Alternate Firmware for EdgeRouter Lite?

[AdvHomeServer]

I picked up a used Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite for fun and hobby purposes and, pretty much, have decided it's not worth the effort as a home router. I have several reasons for this:

• The gui is nice but substantially incomplete given the capabilities of the router
• Vyatta is not documented well at the mfgr site
• Vyatta 6.3 documentation is available from an obscure ftp site, but it goes on for over a dozen manuals and thousands of pages
• The forum is helpful for specific questions but not helpful if you're outside of the mainstream the users see themselves as being a part of
• For commercial use, a visit to DICE showed no jobs using edgerouter as the keyword and 1 job using ubiquiti as the keyword. CCNA as the keyword yielded 694 jobs. Cisco as the keyword yielded 3168 records. RPG or AS400 (old stuff but still in use ... my old stomping ground) returned 247 jobs. This tells me that if I were young and starting over, Cisco would have my full attention for commercial networking.

Thus, I've given up on it as shipped.

I've learned that DD-WRT is available for it as alternative firmware. The DD-WRT forum has little direct help in providing instructions on how to load it or if there is a cost for this implementation (I think there is) Does anyone have information on how to load and use it on an Edgerouter Lite? A release that is purported to work on it is available from Brainslayer's files.

I've also read that PfSense might come out with a version for the edgerouter after they implement v2.2 for the mainstream version. This is the one I'm really waiting for. I hope they follow through. Any general comments there?

 

[OP06D]

I have an Edgerouter Lite and an Edgerouter 8 and I'm very happy with both of them. Before you give up on the manufacturer firmware totally, I would suggest you upgrade to the current 1.6.0 firmware version. Most of the cli config commands are also available in the GUI with the new firmware. There are many configuration examples on the Ubiquiti web site. Additionally there are two SOHO setups available as wizards within the GUI with firmware version 1.6.0.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

Thanks but I did that. Some of my complaints and irritations are:

no-ip is not a DDNS selection but ubiquiti forum or google, I can't remember which, offers a workaround in the cli. This is ridiculous. no-ip is one of the biggest DDNS providers in the world.

OpenVPN requires CLI access for implementation. Instructions, as always, are vague and difficult to find. Lots of data, little information. PPTP is useless because it is not secure.

Little available good instruction material and little interest at providing it. For example, yes you can build a firewall but show me good instructional material that does not require me to scour bits and pieces from around the web to assemble it. Also, how much of one does ubiquiti expect me to build for myself? With Cisco, you are told from the start your router is a box in need of programming. With the edgerouter you get mixed messages about your firewall and its effectiveness.

I like the ability to use a CLI for fun and education. I don't like being required to use it for much but then not be given the instructional material on how to use it well. Yes, I saw the introductory material in the user guides. Good start, but much more is needed.

I attempted to ask questions at the forum using a different ID and was treated quite rudely because my questions were a little out of the mainstream. This implied to me that the current users took pride in the current arrangement. I expect more.

If the edgerouter were more common commercially, as evidenced by employee demand at DICE, I would be more open minded. As it is now, to me, it's a difficult to use niche product. I'm hoping an alternate firmware with documentation can improve on it.

 

[Trip]

I know hindsight can be 20/20, but I'd offer up a simple explanation - price. The same goes for a lot of MikroTik's stuff. Looking at what you're getting on an overall scale, the value is pretty undeniable. That said, the value sector is what it is, and so I'd offer that as just a perspective, as opposed to an excuse, for what one may or may not be able to expect from a $100 MSRP on a product of this nature. I know that doesn't add anything tangible towards addressing your original question, but perhaps you might just give the ERL a second shot and find a use for it as-is?

 

[System Error Message]

I would avoid installing another firmware on the edgerouter because of the CPU. Its the same problem with broadcom ARM based routers in which 3rd party firmwares cant use accelerated features of the CPU. The MIPS itself is weak in multiple areas but what makes the edgerouter MIPS different is that there are a lot of things on the chip itself other than the MIPS cores themselves and this is by looking at the performance.

Update your firmware and try it out. I know some routerboards can use openWRT instead of routerOS but unless you intend to use the routerboard as a mini linux server routerOS already is a very good router based OS. If you still arent satisfied with the features but dont mind losing the performance and spending effort than you should try alternative firmwares.

 

[vnangia]

For commercial use, a visit to DICE showed no jobs using edgerouter as the keyword and 1 job using ubiquiti as the keyword. CCNA as the keyword yielded 694 jobs. Cisco as the keyword yielded 3168 records. RPG or AS400 (old stuff but still in use ... my old stomping ground) returned 247 jobs. This tells me that if I were young and starting over, Cisco would have my full attention for commercial networking.

For what it's worth, I don't think any of the alternative firmwares have much acceptance in the business/commercial space either. I'm told that there are large enterprises that use pfSense, but I've yet to come across any of them myself and I can't think I've even heard of a small business using DD. I'd agree it might make more sense to pick up Cisco kit, but you might be better off selling the UBNT regardless. I was very, very much considering picking one up a couple of years ago after the forums here were gung-ho on it, but a general lack of availability, changing priorities (security over speed) and feedback from other prosumers (rather than network engineers) eventually led me to rule it out as unfit for home use.

Now I'm beating myself up over whether I want a Sonicwall TZ205/215, a Zyxel USG40/60, a Watchguard XTM25, a Fortigate 60, a Cisco ASA5505 ...

 

[JoeJoe]

There is said to be a port of pfsense coming eventually for this router.