The story is 15 years old, yet still an amazing read. When Linksys used open-source software for their firmware of WRT54G router, they were required to release the whole firmware of the router to the public. The story of OpenWRT firmware is one of the most satisfying open-source wins ever. While originally designed for one specific router (the legendary Linksys WRT54G), there are now many models and generations of OpenWRT compatible devices. I discovered OpenWRT firmware back in 2005 when I was looking to get better bandwidth monitoring and QoS control on my router. No Quality of Service and traffic shaping, making all traffic equal - no matter if it is a video call, Xbox game, web browsing or smart TV sending telemetry to China.Built-in switch spams all Ethernet ports with minimal or no control, making traffic storms on all physical ports and often on Wifi as well.Minimal or no IPv6 support - even from ISPs that offer IPv6 addresses.Router logic can’t understand source-based routing, preventing intelligent routing of traffic based on which device generated the request.Firewall control and filtering rules are very basic, opening the internal network to a whole bunch of possible surprises.Let me first review what is wrong with common consumer networking routers and why should you care: If you care for your home, you should invest in better home networking equipment. So, if you are nerdy enough to read blogs titled “ How I discovered OPNSense”, you should be nerdy enough to not settle for the simplest and cheapest networking box. Well, not just somewhere you have to compromise EVERYWHERE. I mean, if you try to squeeze functionality of a firewall, router, switch and a wifi access point into a single cheap plastic box, you have to compromise somewhere. Home networking has been my passion and obsession ever since I realized that the default all-in-one boxes that ISPs are loaning to us for low, low $10 or so per month don’t meet even the most basic geek needs.

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