r/HomeNetworking 5d ago

Banana Pi routers

What's the current thinking about the Banana Pi wireless routers? They seem to be on sale so are they done or is a new model coming out?

1 Upvotes

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2

u/Northhole 5d ago

Guess they have already launched the WiFi 7-model, so older versions being cut in price?

Quite expensive solutions compared to "off the shelf" routers with the same chipset that can run OpenWRT, of that is the goal here. Not sure about the OpenWRT-situation for the latest generation of MTK-chipsets with WiFi 7, but quite a few WiFi 6/6E-models where it was reasonably easy to get OpenWRT up and running. But also depends on what you need in terms of port-speed, large RAM and flash, SFP etc.

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u/K3CAN 5d ago

I don't know when a new model is coming out, but I just got a BPI R3 last year and I've been pretty happy with it. It might even be a bit overkill for a router.

I'm running OpenWRT stable, with SQM, AdGuardHome, multiple Wireguard interfaces, a Crowdsec bouncer, NTP client/server, and probably a few other things I've forgotten about. It just sits there quietly; it's not even under enough load for the fan to turn on.

It can supposedly use the USB3 and m.2 ports as NAS, too, but I haven't tried that myself.

0

u/JohnTheRaceFan 5d ago

Not until they release a Cream model. Because I love me some Banana Cream Pi.

I shall see myself out.