Hi Lemmy Community,
At the moment i got a router-modem-combination from my ip and i want to be more independent. Therefore i want to use the provided hardware as bridge and buy my own router to manage my network.
In my home network i got
- 2 Desktop PCs (cable)
- 1 Switch (cable)
- Several WiFi devices including smart home devices
- Pi-Hole
- Mac Mini as a linux Server (cable)
- Synology NAS (cable)
- AVM repeater
Before i start my own extensive research, may you recommend me a Router for my setup?
Thank you in advance :-)
I personally like mikrotik routers. They have all the features you could wish for and then some and they’re relatively cheap for the things they can do. I have RB4011iGS+ (I don’t think that exaxt model is available anymore) and it’s been rock solid. As I have fiber I just pulled the SPF-module from ISP’s box and plugged it in on my own hardware, so the router ISP provided is just gathering dust right now.
But it depends on what you’re really after. If you just need basic firewall/NAT/DHCP functionality and your connection speed is below 1Gbit pretty much any router will do. If you have fast connection and/or need for totally separate networks/VLAN/something else it’s a whole another matter.
I have an hex s and it’s great, but it’s a pain in the ass to setup if you’re not an expert at this stuff.
I have an RB5009 and it’s great. I’d say they’re actually quite easy to get going with the default config. It’s when you get the itch to start messing with stuff that the learning ramps up.
Second the RB5009, I have been using it for some time now and love it. It was an upgrade from my old Mikrotik router, because I wanted more performance out of the tunneling. Performance is one thing the RB5009 has in abundance.
I mean, if you don’t need to do anything but what the default config does, you can buy just any consumer router.
Also I use a wAP with the Hex S and the wifi defaults sucked hard.
If you want a really good, capable firewall that’s easy to configure, go with OpnSense.
If you want granular control and [near] enterprise grade features for a low price, go with Mikrotik.
I am using an OPNsense Qotom MiniPC as a firewall/router. I have three Zyxel Wireless APs that I flashed with OpenWRT. I also have two Zyxel switches (8 and 24 port) that I also flashed with OpenWRT. And lastly, I have two Netgear R7000s, also with OpenWRT, that are glorified smart switches. I am very happy with my setup. It works like a champ!
My friend prepared me a router using OpnSense FOSS software on a APU board with 3 Ethernet ports and some other debug ports (usb and VGA) So my internet input is now like this -> coaxial cabel -> ISP modemRouter in modem mode -> Ethernet-> OpnSense APU -> Ethernet -> WiFi access point / Ethernet switch -> WiFi access point satellites
As wifi access point, I use a Orbi WiFi router in bridge mode. My tv streaming device is connected via Ethernet to Orbi and has the full 600mbit down that arrives at my home 😇
Get a somewhat recent Fritzbox and connect all your hardware to this device and then configure it to use your ISP-provided as uplink in the Fritzbox configuration. Since you already use an AVM repeater it should work well together with a Fritzbox.
This is definitively a solid and straight forward plan, i like.
Yep, it’s the easiest solution. You could also check if the provided hardware is necessary or if your ISP allows other devices to be connected. Then you could use the Fritzbox directly.
Pretty much anything from protectli. Very flexible.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters AP WiFi Access Point NAT Network Address Translation Unifi Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand
3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 9 acronyms.
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a router that supports openwrt. relatively new, affordable, good specs/features. non-bs model.
or a computer with NIC that supports AP mode.(if u know how to do that)
Du you want a plastic box or a pc with your own os on it (like opnsense or Linux)? It anything in between? I would say the 2 ends are between a fritzbox and an AliExpress router PC.
Btw throw your repeater away in case you use it as a Wi-Fi extender. It cuts your wifi performance to 1/4. It only works if you use it with a cable as a separate access point.
If you also want to improve your wifi setup, I can recommend unifi. Aruba is also good but they went cloud only and who knows how long they will keep there old non cloud firmware updated.
Good Point, right now i prefer a plastik box for convenience. Unify and Fritzbox are already my shortlist.
Thank you
Personally I’ve had really good luck with the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and R7800 models. They are supported by openWRT as well if you are into that. An issue might be that they are “only” WiFi 5 units. Some of the newer models in the Nighthawk series might be just as good, but i don’t have personal experience with those…
I’ve just bought a 7800 because it can replace my Sky Router apparently with a little tinkering. I have an Openwrt router running as an AP in my loft but was gonna leave this on stock firmware just because I tried to use the Openwrt as DHCP and it didn’t seem to want to work, maybe I just don’t understand it well enough.
All I really want to do is point at my Adaway servers, so I’ll be able to do that with the stock firmware.
Anything is better than what Sky have me locked down to.
Thank you for your extensive answers, now i have more questions than before :-D Due to time and energy i tend to an out of the box, non OSS solution. I’ll keep you updated on my decision and how it went
This is a great community.
Due to time and energy i tend to an out of the box, non OSS solution.
Why not both? OPNsense and pfSense both sell official hardware.
Both are pretty easy to configure but have pretty much no limit on how deep you can go.
Unifi works great as well but you hit a ceiling fairly quickly if it needs to do anything advanced.
I have a Turris Omnia. Very happy with it personally. It comes with OpenWrt but you can put anything you want on it.
I’ve been using Openwrt for a while and its pretty solid and has a lot of useful features.
Do you want a WiFi 5 or 6 device? What’s your price range? What performance do you expect?
Unifi is simple to use but you can hit its limitation. A other brand I can highly recomend is Mikrotik. They have some small and cheap devices to some fairly high end gear 100gb gear. No licensing cost or anything.
I recently switched from my ISP’s combo device to a GL-inet Flint 2 (https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt6000/);;) no complaints with it thus far, and I’ve enjoyed some of the quality of life features it’s got built into it.
I (not op) have a 100 mbps connection. That’s not very fast. Would i even benefit from such a router? I currently have 2 x asus RT-AC88U but the mesh functionality is not great. I have brig walls. The way i understand it, for my needs, wiring is the only way to go?
I’m admittedly not much of a networking expert, but you might be able to improve your existing network by running Ethernet backhaul for your mesh network (assuming your access points support it).
Regarding whether you would benefit from a router like that: I’ve only got a 25Mbps connection, so my main use case for it is using ZeroTier to access various services on my local network, more advanced firewall controls, and the dual 2.5G Ethernet ports for connection between my main PC and home server.
