Banana Pi's new $30 router delivers Wi-Fi 6 speeds, OpenWrt flexibility

[zohaibahd]

In brief: Getting premium networking features at rock-bottom prices seems too good to be true. But Banana Pi's $30 BPI-WiFi 6 router appears to deliver, promising blistering wireless speeds and open-source flexibility rarely found in consumer devices.

This unassuming little router packs a serious punch under the hood. It utilizes a Triductor TR6560 SoC with dual Cortex-A9 CPU cores running at 1.2GHz, along with Triductor's TR5220 Wi-Fi 6 chipset. On the wireless side, it supports 2x2 MIMO with maximum speeds of 573Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 2.4Gbps over 5GHz using the latest Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) standard.

Wired Gigabit Ethernet isn't forgotten either, with one WAN port and three LAN ports included. There's also an optional PoE module available if you need to power the router over Ethernet, but it needs to be soldered. Banana Pi says the 2.4GHz signal can reach up to 40 meters, while the 5GHz band has a range of up to 160 meters. WPA3 password protection is supported too.

The real trick up this router's sleeve is its open-source firmware - OpenWrt - which it comes preloaded with right out of the box. Rather than a locked-down proprietary OS, it runs the highly customizable OpenWrt Linux distribution designed specifically for embedded devices like routers and access points. This gives advanced users unprecedented control over configuring every aspect of the system.

While still in development, the OpenWrt Project is working on reference firmware specifications with extra features aimed at around $100 retail routers. But Banana Pi has gotten ahead of the game by taking its existing OpenWrt-compatible hardware and packaging it up as a ready-to-go product.

That said, it's important to note that the BPI-WiFi runs a fork of OpenWrt maintained by Banana Pi, rather than the mainline upstream version. The device may therefore not be the fastest in receiving the latest features or security patches compared to official releases. According to the GitHub log, the code was written seven months ago.

Still, for buyers seeking extreme value and open-source flexibility, Banana Pi's new Wi-Fi 6 offering could be the perfect match, delivering cutting-edge wireless performance and Gigabit Ethernet at an unbeatable price point. At the moment, this router is only available from sites like AliExpress, but who knows, maybe this could expand to wider availability if demand validates the ultra-low-cost concept.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/102257-banana-pi-new-30-router-delivers-wi-fi.html

 

[ScottSoapbox]

This seems too good to be true. It must sell my data to be this cheap.

 

[stewi0001]

This seems too good to be true. It must sell my data to be this cheap.

There is always the possibility that the current stuff on the market is overly inflated too.

 

[mbk34]

"This gives advanced users unprecedented control over configuring every aspect of the system" What would an advanced user want to change other than the WiFi password?

 

[ZedRM]

This seems too good to be true. It must sell my data to be this cheap.

OpenWRT does not allow for that kind of thing. And if you doubt the official BananaPi version of OpenWRT, that's ok, pull a compatible version of the standard distro, install, enjoy.

 

[ZedRM]

"This gives advanced users unprecedented control over configuring every aspect of the system" What would an advanced user want to change other than the WiFi password?

Firewall and device access rules, Protocol acceptance and rejection rules, traffic shaping and packet management. There are a crap-ton of options for fine tuning, optimizing, securing and controlling your network traffic. The fact that you had to ask that question means you need to learn more about the subject and that you would benefit from finding out more. You'd likely be surprised by how involved and in-depth it is.

 

[mbk34]

Firewall and device access rules, Protocol acceptance and rejection rules, traffic shaping and packet management. There are a crap-ton of options for fine tuning, optimizing, securing and controlling your network traffic. The fact that you had to ask that question means you need to learn more about the subject and that you would benefit from finding out more. You'd likely be surprised by how involved and in-depth it is.

Sure, but what of those options aren't available on a standard router. Then, of what's left, what is achievable by those that purchase a router? I'm a programmer myself, I'm fairly decent with Unix scripting but still wouldn't have a clue where to start or know why I'd even bother.

 

[ZedRM]

Sure, but what of those options aren't available on a standard router. Then, of what's left, what is achievable by those that purchase a router? I'm a programmer myself, I'm fairly decent with Unix scripting but still wouldn't have a clue where to start or know why I'd even bother.

Ah,but you have no control over the source code or what is happening behind your back with firmware that is not publicly disclosed. OpenWRT is fully open source. As a result you can be assured that nothing is being transmitted behind your back. No hidden malware, no pilfering your data, no tracking of your activities via the router, which controls everything going through your network, and thus your internet connection.