Just like the operating system on your computer & cell phone, you can change the software running on your router.

  • vividspecter@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    You can also run openwrt on x86 boxes and not just a random selection of embedded devices. That might feel silly, but you get the benefit of Linux’s more advanced bufferbloat mitigation and a nice clean and relatively easy to understand UI.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      Not silly at all for multi-gig connections. I’m running it on Pi 4 which does well for a 1Gbps connection with SQM. Sometimes it’s cheaper to get old x86 hatdware to do the same. Or I’ve heard you could run it in a Docker container on a bigger machine.

      • vividspecter@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        Or I’ve heard you could run it in a Docker container on a bigger machine

        You can definitely run it in a VM (which is how I handle it) but container support wouldn’t surprise me.

        The “silly” part was more that if you have x86 you can use opnsense/pfsense but I’m with you in that SQM is a big draw as well as less risk of compatibility issues as my APs are also flashed with openwrt. And the BSDs were well behind on wireguard support when I first switched to x86, although they have since caught up now I believe.

        • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          11 months ago

          Exactly, standardization is a very significant pro. Hardware support being a dependency for standardization. I wrote a simple SaltStack module for OpenWrt and I’m using that to manage the config of multiple OpenWrt devices across multiple locations. That happens to live along with the rest of my Salt code which manages everything else.