A 5 port 2.5GbE switch would upgrade this to 5 total ports (4x 2.5GbE), and costs less than $100. If you only need 1GbE then it's even cheaper.

Outside of home-labs, it's rare for me to see any devices connected to the LAN side of a wireless router these days, and more than 1 (i.e. the non-portable device that is closest to the router) is exceedingly rare.

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PcChip 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

>Outside of home-labs, it's rare for me to see any devices connected to the LAN side of a wireless router these days

I would assume every gaming desktop computer would be? I actually assumed every desktop would be...

	▲	aidenn0 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Neither my parents nor my wife's parents have their desktop connected to their router. The cable modem isn't even in the same room as the desktop. [edit] If it matters, my mom no longer has a desktop (she uses a docked laptop now), but it is true of the docking station and was true of her previous desktop.

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hoherd 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Chaining a switch off the gateway is the best way to do it anyway. If you do that, then when you reboot your gateway, your lan devices do not lose their physical link and can continue talking to each other.

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petee 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

2.5 is the WAN, so your lan is only getting 1g anyway

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ssl-3 2 days ago | parent [-]

With OpenWRT, the network interfaces are whatever you want them to be. That's one of the perks. :)

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petee 2 days ago | parent [-]

Ok, so your wan is 1gig, and your lan 2.5...handy but not much of a perk. Lets just call this an AP, which would clear up many issues people seem to have with it

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ssl-3 2 days ago | parent [-]

It depends.

It'd be handy for me: The fastest WAN pipe I can get is less than a gigabit while my LAN is still gigabit. I can't be the only person with this situation, wherein: If anything, then the 2.5-gig port is overkill.

I don't have any direct interest in the wifi radio that the box includes (I already have Mikrotik APs that I like just fine), except to configure it as a failover station-mode interface to use with a phone hotspot when the DOCSIS connection is on the fritz.

...which doesn't happen often at all, but it's annoying when it does happen. It's nice to be able to work around problems like that with OpenWRT.

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petee 18 hours ago | parent [-]

> If anything, then the 2.5-gig port is overkill.

Or 1 gig is underkill. My original reply was just pointing out that simply adding a 2.5g switch doesn't make it a 5 port 2.5g router, it makes it a 1 gig router with 2.5 internal, at best

	▲	ssl-3 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It is indeed a strange choice to include only two interfaces, and then make each of them different speeds. Realistically, the wireless side is unlikely to saturate a 1-gig pipe. If the 2.5g is used for WAN because the WAN can use that extra speed, then it's very likely that the LAN port becomes saturated. The configuration never really fits. The best use I can come up with is this: A 2.5-gig managed switch and PoE with a tiny bit of VLAN magic does allow the OpenWrt One to be an access point+router that can be located in a spot that is good for RF propagation, with only 1 wire connected to it for both power and data. In this configuration, it route packets with up to ~1.25g of WAN (or perhaps more, if WAN is asymmetric). But even though VLANs are fun and I wish more people knew how to use them effectively, that's so corner case that I'd never rationally expect anybody to actually use it that way. :) And it forces WAN traffic to contend with local WLAN traffic for that shared pipe, which introduces fun new ways for networks to slow down.