i don't know if you're using an external ONT to connect to your router, but they usualy have a 1Gb output on LAN side, and this is a problem when you are on a 2Gb offer.
i just found an ONT with 2.5Gb output here, the blue RJ45 is the 2.5Gb port, the yellow one is 1Gb :
it can be very useful with routers that have 2.5gbps ports
Some ISPs go that route especially those that offer > 1 Gbps plans over GPON. E.g. Deutsche Telekom's (DT) recent ONT (Glasfasermodem2, the only ONT they currently market to residential customers) offers a 2.5 Gbps ethernet port, supposedly as preparation for 2Gbps over GPON. Given GPON's hard limt at ~2.4/1.2 Gbps it is questionable how many ISPs will actually provision more than 1 Gbps, e.g. DT currently only offers 1 Gbps, but provisions a gross rate above 1Gbps, so users can actually achieve >= 1 Gbps in speedtests. Whether these 6~10% higher throughput justifiy the cost to deploy a >1 Gbps network in one's home, is a question for each network to decide individually.
However, GPON isnot the technology ISPs seem to prefer for >1 Gbps plans, they rather seem to flock to XGSPON, which offers a nominal 10/10 Gbps per segment (if FEC is used this reduces to ~8.6/8.6), so I am not sure whether a GPON ONT with 2.5 Gbps ethernet port will see much use above 1 Gbps....
All of that said, there are markets like switzerland, where ISPs are willing/permitted to market the full but shared segment capacity to each customer (e.g. 10 Gbps plans on an XGSPON segment with up to 32 users), if one's ISP does that for GPON, then 2.5 Gbps ethernet might be the optimal choice to occasionally get the maximum rates.
Yeah, my local ISP offers the Zyxel AX7501 to their 10/10gbit customers.
Which in all likelihood only achieves acceptable performance by using accelerators instead of in-kernel networking. I am not saying that because that is inherently "bad", but only to indicate that I expect if the AX7501 should ever get an OpenWrt firmware, the performance (due to lack of Linux-supported accelerators) to stay well below 10/10 Gbps...
Yeah, I wasn't going to use it, unless they forced me to (not jumping on the 10/10 train any time soon), got a dual 10/10gbe NIC in my server/router, might needed an ONT though.
I've been running OpenWRT on a rpi4 (2GB RAM although 1GB is more than enough) since 21.02rc1 and it is working fantastic. I use the TP-Link UE300 USB Ethernet adapter as secondary Ethernet interface and my old Archer C7 as wireless AP.
I made some WAN/LAN throughput measurements (using this: https://github.com/mmeisner/sshopenwrt) and it maxes out the 1Gbit/s with CPU usage below 10%. With Wireguard it loses, I think it was less than 5% throughput, which is probably protocol overhead. I don't remember the CPU usage but nothing alarming.
I never measured with OpenVPN as I think it is pretty much obsoleted by Wireguard - unless you have some legacy installations to cater for.
BTW, I used this repo: https://github.com/mmeisner/openwrt-image-buildomatic to build an image for the rpi. It creates an image with a lot of useful pre-installed packages.
Fully agree with you. Even for a lesser price, the WRT3200ACM would still be a poor choice for the lack of modern technology (e.g. WiFi 6). I'm just wondering about the two models you mention - neither appears on https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/. How do yoy instal OpenWRT on those?
it was just to show that at a much lower price we could have better performing equipment.
The WAX206 and the QHora-301W are still in Work In Progress.
I see. What would you recommend as the best options of equipment that runs OpenWRT?
there is not only 1 answer to this question, it will depend on several parameters. The budget, the speed of your internet connection, what you want to do with your network, if you want an all-in-one router/wifi, or if you just want a router and manage the wifi separately.
We need more details so we can answer.
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005003993468819.html or equivalent, for the wired part, if you need 2.5GbE.
https://www.jetwayipc.com/products/hbfbz10-series/ if you don't want some no name brand.
or https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/08/15/thin-mini-itx-networking-board-features-six-2-5gbe-ports-celeron-j6412-elkhart-lake-soc/ if you want a DIY (and you can actually find one).
Micro Firewall Appliance, Mini PC, pFsense, Mikrotik, OPNsense, Untangle, VPN, Router PC, Intel N5105, HUNSN RJ03, AES-NI, 4 x Intel 2.5GbE I225-V LAN, Type-C, TF, M.2 WiFi 6 Slot, 16G RAM, 128G SSD https://amzn.eu/d/hEJKaoN
same, same, but different ...
You are right of course. I am looking for a solution for my home. That should be an all-in-one device, WiFi 6 support (WiFi 6e would be nice too), tri-band WiFi, 1 Gig optical cable Internet. Budget is not an issue.
I'd put a media converter between the router and the fiber, will give you more options.
Good point! It is already there (provided by the ISP).
In that case CR25wiNG / CR25ing, if you don't need SQM.
Will have to buy, and install the AX card yourself.
What AX card?
MT based
@segal_72 do you have any experience with this device? It looks interesting for an https://www.openmptcprouter.com/ project.