bad, but still doesn’t reach enough through the walls. What I like about GL.Inet UI is that it’s very easy to set up WireGuard /OpenVPN profiles per MAC, and you can drop into LuCi for more advanced stuff.

Doesn't the Flint 3 require a binary blob to run the broadcom chip? If so you'll always have a locked down black box inside your "open" system.

I got the Flint 2 to avoid that, and I'm really happy with it for the reasons you mentioned.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#203

Post by h4kunamata »

I have an ASUS RT-AX53U running OpenWRT for a few years now.

I bought it, turned it on and flashed it out of the box lmao

I like the idea of having their own hardware but it is not easy to get, so buying normal ones and flashing them still the best option.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#204

Post by ninjin »

tapper wrote: post #126
excalibur wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still have one, still works. Would happily use it if it were still practical. I think you can still load OpenWRT on them, but there's no software route around the hardware being outdated and slow.

Yeah me to. I hade a WRT54G V2.2 for ages. Loved that thing. Just toslow now tho.

As a counter opinion to "too slow" in regards to 54Mbps, as it likely depends on your use cases. My WRT54GL was the primary family router until 2018 and even worked just fine for live video broadcasting. Even today it sees good use for video calls with no issues at all. Lovely little piece of hardware that refuses to die. Just a shame that OpenWRT has dropped support since 2013, which feels a bit ironic given their name.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#205

Post by mike_d »

ssl-3 wrote: post #186
mike_d wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because a modern wifi router requires a minimum of 6 antennas. 9 is even better. This lends itself to a spider like design with just a ton of antennas sticking out of a box, or a trash can with the antennas hidden inside around the outside edge. Do you have other ideas for how to lay it out?

Some 3-band wifi 7 AIO routers that resemble neither spiders, nor trash cans: https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_be3_media https://eero.com/shop/eero-pro-7 https://www.asus.com/us/networking-iot-servers/whole-home-me...

The Mikrotik HAP have terrible coverage, and the other two are the hallmark trashcan design I mentioned.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#206

Post by briHass »

kalleboo wrote: post #195
guywithahat wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree, however using an old PC as a router almost certainly wastes an enormous among of power. An old non-gaming PC could use 70kWh of power a month if running continuously (as a router would), which is around 11 a month and almost 140 a year. At that price you could just buy a nice router, or an OpenWrt One which will possibly also have newer, faster WiFi standards (WiFi 6)

For some real numbers, I picked up a 2018 generic office PC (Core i5-7500) used for $50 as a backup machine to run linux on when my laptop was in for repairs, and it idles at 14 W, vs the OpenWrt One which appears to run at 5.5 W. So that's 10 kWh/mo for the PC vs 4 kWh/mo for the OpenWrt One.

Yep, and that's anywhere from about $1.30 to $3 something in the really expensive states for electric rates in the US. Half that if you only count the delta between that and a low power device.

Spending hundreds on new hw to save $20 a year in power cost.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#207

Post by [deleted] »

inventor7777 wrote: post #104
drnick1 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

[deleted]

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#208

Post by buildsjets »

Karliss wrote: post #142
vsviridov wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Wifi 5-7 happened, now operating at 3 different frequency ranges (2.4, 5 and 6Ghz) and using techniques like beam forming and MIMO. All those antennas need to go somewhere. If you want plain unassuming looking hardware get dedicated wifi access points and place them all over the building. There are plenty of those shaped liked big smoke detectors. If you want single device there are also quite a few trash can shaped…

Why does Wifi 5-7 require designing the case so it is shaped like an F-117 fighter jet instead of a box of candy?

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#209

Post by Onavo »

buildsjets wrote: post #208
Karliss wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wifi 5-7 happened, now operating at 3 different frequency ranges (2.4, 5 and 6Ghz) and using techniques like beam forming and MIMO. All those antennas need to go somewhere. If you want plain unassuming looking hardware get dedicated wifi access points and place them all over the building. There are plenty of those shaped liked big smoke detectors. If you want single device there are also quite a few trash can shaped…

Why does Wifi 5-7 require designing the case so it is shaped like an F-117 fighter jet instead of a box of candy?

A shit ton of beam forming and phased arrays. Why do you think all of a sudden there's a bunch of "WiFi Radar Imaging" projects popping up on HN? It's not just because of advances in ML. Boost the output power by a few more magnitudes and you can probably ship them to Ukraine.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#210

Post by ssl-3 »

kennywinker wrote: post #201
ssl-3 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many blocklists does one need to have in order for them to use >900 megabytes of RAM?

I mean, there is a lot of spam on the internet. But pihole asks for a pi with 512gb ram. Add openwrt’s 100mb, now your ram budget for running something else (file server, pairdrop, irc, tailscale, etc) is <400mb. One nodejs app could use all of that.

I mean:

On one hand, 400MB is still a ton of RAM to do useful work with -- and unused RAM is wasted RAM.

On the other hand: How many non-routing tasks do you really expect or require a ~$100 home-router-device to perform? :)

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