Should You Build Your Own Router?

Рет қаралды 298,661

Күн бұрын

Build your perfect router:
Seeed CM4 Dual Gigabit Router Board www.seeedstudio.com/Rapberry-...
J4125 Appliance/Router www.aliexpress.com/item/10050...
Gigabyte IMB1900TN www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboa...
DDR3 SODIMM RAM geni.us/FDLD (Amazon)
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:49 Why build your own router?
2:20 Can you even build your own router?
3:42 What hardware do you need?
5:49 Why not just flash OpenWRT on a cheap router?
7:18 So... What should I get instead?
7:45 Seeed CM4 Dual Gigabit Ethernet Board
10:48 Noname J4125 Router from AliExpress
12:48 Custom-built MiniITX router
16:13 What about the Wi-Fi?
17:03 Outro

Пікірлер: 452

@JeffGeerling 2 жыл бұрын

08:58 - I'll be working on another router build soon, this time with a Waveshare board. But yeah, availability of CM4 has been the downfall this year. Still wish some company would integrate an Intel I340 or something like that directly into a CM4 board design so the network packets could route through the NIC and not through the Pi's SoC.

@markarca6360 2 жыл бұрын

OpenWRT supports Raspberry Pi!

@eugenb9017 2 жыл бұрын

Dude, really? You are *everywhere*

@tuttocrafting 2 жыл бұрын

Unfortunatly Intel nics might have huge NDAs thats is why realtek chips are more common. Users should also expect to have more latency since the eths will be running via SW bridge instead of an HW switch IC. I was looking to this problem too... you might also want to use PCIe for WIFI too. I'm really looking forward for new RPIs with hi bandwidth MUXes and more PHYs. So I can for example disable HDMI2 and I have another x1 pcie. Like the RK3568 does. But for a router i'm looking forward to the new MTK Filogic chips. I have fiber via SFP ONT at home (GPON, but moving toward XGSPON), so having a single GBE port is not enought.

@noble_lime 2 жыл бұрын

@martinborovansky5186 2 жыл бұрын

You should take a look at a Fujitsu S920 thin client. Low power AMD quad core, passive cooling, two DDR3 SO-DIMM slots and a low profile PCIe x4 slot. Works very well as a router, up to gigabit speeds. I was able to get ~1.6Gbit of bidirectional traffic with OpenWRT. Also, they can be found for under 30 to 40 eur.

@WolfgangsChannel 2 жыл бұрын

Welp, I guess my next video will be "DON'T BUILD YOUR OWN ROUTER" 😁 Thanks for the tip!

@martinborovansky5186 2 жыл бұрын

You will need a left facing, right angle, 1U, PCIe riser, as the thin clients don't usually have them. Generic risers from ebay should work fine.

@bluesquadron593 2 жыл бұрын

I have this exact system. Actually multiple ones, I stocked them up in case of future builds. Interestingly you can also add a sata ssd and take a power from a pin header. So this system is really versatile.

@markarca6360 2 жыл бұрын

HP t610, t620, and t630 Plus thin clients (it has low-profile PCIe x4 slot) are also good options.

@bluesquadron593 2 жыл бұрын

@@delboyg01 Unfortunately my thin client does not have iommu passthrough.

@xmine08 Жыл бұрын

AES-NI support was also the thing that made having encrypted storage relatively painless as well. Probably the most useful instruction addition to have, even before native virtualization support.

@mhzprayer 2 жыл бұрын

I was listening while cooking something and so a bit of processing delay on what I was hearing. Pretty sure I understood "I have poor impulse control....so I built a router." This image strikes me so hilarious that it keeps coming back making me laugh. I'm picturing every time stifling some impulse dumps open a suitcase of parts and starts assembling a router. Thank you for this!

@romzeek 3 ай бұрын

I don't think anybody who's watching this video isn't interested in networking

@Mr_ToR 10 күн бұрын

I hate double negative sentences...

