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The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) announced last week<\/a> that the OpenWrt One, a Wi-Fi router created with open-source software in mind, is now available to buy<\/a> for $89 on AliExpress. The SFC says the router \u201cwill never be locked down\u201d and gives its owners the \u201cright to change, modify, and repair\u201d as they like.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The OpenWrt One is aimed at giving owners a \u201chacker-friendly device\u201d that doesn\u2019t rely on private companies\u2019 update schedules and won\u2019t lose support over time. That the OpenWrt One uses open-source software \u2014 it comes with OpenWRT pre-installed \u2014 means, in theory, you can keep it up-to-date for as long as you care to use it. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The SFC collaborated with single-board computer maker Banana Pi \u2014 which released its own OpenWRT router<\/a> called the BPI-WIFI6 earlier this year \u2014 to manufacture the OpenWrt One. The router also comes as a standalone logic board<\/a> for $68.42, although as Tom<\/em>\u2019s Hardware<\/em> notes<\/a>, that doesn\u2019t appear to be available in the US just yet. The router has a switch that lets you separately flash the NOR and NAND parts of its flash memory \u2014 which makes it \u201calmost unbrickable,\u201d according to its AliExpress listing. The board also features an M.2 expansion slot. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Otherwise, the OpenWrt One is a simple, dual-band affair that uses the Wi-Fi 6 standard on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. It can be powered through either a USB-C port on the back or the 2.5GbE ethernet port next to it, using power over ethernet. It also has a gigabit ethernet LAN port, and it sports both a USB-A and USB-C port on the front. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Compared to Banana Pi\u2019s cheaper $30 router, this model has twice the RAM at 1GB, and although it only has two ethernet ports compared with the BPI-WIFI6\u2019s four, it has PoE support through its 2.5GbE port, where the BPI-WIFI6 router is all standard gigabit. The new router also has 3 x 3 MIMO support on the 5GHz band, so should supply more data throughput to more devices. It\u2019s still not a wireless networking powerhouse \u2014 but with the lack of flexibility many mass-market alternatives offer, being purpose-built for open-source software is worth celebrating.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n