Citronics built a router based on the Fairphone 2 mainboard | Hacker News Reader

Citronics built a router based on the Fairphone 2 mainboard

cnx-software.com

44 pointszdw23 comments

This is a very cool project. However, with a 100 Mbps Ethernet, WiFi 5 up to 433 Mbps, no OpenWrt, at €150, who is this device for? Save for the 4G, a Pi is a much better deal, with a much better support.

And for professional customers, CM5 seems like a much better deal, or go fully custom.

Biggest downside to this is the fact that the modem is probably locked down. Without the ability to issue AT commands to the modem this router will have less features than a COTS router that contains a PCI-3 LTE modem.

I really hope we see more of these efforts. Maybe AI can help bridge the gap by lowering the cost to help develop carrier boards for a multitude of cell phones. One way we wrestle back control from the elites is by reducing waste. If the China/Taiwan wars eventually come to pass we could be seeing massive inflation in terms of tech and so all the "e-waste" people throw away suddenly becomes gold.

Very cool to see attempts at reusing old electronics like this. We need more of this kind of thing, and we need more devices built in a modular way to make it possible.

Will this let you use cellular data plans that only work with phones, not with non-phone devices (for carriers that charge more money for non-phones)?

Who does this, and how can they tell?

I don't think it's out of the ordinary, sadly. Bell Canada has been known to do just that. They can use the IMEI.

The TTL is how they can tell.

If it supports iptables then it you can reset the TTL to 65 at the router so it looks like all traffic is coming from the phone.

It requires root, but this app does the same thing. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.mygod.vpnhotspot_foss/

In the Netherlands, regulations forbid the use of cellular phone numbers for non-phone devices, to prevent a future shortage of cellular phone numbers.

Data-only/M2M devices get numbers in a dedicated M2M-only range, and carriers enforce this.

100/10 "fast ethernet" ??

100 Mbit/s (IEEE 802.3u) is commonly called "Fast Ethernet" (Compared to the prev 10 Mbit/s which is just "Ethernet", or the later 1000 Mbit/s "Gigabit Ethernet" (IEEE 802.3ab)

i mean that the device only has 100/10 in current year. i know what fast ethernet is

Also a single port? There are cheaper alternatives, capable of routing 1G between ports and with integrated 5G modem. Complete with case and smaller.

yeah people think i was talking about the name. but i was just saying that 100/10 with a 5g modem does not make any sense

Yes, the Fast Ethernet standard was released in 1995 when 100Mbit definitely warranted the name "fast", but this being the 90's, technology moved fast getting quickly obsoleted and so gigabit ethernet came only 3 years after that.

There is a lesson in here about why we don't name projects "Fast X" or "More Performant Y", since the target of "fast" et al always move. At one point, "Fast Ethernet" was indeed fast, but times change, and the name remains "Fast Ethernet" even though "Gigabit Ethernet" is much faster.

So never name your projects based on something that can change over time, unless you want to become the new 100 Mbit/s "Fast Ethernet"

Same thing as 12Mbps USB being called "Full speed" or wifi "High throughput" mode. Basically a reminder to not use flattering adjectives in standard names unless you want to prefix everything with "ultra" in the future.

Or "high frequency" (3 - 30 MHz) RF.

Or "new". maintain discipline and rigorously avoid using new in an name. There is very little that is more soul crushing than having to explain how new-server is a legacy installation and will be replaced by new-new-server any day now.

Names have a strange duality, they are simultaneously the least and most important part of any system. least in that the name does not actually provide any load bearing strength, most, in that not only is it how you talk and share ideas about the thing, once it is in place it is the most difficult part to change.

I used to think programmers were bad at naming things. then I started reading math proofs. mathematicians are absolutely terrible at it. the worst are programs derived directly from math proofs.

i mean that the device only has 100/10 in current year. i know what fast ethernet is

I worked with a particular part of the Department of State for a while. Every single system was next generation. Including those over 20 years old.

I was about to comment something about how this thing seems nice and circumvents the problem with repurposing powerful old phones which is that you are limited by the I/O which is often usb 2.0...

If it has 100mbps ethernet I don't really see much benefit over a usb c dock/hub with ethernet or something.

I'm pretty sure if you connect a gigabit ethernet adapter over usb 2 you can actually get higher speeds.

and if you want to go that route you just buy a 5g phone with a cracked screen and connect it to any openwrt router with a usb port.

turn on usb tethering in the android and gone.

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