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OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

openwrt.org

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Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#271

Post by sigio »

Palomides wrote: post #266
sigio wrote: post #248

I'd love to see more OpenWRT hardware that was capable of 2x2.5, 2x5 or 2x10gbit without any wifi, preferably in a case that can be rackmounted without too much trouble (so keeping it under 1U height). I'm currently running a stack of Zyxel T5600's, which are quite capable arm64 openwrt boxes. Those in a rackmount but with sodimm support or in 8+GB ram versions (and some sata/nvme storage, USB3) would be amazing.

you can install openwrt on basically any x86 mini-pc, works fine

I know, and I have, however, I would prefer a ultra-low-power arm-based platform.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#272

Post by mehdix »

I have a Cisco MR18 router that bridges my LAN to my remote NAS. It would have become e-waste if not for OpenWrt.

When I was visiting my mom a few years back in my hometown, I converted her cheap plastic Xiaomi Mi router into an ordinary router using the OpenWRTInvasion exploit. That router then bridged a remote SIP phone to the main LAN, which was connected to the internet through another plastic router that had also been turned into an ordinary router, again thanks to OpenWrt.

That project is fantastic, and the people behind it are doing great work. Can't recommend them highly enough.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#273

Post by xelxebar »

mbana wrote: post #250
xelxebar wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why 7 (802.11be) when the bandwidth isn't really used? Genuine question. The GL-BE9300 mentioned here clocks in well within WiFi 5 range even. I've got 10Gbps fiber at home (egregious, I know), and the only OpenWRT router I found that can saturate it is the Turris Omnia NG[0]. The price tag is a notch up from others but it's legitimately one of the best pieces of hardware I've ever owned. A perf3 test against an in-t…

Is this actually stock OpenWRT? I mean is it supported by vanilla OpenWRT image? I do like the board though.

You can run vanilla if you want. Their Turris OS is just a custom distro with some added userspace niceties. One of the coolest is a snapshot system that reduces "unbricking" the device to just a menu click at bootup.

There are even people who have gotten NixOS running on it, apparently.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#274

Post by xelxebar »

voxadam wrote: post #253
xelxebar wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why 7 (802.11be) when the bandwidth isn't really used? Genuine question. The GL-BE9300 mentioned here clocks in well within WiFi 5 range even. I've got 10Gbps fiber at home (egregious, I know), and the only OpenWRT router I found that can saturate it is the Turris Omnia NG[0]. The price tag is a notch up from others but it's legitimately one of the best pieces of hardware I've ever owned. A perf3 test against an in-t…

>I've got 10Gbps fiber at home (egregious, I know), and the only OpenWRT router I found that can saturate it is the Turris Omnia NG[0]. The price tag is a notch up from others but it's legitimately one of the best pieces of hardware I've ever owned. Why not use OPNsense on a mini PC?

Apparently, WiFi is spotty on OPNsense. I did start looking into home grown options, but WiFi 7 with 10Gbit ethernet is no joke. Most hardware ends up being power-hungry and noisy.

The Omnia NG is fanless, meaning quiet and power-efficient. It's also small and relatively stylish. The small hardware LCD is very handy, and everything Just Works. The whole package is just so well put together.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#275

Post by vdm »

cduzz wrote: post #268
walrus01 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH if I wanted a bunch of closed source 802.11ac (2017 era) AP purchased on eBay, I would go for Unifi stuff far before Cisco. There's a plethora of it available from decommissioned sites.

I didn't look at those; do they support running some controller thing in one of the APs to allow central management of all the nodes? Cisco's mobility express just runs on one of the APs and can fail over to another of the APs; it's a slick piece of software. And yes, it isn't open source, which is a real shame since cisco's killed it (as far as I can tell) and it probably represents an enormous and sophisticated inv…

Ruckus Unleashed works the same way and plenty of them on ebay. TIL, thank you

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#276

Post by vdm »

cduzz wrote: post #198
burner420042 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Documentation for how to set these up without the cisco control platform being present is hard to come by. You have any docs on how to set these up? I believe a firmware change is required.

Unfortunately you need to use the cisco software / firmware. The access points run linux but they're locked down like crazy with signed firmware blobs and such. That said, the cisco firmware for this specific generation of access points is actually free and trivial to get -- create yourself a cisco account and go to downloads and download the 3802 "mobility express" firmware. The last ME firmware came out in 2024 and…

LLMs are great at checking logs and tweaking these clis in a logged in ssh tmux pane

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#278

Post by Rediscover »

cduzz wrote: post #198
burner420042 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Documentation for how to set these up without the cisco control platform being present is hard to come by. You have any docs on how to set these up? I believe a firmware change is required.

Unfortunately you need to use the cisco software / firmware. The access points run linux but they're locked down like crazy with signed firmware blobs and such. That said, the cisco firmware for this specific generation of access points is actually free and trivial to get -- create yourself a cisco account and go to downloads and download the 3802 "mobility express" firmware. The last ME firmware came out in 2024 and…

About the Nintendo Switch 2: Maybe try perusing https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/1l3vqkv/sol...

Uni has an adapter for USB to Ethernet (if wired is an option) that works with those Nintendo devices, I have one that an extended family member borrowed (unknown if the Switch was a 1 or 2).

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#279

Post by snapplebobapple »

is there any decent management software for a whole network of these yet? That's what keeps me going back to unifi with opnsense as the router. Last I checked it was basically openwisp, which was hugely painful/complicated to get working when I last looked a few years ago. I would love nothing more than to have a viable option to start replacing the unifi stuff (even better if there is also 10gb switching but that feels like an absolute pipedream still without a large budget for datacenter gear)

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#280

Post by nine_k »

d3Xt3r wrote: post #242
cduzz wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is probably a combination of hitting a (low) cost and mimo; cisco makes pretty reasonable looking APs with lots of radios and decent coverage and they look like UFOs not alien spiders. But it's probably easier / cheaper to get maximum coverage at larger distances from a single AP using a big array of sticking out antennae, and that's what a normal home user is going to want.

> and they look like UFOs not alien spiders. I feel like there's an untapped market here. I want them to go with the alien spaceship concept all the way thru; I wanna see mini Death Star mesh nodes, X Wing routers and Millennium Falcon access points, dammit. Or hell, cross the multiverse and give me Borg Cube mesh nodes, complete with green shiny LEDs that actually indiacte network/hardware status.

Ah, these so-called SciFi routers.
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