[NNagain] upgrading old routers to modern, secure FOSS

[le berger des photons]

you've convinced me to go see libre qos.  thanks.

On Mon, Oct 23, 2023 at 7:04 PM Dave Taht via Nnagain <
nnagain at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:

> I loved that this guy and his ISP burned a couple weeks learning how
> to build openwrt, built something exactly to the need, *had it work
> the first time* and are in progress to update in place 200+ routers to
> better router software, that just works, with videoconferencing, IPv6
> support, and OTA functionality. No need for a truck roll, and while
> the available bandwidth deep in these mountains in Mexico is meager,
> it is now enough for most purposes.
>
>
> https://blog.nafiux.com/posts/cnpilot_r190w_openwrt_bufferbloat_fqcodel_cake/
>
> I have no idea how many of this model routers were sold or are still
> deployed (?), but the modest up front cost of this sort of development
> dwarves that of deployment. Ongoing maintenance is a problem, but at
> least they are in a position now to rapidly respond to CVEs and other
> problems when they happen, having "seized control of the methods of
> computation" again.
>
> OpenWrt is known to run on 1700 different models, already, (with easy
> ports to obscure ones like this box) - going back over a decade in
> some cases.
>
> Another favorite story of mine was the ISP in New Zealand that
> deployed LibreQos and had all their support calls (from gamers and
> videoconferencers) cease overnight. The support tech, formerly drowned
> in angst from the users, set to work automating an reflashing 600 old
> agw routers they had "retired" on the shelf, and then distributing
> them to customers as extenders because the wifi finally worked right
> with the fq_codel stuff now in that release.
>
> I feel like I am tooting my own horn here a bit too much, but solving
> the right problems like MTTR, MTBF, bufferbloat, and taking back
> control of your software infrastructure while being able to customize
> it for purpose, and turning what otherwise would be ewaste into
> something that will last a decade more, is my inner "green", my inner
> stewart brand.
>
> Compare that to so many others being marketed to, to death, that buy
> the latest (and often inferior) thing, every few months, perpetually
> fooled by promises that do not pay off in the field, and often, really
> lousy MTBF. Good embedded software takes many years to develop, say,
> oh, 7, while the hardware cycle is closer to 2, nowadays, and requires
> many eyeballs to fully debug and get to lots of 9s of reliability.
>
> Back when I was even more radical about good, open, embedded, software
> than now, I used to say: "Friends don't let friends run factory
> firmware.". I do wish somehow the long term maintence costs of
> hardware with a decade plus service lifetime would be adaquately
> covered. Insurance? by law? a formal setaside from the purchase price?
> Otherwise we run the risk of turning the world's internet into a giant
> toxic waste dump that will require Superfund levels of cleanup, one
> day, and ever more contributions to trillions of dollars of fraud, and
> persistent actors having first broken down the front door, perpetually
> on the inside, wreaking more havoc. Somehow preventing that mess, up
> front, seems cheaper.
>
> Take this string of vulns:
> https://www.google.com/search?q=cisco+router+vulnerability
>
> (try that search string with *any* manufacturer - juniper, netgear, tplink,
>
> There is a new vuln going around about some very old software in a
> cisco mx series which is ancient and yet 100k+ are vulnerable -  (I
> worked on this while at montavista in the early 00s!)  - abandonware,
> toxic waste...
>
> Anyway, in Mexico at least, 200+ routers are going to be a lot better,
> through the actions of all that contribute to linux, openwrt, and one
> smart and caring engineer.
>
> --
> Oct 30:
> https://netdevconf.info/0x17/news/the-maestro-and-the-music-bof.html
> Dave Täht CSO, LibreQos
> _______________________________________________
> Nnagain mailing list
> Nnagain at lists.bufferbloat.net
> https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/nnagain
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.bufferbloat.net/pipermail/nnagain/attachments/20231023/97241a80/attachment.html>