Open source router firmware OpenWrt ships its own hardware
www.theregister.com
'Forever unbrickable' Wi-Fi 6 box from Banana Pi comes packaged or in kit form
  • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
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    23 days ago

    I’m glad it’s open hardware as much as open software, but I think I’ll wait to see what the OpenWrt Two looks like.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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      23 days ago

      I’m fine with the looks and hardware, except I’m not upgrading again for a wifi 6 router. I’ll wait till they make a 7. 7 has a couple pretty big improvements over 6.

  • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
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    23 days ago

    Isn’t RAM like the biggest bottleneck in routers causing bufferblaot and packet loss?

    How does the article not mention how much RAM this device has?

    • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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      23 days ago

      Packet loss occurs when a router has to drop some packets because the buffer to store them is running out because the link where they are supposed to go is overloaded.

      Bufferbloat is the issue where you make your queues too deep, i.e. you allocate too much RAM to buffering, while the cause of the buffering still exists, so the deeper queue just fills up anyway, so you haven’t improved anything, and have induced extra latency on the packets that do make it trough.

      Deep buffers can help in situations where you have a step down in link speed, but only bursty and not sustained overloading of the slower output link.

      The big bottleneck in router hardware is more about TCAM or HBM memory used to store the FIB of the global routing table. Since the table has grown so much the devices with less high speed memory can’t hold the table anymore, and if they start swapping the FIB to normal memory your routing performance goes to shit.

      So not all of your concerns seem to apply to this class of device, but of course you’re right, The Register should have mentioned the RAM.

  • IsThisAnAI@lemmy.worldEnglish
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    23 days ago

    Somewhat of a pyrrhic victory.

    The hardware itself is kinda ass for most use cases. Missing wifi7 as well.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        23 days ago

        The very example I provided comes with an mPCI-e slot to install a WiFi card of your choosing.

        Also they have SIM card slots so you can install a data SIM card and set-up a fallback configuration that switches to it if your landline internet connection goes down.

        • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
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          23 days ago

          Of course. But this one comes with WiFi onboard and a case with antennas if you go for the clothed option.

    • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
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      23 days ago

      Most of those run OpenWrt or PfSense. Assuming the hardware is well-supported by the open source software it runs, there’s a argument to be made that there’s no difference. There’s always the risk of them using some weird chipset that won’t be supported in a year’s time. The only difference is that the OpenWrt One is specifically designed for OpenWrt with well-supported hardware.

      • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.eeEnglish
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        23 days ago

        how good is openwrt these days? i used it a long time ago on tp link hardware are remember it was not too good…like adding own scripts, addons etc. and then i tried stuff like ipfire,ipcop and pfsense. pfsense was so much better and now opensense is quite good. how does current openwrt compare?

        • philpo@feddit.orgEnglish
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          23 days ago

          OPNsense is like comparing a bicycle to a car (in Europe) Both will get you there,the first one is more convenient most of the time for most users,but the second one is a whole class of “more powerful”. But it’s far easier to take a shortcut with a bike.

        • capital@lemmy.worldEnglish
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          23 days ago

          I’ve been using it on my last 2 routers, currently the Netgear WAX206 and I’m loving it.

          It does what it’s supposed to. No complaints.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.worldEnglish
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        23 days ago

        Whilst that’s a nice slogan, in Electronics “open source” doesn’t mean anywhere as much as it does in Software because it’s generally just knowing which components go into the circuit, which is but a fraction of the work (laying out the board is a massive chunk of work, in some cases most of it, and at high enough clock speeds circuit design is an art in itself).

        Mind you, I like the Orange Pi and Banana Pi guys, and the idea of an SBC designed for being an open source router is pretty appealing, though nowadays maybe pfSense would be a better choice than OpenWrt.

        Finally this thing having only 2 ethernet ports + WiFi makes it little more than a regular $70+ SBC board + a box - something easy enough to put together by any technically inclined person - which isn’t exactly exciting.

        • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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          23 days ago

          pfSense would be a better choice than OpenWrt

          I heard pfSense had a hard time with wireless radios, and that’s where OpenWrt shines comparably. Is that not true?

  • randombullet@programming.devEnglish
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    23 days ago

    I still don’t understand why this isn’t a 2.5G WAN and 2.5G LAN. Is it assuming that people are going to be using it as a router on a stick with a 1G WAN?

    • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
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      22 days ago

      Given the 2.5Gb port also supports PoE in, I think the idea is that you can plug this into a 2.5Gb PoE port on a seperate managed switch and that’s the only connection you need; that’s certainly how I would use it. WAN connections could be plugged into that switch, along with the APs, user devices, servers, etc, with them seperated using VLANs. Assuming everything was gigabit except for that 2.5Gb link to the OpenWRT Thing™, you’d be hard-pressed to saturate that 2.5Gb port and you’d still have the gigabit port completely free for… whatever.

    • nialv7@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      23 days ago

      most likely because this device is mainly for wifi use, and/or limitation of the SoC.

    • 7dev7random7@suppo.fiEnglish
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      22 days ago

      Nerd here. You confuse me:

      WAN is some up-/downstream port connecting intranets remotely in my novice book. The measurement G doesn’t refer to some advertisement-thingy in terms of wireless speed (but Gigabyte) - Maybe it’s some form of Generation; But then I lack everything including my false base knowledge. Additionally I have never encountered “2.5G LAN” ever before: Would you be able to shed light on my shortcomings? 2.5 x 8 is 20 Gbit. I didn’t read about that size yet.

  • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zipEnglish
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    22 days ago

    The fact that this has USB type C as a option for powering it makes me very interested, but the fact that it does not have at least Wi-Fi 6E makes me not interested. So I think I will have to wait for version 2 of this.

    • TexMexBazooka@lemm.eeEnglish
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      22 days ago

      Oh come on, don’t rock the router for not being the best access point. That’s not what it’s for.

      • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zipEnglish
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        22 days ago

        If I remember correctly, Wi-Fi 6E was finalized in like 2021 or 2022, and it’s 2024 and very close to 2025. So it should be about three years that Wi-Fi 6E has been in the wild. I only have 500 MBPS fiber anyway so I wouldn’t saturate the links but I do want the six gigahertz Wi-Fi band because if I’m going to buy a new router I’m going to probably keep it for like 10 years. I think I purchased my previous router in like 2019 and I’m still using it. My router is an appliance that I only replace when the damn thing breaks pretty much.

        • TexMexBazooka@lemm.eeEnglish
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          22 days ago

          I’m saying that your router and access point should be separate devices anyway, especially if you don’t want to replace said router.

          My router doesn’t have wireless at all. I have a dedicated WiFi 6 access point for that, if I want to go up to a newer standard I just replace the AP.

          • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zipEnglish
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            22 days ago

            Yeah, fair enough. I’m kind of an intermediate user, because when I think of Access Point and Router, I think of the same device. But yet, I’m definitely a big advocate of open source software and hardware. But I do not self-host very much.

    • RandomGen1@lemm.eeEnglish
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      22 days ago

      In the us at least, you cannot have 6ghz operation and connectorized antennae like this unit has

  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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    23 days ago

    It would be nice if they would make one with 4 or more LAN ports with at least one of them 2.5G and no WiFi. I need multiple access points to get enough coverage. The built in WiFi is useless to me since it won’t integrate nicely with Unifi.

    • slacktoid@lemmy.mlEnglish
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      23 days ago

      You can hook it to a switch and a Wireless AP… Now your networking is modular.

    • Draghetta@lemmy.worldEnglish
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      23 days ago

      Turn it off then and use your own APs, it’s what I do in my home. I don’t have this specific router but I have a box with 2 eth ports, one goes to pppoe and the other to my home switch, where my APs are connected.

    • fossphi@lemm.eeEnglish
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      23 days ago

      Thank you for your sacrifice.

      Which router did you go for, by the way?