So Google fibre is coming to town in a year or so and I’m moving and using the opportunity to up my game on network gear. Would buying a router that has the throughput for gigabit over Ethernet be cheaper and as full featured as a self built?
You don't need much processing power to handle gigabit. Build your own, it's more fun.
2 Likes
if you want the jouney or the features then build your own. if not then pre-built is the way togo.
I was looking into it - wanted to build it myselve but in the end I did not find a solution for 1U thats not overly expensive buying and than later on the powerbill - so I wen't and got a UBNT edge router - maybe if they dont imprve their firmware soon, ill flas pfsense over it
i have the ubiquiti edgerouter x and i have been happy with it. if i had the money i would build a router though. in all honesty, you can even probably get away with one of the avoton boards and have more than enough power for gigabit speeds.
1 Like
I would say build your own, or buy an old tower and slap some NICs/wireless cards in it.
I assume you have multiple devices (or else probably wouldn't need this), and my suggestion would be a decent multi-antenna wireless card plus a dual-NIC. Then you can buy a cheap switch from Monoprice. You get the bonus benefit of actually having to think about your network and make real decisions.
So my router runs a celeron 1037U, it sips power, runs perfectly and possibly cooled.
Pre built might be cheaper depending on what you buy but self build will always be more powerful (useful for VPN traffic) and more fewtureful.
1 Like
In the Comprehensive guide to pfSense, about four minutes in the first ep, it is explained why off the shelf home routers are not something you want really:
Part 2 is more specific about hardware:
He's pretty much on target. I fully agree that a "wireless router" can be good as a wireless AP and crap as a actual router/firewall.
3 Likes
For Gigabit I would go with self built. You can probably get a cheap celeron based system and it will work very well. Then your biggest problem is a WiFi AP.
1 Like
Shouldn't be a problem with any good multi-antenna PCI wireless card & PFSense, no?
I ended up not bothering, support for WiFi I though was a hassle I just went with a decent but inexpensive AP.
Personally I'd disagree. But I want as much control over my network as possible, and OP may not at all.
Wireless support in FreeBSD is not good at all, a separate cheap wireless AP is much preferred.
2 Likes
i have a ubiquiti uap deployed for the wireless. its a standalone ap but it does have some controller software. nothing to terrible. its been reliable
Considering access is controlled by the firewall to the network that works for me. The other option is essentially to stick with 802.11g or less reliable 802.11n if you can find compatible cards. And of course your stuck where your router is, if you want decent WiFi coverage over more than a room or two your probably going to want APs.
1 Like
There are some decent and inexpensive AP's around that you can flash OpenWRT to. Then you'll have pretty much all the control you'd want. I have a TpLink Archer C7 at home, it works well as a wireless AP (we have Ubiquiti Unifi at work of course). 5Ghz is working. Support for 5GHz was pretty much Zero in pfSense/FreeBSD last time I checked. Although, if plain old 2.4GHz b/g is enough for you, there are stuff that work with pfSense/FreeBSD. I've tested a cheap Dlinlk USB adapter at home, get about 20Mbit over it when it is directly connected to the pfSense box.
I use a Shuttle DS57u (celeron 3205u) as a pfSense fw, it is overkill but was actually cheaper than buying hardware from pfSense for me at the time.
1 Like
Welp, you're all in agreement that I was wrong. Fair enough, I think you've convinced me.
True, it isn't really a problem, just something else that would need to be addressed whether it be a dedicated AP that is located somewhere else, or a PCI-e adapter on the pfSense box.
Really not worried about the wifi throughput. I'm putting up shop in 1100 sq ft apartment. I'll more than likely just get a cheap dinky ap for the living room area if I even have problems with it.
I already have a gigabit switch, it's really cheap so who knows if I'll really get that through put, but it will last me until google does get to me. I'll hit up the local thrift shop or ebay or something for an old cheap tower. Buying new hardware doesn't seem to be cost effective as much as I would like ultra small form factor with low power consumption.
this is awesome. I had no idea I could turn my old pc into a router.
1 Like