Most ISP’s have a specific list of approved modems that they support. You will want to check with their website or support team to verify if the one you want is approved before you buy one.
Also something to note when buying, both of the major chipset manufacturers have issues right now.
Modems based on Broadcom chipsets are vulnerable right now and potential attacks could even be persistent through reboots as an attacker can change settings at will and can even affect firmware.
Likewise, the next most common Intel Puma6 chipset also has a defect which which causes performance, jitter and latency issues for many users. Supposedly these modems are also particularily sensitive to a targeted and specific kind of DDOS attack that can temporarily knock you offline. Several fixes have been offered by Intel but none have been completely effective in most reports.
Unfortunately, I’m afraid its a pick your poison on this one however until complete fixes are provided and rolled out. I’m not aware of any other chipset options available at this point in time. Maybe someone else who knows of one can chime in with more info?
I’m surprised to see no mention of openwrt here! It works extremely well alongside pfsense, turning $20 consumer routers in to both a WiFi AP and an Ethernet switch. Not only that, you get the latest Linux kernel and wpa2 security patches, and it’s open source.
You buy modems based on technology. There are 3 main types of modems, cable, DSL, and fiber.
You said you’re getting gig internet, so it’s going to be cable or fiber coming into your house. Do you what it will be? I’m guessing it’s going to be cable, which means you’ll need to buy a DOCSIS 3.1 capable modem. I’d recommend the Arris SB-8200 since it just a modem and not also a wifi router.
As for router pfSense would be my first choice. It’s easy to use, just works and has a large community behind it. I’d then just buy a dumb 8 port switch (sounds like you only need one since it seems like you can just plug pfSense into cable going through the wall and put the switch on the other side, but you may want to draw up a little diagram showing where stuff will be plugged into so we know). Then pick up a Unifi nanoHD AP and just use the phone app to configure it.
@kdb424 I am sorry I didn’t get back to you until now, I missed your post.I wasn’t aware you could connect to the normal subnet by using a software bridge.