back to article Open source router firmware project OpenWrt ships its own entirely repairable hardware

Open source Wi-Fi router project OpenWrt and the Software Freedom Conservancy have delivered their first jointly developed hardware platform – the OpenWrt One – and are trumpeting it as a triumph of the right to repair movement. OpenWrt is widely used by commercial router-makers, who take advantage of its GNU General Public …

  1. john.jones.name

    terribly nice but

    I'm not sure buying from aliexpress is the best way to go and it lacks some features that a home network might need....

    I ecourage you to look at

    https://www.turris.cz/en/products/omnia/

    1. matjaggard

      Re: terribly nice but

      I don't think AliExpress itself is an issue, the stores on there vary hugely but almost all of this type of hardware is made in China anyway.

      The router you linked to is more expensive, has all ethernet ports at the slower speed (so to get almost equivalent you could buy a cheap gigabit hub) and as far as I can tell it's not FCC compliant, but it does have other great features like the 3 mPCIe interfaces. I think it's really designed for a slightly different use case.

    2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: terribly nice but

      https://www.turris.cz/en/products/omnia/

      It's what I bought to replace my old Astaro/Sophos UTM device (running on an *old* HP Microserver - regularly topped out the CPU when my 900MB circuit was busy!).

      Works like a charm. Took a bit of head scratching to work out how to do proper 2-way NAT (hint - incoming is in the "Port Forwarding" tab, you go into the Advanced tab and limit it to the single external IP address.. Not blindingly obvious)

      Good little bit of kit. Need to work out how to channel-bond two of the LAN ports once I get my next speed upgrade the the FTTP circuit..

      It arrived within a week of ordering it rather than the 3-4 weeks for the Pi stuff I ordered from Aliexpress.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: terribly nice but

      Interesting but from the specs it appears you can't go from 4G Internet to WiFI on the Omnia - is that correct?

      The MOX 'configurator' doesn't, just gives a number of fixed configs

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

    What a complete waste.

    1. Apocalypso - a cheery end to the world

      Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

      The linked specs page states: "1x 2.5Gbit WAN, 1x 1Gbit LAN"

      So clearly not WiFi only, but a bit disappointing that the LAN port is slower than the WAN port for those paranoid security conscious enough to want physical networking only.

      1. MattAvan

        Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

        Pretty sure you can reverse the ports and make the 1Gbit port the WAN port in OpenWRT configuration. I've used one of the LAN ports on a DSL-only router as the WAN port before.

        1. MatthewSt Silver badge
          Mushroom

          Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

          Reversing them isn't going to change the speed if you've got 2gbit internet...

    2. williamyf Bronze badge

      Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

      All my clients connect over WiFi, but I need extra ports for the NAS and the (wired) satellite APs around the house.

      So, not for me.

      Also, far as I can see, the device has 3 detachable antenas, but neither PCB antenas nor internal type antenas for diversity

      Given that one of the main points of WiFi 6 is MIMO, I find that lack of antenas, suprisingg, to say the least.

      IMHO< a good first effort that requires polish. Will wait for the next iteration

      JM2¢ YMMV

      PS Went with a GL.iNet (which also ships from the factory with a fork of OpenWRT), only time will tell if I did right or wrong.

      1. doublelayer Silver badge

        Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

        I generally find that those are good as long as there is a native build for it. I don't like their interface even though it has a number of conveniences built in that take manual configuration from a stock version, but if you can flash that stock version, it also means you're likely to get updates for a long time.

      2. MattAvan

        Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

        Sounds like a job for a cheap gigabit switch, rather than insisting that the router include enough ports for your exact needs.

        My main hub, an 8-port managed switch, is in the middle of the house along with my home server etc, while my router sits where the optical fiber comes into the house.

        1. Mage Silver badge
          Alert

          Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

          Yes. my router has one LAN port in use, though it has 4. I have semi-managed 16 port gigibit switch.

          I was using PC Engines boards with OpenWRT in 2007. That had two slots for WiFi cards, a CF slot for firmware, serial port. I forget if it had USB. Just two Ethernet ports, one for modem and one for switch.

          I can't see how this is more repairable, and the PC Engines were "unbrickable". I was able to "write" the CF card on my 2002 Laptop using a PCMCIA CF adaptor.

