Home network overhaul

Networking
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I have been running a Linksys off the shelf router for a couple years, but at this point it hasn’t gotten any updates in over a year. I have a former repeater now wireless bridge running OpenWRT, and I was thinking about putting OpenWRT on the existing Wifi router. My main issue with that is the hardware limitations. That little box doesn’t have enough ram or storage for everything I’d want to do. So I started looking at other options.

I want to have a separate router and wireless setup so I started looking at x86 router options. I landed on OPNsense for nwo and have been playing with it as a test on an old laptop for a couple weeks. I’m loving it and it worked with the built-in ethernet and my usb-ethernet adapters with no issues. The router will be firewall, router, DHCP and DNS. Maybe a tftp server if I decide to try setting up netboot on my Pi3 running HomeAssistant.

Whether I stick with OPNsense or go with something else now it’s time to figure out my Wifi setup. I know Wendell talked about EnGenius when he reviewed the outdoor AP, but he said it required a cloud connection. I’ve only seen one other post here on the forums talking about the on-prem setup, but it was over a year old. EnGenius does have an on-prem setup using their ezMaster server. They do offer a device called a SkyKey that runs ezMaster and doesn’t require a dedicated server. For my setup I’m going to convert the OVA image they provided over to a qcow2 image to run on my KVM/QEMU setup with my other virtual machines.

I know the other post I saw said they don’t have the best customer support but I’m not too worried about that right now. If I have a bad experience with them now I’ll just go with something else when I’m in a house and can run Cat6 everywhere. For now in my apartment the only 100% wired devices are in the living room and everything else goes over wifi including everything connected to my bedroom wifi bridge.

I’m still up in the air which AP I’m going to buy. I know I want to future-proof with 802.11ax but debating if I want to go with a 2x2 solution or 4x4. Given that my limited wired network is all still 1 gig I don’t know if it’s worth it to go 4x4 until I’m in a house and can run 10 gig everywhere.

Any thoughts on all this?

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FWIW Ubiquiti U6-LR is 4x4; you don’t really need a controller for a single AP, although you can run one of you want, and if you get bored with the firmware they provide you can use OpenWRT on it.

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Thanks, I looked at a few models from Ubiquiti, but they are more expensive than the similar models from EnGenius. The EnGenius APs are also usable standalone, but you need a controller for the more advanced functionality. Same is true for the Ubiquiti, and everything from them is more expensive. I like the idea of controlling most of my network locally. I don’t care about cloud controls for any of it except my smart devices, but I have that covered through HomeAssistant.

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The unifi controller is just a java app, that typically you would run locally or remotely. It’s generally not a thing someone else runs. It serves configs in JSON form to individual devices over http, and devices send counters the controller web app can show on stats pages.

There’s no cloud unless you really want to, and the controller is not strictly needed for regular operation.

There’s packages for various distros, and fine people on the internet are packaging docker containers and there’s a Home Assistant add-on as well.

I would not use them if they were fully vendor cloud dependant.

You may also want to look at Belkin RT3200 (or whatever the Linksys branded equivalent) ; they’re based around the same chipset as U6-LR, but often go on Amazon discounts. Also OpenWRT compatible.