@romzeek 9 күн бұрын

@@Mr_ToRwhere’d you see double negative in the sentence

@Mr_ToR 9 күн бұрын

@@romzeek "don't" ... "isn't"

@Mr_ToR 9 күн бұрын

You're actually saying "I think anyone watching this is interested in networking". Which is obvious and since nobody is stating the opppsite, why the need of a double negative sentence?

@lesumsi 2 жыл бұрын

Great Video! I'm running a J3455 board with pfSense for over 5 years now. Never had any issues, and the included monitoring graphs helped me to "prove" to Vodafone, that the connectivity issues are on their side. Waiting for the J4125 appliance with 2.5G to arrive for the next big upgrade!

@aeonikus1 2 жыл бұрын

Lucky you. I heard that baytrail CPUs have a silicon problem and they get older quickly and stops booting etc. You can read about it all over the net. Cisco even went that far to replace devices based on this family CPUs.

@markhaus 2 жыл бұрын

One of the nice bonuses of a DIY router is having it run double duty on tasks that are well suited to your gateway node, especially if you run a cluster at home. Things like a load balancer, ingress controller, kubernetes master node, bastion host, DNS (remember this is what pihole is), etc. Yeah a lot of people rush to build a pfsense box when they definitely don’t need it but if you do any kind of homelab stuff a more capable router is a godsend. I’d say go with the efficient x86 options out there if you’re at all interested in even a small homelab. If you’re just doing one server or NAS at home then it’s not worth it

@paulstubbs7678 2 жыл бұрын

I rushed out and built a pfsense box, however it cannot replicate what by ISP's router offers, so it ended up being a double NAT'ed toy. about the only real use for it is as an 'isolator' for unknown PC's that come my way for repair, that need a network connection, but I don't want them to see my NAS's etc. (as in they are potentially full of exploits etc) I am leaning more and more to the retro side of computing, if there were plugins for pfsense that did slip type connections out the serial ports, or I could connect serial terminals etc etc. for some ancient type fun then it would really have my attention. Otherwise its just another watt sucker that I don't want on 24/7

@dustojnikhummer 11 ай бұрын

@@paulstubbs7678 Why can't you disable NAT on your ISP router?

@johnsmith8981 6 ай бұрын

This is why I always recommend building it in a hypervisor so that you can use the machine for other server stuff.

@sillydilly2725 10 ай бұрын

I really enjoy how positive the Homelab community is, mostly. Loved the Jeff Geerling shot out

@kritikusi-666 2 жыл бұрын

I always enjoy the quality of your content. No BS. Straight on point.

@supernenechi Жыл бұрын

I live in The Netherlands. The government passed a law a couple years ago that went into effect last year that requires ISPs to allow you to connect you own equipment without using their equipment at all. They are also required to provide the necessary information for doing that. This means that I could disconnect not just my ISPs router, but also the ONT required for converting the fiber signal to copper network cable.

@WolfgangsChannel Жыл бұрын

I'm not sure if we have laws for that in Germany, but you can also use any 3rd party modem you want. The problem is that you'll either have DSL or Coax at home - which means that you will need to use an off-the-shelf router/DSL box alongside your DIY one anyway. In case of DSL, there are PCIe cards from companies like DrayTek that can theoretically replace a standalone DSL router, but from what I've heard, they're not as reliable. With Coax, a standalone box is unavoidable, since DOCSIS is a proprietary standard

@sivn 2 жыл бұрын

The Jeff Geerling introduction made me laugh out loud... I was not expecting this. Very nice video!

@Asdasdas1337 2 жыл бұрын

I bought one of those J4125 appliances with 4xI225 nics. It works great with OPNSense and PFSense with gb fiber internet using Suricata as IPS. Cost me around 230 usd with 8gb ram/128gb ssd and shipping from aliexpress. The brand name I bought is Topton in case anyone is interested, they took around 13 days ship but once handed to DHL in Hong Kong it took like 3 days to arrive, which I find pretty darn good.