          1. l8gravely

            Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

            Still using a PCengines board for my firewall, sad to see that he's shutdown the business since I really liked his hardware and the lack of a fan. But I run OPNsense instead, which I think would run on here just as well. The only gotcha I see here is the lack of a serial console, but maybe I missed that in the details.

            1. Matt Dainty

              Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

              I didn't realise PCengines had shut up shop. I've been using an APU4 as my firewall & router for a good few years now and have been really happy with it. I had to switch after my Soekris board I was using previously developed a fault and I needed a replacement.

              That means for the next upgrade I'm going to have to do the same dance again and find a small fan-less board with SIM slots, mini-PCIE, etc.

        2. HereIAmJH Silver badge

          Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

          Sounds like a job for a cheap gigabit switch, rather than insisting that the router include enough ports for your exact needs.

          One problem with 'just install a switch' is if you're looking to segregate your network for security. VLANs will require a much more expensive switch if you are pumping all your data through a single router port. Consider these; IOT devices that need Internet access but not local network. Security cameras that need local access but not Internet. Local network (wired and wifi) that need both Internet and Local. Guest WiFi that needs only Internet. Internet facing servers on a DMZ.

          My router has 4 ports and 3 of them have switches. But they are inexpensive unmanaged switches because the router handles the VLANs and the rules for communication between them and the WAN.

          1. Alan Brown Silver badge

            Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

            "If you're looking to segregate your network for security. VLANs will require a much more expensive switch"

            Not much more expensive these days

            Yes, I get that a 5 port dumb switch is a tenner, but paying $40 for vlans and web manglement isn't a hardship

      3. Tom66

        Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

        I've a five port gigabit switch that cost £10 and works fine years later. This shouldn't rule out the device if you really need a lot of ethernet.

    3. doublelayer Silver badge

      Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

      It's not only WiFi, as there is one LAN port in addition to the uplink and you can always connect a switch to it. Most of the OpenWRT devices are intended primarily as WiFi APs. I do find that a little disappointing, but I'm not very surprised they've chosen to do it that way. It's less convenient for my home use, but it wouldn't have as much of an effect on someone using them as individual APs on an existing network, and I'm guessing that was one of the groups they thought a lot about.

      Note: Although they've labeled the 2.5 port as WAN and the 1 GB as LAN, nothing makes you do that. You can swap those in the case where you have faster internal hardware but don't have an upstream connection that makes use of the 2.5 Gb speeds.

      1. the spectacularly refined chap Silver badge

        Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

        Do these come close to wire speed routing in reality? I've always been suspcious of the claims made for these kind of things since the early days of OpenWrt and DD-WRT - "See, this software allows my £100 router to everything Cisco's £1000 router does!" Sure, at a quarter the throughput and ten times the latency of even the previous generation Cisco available used for £25. You know, one with an actual routing plane.

        I've not played with these for ten years or more but consider that a gigabit and a 2.5 gigabit port combined can funnel ~700MB of data in and out per second. That's a third of the memory bandwidth before you even start processing it. Not impossible, but I'm highly dubious, especially as pretty much every user is going to want NAT at least.

        1. MattAvan

          Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

          Take a $100 Chinese router, add a nice case, put in enterprise grade software, make it an American company, add better QA and support, aaand you have a $1000 Cisco... it's not like Asian companies are lagging behind the US in hardware these days.

          1. the spectacularly refined chap Silver badge

            Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

            The far east certainly do make some nice network gear, you only need look at e.g. Huawei or even some of the TP-Link enterprise grade stuff. However, the difference between the home network toys and enterprise kit is more than branding and packaging. If you compare the specs they typically have comparable CPUs, memory and so on but that does not mean they are similar in practice.

            In the home routers the CPU is doing all the work, essentially they are a computer with multiple interfaces making packet forwarding decisions in software. For high speed lines that means you need a LOT of CPU grunt to keep up: most home routers can't in practice.

            In enterprise routers the bread and butter routing and switching functions are handled entirely on the backplane, i.e. custom ASICs designed specifically for routing. The CPU never sees the bulk of the traffic, and is largely consigned to management of the backplane and providing any extra services layered on top.

            1. MattAvan

              Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

              Sure, you can't do magic with basic routers priced 10-20 USD just by putting OpenWRT on them. I'm talking about routers which actually support hardware flow offloading, at maybe about ten times that price.

