Hardware

My OpenWrt adventures began with the ASUS RT-AC56U router. It was a fairly good, cheap router with a dual-core Broadcom BCM4708A0 processor clocked at 800MHz. It also had 128MB of flash memory and 256MB of RAM.

Appetite grows with eating, as the saying goes.

While I didn’t complain about the processor, I quickly ran out of space for more of these applications. So I decided to replace it with a Linksys WRT3200ACM, which I later changed to a Linksys WRT32x.

WRT3200ACM (WRT32x) is a very solid machine, we still use this type of router at work. While I was pleased with its performance, the WiFi network did not work out very well.

The signal strength left much to be desired, and cooperation with other routers or access points was not without problems. All because of the wireless chip from Marvell used in it.

Additionally, the lack of support for DFS channels in WiFi in the 5GHz frequency further limited its use. Also, forget about WPA3 encryption introduced by default in the OpenWrt 21.02 series (WPA3 can be turned on, but WiFi and the entire router quickly stop working).

In my search for a better router, I came across the Linksys MR8300. It had 3 Qualcomm Atheros radios. One was for the 2.4GHz frequency and the other two for 5GHz, the first for channels up to 60 and the second for above 100 (with DFS support).

While the router performed well, it was clear to see that it was much slower, especially when installing software.

Recently I decided to connect an UPS (uninterruptible power supply) at work to one of the devices that runs 24 hours a day. The UPS that we currently have is the APC Back-UPS 1400 (Back-UPS XS 1400U), in addition to the ability to connect up to 6 devices, allows you to monitor the status of the device using the PowerChute software via USB port.

The problem is that this software is not compatible with the server we use, since it is available in a version for personal use (Personal Edition).

So I decided to use one free port (we use another one for additional internet connection using a 4G router) to connect a UPS to it to monitor its status (this device does not have a display apart from two diodes). If we can do something more, it would be even better, but it all depends on what can be achieved using OpenWrt.

The current price of storage devices fall drastically. Currently, you can buy 128 GB memory stick for as low as £8.99 on Amazon, however I will highly advise you against doing that, and here is why.

As the number of users increases, it is time to introduce speed limits in the network.

While I do not need this on my home router, in corporate use, it is worth knowing who and how much is using the connection and, if necessary, introducing appropriate restrictions.

First, you need to find out who, and then how much.

Recently while playing Call of Duty Mobile, I would occasionally experience a sudden slowdown in the form of increased ping, which would make the game temporarily unplayable.

Recently I decided to add a USB connected printer to my OpenWrt router.

While I normally use a wireless solution with built-in AirPrint (so I can print directly from my iPhone/iPad), sharing a USB printer on a network involves purchasing a print server.

Unfortunately, currently available print servers lack support for, for example, AirPrint, i.e. the ability to print wirelessly from Apple devices such as iPhone or iPad.

If I find one that has AirPrint, it is either very expensive or the manufacturer has discontinued its further development, which is a pity.

So I decided to use my OpenWrt router. Since it has two USB ports, one of which, USB 2.0, which I happen to have free, is perfect for connecting a printer.

In fact, I cared most about AirPrint, and you can read about what came out of it below.

Cloudflare is known for being the next Google and providing us with high-quality services, many of which can be used for free without any compromises. Fortunately, unlike Google, it is not so eager to kill its services.

From domain management, to SSL certificate for your website, secure and fast DNS, to turbocharging your internet connection with WARP (or WARP+ for those who want more).

The UK’s service providers are very much behind the times when it comes to the latest technological developments. Given the somewhat phlegmatic attitude of the British people towards new technologies, it’s no wonder that ISPs are still stuck in the Stone Age (IPv4), even though the stones (the pool of IPv4 addresses) are gone. While I am lucky to have an external IPv4 address, I can forget about a version 6 address (thumbs down for Virgin Media).

Luckily, there is a solution, and it’s free!

So you want to add a torrent client to your OpenWrt router, so that you can download, for example, a Raspbian image using this method, save it to a previously connected and configured USB drive and access it from the local network?

Continuing my post Adding a USB drive to a router with OpenWrt using the USB port (using the Linksys WRT3200ACM as an example), we move on to sharing our drive on the local network.