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But the first OpenWrt-branded device has only two Ethernet ports, which is an odd choice for a router.
Well, technically it's the only choice for a router... We are getting so used to the router/switch combo we will forget what exactly is a router. Which is probably good, I guess.
I mean, technically there's no reason a router can't route between more than two networks. For example, I've got both fiber and cable Internet (for no real good reason -- I ought to cancel one and save some money) and I've configured my OpenWRT router to have two different uplinks, reconfiguring one of the four LAN ports to WAN2 instead.
I've also got the other ports configured for separate VLANs (walling my untrustworthy Chinese ONVIF cameras off from being able to phone home, for example), but I think that's technically not "routing" 'cause it's OSI layer 2.
I assume it's not common to have more that two networks being routed, especially in a SOHO environment, but it's definitely not impossible.
Routers can run just fine off only one port too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_on_a_stick
This takes me back to my childhood... My dad would take me to the fair and get me a deep fried router on a stick and a roll of cat5.
That's not entirely true. Having a router with multiple interfaces is useful for multiple physical networks like VoIP, OOB, dmz, etc. We use vlans a lot for that now, but it's not fair to say only two ports is the only choice.
Only some have an internal switch, others just have multiple NICs.
A router is also an open-by-default device, and knows how to handle routing protocols like OSPF. It's not something you would usually use at home unless you're into that sort of thing. Things we tend to call a "router" are all-in-one firewall/switch/access points.
That is what a router is, switches are generally a separate thing. It is only the home hybrids that combine the two different things.
I have two separate networks in my home + WAN the router combines all 3 as they are designed for. The switches just switch the packets in those separate networks. (and not to get all fancy with layer 3 switches)
Nah, I have a NetGate (pfSense) rackmount router/firewall with multiple ports. Isn't that pretty standard with enterprise gear now days? Only 2-port routers I've seen are ones I build from old PCs.
more and more over the past like 5 years only. All the cisco and juniper enterprise went from like 4 ports (expected to be an entirely different network on each port and they go directly into a large switch) to having a lot more swappable port interfaces
That's not bad pricing wise. There's very very little prosumer gear that's multi gigabit and it's all much higher price, or it's just a PC with several NICs.
If and when we move to hyperfibre this is going to be pretty high up on the list.
Hyper fiber??? I don't even have regular fiber here and y'all are moving on to HYPER???
For some it's long overdue. Fiber is soon to be 20 years old at my house.
But honestly, I don't think most people need hyper fiber anyway, so that's probably why we havent seen it.
I would say most people do not need a home connection that is in the same order of magnitude as the average data center server connection in use at the same time. Mostly because by definition there won't be many servers to transfer data from and to at that speed and the average person doesn't run too many connections in parallel.
Then again, with federation and people "taking back" the internet, it could be useful... One day that is ofc.
I have gigabit (0.7 up) and for 10€ plus (so a total of 40€/month. Just to annoy our American friends ☺️) I can get 10Gb symmetrical. The nerd/geek in me wants it but I just don't need it
As an American that lives in a civilized state in an urban area, I too have fiber and can get 10gb symmetrical.
Yeah but 1gb/s by me is $80/mo minimum...
I CAN get that 10gb, I wouldn't want to pay for it.
My best friend is still on 15Mb/s in central London 💀
I just moved to a new place with full fiber optic and it's the first place I lived in where that's a thing.
Lived in germany. Litterally 3 world country when it comes to internet. And i was not in some village but Berlin
I think a lot of the reports of high bandwidth/cheap rates around Europe are cherry picked. When I looked a nationwide averages, it doesn't seem particularly better or worse than much of the US. At least, not in the populated areas of the US. Rural access is another issue.
We don't have data caps which is the most important thing.
Hyperfibre sounds like some weight-loss supplement.
With new HyperFibre I can shit through the eye of a needle at 20 paces!
I was recently looking for a decent WiFi 7 router to replace my aging Archer A6. Then, looked up the table of hardware at toh.openwrt.org and almost none of the WiFi 7 routers from mainstream brands was supported. Glad to see something first-party releasing soon. I'll definitely buy one when it releases.
The Asus BT8 has recently had support added in snapshots.
I just want standalone wifi7 aps with openwrt
From the image, it doesn't seem like it has rack mounts, which is kind of an odd choice. There are lots of switches that have a similar form factor, but can be put in 10" or 19" racks depending on which rack ears you put on it
It really grinds my gears how many things could be almost trivially designed to be rackmountable, but aren't for no good reason. I guess in some cases it's for market segmentation so they can charge more for "enterprise" gear, but in a lot of cases they don't make any of that stuff to begin with so it clearly isn't.
I'm actually so fed up with it that I'm seriously considering learning how to do sheet metal fabrication so I can make my own damn rackmount cases for stuff (with blackjack and hookers).
Also, what I really want is a version of this thing that's rackmountable but has no wifi, and then another in the form factor of a ceiling-mounted PoE access point.
(And yes, this is just for my house, not "enterprise." It's not even a very big/fancy house; I just like my tech to be cleanly installed.)
I run an older half depth supermicro server with a sfp+ PCI card for my router. At this point, it feels like dedicated boxes just aren't worth it for routers except for enterprise where I need a support contract.
I was just about to cough up for a Banana Pi R4, but I might wait for this now.
I have a bpi-r4, it’s fantastic, totally recommended.
No idea about its wifi 7 though, I didn’t buy the addon board, and went with unifi u7’s instead.
Also, looking at the specs of the upcoming openwrt two devices, with only a single 10g port, it won’t work well if you’re getting 10gig service from your ISP, and have a 10g lan as well
Can you do "roaming" / "fast-transition" solutions with the openwrt one and/or two? (What is called "mesh" by e.g. tplink)
Sure, 802.11k,r,v is supported and Dawn/usteer can handle steering.
Awesome. Thanks. What is dawn/usteer?
Edit: nvm, I see it mentioned in the openwrt docs. I'll check it out, thanks.
I'm in the process of setting up usteer myself but haven't quite finished. I think Dawn is easier but usteer seems more complete. Dawn doesn't require a central controller which usteer does, but the usteer central controller can run on an non AP install which makes for nice centralized information.
Interesting that it will only have 1 10GbE port, I'm not really sure how you're supposed to use 10Gb internet service if you can't get 10Gb out of the router into your LAN.
The idea is that you use the 10Gb port as a trunk, then you use your switch to split it into separate physical ports using VLANs.
