OpenWRT and OPNsense - NEWB comparison

[dogshome]

OPNsense: Powerful, easy to us (once you have a clue what it is you are trying to achieve) and it hasn't failed in what I wanted out of it. Loads of info, and the GUI helps you. Top Job :-)

OPENwrt: Very much like a Raspberry Pi clone in terms of software. I have a couple of Friendly ARM SBCs, an Orange Pi and a horrible Mango Pi. Most of them have some restriction or a dozen required work-arounds. They are gainfully employed as security cams, christmas lights etc and until recently a pi-hole. Only the Mango lies dormant though. No support.

It's not that bad, but reminds me of certain motor drives I've configured in my work. Limited instructions, 'simplified' software diagrams and things you are told to set up monkey-see monkey-do. Doesn't work? start at step 1 again. Thanks Rockwell. Siemens on the other hand, give you masses of good paper and online information, plus detailed diagnostics to see what's happening. It's overwhelming to start with, but much easier once you've got the basics.

[dogshome]

After much rabbit-holing, trying, looking at out of date Youtubes and switching packages (and the order they are installed).....and trying again: I've got OpenWRT working.

A proper house of cards to set up, and the backup doesn't remember what versions or add on packages you need. There is ANOTHER utility that does a full backup and I will explore that. IF it works with the other packages I've installed.

1. Hardware offloading gets newtwork speeds up to where they should be.
2. Adblock. I could not get this to work with Unbound. Adblock-fast integrates much better, once you find the missing settings.
3. GUI terminal addon is handy.
4. Netdata is an interesting hardware monitor with lots of graphs. Edgerouter4 seems to have plenty of power. Quad core Cavium 1Ghz. 1G DDR3 and 4G EMMC. Fanless.
5. Some basic settings (like MAC spoofing) are frustratingly hidden in plain sight. You have to click the greyed-out port to configure that. Argh!

I have a feeling the next firmware update will break it. I didn't get that feeling with OPNsense at all. With the myriad hardware supported, this isn't surprising. A bit like Armbian, except they will have a comparatively massive user base and hence more updates, and minimal bugs now.

Another update. DNSMASQ and Unbound don't play well. Either you get no IP addresses handed out, or Unbound crashes every second or so. You can unlink them, and I have, but it's really not clear what's going on. Various versions, upgrades, changes in operation and general incompatibilities. It's working, it survives reboots, but what a monster.