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Can FreedomBox be an alternative to commercial home routers?Can FreedomBox be an alternative to commercial home routers?Posted Jul 5, 2012 9:56 UTC (Thu) by fb (subscriber, #53265)Parent article: Can FreedomBox be an alternative to commercial home routers? Thanks for the article! I can always use more WiFi router hacking stories. One thing that I wish you had done right at the start was to say "Debian based". I went from starting to read to skimming the article to answer "and what advantage/difference it has over OpenWrt or DD-WRT?". [...] Honestly, being an OpenWrt and Tomato user, after reading this article and Freedombox FAQ, I am left with the impression that this is a project kick-started by Eben Moglen out of not knowing about OpenWrt or DD-WRT. Don't get me wrong, it is great to have more people working for `embedded wireless freedom`, but flat out ignoring existing mature options sounds counter-productive.
The claim made at the end of the article: Sounds a bit like poetic license ;-) From what I can read at freedomboxfoundation.org, this project is still pretty much at the kick-start phase. So in reality it is more like perhaps a viable option 2 years down the road. While there are plenty of officially supported DD-WRT routers (search Newegg or Amazon) on sale. Today. (With Amazon even selling DD-WRT pre-installed routers). I mean, if you needed a 'free from oppression' *supported* firmware for a wifi router all you need to do is to get one of those Asus routers and add (the supported) DD-WRT firmware. I understand it is not Debian, but the project stated goals are about making a `free from oppression` box, and not a (i) `free from oppression box` (ii) running Debian. Also in real life, I can imagine being easier to import an Asus or TP-Link router into $COUNTRY_WITH_OPPRESSIVE_GOVERNMENT and manually installing something called DD-WRT than getting a router named Freedom Box through customs. BTW, if anyone is interested in getting more Debian into your OpenWRT box, check out http://www.debwrt.net/ (No, I never installed it myself, opkg suffices for me).
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Can FreedomBox be an alternative to commercial home routers? Posted Jul 5, 2012 17:04 UTC (Thu) by n8willis (editor, #43041) [Link] Sounds a bit like poetic licenseOut-of-the-box means it is already installed when you open the box. Who is selling OpenWrt pre-installed? Nate
Can FreedomBox be an alternative to commercial home routers? Posted Jul 5, 2012 17:46 UTC (Thu) by pj (subscriber, #4506) [Link]
Buffalo sells routers with DD-WRT preinstalled.
Can FreedomBox be an alternative to commercial home routers? Posted Jul 5, 2012 18:52 UTC (Thu) by n8willis (editor, #43041) [Link]
DD-WRT is not OpenWrt, however; they (DD) have proprietary pieces for which they do not provide source. There is a whole other can of worms about the manner in which DD provides source and whether or not it is sufficient to compile and build a working image (an argument which I have not desire to get into). But in any event, making modifications to the version of DD that ships with Buffalo still voids the device's warranty.
Nate
Can FreedomBox be an alternative to commercial home routers? Posted Jul 5, 2012 18:06 UTC (Thu) by DaleQ (subscriber, #4004) [Link]
I'm impressed with the OpenWRT based devices (that can act as a gateway or repeater node automagically) sold by Open-Mesh.com.
(Not affiliated, just happy customer).
Can FreedomBox be an alternative to commercial home routers? Posted Jul 5, 2012 20:41 UTC (Thu) by hummassa (subscriber, #307) [Link]
Nope, down here (Brasil) we have a lot of OEMs that slap together some Broadcom-based routers with openwrt or ddwrt preinstalled. I had one of those, and it had better range than many brand-name routers I had.
http://www.produtosdefabrica.com.br/Roteador_DD_WRT_Wirel...
(in pt_BR, and prices in R$ 1 = US$ .50)
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