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OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

openwrt.org

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Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#301

Post by zhengyi13 »

radlad wrote: post #295
walrus01 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to buy such a design, the ubiquiti u7 lite and u7 pro are ordinary round white ceiling mount 802.11be AP. Somehow ordinary non tech consumers got it into their heads that something which looks like a f117 with many spiky antennas sticking out of it must be faster.

I could be crazy, but don't all the external antennas allow for more flexibility with regard to directionality of signal? I have a U7 Lite and it is very directional compared to other routers I have used (spider style, trash can style, etc.)

Yes, perhaps they do allow for greater flexibility, but that's complex and difficult to do well/reliably, and doing it well/reliably requires signal analysis gear and software modeling that's out of the reach of normal consumers.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#302

Post by bcrl »

radlad wrote: post #295
walrus01 wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to buy such a design, the ubiquiti u7 lite and u7 pro are ordinary round white ceiling mount 802.11be AP. Somehow ordinary non tech consumers got it into their heads that something which looks like a f117 with many spiky antennas sticking out of it must be faster.

I could be crazy, but don't all the external antennas allow for more flexibility with regard to directionality of signal? I have a U7 Lite and it is very directional compared to other routers I have used (spider style, trash can style, etc.)

The U7 Lite only does 2x2 MIMO. Compared to 4x4 MIMO in the U6 LR, the U7 Lite therefore does a much poorer job at beamforming (directing the energy of the signal towards the device).

Personally, I find it better to have multiple low end access points (like the TP-Link Archer C80 which has 3x3 MIMO on 5 GHz) deployed to achieve excellent coverage in a house. Sadly, the U7 line is a bit too expensive for that. Plus, I'm loathe to deal with UniFi deployments now that I am well versed in the glass jaws in the platform.

There really is space in the market for a product line that is basically what UniFi is, but done "right". Ie: can be debugged or you can fix it without an internet connection or recover the system when the owner forgets the password and lost access to the email account used for 2FA. UniFi is an absolute nightmare the moment anything goes even slightly wrong.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#304

Post by random__duck »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #240
random__duck wrote: post #76

Next step: open source hardware ASIC for the open router ?

An open hardware network-focused ASIC would be cool, but cost and long development times would likely be limiting factors. If you wanted to explore this further, starting with FPGA-based router components would be a good starting point. For example: https://github.com/open-sdr/openwifi

Thanks :) Yeah, the router is defiantly further in the future to, as it additionally requires CPU integration for run the software stack, switches are the first order of business.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#305

Post by random__duck »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #240
random__duck wrote: post #76

Next step: open source hardware ASIC for the open router ?

An open hardware network-focused ASIC would be cool, but cost and long development times would likely be limiting factors. If you wanted to explore this further, starting with FPGA-based router components would be a good starting point. For example: https://github.com/open-sdr/openwifi

Can I do a "hold my beer" moment ? https://github.com/Essenceia/ethernet_switch_asic

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#306

Post by cduzz »

vdm wrote: post #275
cduzz wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Thanks for the head's up! The Rukus Unleashed looks like the perfect replacement for my icky system.

I'll put in an ebay search notification for when the R650 (and R750) for $50 each and maybe it'll ding in a couple years and I'll be in a place to swap out the 3802 network I've got running now...

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#307

Post by walrus01 »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #285
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.

A U7-Lite uses less than 14W so even in a month it's not much power, cost wise, even if your power is $0.40 a kWh...

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#308

Post by ssl-3 »

petee wrote: post #292
ssl-3 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends. It'd be handy for me: The fastest WAN pipe I can get is less than a gigabit while my LAN is still gigabit. I can't be the only person with this situation, wherein: If anything, then the 2.5-gig port is overkill. I don't have any direct interest in the wifi radio that the box includes (I already have Mikrotik APs that I like just fine), except to configure it as a failover station-mode interface to use wit…

> If anything, then the 2.5-gig port is overkill. Or 1 gig is underkill. My original reply was just pointing out that simply adding a 2.5g switch doesn't make it a 5 port 2.5g router, it makes it a 1 gig router with 2.5 internal, at best

It is indeed a strange choice to include only two interfaces, and then make each of them different speeds.

Realistically, the wireless side is unlikely to saturate a 1-gig pipe. If the 2.5g is used for WAN because the WAN can use that extra speed, then it's very likely that the LAN port becomes saturated. The configuration never really fits.

The best use I can come up with is this: A 2.5-gig managed switch and PoE with a tiny bit of VLAN magic does allow the OpenWrt One to be an access point+router that can be located in a spot that is good for RF propagation, with only 1 wire connected to it for both power and data. In this configuration, it route packets with up to ~1.25g of WAN (or perhaps more, if WAN is asymmetric).

But even though VLANs are fun and I wish more people knew how to use them effectively, that's so corner case that I'd never rationally expect anybody to actually use it that way. :) And it forces WAN traffic to contend with local WLAN traffic for that shared pipe, which introduces fun new ways for networks to slow down.

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#309

Post by vitally3643 »

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #245
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…

I am not sure why a simple cylinder shape should be called "trash can shape". It can be favorably compared to many things. How about an R2D2-shaped router?

The "trash can Mac" made this phrase permanent

Re: OpenWrt One – Open Hardware Router

#310

Post by vitally3643 »

ssl-3 wrote: post #196
jandrese wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems crazy to me that Linksys didn't look at the success of the WRT54GL and the higher prices they commanded and decide to just keep doing that. Why every company feels the need to roll their own firmware that is buggy, slow, crashy, and doesn't implement half of the promised functionality properly is still baffling to me.

Companies roll their own, I think, because of a combination of Not Invented Here and secret-sauce binary blobs. They work within the script that the chipset/radio maker gives them to follow. --- They don't often offer inexpensive, deliberately-hackable units like the WRT54GL, I think, because of support costs. And by "support costs," I don't mean that it was expensive to hold users' hands while they installed custom…

Let's also not forget that there are multiple governments lining up to "politely request" firmware backdoors.
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