The Turris Omnia is our latest edition to our 4G LTE line of Routers. A quick look under the hood shows why we believe the Omnia is destined a leader in 4G LTE dual band WiFi router solutions.
TURRIS OMNIA OVERVIEW
MINI PCI-E INTERFACES
The Omnia is equipped with three Mini PCI-E slots. Two of the slots are populated with Mini PCI-E WiFi cards. The third slot will accommodate a Mini PCI-E modem such as the Sierra Wireless AirPrime modems as well as many others.
The router board (PCB) is equipped with a Slot for a Standard (full) sized SIM Card. A SIM Card adapter is required when using a Micro or Nano sized SIM card.
Note: A Mini PCI-E to M.2 (Type B) adapter is required when using a M.2 modem such as the Sierra Wireless EM7565 and EM7455 as well as other brand M.2 modems.
The router is equipped with two Mini PCI-E WiFi cards. One card is a 3 x MIMO 2.4GHz/5Ghz AC and the other one is a 2 x MIMO 2.4GHz (half card). This combination is also compatible with WiFi meshing.
The Omnia router case has two cut out holes for SMA female bulkhead antenna connectors for installing the 4G LTE antennas which are not included.
To install a Mini PCI-E modem in the Omnia, 2 x U.FL to SMA female bulkhead pigtails are required (1 x 5″ cable and 1 x 8″/10″ cable).
To install a M.2 modem, 2 x MHF4 to SMA female bulkhead pigtails are required (1 x 5″ cable, and 1 x 8″/10″ cable).
OPEN SOURCE
The Turris Omnia is engineered with open hardware and configured with an operating system based on OpenWrt firmware. This allows software modifications while securing its top-level privacy. Its open hardware assures as to what is inside. No backdoors, no calling-home.
WiFiX offers a custom version of GoldenOrb firmware for the Turris Omnia that supports a wide range of USB, Mini PCI-E and M.2 modems to include the line of Sierra Wireless modems.
PERFORMANCE
High power dual-core ARMv7 CPU at 1.6 GHz, 2 GB RAM and 8 GB eMMC means PC-like performance. The device is designed for high load and long lifespan.
SECURITY
Secure default configuration, easy setup and automatic updates. We also run a farm of honeypots, which simulates a running system and observe would-be attackers. It is possible to easily configure Omnia to redirect specific traffic to the honeypot and get records of caught attackers and their actions. And it is completely safe because the honeypot runs on our server, not on your device.
OpenVPN setup is also possible so you can safely reach your files, stored at home, remotely or make secure connection on public Wi-Fi networks.
NEVER ENDING IMPROVEMENTS
Thanks to automatic updates and growing active community, Omnia receives new features and improvements when available. Unlike ordinary router builds, Omnia is constantly improving its technology with the times.
HIGH THROUGHPUT NETWORK SETUP
Omnia has three gigabit interfaces in the processor. Thanks to good HW design you can reach a full gigabit speed in a full duplex mode between WAN and LAN. This means your router will not slow down your Internet connection. You can also dedicate one gigabit line to a single LAN port via a VLAN to guarantee its speed in presence of other traffic.
EXTENSIBILITY
You can extend the device to work as a DLNA server, add a DVB-T tuner to stream television signal through your network, add a USB sound card or use it as an Internet radio. We even have a how-to for using a web camera as a simple burglar alarm with automatic emailing of photos. Connection of devices like thermostats, security and weather sensors, Raspberry Pi, Arduino and other IoT devices is also possible.
Omnia has huge HW and endless SW extensibility like:
- NAS (Network Attached Storage)
- Thanks to three mini PCI-E ports, one mSATA, two USB 3.0 ports and powerful CPU, you can build your home made NAS with performance comparable to dedicated NAS boxes, thus saving money for running an extra device. There is enough performance to make your own cloud service.
- Backup and dual connectivity
- You can use an LTE USB or mini PCI-E modem (there is even a SIM slot built into the device) for backup connectivity as the same as dual WAN or direct optical connection, thanks to SFP.
- LXC virtualization
- Virtualization is a common feature on modern servers. It helps organize software, adds new features, improves security by splitting important and less important systems, etc.
- Because Turris Omnia has enough power and RAM, we decided to add support for virtualization into the core system and prepared several virtual machines for easy download and setup. The virtual server serves as a normal LAN connected computer and you can run any Linux you want on it – even Ubuntu or Debian. This makes experimentation with new software extra simple and safe.
Tick Tech –
WOW!! A true Bugatti of LTE routers. Highly recommended. It performs better and is as stable as any enterprise level Cradlepoint I have owed. No comparison between the Omnia and the WG3526 (now on the path to retirement). The Omnia is sleek and smaller than the WG3526 but twice as tall. Well designed and has excellent wifi. Used the Wifix firmware and instructions and all loaded without issue. Great job on the Wifix firmware by the way. My only regret is not springing for the new EM7565 cat12 modem which is now at the top of my wish list. The Omnia is a bit pricey but well worth it in my opinion. SIM card swapping is a small inconvenience so I ordered a SIM card extender cable to run on the outside of the case since I swap SIM cards a lot.