[kwlug-disc] what is the perfect openWRT router?

Fri Mar 28 10:11:28 EDT 2014

I upgraded my NetGear WNDR3700v2 to openWRT a few weeks ago.  Much much
better than the stock firmware.  I'm running it with your basic install
options for now, but I'm looking forward to learning how to add new
features.
One of the nice things about openWRT, though, is that since it is open, and
more or less an OS just like you see on a desktop computer, you can add or
remove features yourself almost as simply as you would install a new
program on your computer.  So I have to agree with the comment made here
that there is no "best" or "perfect" openWRT setup, as you can modify your
own setup to however you want to.  So the "perfect" setup for you is
whatever configuration _you_ are happy with.

On 28 March 2014 10:02, Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com> wrote:

> Fully agree with unsolicited.
> This is a fast moving market, and by the time you decide on X, X+1 is out,
> OpenWRT requires more RAM, supports more peripherals, ...etc.
>
> If someone wants to try something new, then they are better off updating
> the Wiki on OpenWRT and benefit (potentially) thousands all over the world,
> rather than a subset of the tens that make up the LUG.
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 8:58 AM, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
>
>> There isn't one.
>>
>> Technology keeps moving along, and individuals needs differ.
>>
>> Since you first proposed the idea, SD card slots have become frequent,
>> USB all but ubiquitous, and some even have eSata ports. Some aren't even
>> routers, and openWRT runs on PCs too. Oh, and 5GHz, and was that USB 3 or
>> 2.0 with that?
>>
>> Along the way there was also talk of sourcing our own modular hardware
>> pieces, only Canadian supplier - somewhere mid-west. And RaspPI came along.
>>
>> By the time your current router dies, the new round of hardware upgrades
>> have occurred, and, oops, are the new drivers open source (yet?) to be able
>> be included with OpenWRT?
>>
>> At best it would seem hardware snapshots / points in time are all that's
>> possible, and the audience for that is within the few month time span of
>> that snapshot.
>>
>> What function does an individual want the beastie to have? Media centre
>> using NFS (failed for Richard), vpn endpoint, router bandwidth / network
>> health device (one off, while problems are being experienced), or ?
>>
>> As an embedded linux training device, I'm not so sure. It uses jffs
>> and/or squashfs, 'without gui', so one can't exactly transport a linux user
>> to it, or vice versa. For what you're talking about there, it would be
>> easier to simply use a vm, which may in fact merely be running an emulator.
>>
>> Or, a RaspPI or something, and aren't we more in to kwartzlab (which
>> didn't exist at time of your original proposal), than kwlug? Or go at it as
>> a firewall pc (names escape me at the moment) where at least the variety of
>> hardware in play is less important / critical. (Have a hard disk, cpu,
>> couple of network ports, good to go.) Perhaps more usefully - go at it as a
>> mobile network health device using Android. Where cheaper older hardware
>> versions are probably nearby via kijiji, and one doesn't have to worry
>> about bricking their every day cell phone.
>>
>> The openwrt sites and forums seem to be the pages to go to, and
>> sufficient. That the hardware pages are complex merely reflects the state
>> of the hardware world that makes choosing the 'one true hardware device' so
>> hard for your purpose.
>>
>> Download a file, upload to router, done. Follow single page (per hardware
>> device) how to on site, fini.
>>
>> It's everything after that where it gets sticky. And depends upon the
>> question: Where do you want to go today, what is your particular use case?
>>
>> The challenge for Khalid (or anyone) is not getting OpenWRT up and going,
>> it's, and then what ...
>>
>> The answer to which is more about teaching and presenting networking and
>> the ecosystem within which it sits, than about OpenWRT.
>>
>> The answers of which can also be done on your local PC or vm, with nary a
>> mention of OpenWRT throughout. Perhaps even via RaspPI and vlans, even.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 14-03-28 05:06 AM, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> (followup to recent openWRT discussion ...)
>>>
>>>    hi, folks, rday here from ottawa. not sure if i ever proposed this
>>> while back in K-W or after i moved to ottawa, but i was interested in
>>> trying the following with respect to openWRT.
>>>
>>>    rather than simply giving a presentation on openWRT, i wanted (as a
>>> LUG project) to select a fairly decent, feature-rich and
>>> openWRT-compatible router, and start to (as a group) document from end
>>> to end how to build openWRT for that router, how to install it, how to
>>> configure it and so on.
>>>
>>>    the value of something like this would be that, if anyone wanted to
>>> get started with openWRT, rather than agonizing over what router to
>>> buy, and having to read the docs by themselves, the group could come
>>> to a consensus as to what make and model would be a good platform,
>>> whereupon everyone would be dealing with *exactly* the same issues and
>>> even beginners could follow along, knowing everyone else would be
>>> seeing precisely the same things.
>>>
>>>    i'm sure there are pages out there somewhere where someone has done
>>> exactly this -- documented in excruciating detail *every* *single*
>>> *step* in taking a new router out of the box, and putting openWRT on
>>> it. personally, i'd be interested in that level of documentation as i
>>> might be able to use it as the basis for, say, an embedded linux
>>> course for some of my training clients.
>>>
>>>    anyway, as a starting point, i would be interested in opinions on
>>> what would constitute the "perfect" openWRT router, the word
>>> "perfect" being, of course, wildly ambiguous. so for purpose of
>>> discussion, what features should it have? what platform? and so on.
>>> and if all of this has already been done, it would be good to collect
>>> links to such pages.
>>>
>>>    thoughts?
>>>
>>> rday
>>>
>>> p.s. brief marketing plug here -- i'm still doing linux training so if
>>> anyone is looking for technical linux instruction, that's still how i
>>> make my living. :-) drop me a note offline if you want to chat
>>> further.
>>>
>>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Khalid M. Baheyeldin
> 2bits.com, Inc.
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> wrong." -- H.L. Mencken
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