@Paxtiny 5 ай бұрын

I tried, I really did. And I fully agree with your opening statement. I have no professional background in networking. When I set up opnsense as router and firewall I gave up after 2 years because I never really understood what I was doing. Its a fun thing to do but if you care about security and dont know what you are doing stick to your ISPs hardware for the basics.

@Dazdigo 2 жыл бұрын

I spent around $330 for making my Intel C2000 pfsense router with ECC. Never regretted it and it has lasted me the last 7 years without any issues.

@danielpicassomunoz2752 4 ай бұрын

What parts did u use?

@ephidrineon 2 жыл бұрын

In general, I have to say that you've put together a well researched video. However, I have to make some additions. First, in theory, everyone can use a self-built router, regardless of the ISP. However, with some ISPs that may mean you'd have to put up with double NAT (connecting the router as a client to the ISP provided one). Second, and much more important: With great power comes great responsibility. Most of the router operating systems that are freely available will give you total freedom, meaning you can totally disable all firewalling by accident, or nuke your configuration with a click. However, that is - at least in my opinion - offset by the fact that it lets you do what you want with it. Third, I agree that wifi is tough. Without a separate access point, or being fine with running 2.4 GHz only on a PCIe addin card, there's not much left. Looking forward to the next parts.

@xxcr4ckzzxx840 2 жыл бұрын

For Wifi you could, in theory, just use one M.2 Slot and get yourself an Intel AX210, which costs around 15 Euros and brings Wifi6E capabilities with it. Antennas for the 5Ghz Spectrum, which also work with 6GHz Wifi6E, are plenty cheap as well. Questions is; Does it work with PFSense, as BSD is well known for shit Wifi Support?

@ephidrineon 2 жыл бұрын

@@xxcr4ckzzxx840 You have to watch out with Intel cards on Linux platforms, as I know many don't support AP mode which is, well... required for hosting an AP. The BSDs are notorious for having near nonexistent wifi support, but there's tables with supported hardware you can refer to in the official Netgate docs. I'm running a PCI wifi card from TP-Link with an ath9k compatible chipset. On Linux, almost get the full 100 Mbps of my internet connection while on *BSD, I'm lucky if I get 35/35 on a good day.

@markarca6360 2 жыл бұрын

Correct! Most ISPs use CGNAT to enable multiple subscribers.

@markarca6360 2 жыл бұрын

@@xxcr4ckzzxx840 BSD has 802.11ax support, however, pfSense and OPNSense don't have it yet.

@TJGermany 2 жыл бұрын

@@markarca6360 This has nothing to do with CGNAT. In case of CGNAT you'd even have triple-NAT!

@HoshPak 2 жыл бұрын

I did this as a challenge to myself, last year. I've built a box running ClearLinux as a virtualization host and deployed a virtual firewall and several docker containers for WiFi, IoT and PBX. Apart from the horrendously outdated and misleading documents on VLAN management on Linux, once you learn how to do it properly you might as well build your own switch at this point too... Which is exactly what I did. Every component is modular and can be replaced or upgraded in due time. And it all fits in an ITX case using 10W TDP at most, making it extremely quiet for the amount of functionality and performance. Damn, I love this project...

@l0gic23 9 ай бұрын

If you ever make a video on the project, let us know!

@RicksterMW2 2 жыл бұрын

5:55 Draytek in my opinion is one of the best routers. Very stable and very good UI.

@xsterawesome 2 жыл бұрын

I wish this video went over higher end business class options you can buy for similar money (especially used) and covered performance (latency and speed). Anyway, I enjoyed the video, thanks for making it.

