Re: Security: OpenWRT vs. Debian [Was:] Re: Linux router AP with reserved IPs on wlan0?
> I think we are really in basic agreement. The reason I use OpenWRT is
> that I use a residential all-in-one WAP / switch / router, which Debian
> is unsuitable for. If I ever go the separate WAP / switch / router
> route, I'll probably use Debian on the router for the reasons you
> give: good support, a system I'm familiar with, etc.
Here's a related datapoint:
For a couple years, I have used a <foo>Pi box as router+WAP, running
Debian (after having used "home routers" running OpenWRT for many years
before that).
I was quite happy with it software side (a bit less convenient to
configure than OpenWRT for the WAP part, but largely makes up for it for
the ease with which I could add auxiliary services and the convenience
of using the same OS as I use on all my other machines), but I was
unable to make it provide a good enough wireless signal to cover
my apartment.
So I switched to a box dedicated to WAP+router (BT HomeHub, in my case
https://openwrt.org/toh/bt/homehub_v5a), whose hardware is too limited
to run Debian. IOW the problem for me was to find hardware which is
low-power enough to have it "always on" yet whose wifi interface is good
enough to cover my apartment: these thingies seem to be much more often
able to run OpenWRT than to run Debian :-(
W.r.t security, an important advantage of Debian is that upgrades are
much easier and smoother (so much so that they can be fully automatic)
than in OpenWRT. But I'm a very happy user of OpenWRT (and have been
for many many years).
Stefan
PS: Another reason I went with the BT HomeHub is that it includes the
modem (and that this modem is supported by OpenWRT, tho with
a proprietary firmware), so it saves me having to have yet another box
in that corner (I still have the <foo>Pi there since the HomeHub is not
well suited to provide some of those services, which require a largish
storage which I'd rather not connect via USB).
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