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OpenWrt One

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59 pointskristianpaul31 comments

It's exciting to see a an OpenWRT router where compatibility is guaranteed! I've been running OpenWRT at home for years, and whenever it comes time to upgrade, it's always a deep dive into their Table of Hardware [1]. Many of the newest routers with an absurd number of antennae that you might see at big-box stores like Costco have incompatible chipsets, so usually I have to buy something a bit older.

Most recently I bought a couple of Belkin AX3200 routers because they support WiFi6 and are only about $50 USD. The annoying part is that they're a Walmart exclusive, but they have worked flawlessly so far. Still, I'd rather have the new, officially-endorsed one.

References: 1: https://openwrt.org/toh/start

BTW none of the links to online on the OpenWrt pages currently work; everything goes 404 for me.

The only working online store that agrees to sell the device to me is an AliExpress shop I found via shopping.google.com, and its list price is $116. (Now marvel at Walmart's pricing power.)

Yeah it’s very strange that all three links are bad! Here’s a source selling them for $99 with the POE module, heat sink, and case:

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtcURKu

> whenever it comes time to upgrade

curious why that time comes and how often?

I've been living with the same router/modem combo (Fritzbox) for around 11 years, and I don't plan to replace it before I get FTTH. (Otherwise I would have.)

Nothing against OpenWRT, I have used it in the past, but I doubt I would have switched routers more often if I was still using it...

If you live in the UK and have recently got FTTP, this box is capable of giving you pretty much close to the ISP advertised speeds (with SQM enabled in OpenWRT). It should be good for symmetric gigabit connections, which is very cool!

Imagine running PiHole and WireGuard on your router… exceptional stuff.

This would be a dream a few years ago. I remember setting up a GargoyleFW[1] (a custom firmware based in OpenWRT) when I lived in a shared house and people would use the Wi-Fi to streaming/torrent and make the whole Internet sucks for everyone else. Setting up a few smart QoS rules made the internet feel fast even when someone was using most of the bandwidth, the average latency in those situations decreased from 2s+ to around ~50ms.

The issue at the time was this router was really low-end and had only 4MB of Flash/32MB of RAM, so using vanilla OpenWRT needed lots of customization and even (I think it was a TP-Link TL-WR841, but not sure). I always though how nice would be to have a proper device with lots of Flash and memory so I could play without being constrained by the device limitations.

[1]: https://www.gargoyle-router.com/

OpenWRT doesn't run on 4/32 anymore. https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/openwrt_on_432_devices

Yes, I know. This was like in ~2016 and even at that time you would need to build a custom image to fit OpenWRT in 4MB of Flash (I could fit LuCI and a few packages at the time, but I messed a lot with OpenWRT settings and every change I would have 1 in 4 chances of passing the 4MB limit and you would only discover this after building).

32MB is more reasonable, but even then I remember that it caused some issues with the bufferbloat scripts at the time, one of the reasons I went through the Gargoyle FW instead of vanilla OpenWRT.

I'd say that https://docs.banana-pi.org/en/OpenWRT-One/BananaPi_OpenWRT-O..., linked from the current page (https://openwrt.org/toh/openwrt/one), is more informative, and also loads faster, likely because it does (fewer / no) database hits.

It doesn't look like that page is going to load. From https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/10/02/buy-openwrt-one-wifi...:

> The “OpenWrt One/AP-24.XY” is a Filogic 820-based WiFi 6 router board manufactured by Banana Pi whose software is directly managed by OpenWrt developers with assistance from MediaTek.

Nice to see a (presumably) simple to setup OpenWrt device at a reasonable price. It would be really great to see a future device with a switched fabric (5-ports minimum, more ports better). Already having an older device with a hackable switched fabric has me spoiled and I want my next one to have it as well.

Not a great spec compared to the very well supported Gl.inet Flint 2

I'm not knowledgeable about networking - what's the benefit of having a 1gb lan and a 2.5gb wan? Why not have them both be the same?

Wan <—> Wired Lan + Wireless Lan

If you have a beefy wireless Lan that can pull 1.5 Gbps then the two Lan connections combined can still saturate the Wan pipe.

It's primarily a wifi router so most of the bandwidth is assumed to be used by wireless devices.

They saved a few bucks.

Unsure if me or being hugged by HN, but here's mirror: https://web.archive.org/web/20241104185938/https://openwrt.o...

Only 1 lan port and only usb2 is not great...

It's designed to be a wireless router without a lot of extra fluff. If more lan ports are needed, add a switch behind it (though it'd probably be better to have the switch elsewhere unless it's a really simple network). The USB looks like it's used for admin tasks like updating firmware, so I don't see why they'd need to add more than USB2.0.

Uses for a USB3 port:

- An LTE dongle as a fallback for the wired upstream connection.

- An SSD for quick onsite backup / mirror of the most important files.

Nothing critical, and can work via USB2 at 480 Mbps, but USB3 would be nicer.

USB 3.1 brings this new connector, usb-c. Many newer devices use that connector these days and customers may wish for a port with that connector. If you have a laptop with such a port, you'd be able to use a usb-c to usb-c cable to connect it to the router, perhaps for debugging, without needing a usb-c to Ethernet dongle, plus Ethernet cable. Plus not needing to disconnect the single LAN port.

It already has a usb-c connector. No need to patronize me.

USB-C Serial console != USB 3.1 port. Nor does a usb-c power supply port count either.

No need to get defensive, I wasn't the one asking if there was a use for USB > 2.0. If you didn't know before, now you know. If you did already then at most you read a sentence full of information you already knew. Hardly a terrible offense. Other readers who might not have known also now know. :)

I wasn't asking if there was a use for USB 3.1, I am already aware of how it's commonly used on routers (apart from the LTE fallback the other commenter mentioned. That's pretty cool). But even so, your comment didn't list a use for it. You listed uses for usb-c, most of which it seems that it's already capable of. It's not a big deal really, just clarifying.

It's supposed to be a router, not a NAS or switch (bring your own). The LAN port being only 1 gigabit (especially with a 2.5G WAN) makes it a pass for me.

> The LAN port being only 1 gigabit (especially with a 2.5G WAN) makes it a pass for me.

I think the intended use is the other way around - 1 Gbit WAN, 2.5 Gbit LAN.

Do you need more than 1 Gbps from your wired network to your internet connection?

Otherwise you may have 2.5G or 10G LAN, or even fiber inside home like some [1], and only have to use the slow 1G to hit the internet from that. (Another 1.5G of bandwidth is available over WiFi.)

[1]: https://sschueller.github.io/posts/wiring-a-home-with-fiber/

If I decide to get 2 gigabit internet, yes (and my local phone and cable companies both offer it). I also run a server in my basement (on ethernet), so not being able to get the entire bandwidth on it would be disappointing.

While it's cool that OpenWRT has their own routers, I feel that this one is not for me.

Interesting, the Filogic 820 SoC might have USB 3, but I bet it's wired up to the Mini PCI-E port.

https://www.cnx-software.com/2024/07/18/acelink-sm81-mediate...

says it has 1x USB 3

It has single USB2/3 port, but the SSUSB pins are shared with PCIe port, so you can't get USB3 and PCIe at the same time (if I'm reading the datasheet right).

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