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Tyler of tjll.net writes in his blog:
After my Asus N66U kicked the bucket, I considered a few options: another all-in-one router, upgrade to something like an EdgeRouter, or brew something custom. When I read the Ars Technica article espousing the virtues of building your own router, that pretty much settled it: DIY it is.
I've got somewhat of a psychological complex when it comes to rolling my own over-engineered solutions, but I did set some general goals: the end result should be cheap, low-power, well-supported by Linux, and extensible. Incidentally, ARM boards fit many of these requirements, and some like the Raspberry Pi have stirred up so much community activity that there's great support for the ARM platform, even though it may feel foreign from x86.
I've managed to cobble together a device that is not only dirt cheap for what it does, but is extremely capable in its own right. If you have any interest in building your own home router, I'll demonstrate here that doing so is not only feasible, but relatively easy to do and offers a huge amount of utility - from traffic shaping, to netflow monitoring, to dynamic DNS.
I built it using the espressobin, Arch Linux Arm, and Shorewall.
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday April 13 2018, @01:36PM (8 children)
I've never had a problem with my ethernet based applications on RPi, but then I've never tried to run a router.
The Ethernet-over-USB solution on RPi is widely maligned in the blogosphere, their latest spin is supposed to significantly improve throughput - but still not "fix" it the way a "proper" ethernet interface would.
Is anybody currently playing with an open router, built with modern WiFi and multiple Ethernet ports that's available on the market today using the old-school open router firmware like dd-WRT, etc.?
I am currently using a box-stock Netgear router from about 5 years ago, I thought about flashing it with the open software but... as delivered from the factory it's serving my needs, and I have enough other hobbies already.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday April 13 2018, @01:50PM (1 child)
I am using a purpose-built pfSense device that cost me about $200, but you could go far cheaper than that. It's really a firewall but it has routing functions. Really you can get by with the older versions of it that'll run on just about anything, turn any old computer into a router, its just a matter of getting enough ethernet ports.
https://www.pfsense.org/ [pfsense.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by nekomata on Friday April 13 2018, @03:35PM
pfSense is horrible. The interface is atrocious and the company is quite hostile to the open source idea. I suggest OPNSense instead: https://opnsense.org/ [opnsense.org] (same idea, better execution)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MadTinfoilHatter on Friday April 13 2018, @02:05PM (2 children)
I did use a RPi as a router/firewall/light server for a couple of years, and it kinda, sorta worked until the SD card died. It's not something I'd really recommend, though. Everything was fine when just using the web, but the internal net was painfully slow. It would also crash on average once every two months or so for no apparent reason. What would I recommend? Well, I'd recommend what I'm using now: A PC-Engines box [pcengines.ch] with an AMD Jaguar processor, 3 Intel network cards (so you get WAN, LAN and DMZ). Runs pfsense lika a champ (or Linux if you prefer) and it's far more stable than the RPi. In fact the only time it went down without me shutting it off was when we had a blackout. It will set you back more than $50, though. If you want the full case + WiFi + storage package, you should be prepared to fork over about $200. Totally worth it in my opinion.
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Friday April 13 2018, @05:00PM
Thanks for that link to PCEngines. I needed a small, low-power board and they look perfect - and reasonably priced.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @07:00PM
On raspi, it is critical not to write frequently to the sd card. Hack a bit to make a read only operating environment.
(Score: 2) by Kilo110 on Friday April 13 2018, @02:09PM
Like the other reply, I'm using a mini x86 pc with pfsense. It's purpose designed to be a router. It only has a serial port, couple of usb, vga out, 3 intel gb ports, and in fanless industrial design case. It's a lot pricier at around 200, but it works great and took me all of 30 minutes to get running.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @04:03PM
RPi or RPi0. IPFire works great and does not crash. I use as backup got my main firewall. It can also use iPhone as the red interface. So you backup your main connection. One downside is DNS does not allow dual host files do not as easy to 17000 tracking dites
Home is currently behind a 20yr PC withnIPCop. Been using IPCop for 17 yrs. it is shutting down thought PFsense or OPENsence more likely will be next.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 13 2018, @09:37PM
The Guruplug is an ARM-based device has 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports (not USB attached). It uses U-Boot as a bootloader and Linux can live on the embedded flash or external SD, USB, or externally powered SATA.
It's hardware platform is called "Kirkwood" and Debian supported it the last time I checked.