On 27/01/2019 19:13, Tim wrote:
On 27/01/2019 12:57, Patrick Wigmore wrote:
On Mon, 14 Jan 2019 17:59:30 +0000, Tim wrote:
If anybody has any stories regarding OpenWRT I would interested to
hear them
On Sat, 26 Jan 2019 13:13:02 +0000, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
Every time I'm in the market for a new broadband modem, like now,
I consider buying one supported by OpenWRT, but never manage it.
The last I checked, the only available ADSL or VDSL modem that
OpenWRT appeared to actually have a driver for was the one inside the
BT Home Hub 5 type A (a.k.a. Plusnet Hub One or BT Business Hub 5).
It is not a badly specified device given how cheaply available they
are. 802.11ac, 128MB RAM, 128MB flash, 500MHz CPU. I bought one and
put OpenWRT on it. The main downsides I see are: * Though it has
gigabit network interfaces, it is not capable of actually routing
traffic at gigabit speeds. (I don't care about that: it's fast enough
for me.) * It is too easy to press the prominently-located restart
button while handling the device, causing an unwanted reboot.
Presumably the stock firmware requires regular rebooting so they
decided to make a feature out of it. * It makes a quiet ticking noise
like a laptop hard drive when it is transceiving WiFi traffic. (This
seems to be the power supply circuitry responding to the varying
load, because connecting a USB- powered device that uses PWM to fade
some LEDs up and down causes the Home Hub to provide an audible
rendition of the PWM signal, providing many minutes of
entertainment.) * Unlike the radio in my previous, lower-spec Buffalo
device (also running OpenWRT), the WiFi radios don't seem to support
operating simultaneously as both a client and an access point.
Though, since it's dual band and has two radios, the unit as a whole
can do this, provided you don't mind dedicating a whole frequency
band (2.4GHz or 5GHz) to each of these functions. * It doesn't have
many indicator LEDs (but all three are RGB, so you can squeeze quite
a bit of information out through them). * No option for external WiFi
antennae (it works well without them, but some people might have a
specific reason why they need or want them). Its been very stable for
me. The only unplanned downtime has been due to power failures. I've
only tried the xDSL modem itself for an hour or two, to test it.
Therefore, I can't vouch for the xDSL modem's long-term stability,
but I was satisfied that it would probably do the job if I wanted it
to. The modem took a loooooong time to make a connection on the first
attempt: about half an hour. I put that down to the DSLAM on the
other end of the line being surprised to see a different modem, but
not before I went on a wild goose chase tweaking the configuration to
see if anything would make it work. After the initial connection, it
appeared capable of reconnecting much more quickly. On Sat, 26 Jan
2019 13:13:02 +0000, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
I realise their specialised devices, but I'm surprised that projects
like OpenWRT don't settle on a collection of chips that they
support very well, e.g. good quality Linux kernel drivers, and then
see if they can crowdfund a device built around them.
If you are acquiring new hardware, it seems to me that the only
product category where there really seems to be a lack of OpenWRT
compatibility is modems. If you just want a router or a WiFi access
point, there are plenty of options. I speculate that it would be
difficult to compete with the existing choice in those categories, but
the xDSL modem-router category would be more fertile ground for a
crowd-funded product.
Patrick Wigmore
It is a strange position that had I spent more time researching the
router I purchased (Linksys WRT1900ACS) I may never have purchased it.
To start with I can not block ports and this afternoon I found that
snmp is not available and I can find no where to enable snmp within
its current config (it does not reply to snmpwalk command). Googling
seem to return plenty of replies regarding requests for new features
(like SNMP). I guess this is the downside that a router is now seen as
a consumer product and the average bod on the street is just
interested in plug and play and not worried about blocking ports or
checking your bandwidth usage. Had the funds been available I would
have gone for a Draytec (I have used them at work in the past and
quite happy with them) but I thought I was doing alright buying a
Linksys, I had used Linksys routers many years ago just after getting
cable Internet. I thought they were still owned by Cisco but found out
after the purchase that they were sold on and bought by Belkin who's
network products I have used in the past and found them to be rubbish.
I blame nobody else but myself, I should of done my homework before
the purchase. I will have to start planning the firmware upgrade to
OpenWRT and pray that it gives me what I want as the alternative is
asking the wife for an increase in the IT budget (for a new router)
will not go down very well.
Tim H
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Well finding myself with an afternoon off and nobody else at home I
decided now was a good time to put OpenWRT onto my router. I spent some
time checking out what I needed and making note off the bits and setting
of what was my current setup. I eventually got the the point where it
was time to upload the new Openwrt firmware, took all of about 30
seconds and that was it. Tool me longer to go and check what the router
was doing then the actual install.
It was at this point of writing this email that I remembered something
in the openwrt config I wanted to check so I jumped back onto the router
and.......................screwed up the configuration and lost the
internet!! Well after faffing around and trying to get the wan port to
accept incoming traffic, I erased the config and started again. This is
a good point to note that there is very good documentation on how to set
up various setting in Openwrt, the downside being it is only available
online, not a lot of use when you can not get online. If I can not find
a downloadable version I will, look at downloading all the documentation
web pages
The new firmware is certainly more comprehensive than the standard
Linksys version with many more options to tweak and play with (just be
careful). I have not yet decided if the OpenWRT makes me want to keep
this router or not but it is looking promising. Well I have a bit of a
steep learning curve in front of me so I am off to see what else I can
break.
Tim H
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Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-02-05 20:00
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