        2. dinsdale54

          Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

          I doubt it as well.

          This is why I purchased a Turris Omnia. The chunky CPU specs allow close to line speed (1gbps) routing. My previous home router couldn't handle the 250mbps connection I had at the time.

          Hardly ANY reviews of home WiFi routers seem to mention the actual routing performance, just the WiFi bandwidth. A budget router may well not have the necessary CPU horsepower for faster internet connections.

        3. doublelayer Silver badge

          Re: So WiFi only for client connections. Really?

          In my experience, yes, they can get close to the throughput depending on whether you've put extra load on the CPU. However, I only use OpenWRT equipment for home networks and I use relatively capable hardware. That means my point of comparison is often to the other cheap boxes supplied by ISPs or easily purchased on Amazon, not to managed hardware that offices use. I also have never had anything faster than gigabit for my internet connection, and I have less than that now, so at best I can say that my OpenWRT hardware from five years ago was indeed able to push packets at gigabit speeds when the rest of the path could take them. There are devices that people run OpenWRT on to extend their security update lifespan which will be limited by still having a CPU from 2010 in them. Those will almost certainly not be able to do the same thing.

  3. The Dark Side Of The Mind (TDSOTM)
    Trollface

    Best of two is a melange

    A Mikrotik with RouterOS at least Level6 and a bunch of OpenWRT One as access points... plus a person with decent knowledge to bind them all...

    1. Chris J

      Re: Best of two is a melange

      This is my set up at home. Decent knowledge is a pre-requisite but it works superbly.

  4. A Non e-mouse Silver badge
    Mushroom

    The DFS* Sale Is Now On!

    They've just launched it and it's already "on sale" at 50% off.

    Why do companies bother with these lies any more? We all know the "sale" price is the real price and the non-sale price is just to make idiots think they're getting a bargin.

    * For non-Brits, there's a furntiure company here called DFS that always has a sale.

    1. JamesTGrant Bronze badge

      Re: The DFS* Sale Is Now On!

      There’s an interesting backstory - when DFS and its ilk started, the existing furniture shops were very low volume high cost, often with actual workshops and skilled craftsmen and typically in small shops in expensive high street locations.

      DFS are essentially a shop front for a logistics company that specialises in importing from factories in Asia in cost efficient ways.

      They reasoned (correctly) that they could borrow the prestige of having ‘normal’ prices but capture the market by selling at a far lower price. These days, the old price seems ridiculous - what was innovative has become anachronistic.

      1. Fred Dibnah

        Re: The DFS* Sale Is Now On!

        In my teens I had a Saturday job at MFI, and now and again a piece of their furniture would appear in the back the shop with a ludicrous price tag on it. £1000 for a chipboard wall unit, anyone? The deal was (and maybe still is, idk) that if you sold something at ‘full price’ for one month in just one shop, you could then sell it in all your shops at a heavily discounted ‘sale’ price.

        1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: The DFS* Sale Is Now On!

          In my teens I had a Saturday job at MFI

          A yes - MFI. Always remember being told that stood for "Made for Idiots"..

          (Our first set of wardrobes were 2nd-hand MFI units (blagged from an older brother). They *really* didn't like being taken apart then reassembled..)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The DFS* Sale Is Now On!

      In the US, custom picture frames ("custom" meaning "we cut them to fit the picture") are the same way. You'll never see them with less than a 30% discount; the actual sales are when it goes up to 50%. Is anybody actually fooled by this anymore?

    3. NITS

      Re: The DFS* Sale Is Now On!

      But what's the Sofa King price?

  5. nsimic

    I would have liked 2xWLAN so I can mesh a couple of them.

  6. midgepad

    Excellent, and ...

    ... the licencing means that none of the clever people who think of improvements can be prevented from getting on with making* those improvements.

    * Or paying someone else to make

  7. TonyJ

    Great for a VPN router

    I used to have a virtualised OpenWRT router running for a good while that was setup with an OpenVPN connection out to the likes of Surshark or Nord. I could then, as I chose, use the OpenWRT as a default gateway for as many devices as I wanted to route out via VPN only.

