[osti]

Thanks for the explanation!

I can only see one scenario where it doesn't work out to 2.5gbps, if we have symmetrical 2.5Gbps WAN, then to upload and download at 2.5g from a LAN device wouldn't reach 2.5, because the router has to use that single link for ingress and egress from both sources.

[ssl-3]

Ah. Yes, that's a thing. WAN <-> LAN bandwidth is multiplied by a factor of 2. I didn't work all the way out on the loop. (Apologies -- I don't work with constrained networks at this level every day, and I appreciate the correction.)

It may be fine for "normal" use: 2.5 in, or 2.5 out, or a mix of some of each. Unless we're heavy into torrenting, I'd like to suggest that most households aren't maxing out both at once: We're doing either a big upload or a big download (but usually not both at once), plus whatever baseload we have for background noise (streaming services, browsing, and whatnot).

It's good enough, maybe? Especially for asymmetric sources?

But really: If a person has needs symmetric 2.5, then maybe they should be shopping for a router-like-device that costs more than $90. This little box from the OpenWRT folks is pretty neat, but it's still certainly built down to a price. :)