hey
I am new here and have been planning to get using openwrt for sometime now.
I originally was looking at the GL iNET GL-X2000 but for the same price or even cheaper I can get a 5G router from aliexpress. But they all say that a 5G module is required which is confusing. These are the ones I have been looking at
Are these the right thing? And what 5G module would it need?
I basically want to put a sim card in it to run 5G internet. No broadband.
Let's talk about OpenWrt support:
So are most aliexpress ads lies? You see I am looking for a 5G router that is compatible with openwrt under $200. I ideally want 4x4 mimo but 2x2 would do. I only need 1 sim card. And wifi 6 ideally. Do you have any advice for me as to which device fits this criteria? I don't need any advanced networking features. I don't need broadband capabilities either.
I don't know if I would go so far as to say they are lying, but there is nuance that is not captured (or sometimes intentionally omitted). Specifically, OpenWrt is often used by vendors to create a customized fork for their products. This means that they take OpenWrt and then modify it to fit their needs. This can mean small things like changes to the look and feel of the LuCI web interface (i.e. a skin) or it can be big such as customized/proprietary/closed source driver/firmware code necessary to actually use the chipsets (and without that code, the device cannot be used). Many vendors do not (and in some cases, cannot) upstream/contribute that code back to the official project, so you must use the vendor supplied firmware. But, that notwithstanding, many vendors will still market their products as "OpenWrt" or "based on OpenWrt" even though it is not supported by the official OpenWrt project.
ok so as far as the zbt one could it still be flashed to have proper openwrt?
I have been reading this the support page here
but there is no 5G filter but I will go through each one anyway
Is this one a good one with openwrt support?
The AW1000 and many other devices are discussed in the forums already. I'd recommend that you use the forum search and then read the relevant threads. In some cases, the threads will tell you "yeah, great option" or others may reveal that there isn't proper support for certain aspects of a device (or maybe even the whole thing).
Similarly, you can use the Table of Hardware and the firmware selector to look up various products. There are some supported devices that won't be found in the ToH, so it's good to use the firmware selector as a secondary check (look for support in 24.10 and in snapshot). If it's not listed in the firmware selector, the device is not supported. But the ToH has some limited entries for devices that are not supported or have certain functionality that is not working/supported, so both are very good references.
and 5G modem support - ModemManager covers a bit, but 5G modems are still hit and miss - would need to ID the specific modem and see if it has QMI/MBIM full support - and there, it has to have regional and carrier approval...
some 4g/5g cards might have regional support, but carrier approval is more important.
Been there - done that on commercial projects...
So how would I go about checking if it has QMI/MBIM support? For example if I bought this specific one
How would I know if that would work?
To be honest I am not that knowledgeable about the details when it comes to networking hardware. I do understand how to setup software configs for openwrt such as firewalls and openvpn but when it comes to working out which hardware work my mind goes a bit blank. My needs are quite simple. I just want 5G internet that can take a mimo antenna to connect by wifi to my laptop. I am not dead set on the AW1000 or anything I am just trying to figure out which 5G device is the most compatible/will be the smoothest to put openwrt on. I don't need anything fancy but my mind is sort of going in circles a bit!
Really comes down to specs - Qualcomm modems usually support MBIM and QMI, so those are safe bets for 4G/5G.
Seems like the aw1000 supports MBIM and QMI. I have read through the manual thing here
and everything seems straight forward. I have flashed laptops before with libreboot so everything seems regular. The only thing that boggles my mind is country compatibility. I am based in the UK and don't really know if it is compatible with my country. Some sites say it is, some say it isn't. I guess I could call a 5G provider in the UK and ask them if the device is compatible with their network? But maybe there are diferent versions of the AW1000 for different regions? It seems to be mainly an Australian thing but lots of sites say it is compatible with the UK too.
The current ZBT-Z8102AX (V2) unfortunately isn't currently supported by OpenWRT. Some OpenWRT forks support it - I have this device and I'm running it with openmptcprouter and I just hope the support in OpenWRT will eventually be added.
3G/4G/5G modems in routers/gateways - always best to get what is supported your market - the regulatory (FCC/EU-RED for example) along with Carrier Approvals are a challenge...
Speaking from experience - we had developed a gateway and had FCC and ATT/T-Mobile approvals - going over to Verizon, we had to submit the device again for a series of testing...
Took the same device over to Spain for a customer there - and we had to change out the module, as our previous module did not have the EU-RED certifications - and that kicked off a whole new series of regulatory testing, and we had to also submit samples to a couple of the larger operators in the EU for their testing...