@stellarorbit1341 2 жыл бұрын

I took my old i7-6700k computer with 16gb of ram and added another ethernet port via a card on amazon, got a net gear access point and installed ipfire to the system. I can fully saturate my gig speed even over wifi so even though it isn't the most power efficient solution out there, it works just fine for me and it was only 90 usd with the parts I already had for years before I decided to do this. My only bottleneck at this point is the apartment's cat 5e or older wall infrastructure, but that won't be the biggest issue once I move out in a year or so.

@sirdewd2197 5 ай бұрын

What WiFi card did you buy?

@tommasochiti4237 2 жыл бұрын

loved the quick TLDR at the beginning of the video

@James_Knott 2 жыл бұрын

I run pfSense on a Qotom mini PC, from AliExpress, with i5 CPU (with AES-NI), 4 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD and 4 Intel 1 Gb Ethernet ports. I also have a Cisco 8 port managed Gb switch and Unifi AC-Lite access point. I've been running this config for about 1.5 years and am quite happy with it. BTW, my Internet connection is a cable modem that is easily put into bridge mode. My ISP also has a community forum, where I am quoted for pfSense IPv6 configuration.

@Xielent 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for this video. You literally answered all of my questions.

@nezbrun872 Жыл бұрын

A problem you didn't mention with building your own router as a permanent fixture is that it'll inevitably be labour of love, a permanently unfinished project, and it'll require continuous maintenance. Of course, if you want to make one as a project to learn stuff, go float your boat, but I'd be wary of approaching this as a permanent installation. Bearing in mind our dependence on internet connectivity as a near essential utility nowadays, I'd generally recommend a decent SMB level router such as Draytek Vigor, a make I've used for over 15 years, but other makes are available I find them solid as a rock, they're very reliable. This is as opposed to consumer level routers that can usually be identified by their pleasing aesthetics, hiding how little has been spent making them reliable. Mine's 10W at the wall, has 5 LAN +1 WAN eth ports, xDSL WAN port, Wifi 6, mesh, WoL application, VLAN, hardware NAT & VPN acceleration: I run it with gig fiber + xDSL auto failover (4G optional), and DDNS for both remote access and site-to-site VPN. It's horse for courses, if you like tinkering, and don't get frustrated when you wake up in the morning to find you have to drop all your plans to get your router working again, then yes, build your own router. 😉 The tinkering I leave to a 2.5W at the wall Cherry Trail Atom based fanless NAS/Home Assistant mini PC.

@sirdewd2197 5 ай бұрын

Dude what’s your parts list? I can’t figure out the WiFi card portion.

@gjkrisa 2 жыл бұрын

What’s nice of having extra ram is running a RAM disk and have everything running in memory so much faster. I have it set up with pfsense and have it backup the ram four times a day

@earlyburg 2 жыл бұрын

Yes. Yes you should. I just build a pfSense security appliance and network router running Squid and Snort on a 64bit celeron motherboard, using DDR4 and I can confirm that pfSense can run on an M2 SSD in SATA mode. The 64 bit bus combined with the modern PCIe interface gives me very fast throughput which I have not yet measured. Mind the bus speeds!

@netroy 2 жыл бұрын

I have been using a NanoPi R4S as my home router for over a year. it's running Openwrt, with Adguard, and K3S master on it, and has an uptime of months (if not almost a year). I'll never want to go back to an ISP router again.

@don_dolarson Жыл бұрын

It's something I'm considering as well. How did you got the OpenWRT into it? I can't find it as a compatible device on the list.

@dstn3422 Жыл бұрын

that was an excellent way to start the video, thank you for your honesty, I will not watch it but I upvoted for fairness

@guyoninternet7015 Жыл бұрын

LMAO at the Geerling call out! Great video Wolfgang :)

@DMSBrian24 2 жыл бұрын

I'd say learning more about networking is the absolute no. 1 reason to do this

@PatipanWongkleaw 2 жыл бұрын

I'll definitely build my own router. I first start off with ISP router, everyone knows how that 'd get you. Then I switch to Asus top end model, but kind of limited by the firmware, I want to have my custom RA message, custom mdns, etc. After watching this, I just realized that I could get rid of all those limitations, if I just built my own. I can even put 4x 10GbE RJ45 port NIC in them for good measure.

