Technology

Hyper fiber??? I don't even have regular fiber here and y'all are moving on to HYPER???

Hyperfibre sounds like some weight-loss supplement.

I mean, technically there's no reason a router can't route between more than two networks. For example, I've got both fiber and cable Internet (for no real good reason -- I ought to cancel one and save some money) and I've configured my OpenWRT router to have two different uplinks, reconfiguring one of the four LAN ports to WAN2 instead.

I've also got the other ports configured for separate VLANs (walling my untrustworthy Chinese ONVIF cameras off from being able to phone home, for example), but I think that's technically not "routing" 'cause it's OSI layer 2.

I assume it's not common to have more that two networks being routed, especially in a SOHO environment, but it's definitely not impossible.

Routers can run just fine off only one port too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_on_a_stick

That's not entirely true. Having a router with multiple interfaces is useful for multiple physical networks like VoIP, OOB, dmz, etc. We use vlans a lot for that now, but it's not fair to say only two ports is the only choice.

A router is also an open-by-default device, and knows how to handle routing protocols like OSPF. It's not something you would usually use at home unless you're into that sort of thing. Things we tend to call a "router" are all-in-one firewall/switch/access points.

Only some have an internal switch, others just have multiple NICs.

That is what a router is, switches are generally a separate thing. It is only the home hybrids that combine the two different things.

I have two separate networks in my home + WAN the router combines all 3 as they are designed for. The switches just switch the packets in those separate networks. (and not to get all fancy with layer 3 switches)

Are you too used to Cisco devices? Mikrotik routers also have multiple ethernet ports, that are not connected to an internal switch.

The Asus BT8 has recently had support added in snapshots.

It really grinds my gears how many things could be almost trivially designed to be rackmountable, but aren't for no good reason. I guess in some cases it's for market segmentation so they can charge more for "enterprise" gear, but in a lot of cases they don't make any of that stuff to begin with so it clearly isn't.

I'm actually so fed up with it that I'm seriously considering learning how to do sheet metal fabrication so I can make my own damn rackmount cases for stuff (with blackjack and hookers).

Also, what I really want is a version of this thing that's rackmountable but has no wifi, and then another in the form factor of a ceiling-mounted PoE access point.

(And yes, this is just for my house, not "enterprise." It's not even a very big/fancy house; I just like my tech to be cleanly installed.)

I run an older half depth supermicro server with a sfp+ PCI card for my router. At this point, it feels like dedicated boxes just aren't worth it for routers except for enterprise where I need a support contract.

I have a bpi-r4, it’s fantastic, totally recommended.

No idea about its wifi 7 though, I didn’t buy the addon board, and went with unifi u7’s instead.

Also, looking at the specs of the upcoming openwrt two devices, with only a single 10g port, it won’t work well if you’re getting 10gig service from your ISP, and have a 10g lan as well

Have you heard of our lord and saviour the used Thinkcentre tinys? (Like m710)

Sure, 802.11k,r,v is supported and Dawn/usteer can handle steering.

The idea is that you use the 10Gb port as a trunk, then you use your switch to split it into separate physical ports using VLANs.