Kickstarter Build of an OpenWrt Wifi Router

Today, on Twitter, @OpenWRTH (H for help) retweeted a news item about Netgear and Linksys requiring "account registration", to operate their newer wifi router devices.

I put the tweet below:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1147037070352760832/59WL7upG_bigger.png) ] John Wyatt
@sageofredondo] (https://twitter.com/sageofredondo) Sep 20

HackerNews discussion on how Netgear and Linksys both require online registration to use their routers now. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24530009

I wonder if [@System76] (https://twitter.com/system76) has ever thought about doing a Kickstarter with an open router with OpenWRT to gauge demand.

@SocialHappiness [@ChrisLAS] (https://twitter.com/ChrisLAS)

I've got $50 for a Kickstarter campaign for an OpenWRT made hardware wifi router burning a hole in my pocket. So if you read this, believe it's a good idea to prevent the continuous erosion of privacy, let alone non-open source software to monitor your business, help me out and spread the word, please.

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Seems there is some interest in this topic.

Good luck!

P.S.: Please spread the word: It's OpenWrt, not OpenWRT.
Should there ever be such thing as an "OpenWrt WiFi router", it should have at least the spelling right.

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I put up the poll and just built/flashed OpenWrt to a Linksys EA7300 V2.

As far as on OpenWrt Wifi router, I think there is an overall trend by the dominant manufacturers to 1) Exploit OpenWrt's effort for their own CEO bonuses and Shareholders 2) Do so without contributing financially to OpenWrt or making code submission 3) Make it extremely difficult to put OpenWrt on their hardware. A router built to the projects specs would address all those concerns. Because a project like this has value, it also would be nice for the proceeds to support the project.

As far a the Linksys app, it can be bypassed although it takes some effort. The App registration pop-up window has a small "manual configuration" prompt in the lower left of the window.

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There is an Open Source Software, Open Source hardware Wireless Router that comes bundled with OpenWrt-based software and that you can flash your custom image of OpenWrt, already supported on the tree.
It is the LibreRouter.org.

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Mmmm... • 16 MB Flash :frowning:
A bit on the low side these days if you ask me.

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It really depends what is your usecase.
We have built the most open source hardware that we could do, with the platforms that at the time were the best supported of all in OpenWrt.
The objective was to build something that was reliable, and yet affordable, as we are working on supporting rural and remote communities in their connectivity.

The LibreRouter.org deals with that issue perfectly fine.
It is not the most cutting edge hardware there is, but it is as open as it can be.
If you need more power, you can always hook up a Small Board Computer to any of its ports, and you can even power the board internally, so it will feel like if it is bigger than it is.

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