@MichaelSmith-fg8xh 2 жыл бұрын

I've happily run chelsio and intel 10gb NICs for ~5 years in pfsense and opnsense. Intel was better due to heat and compatibility.

@desertlightning7335 Жыл бұрын

@@MichaelSmith-fg8xh I would say you're a gigachad, but more like a 10 gigabit chad 😂

@madkvideo 2 жыл бұрын

I live in Argentina and can confirm you can use your own router. Provided you ISP's device is in bridge mode.

@leapbtw 2 жыл бұрын

this is such A GREAT video! thank you kind internet stranger ❤️

2 жыл бұрын

Great video, thanks. I also live in Germany, have Vodafone cable connection. I'm pretty satisfied with my FritzBox 6590 and I didn't pull the trigger to switch to my own router, but I'm thinking about doing it with either pfsense or opnsense, mainly to get support for DHCP with PXE boot, wireguard and being able to set captive portals. As far as I know, a lot of people get Protectli devices and install pfsense/opnsense on them and they're pretty happy with the result.

@PsychotherapistSam 2 жыл бұрын

At least for the wireguard part, it's already available for some devices via FritzLab and will probably be available for more devices soon :)

@dash8brj Жыл бұрын

Thats what I have done - bridged the modem and run an Aliexpress mini pc with 4 ethernet ports to my switch. It all virtualised on Proxmox, so I have the router running on one vm with two nics passed through, and another ubuntu vm running in another vm with its own nic. The fourth nic is the management interface for proxmox.

@hdjfjd8 2 жыл бұрын

Ur knowledge on networking is terrific. Do u mind sharing what resources u have used over the years to build up this vast reservoir of knowledge?

@kevincopper9032 2 жыл бұрын

I would love to know this too

@WolfgangsChannel 2 жыл бұрын

I don't know that much! But for this video, my Patreon Discord (and Fabian in particular) has been very helpful. That and some googling

@IOTWVUVWTOI 4 ай бұрын

@WolfgangsChannel I've just picked up an oem i7 7700, 16gb ram with a 1060 6gb for 100£ in the uk. Its going to be my first home made router... interested to hear your thoughts on the potential power consumption...

@JoseMariArceta 3 ай бұрын

@@IOTWVUVWTOIwhy not not think about what your thoughts are? You know the costs of power, you probably know the power use. Why not ask yourself 😅

@IOTWVUVWTOI 3 ай бұрын

@JoseMariArceta because if I was the smartest person in "the room" I would definitely be in the wrong room.

@saifemran4528 Жыл бұрын

I love your tech topics!

@drkwrk5229 9 ай бұрын

I'm behind CG-NAT so I jump the gap by serving wireguard on a VPS and connect some local systems to that VPS. this way i get a well defined and secure network without port forwarding when I'm out and about

@chromerims 6 ай бұрын

Great video 👍 Thank you, Wolfgang. 12:40 -- Fyi . . . NYC residential rates are around US$0.15-0.18/kWh for the variable fees (December 2023). (Notably, there are sundry, non-variable fees, which, based on usage, increase the total cost by, for example, +100% (lower usage) or +50% (higher).) My approximate rule of thumb for 24/7 homelab servers at such rates: for each incremental 100W (as metered, and not identical to at-the-wall) costs roughly US$150.00 more per year, or US$12.50 per month, or US$750.00 over a 5-year life (no inflation scenario). Divide by 10 if mini-PC is sipping only an incremental 10W. Kindest regards, neighbours and friends.

@phibel9303 2 жыл бұрын

Nice video. I have been using fli4l as a router on various hardware platforms for almost two decades. Startet with an Intel 486 and currently using an ASRock Rack J1900D2Y. I started doing this because the routers from the ISP always crashed when you opened a few hundred connections, that was around ~2004. You learn a lot by doing it yourself, but as you said in the video, you have to want to do it.

