Networking / Router recommendations

Hardware Hub Networking
1

Hello Everyone,

I am looking for a little help with selecting a new network solution. My current router is starting to crap out. I am fairly tech savvy but not an IT expert. Just looking for a relatively simple solution. :slight_smile:

My use case:

  • I have a small business I have 1Gigabit fiber
  • Lots of uploads and downloads
  • 2 Desktops
  • 1 Unraid server, Plex mostly, NAS
  • I have 2 phone
  • 4 Wifi connected devices
2

There are a bunch of good options out there. Ubiquity equipment is relatively straight forward . Currently I have a preference for OPNSense be it their hardware or running on your own hardware. It just has a lot more flexibility and if you maintain config backups easy to restore on new hardware in the case of a hardware failure. Which is the one issue I’ve had with Ubiquity is that recovery can sometimes be a challenge.

3

Cool I’ll take a look

1 Like
4

If you’re in Europe, Mercusys MR90X… ~130 EUR which is a steal for what you get. (Quad Core CPU and nice WIFI)

Load OpenWrt and off you go :slight_smile:
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=e4fe3097ef6a961874b66932a0ac4be18070630a

1 Like
5

It might be worth investigating what’s currently bottle-necking your system - 1GbE is not actually that much, especially if you only have a few devices(2desktops+1server+wifi devices probably shouldn’t overload even a basic router).

Just buying a dedicated router(like the Mercusys MR90X suggested above or many others) and optionally flashing that with OpenWRT is probably the way to go, assuming it’s actually the router that’s slowing you down. Be sure to check out the OpenWRT wiki on whatever device you want to buy first, and make sure you know what hardware revisions are supported by OpenWRT and are currently buyable(sometimes the same product name can have incompatible hardware revision when it comes to flashing OpenWRT).

You might be able to get away without any new hardware, assuming you have a switch already:

Why not use that unraid server as your router?

If your server has more than 1 NIC(no need for VLANs):


"Internet" (ISP router/Fiber termination)
  ^
  | (WAN)
  v
Server
  ^
  | (LAN)
  v
Switch
  --> Wifi APs
  --> Other devices

Or if you have a server has only 1 NIC, and your switch has VLANs:

"Internet" (ISP router/Fiber termination)
  ^
  | (VLAN0)
  v
Switch
  <-> (VLAN1) Wifi APs
  <-> (VLAN1) Other devices
  <-> (VLAN0+VLAN1) Server

You could also buy a cheap old desktop PC/thin client to serve as the “router” for very little money.

In either case, almost every Wireless access point will probably serve you fine, including re-using your existing hardware.

6

Assuming you just want the damn thing to work and are not some kind of networking enthusiast and want “weird stuff” 99% of people don’t care about, then…

…this small apple-tv sized box costing, 100/150 bucks is probably a good starting point for whatever your ecosystem ends up looking like, … it could very well just be all you need.

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7

I’d shy away from any “cloud managed” crap.

OpenWRT, OpnSense, Netgate (PfSense), MikroTik… take your pick.
Any mainstream Asus, or TP Link will probably drop support very quickly, on the other hand companies like MikroTik will not.

https://forum.level1techs.com/t/post-what-new-thing-you-acquired-recently/149881/16526?u=vivante

8

What do you mean by „Starting to crap out”?
Honestly you have such small number of devices that even the worst ISP router should handle the load. If it’s a problem with WiFi devices in some rooms it might be better to buy access points to fix that issue instead of new router.

  1. You say you have small business, if you go with your own device you will loose option to blame ISP and request support from them. Something to consider.
  2. There is a lot of enthusiasm for opnsense on the Internet, but I would not recommend it for business. You need subscription for stable channel otherwise you are on beta channel (they call it community channel, but there is update every week, so I’d consider it beta). The hardware from alternatives (pfsense, unifi, Mikrotik) does not require subscription for stable channel.

With less than 10 devices in your network there is no really a reason for network segmentation with vlans. If you need vpn for accessing files, it might be better to go with some storage SaaS solution.

Simple solution is to stay on current ISP router and identify what are your issues / pain points.

EDIT: maybe request new router from ISP?

9

Sophos XGS 107 W, is probably the most expensive option, is easy to manage and will likely cover any use case you may have.

Small business means employees, basic network infrastructure and working remotely?

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10

Netgate has a variety of offical pfsense routers available

I use the Netgate 1100 model for my home network, though you might want a slightly beefier one, not sure. Note that these do not include Wifi, you would add that with a separate wifi access point.

11

Isn’t Sophos in the news like every month about vulnerable this and critical that?

12

Yes. A lot of companies and products seem to have some security issue every week.

Unlike some others, Sophos is mostly on top of fixing their vulnerabilities, their CVE-tracking site.

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