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ORP1 - an Open Router Project

ORP1 is a high performance networking router that allows you to run a firewall, IPSec VPN (virtual private network) and a Tor server for your home network. Its easy-to-use web interface will make encrypted and anonymised communications for your entire network easier to set up and manage. Now you don’t need to be a geek to be able to ensure that every device you use at home uses the internet with privacy, whether it’s your home PC, smartphone or tablet.

Why is the ORP1 device important? Unlike routers from other security vendors who have been caught helping government surveillance of their customers, the ORP1 hardware and software is open source to provide a system that you can trust - there’s no government-mandated back door for snooping.

ORP1 is a powerful networking platform which is a big step forward from other home networking routers, because its hardware and software is being purpose-built on open source hardware and software for high performance, privacy, and ease of use.

Who should use an ORP1? If you’re an infosec geek, a journalist or activist who needs to ensure privacy of your communications, or just someone who wants no-fuss networking in your home which keeps your internet usage private, ORP1 is for you.

Why an Open Router Project?

With growth in Internet speeds and the ongoing revelations that everyday people are having their personal information captured, we felt the need for a powerful platform that can be used to encrypt communications and protect our privacy and anonymity. An affordable and trustworthy system didn't seem to be on the market , thus ORP1 - the Open Router Project - was born. We need your help to make this a reality.

Security products are nothing without trust and we feel it is necessary to have a product on the market that is truly open. As such, not only is the ORP1 software to be released with an open source license, we will also be releasing the hardware design.

Why we're crowdfunding the ORP1

We have funded the project research & development all the way up to prototype phase. Now we need your help to fund the final development of the prototype and manufacture the final product. Bootstrapping has worked up until now, but it’s meant the development of the ORP1 has been slow. We want to speed up the development so we can get the ORP1 out into the world as soon as possible. Especially since there’s a growing distrust of current security vendors - we want a secure and private alternative on the market ASAP.

Our Indiegogo budget will pay for:

• user interface development
• finalising the software
• system and compliance testing
• industrial design
• the first manufacturing run.

The perks of being an early adopter

If you want to be among the first to get your hands on the ORP1, we recommend you buy a Privacy Freak (only 10 available, sorry!) or Early Adopter perk. We expect to ship the ORP1 prototype to Privacy Freaks and Early Adopters in April 2014. Assuming we reach our fundraising goal, we expect to ship the ORP1 to all supporters in May 2014.

If you can't afford an ORP1, but would like to support the project, you can buy a Freedom Lover perk for $25. You will receive a warm glow from having supported an open source project, as well as a discount code to be able to buy an ORP1 at the Indiegogo price of $400 if ordered by 31 July, 2014.

Obviously the faster we reach our fundraising goal, the quicker we can move to the next phase of development, so if you want ORP1 to happen, please pledge today, and share this page with your friends too.

The Specs - Hardware

With the increase in internet speeds across the world we’ve found it difficult to find affordable devices that can be used to encrypt data on high speed connections. Consumer devices tend to be underpowered while enterprise products are priced out of the reach of most people.  We’ve designed the ORP1 to ensure it is capable of coping with high speed connections while remaining affordable.

The ORP1 is powered by a Freescale QorIQ P1010 processor.  The P1010 includes a 32-Bit PowerPC core along with a hardware encryption engine, secure boot functionality, DDR3 interface, three Gigabit Ethernet (GE) ports, and two USB ports. A Gigabit Ethernet switch with 5 external GE ports is connected to one of the P1010’s GE ports.

Backers will receive a unit fitted with an 800MHz P1010 and 512MB of DDR3 SDRAM.  Backers will also receive a copy of the schematics and PCB layout.

Our performance tests have shown that the system gets line speed routing and firewall performance with almost no impact on the CPU.  IPSec testing has shown full-duplex IPSec performance at 700Mbps, and we are expecting this to be line speed with 15-20% CPU usage by manufacture.

Specifications

• Freescale QorIQ P1010 @ 800MHz, with hardware encryption engine, and secure boot
  
• WAN Port (Gigabit Ethernet)
  
• DMZ/WAN Port (Gigabit Ethernet)
  
• 5 Port Switch (Gigabit Ethernet)
  
• VLAN Support
  
• 512MB DDR3 SDRAM
  
• 1GB NAND FLASH
  
• 2 USB 2.0 Host Ports
  

The Specs - Software

The ORP1 has a custom Linux distribution built using Yocto and is configured via a web interface. The basic system will include:

• Setup wizard
  
• Basic network setup
  
• DHCP server
  
• DNS server (DNSMasq)
  
• Firewall
  
• NAT/Port Forwarding
  
• IPSec
  
• Tor (basic on/off)
• IPv6
  
• SIP Proxy
  
• Firmware updating
  
• Ability to enable automatic firmware updates: keep your system patched!
• Status dashboard
  
• Backup/Restore of configuration

Stretch goals

(Geeks, you’ll want to read this)

When we break our target we have quite a list of stretch goals we'd like to achieve. We'd like your input in ranking these, so backers will get the opportunity to let us know what they think before we finalise the order.  Here's a few of the stretch goals we're aiming for:

• Tor Advanced (allow routing of certain services through your IP, limit internal IPs that use Tor, etc.)
• OpenVPN
• Intrusion Detection/Prevention
  
• Certificate Management for IPSec (plus on-board CA for certificate creation)
  
• QoS/traffic shaping
  
• User Management
  
• L2TP
  
• SSL VPN
  
• SSH Key Management
  
• Diagnostics
  
• Remote syslog
  
• VLAN
  
• MAC Filtering
• USB Storage
  
• USB Wifi
  
• SNMP
• RADIUS
  
• Packet capture and display for diagnostics
  
• Implement secure boot features
  

All software will be released under an open source license.

About Us

The ORP1 is being developed by an experienced team of four software and hardware developers from Redfish Group Pty Ltd in Brisbane, Australia.

Our lead designer, Justin Clacherty, is the Founder and Managing Director of Redfish. Justin has degrees in Engineering (Electronics) and in Information Technology (Computer Science). He has over 16 years experience as a professional engineer developing hardware and software systems for the electricity industry, mining, rail, entertainment, and telecommunications.

 
You can read more about our team on the ORP1 site.