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OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

openwrt.org

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Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#281

Post by linsomniac »

toast0 wrote: post #197
linsomniac wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

> It is basically always better to run more APs at lower power in the areas where you need coverage, than to boost the power. Only if your clients are competent at roaming.

FYI: I've never had any problems with that. Back in the mid-2000s I was running the WiFi for 1000+ people at a time at conferences for 3-4 years, and basically had no complaints.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#282

Post by jakzurr »

xelxebar wrote: post #274
voxadam wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

arggg, here comes my hardware lust again...

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#283

Post by BLKNSLVR »

dhlavaty wrote: post #233

It is any better than other open-source and well established Turris Omnia NG ?

It costs about a fifth as much as I just found out.

Turris also specifies 'based on' OpenWRT, rather than straight OpenWRT. In reality there may not be much of a difference, until if/when Turris no longer exists.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#284

Post by SirMaster »

PaulKeeble wrote: post #17

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.

Combining the WiFi with the router never made sense to me. Routers can last a long time and WiFi gets new versions with new capabilities every few years.

I would rather just connect a separate wireless AP to my switch, preferably also with PoE. And then I can upgrade and expand that as needed while leaving the perfectly fine router alone.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#285

Post by BLKNSLVR »

walrus01 wrote: post #255

I'm sorry but lack of 802.11be tri band is a non starter in mid 2026 for this price. Someone else commenting in this thread has linked the glinet 802.11be unit which looks like a better option. I would also highly encourage people to buy a wired only router, and something like a ubiquiti u7 lite or u7 pro AP, and separate the functions of router and AP. The ubiquiti unifi controller package is really straightforward…

My home setup is pretty much as per your description, but for someone like my parents, this does it all in a single device that uses far less power.

I've recently been setting up a GL.iNet Marble for my folks, with Adguard and some other filtering / security add-ons. This is a bit more expensive, but also more future proof.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#286

Post by BLKNSLVR »

tcdent wrote: post #57

Gigabit / 2.5 Gbit connectivity is already obsolete. Any modern product must have 10gbe WAN with the hardware to back up NAT at that throughput.

Not for a cheapish device that is suitable for my parents that I'd be happy to administer.

No need for a Tundra when an electric scooter does the job.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#287

Post by BLKNSLVR »

tcdent wrote: post #111
ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a home network 2.5 is plenty.

https://frontier.com/shop/internet/fiber-internet/7-gig 7gig WAN is widely available residentially at a reasonable cost.

Not according to Verizon's Internet Security Policy.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#288

Post by undersuit »

kennywinker wrote: post #155
ssl-3 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

I run my Pihole on the first Pi... the 256mb version.

  dietpi@solo:~$ free -m
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
  Mem:             223          54          18          11         170         169
  Swap:            767          10         757
I also have a RPi3 with Pihole, Unbound, and Tailscale... for Tailscale:

  dietpi@cubano:~$ free -m
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
  Mem:             956         233         473          24         289         722
  Swap:           1088           0        1088
Still plenty of space in 1GB of ram, and OpenWRT is probably a bit more compact than DietPi.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#289

Post by randusername »

aborsy wrote: 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…

> OpenWRT is very good, but the installation and upgrades are not easy.

Agreed that separate router and dumb AP is the way. Every time I updated OpenWRT there was some gotcha that created an unexpected headache where I had to rebuild my elaborate configuration from scratch.

I'm not convinced A -> G upgrade paths are tested, only A -> B -> ... -> F -> G but who manually updates with that level of discipline?

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#290

Post by FractalParadigm »

SirMaster wrote: post #284
PaulKeeble wrote: post #17

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.

Combining the WiFi with the router never made sense to me. Routers can last a long time and WiFi gets new versions with new capabilities every few years. I would rather just connect a separate wireless AP to my switch, preferably also with PoE. And then I can upgrade and expand that as needed while leaving the perfectly fine router alone.

I just bought a house and this was the conclusion I came to. A cheap PoE-capable multigig switch and a single Omada access point cost about the same as a cheap WiFi 7-capable router would have. I did opt to run the Omada Controller software on a Raspberry Pi instead of buying a hardware controller (to save a few bucks); maybe if I had a lot more hardware it'd make sense but for my one AP it's more than capable. So far I'm quite pleased, it gives me the peace-of-mind knowing that WiFi upgrades are effectively plug-and-play - plug in the AP, adopt it in the controller, add it to the site, and the existing network is already being broadcast - no more router reconfiguration every few years!
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