Banana Pi BPI-R3 Wi-Fi 6 OpenSource Wireless Dual-Band OpenWRT Router Board with MediaTek MT7986(Filogic 830),Support 5X GbE and 2X 2.5GbE SFP (Bundle3-BPI R3+Antennas)

This is a great bargain as long as you are up to the task of setting up OpenWRT. It is not for the beginner. You will need some Linux/CLI knowledge. At the time of this writing there is no GUI web interface included in the default OpenWRT package, which is still in Release Candidate stage. But, installing LuCI (the web interface) is pretty straight forward. Once you have LuCI installed, the average bloke, like me, will be in more familiar territory. There are plenty of online resources to help you get started. This was my first experience with both OpenWRT and LuCI, and it was not painful to get it all up and running. Static leases and Port Forwarding was simple.Impressions. Fast. Everything on the router is fast. Installs and restarts are mere few seconds. I used this replace a consumer grade TP-Link that absolutely crawled, not just in the GUI, but routing too. I have a lot traffic on my home network with 6 security cameras, 2 servers, all the smart-home stuff we surround ourselves with, Rokus... yadda yadda.. The latency on the LAN and WIFI was really really bad. I was going to segregate the cameras to a separate network, but this BPI is so fast, it wont be necessary.Assembly is required. The unit's metal case is built like a tank. It has a small foot print. The Wifi antenna leads were plenty long enough to hook everything up.The Banana-Pi is really a marvel, and at a great price point. It puts consumer routers to shame with its performance and speed. It really speeds up browsing. I immediately had web sites popping up instantaneously on my PC (milliseconds), all I did was swap out the router.My only regret is that I didn't buying it sooner.

Really enjoyed the challenge of getting this thing working. I've only been using it for a few days, but it seems to work really well as a WiFi access point, using OpenVPN to route all traffic through my VPN. I plan to setup video streaming from a USB drive soon.Things to know:1) Mine came with an odd selection of hardware, and the heatsink/fan was not assembled as the seller indicated it should be. I needed to purchase some screws to assemble the heatsink. Not a big deal, but it wasn't "everything included" like you might expect from a consumer product.2) Documentation is sparse...you'll be digging through online forums...the software is under active development3) As others have indicated, the wires to the antennas aren't long enough to go around the heatsink and allow all combinations of layout. In other words, if you want your 2/5G antennas in a specific configuration, you might need to purchase other wires. The included ones were long enough to work if you aren't picky about which antennas are 5G and which are 2G.4) This board has an issue where the WiFi functions are grounded out (disabled) when the serial connector is attached. You'll need to remove the serial connection and use Ethernet to configure WiFi.Have fun!

Works good.

All right, the Banana Pi BPI-R3, it gets a 4 out of 5 star from me, as it has almost everything you would need.The problem being the KIT that you buy, that comes with the pre made case, 2 heat sink pads (which are not enough and are not the correct size!!!), and 8 antennas with pigtails so short that you literally have to put one of the wires through the heat sink just to be able to connect it.First, the case. It's maetal, it has no air holes and this device gets quite toasty running a minimum of 58c with the case closed, and 38c with it open. So 1st strike against the case, no air flow. 2nd strike, if you populate and of the PCIE slots you will have no access with this case, if you populate the PCIE 2.0 x2 slot on the back with SATA device or another wireless device, you won't be able to access it with this case.They provided 2 heat sink pads but you need 6!What should be included = 1 (0.5mm pad) , 5 (1.0mm pads) . 0.5mm covers the switch chip, and the rest are for the CPU, the memory, the EMMC, and especially the 2 WiFi chips that should definitely be cooled in some way.The other problem, which is obvious from the picture, is that you have to have a masters degree in puzzles to assemble this is you use the provided antennas and pig tails! As I said previously they are WAY TOO SHORT, like so short that you will literally have to run at least 1 cord smashed under the heat sink cooler, and even then you have to leave the entire left side off the case so you can swing the board up to install the heat sink array, then install all 4 antennas on the other side which will prevent you from ever taking this out of the case again without going through the entire process backwards. So complete failure on that part.So checklist, you need longer pig tails from the antennas and you will need a different case if you intent on using the mPCIE or the other PCIE slot, you will also have to drill holes in the case and put a mesh over it so you can clean the dust, you will need to buy 0.5mm and 1.0mm heat sink pads and cut them for the other chips.So the board works, it is just the did not think through the design very well and they went too cheap on the antennas wires, to the point that it is a huge issue and as you can see one of the pig tails literally just fell off in my hand. Quality control problem too.If I had known these problems before I bought it, I would have just bought the board and purchased everything else separately.If they want to contact me to address any of these problems I will be happy to amend the review and inform everyone.Now I currently have to re-order the antennas from a different vendor because of the one defective pig tail, but I can't return the one part I have to return the entire kit! So now I am stuck in spend mode to fix obvious mistakes on vendors part.

kit comes with an EU adapter and two thermal pads to cover six chips.You will need to buy a US adapter and 4 1.0mm thermal pads to finish assembly. Plus the case is almost sealed so you will have to run it with the top off or drill ventilation holes. The heatsink also only partly covers the chips.

Where have you been all my life? Good Lord, it's too difficult to find routers that run open source. Nighthawk 7000 was what i had, because i couldn't settle on the poker game of choosing a new crap router. They are all expensive junk with bad old firmwares. The install felt confusing but I was up and running very quickly.I haven't done anything fancy with this router other than toggling some hardware offload setting that was a little hard to find. I configured it and now my devices can go faster. This is just a wireless bridge for me.Thank you for manufacturing this. This is how products should be sold.