On: Linksys Velop routers send Wi-Fi passwords in plai...

[HumblyTossed]

I really wish wifi router OEMs would use OpenWRT. They could skin it (ala gli.net) if they wish, but at least use it. It's open. It works. You can still differentiate your product by making it have MOAR ANTENNAS! and continue to add up all the speed numbers to make it look REALLY FAST!!!!

[twic → HumblyTossed]

I learned a few hours ago, for unrelated reasons, that there is at least one which does. GL.iNet ship routers running their in-house build of OpenWRT:

https://www.gl-inet.com/support/firmware-versions/

https://github.com/gl-inet/openwrt

And it's straightforward to install stock OpenWRT using OpenWRT's sysupgrade method:

https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-mt6000#installation

[danieldk → HumblyTossed]

That and Apple should bring back AirPorts. They were easy to set up, performed well, had some advanced features, and got security updates for many years.

Two years ago or so, my office mate and I pulled out an old AirPort Extreme when our Fritz!Box broke. Not only did it still work very well, it was still pretty competitive as an 802.11ac router.

[tombert → HumblyTossed]

Or if they're worried about GPL stuff from Linux, there's also OpnSense, which works fine and I think is well respected.

I'm nerdy enough to have built my own router with OpnSense a few years ago, and it worked like a champ. The only reason I stopped was there was an issue with BSD and a specific Broadcom 10Gbe card that I couldn't work around, so I ended up hacking something together with ClearOS and eventually NixOS.

[VTimofeenko → tombert]

Are any parts of your nixos router config available publicly? I also rolled my own and am always on the lookout for inspiration

[tombert → VTimofeenko]

My router largely just implemented this tutorial: https://github.com/ghostbuster91/blogposts/blob/a2374f0039f8...

ChatGPT was used whenever something I didn't understand came up.

[VTimofeenko → tombert]

Thanks! I've also used parts of it when building mine

[tombert → VTimofeenko]

Yeah, I'm hesitant to share any of my configs directly since I might have done something wrong and I want at least a very cursory "security by obscurity".

[VTimofeenko → tombert]

That's a perfectly valid position to have IMO. Same reason I post only parts of my config publicly, the rest is hidden in a flake hosted on a private forge.

[mjevans → HumblyTossed]

I've never bothered to install a theme for it, but https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/luci/luci.themes they do exist. There's really no good reason they couldn't.

[stragies → HumblyTossed]

A whole bunch of GLI.NET devices use SOCs, where Linux mainline kernel support was never upstreamed. So buying GLI.NET is not a surefire way to obtain Hardware, that's runs 'Proper OpenWrt', you still have to check the HCL, or better/up2date, the list of DTS files in the current git master of openwrt.

[mouse_ → HumblyTossed]

I'm really glad OpenWRT does not share a similar fate to Android.

[HumblyTossed → mouse_]

The point being that if one has the technical ability, they could just flash stock.

[jofla_net → HumblyTossed]

My old Araknis AP was just a reskinned OpenWRT, trudat.

[rfoo → HumblyTossed]

A lot of them already are running OpenWRT.

It's just not the upstream OpenWRT. Instead, it would be an ancient version of OpenWRT with an ancient Linux kernel (hint hint).

Guessed why? Yeah, the same story as Android. Hardware vendors (those actually designing wireless chips, like Qualcomm and Mediatek) based their official SDK on an ancient version of OpenWRT and piled on tons of non-upstream-able patches to implement drivers.