@itsmegiorgio 10 ай бұрын

Can't thank you enough for this video!

@Drejkol Жыл бұрын

Everything depends on the country you are living in and your provider. I got wifi6 fiber-ready router with 2.5Gb ethernet slots for free to my plan. For additional ~4€/month got wifi6 extender. I can set VPN stright on the router and in years never had any problems with it.

@mailong.botega3040 Жыл бұрын

I see the thumbnail and channel, and I know I'm in for a treat.

@Adam-cp1dl Ай бұрын

I been running a dell wyse 5070 for a couple years now for 80 dollars brand new old stock on ebay and a quad intel nic. Ran both opnsene and pfsense. Mini PCs and SSF pcs arw amazing for homelabs.

@vmdcortes Ай бұрын

Hey, I love this kind of content 🎉

@Kaguya___ 2 жыл бұрын

I ordered a similar Chinese router from the second option, back in February. It’s good for everyone, it’s a pity that he doesn’t have SFP only, but he supports 2.5 Gbps on 5 ports. I have not yet decided which OS to install on it. openwrt or opensense. OpenWrt from the pros has support for Chinese proxy protocols in the form of v2ray.

@zeendaniels5809 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video! I was thinking of getting an OrangePi R1 Plus, and some access points spread all over the house... But after seeing this comparison, I'll definitely get one of those AliExpress solutions. I don't need any of the extra solutions nor extra horsepower... I'm just a nerd and a network enthusiast. Time to upgrade to wifi 6 and 2.5gbps it seems 😂👍🏼

@Cysmoke Жыл бұрын

Great stuff, thx!

@danielstellmon5330 2 жыл бұрын

Love the opening. Not everyone needs to built there own.

@mars-kd8ft 2 жыл бұрын

AYY! Wolfgang back with new drip!

@christiandassy8128 2 жыл бұрын

Great Video! keep it up!

@velislavvasilev8783 2 жыл бұрын

Don't miss the power of ATX router. You can use a hot swap device for easy and fast backups over local network. Also is up to you how it will be connected (RJ45, WiFi, USB tethering via smart phone) trough internet. Linux, nftables, BIND9, squid, isc-dhcp-server, wireguard, nginx. My personal choice is: MSI B450 Gaming Plus Max, Athlon 3000G, SATA SSD 128GD, 5x two port gigabit NICs and hot swap device for both - 2.5 & 3.5" HDD's, because I have a lot.

@delboyg01 2 жыл бұрын

Take a look at the Proxmox VE type 1 Hypervisor, not only can you virtualise pfSence, but also Virtual Machines/ Linux Containers and Docker instances - a brilliant piece of software for these tiny PC's.

@ChrisWijtmans 7 ай бұрын

@@delboyg01 why pfsense when you have nftables?

@delboyg01 7 ай бұрын

@@ChrisWijtmans- You assume that the average user even knows what nftables, BIND9 or Squid actually are??

@ChrisWijtmans 7 ай бұрын

@@delboyg01 OP talked about nftables and you bringing up pfsense amkes no sense whatsoever.

@TomBabula 2 жыл бұрын

Then there is UDM Pro which is somewhat in the middle between OOB experience and some customizability, mainly aimed for those who don't want to spend a lot of time tinkering but offers more options than consumer router and more power than OpenWRT. It's main appeal is unified dashboard and integrates nicely with Unifi APs and can also act as NVR. It runs threat management capable handling of 1GB/s. The downside is size, its more suited for someone who has a space for network rack. For advanced network users may lack desired features and for basic/casual the price price too high and set of features overkill.

@WolfgangsChannel 2 жыл бұрын

I'm really looking forward to UDM-Pro-SE being available

@bett0diaz 2 жыл бұрын

I DO live in Argentina! Haha. I have two Asus routers in Aimesh, but I am moving to a pfsense. Great video!