    Nowadays I do the same thing with a tiny little GL-iNet Brume 2500A but rather than OpenVPN it's a Wireguard connection with a kill switch to prevent traffic passing if the VPN drops.

    Works a treat and is tiny, low powered and their support is excellent. It died after about 18months and they not only replaced it, but as the A was the only version available (same thing but aluminium case rather than plastic) they upgraded it and paid the return postage.

  8. Roland6 Silver badge

    Board only option…

    Seeing the picture of the board, my first thought was: shame it doesn’t fit a Draytek 24nn/26nn/28nn case; I have a small stack of these ….

  9. FIA Silver badge

    There's also a pair of Ethernet ports – one each at 1Gbit and 2.5Gbit

    So it's a router, but has asymmetric network speeds?? Surely these days, especially for home tinkerers, 2x2.5 would've been better?

    1. Tom66

      I'd take a guess their SoC of choice doesn't support more than one 2.5Gbit port.

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        I'd take a guess their SoC of choice doesn't support more than one 2.5Gbit port

        I looked at replacing my current managed gigbit 24-port switch with one that did 2.5 or 20GBit.. I would have had to spend more than the purchase cost of all the rest of my kit to get one. Oh well, maybe when the prices go down..

        (Why managed? My filestore has and additional quad 1GB ethernet card and I wanted to channel-bond to get better throughput.. which requires a managed switch.)

        1. FIA Silver badge

          But with a faster switch the requirement to bond is reduced surely?

          I quite fancy one of those cheap 6x2.5gig boxes from AliExpress for my next router, so I can bond two 1gig lines on my VM Router to get higher speeds.

          2.5g unmanaged are almost worth it for home stuff now.

        2. Alan Brown Silver badge

          "...I wanted to channel-bond..."

          Bear in mind that channel bonding seldom gets you a faster connection between individual machines. It's only worthwhile if you have a lot of high speed clients and in a home lan setup that's relatively rare

  10. TrevorH

    Call me when they ship a model with 3 x 2.5GbE ports.

    1. FIA Silver badge

      Just use OpnSense and build your own. ;)

    2. sin

      https :// vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005007438358228.html

      https :// vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005005943823096.html

      or just Search "2.5 gbps switch"

      Not 3, but 8 ports, at this price I don't mind :)

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Looks like ... well, like a home project

    1Gbps port for your WAN? Bright blue housing?

    Nah.

  12. hoola Silver badge

    Repairable?

    Like most modern boards the term repairable is very loose.

    It is SMD and they will be glued on, you cannot just plug your soldering iron in an whip a failed component off.

    Sadly other than for a few enthusiasts I am not sure it is actually a game changer.

    1. Spamfast

      Re: Repairable?

      As long as nothing is BGA, you can buy a perfectly good SMT rework station from Amazon for less than £90 which includes a soldering iron as well as the temp-controlled SMT hot air gun and a set of tweezers.

      Learning how to use it without incinerating the PCB is a little trickier. Practicing on scrap is a good idea and I'm still learning to do devices larger than a 16 lead SOIC!

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Repairable?

      It’s “ the software right to repair” not hardware right to repair.

      “ This new product has completed full FCC compliance tests; it's confirmed that OpenWrt met all of the FCC compliance requirements. Industry “conventional wisdom” often argues that FCC requirements somehow conflict with the software right to repair. SFC has long argued that's pure FUD. We at SFC and OpenWrt have now proved copyleft compliance, the software right to repair, and FCC requirements are all attainable in one product!”

  13. rotaecho

    There is a better model

    https://docs.banana-pi.org/en/BPI-R4/BananaPi_BPI-R4

    1. Teal Bee

      Re: There is a better model

      > Kernel version: 5.4

      Better at running obsolete software?

    2. O'Reg Inalsin

      Re: There is a better model

      Comments on the Reddit openwrt forum 1 month ago indicate it is not yet supported by OpenWRT. They say "next year".

  14. O'Reg Inalsin

    I was looking to replace my Ubiquiti WiFi with something that is supported by OpenWRT. I though about buying this openwrt one but its only available on aliexpress, and aliexpress refuses to work in adblocked (Pihole) setup. Firefox and Chromium both fail. I can authorize paypal, but after that the "Place Order" button doesn't appear. I'm not going to give a credit card number, no.

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