@DeadKennedy 2 жыл бұрын

@Voodoo Yam tres

@CampervanCookout Жыл бұрын

I still use my old Apple router which has Ac wifi and gigabit Ethernet, which is faster than my internet speed but is locked down in true Apple style. However I now run a little web server and wonder if I should increase my security, as I do get more instances of probing from the internet. That can at times effect my internet detrimentally until my web server blocks the IPs automatically. Very useful videos, thank you.

@79Omdus 5 ай бұрын

Realtek Nic support has gotten way better in the last few years. Installing the "kmod" package and adding a few lines in the loader and your done.

@sirdewd2197 5 ай бұрын

Which M.2 WiFi NIC would you recommend then?

@jonatansteuernagel1264 2 жыл бұрын

I also just discovered the Noname Aliexpress Computers, that would make for great routers (heck, they even have 2.5G ethernet!). I am really tempted to get one as an upgrade from my current setup with a USB LAN Dongle and an OPNsense in a Proxmox VM.

@MrJakecornford 2 жыл бұрын

I have had a Qotom box for about 2-3 years and it's be sold. Runs OpenWRT on top of proxmox.

@murtadha96 2 жыл бұрын

Whooohooo a new video! 🥳

@Space_Reptile 2 жыл бұрын

The AVM routers are pretty good, the Vodafone issues arris routers however... I'll stick to my 6490 for now as I've yet to encounter an issue with it

@kristianvassilev360 8 ай бұрын

There are a few AsiaRf WiFi cards that work pretty good. I'm currently on 600mbps ISP speed and I can saturate it on wifi. Also, being told I can go over 1Gbps, since it supports WiFi 6e. The one I use is the AW7916-NPD, but the 7915 is also good. They are all under $40 USD.

@TheJackal917 2 жыл бұрын

Could you make a video with an explanation how to set up custom network applying all these security stuff? Would be nice, especially nowadays.

@JohnDoe-wi7eb 2 жыл бұрын

You look like you gained some muscle bro looking good brah!!!

@WolfgangsChannel 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!!

@scholziallvideo 2 жыл бұрын

hi, primary problem is that you need the modem function so you need a standalone modem for DSL Fiber etc. i use a Intel Nuc with Sophos UTM Home its perfect and can handle all what i need.

@cheako91155 2 жыл бұрын

I don't get why Espressobin isn't more heavily considered? The Base price was $70 with 2.5G in a 3x1G configuration, screaming home router. It also has mPCIE and SATA ports. You do need a 12v PSU and I'd pair it with a Pi-ZeroW for a wireless serial console(the board has a USB serial adapter, so needing USB converter to share and a Pi fills that need.)

@TheAffz10 2 жыл бұрын

Nice video, great content. Can you please tell me where I can learn more to build a UI like in 1:40min? Or is any application for that?

@mihumono 2 жыл бұрын

ipfire works on pi4, though I am not sure if it works on cm4 yet. EDIT: You can sometimes find proprietary firewalls based on x86/x64 very cheap. They will often allow You to install any os. I am currently running opnsense on riverbed steelhead CX-570(CXA-00570-B120) that i bought for £60, it even has ipmi module which is usefull as it has no video.

@MostlyPennyCat Жыл бұрын

Back in about 2003 when broadband internet at home was a single computer connected to a cable modem by USB or a network cable into the back of your cable TV box, we HAD to build our own router, there was no other affordable choice. And even then, the real routers, which nobody could afford, didn't have the MAC spoofing required to get it to work, as the cable company would only talk to the single register MAC and the only way to do that was with their windows only software. So we took a Pentium 90 with 32Mb of EDO RAM, two Intel NICs with Linux supported offboard TCP acceleration and a pair of floppy drives. This then booted, off of two floppies, the ultra compact Linux router distro LRP, the Linux Router Project and it's descendents. The second floppy allowed us to add IP QoS and VPN support. Not bad for 20 years ago.

@chromerims 7 ай бұрын

👍 Floppies Which country in 2003? 😎

@vlmath314 2 жыл бұрын

for wifi, you can also attach any wifi interface to the machine, and use the package `hostapd` to create a software access point (I use that on my debian virtual machine I use as router, with the wifi card passed-thought to the virtual machine)

@WolfgangsChannel 2 жыл бұрын

True. However, not all WiFi adapters support AP functionality - that includes all Intel cards, for example.

@susanyoung6579 Жыл бұрын

@@WolfgangsChannelwould you consider doing a video on modern wireless cards that support AP mode? Or dropping a link or suggestion if it's not worth a whole video? Thanks in advance.

@HupfderFloh 10 ай бұрын

8:09 one would certainly hope so

@Terrados1337 2 жыл бұрын

The stuff the ISPs sell you is usually the lowest spec overheating crash prown excuse of a cobbled together accesspoint with a modem added as an after thought. Looking at you Vodafone Station that can't handle more than 4 simultaneous wireless connections without shutting down.

@Vemvet 2 жыл бұрын

Looking buff my dude

@nem64 2 жыл бұрын

IMHO OpenWRT is the best Router around simply for its ease of use and flexibility while being extremely powerful at the same time. I tried untangle, pfsense, opnsense, MikroTik's RouterOS* and Ubiquiti's security gateways but nothing matches OpenWRT. Setting up load balancing across 2 WANs is stupidly easy with the mwan3 package and configuring firewall rules and zones was also a smooth ride. All this while being lightweight enough to run off of a VM in my server with 128MB of memory For switching I use a MikroTik CRS328 and for the APs I use UniFI APs. MikroTik's switches are unmatched for their price to feature/performance ratio while UniFi provides a really nice centralized plane for easy setup and management for my wireless clients. It really feels like OpenWRT is not used professionally because of branding(?) because it can doing everything that enterprise routers can while taking less resources. Build and shape your own image and you'll have an amazing router suited exactly to your needs. I run mine off of a single i7 6700 thread and the CPU goes to about 30% at gigabit with a few firewall rules and NAT * Setting up QoS and multi WAN with RouterOS was extremely tacky and finnicky + it took a lot of time to get it right and even then I wasn't happy with the results. In the end I decided to ditch it and go for OpenWRT

@marcin315 2 жыл бұрын

I wonder what is your opinion on sort of a prebuild solutions like mikrotik's 'router boards'?

@nikonosful 2 жыл бұрын

Great content! What about Mikrotik routers? Thank you.

@FlaxTheSeedOne 5 ай бұрын

One Ethernet Port is already fine if you already have a managed Switch. So an even cheaper/smaller device can be used.

@xavierhrtly 2 жыл бұрын

I'd love to hear your opinion on the hhkb!

@DevOdyssey 2 жыл бұрын

Very thorough video, great job! Personally, I think BSD's are the way to go, given their legacy of efficient and powerful networking capabilities (including development of BPF / eBPF, though thats been ported to Linux for some time now). To my knowledge, most enterprise grade solutions are based on BSD's anyway (given it's historical context). But, as you noted, something this powerful might be overkill for the more average user. Arguably, where my preference ends for BSD is in wireless. Linux (OpenWrt) takes the crown there for it's wide range of support for wireless cards, making it a good choice for more "all in one" custom builds. However, I think decentralizing wireless functionality can give you more flexibility, making it not a big deal for BSD's lesser support of wireless. I'm a fan of UniFi's wireless products. NIC expansion has been a struggle for me on Raspberry Pi based boards. While I've mostly made videos on OpenWrt, my networking knowledge stems from BSD firewalls, and remains a preference to me, at least in the home firewall aspect. Nice custom build by the way.

@Ghfvhvfg Жыл бұрын

Where can you find a guide to do it.

@DevOdyssey Жыл бұрын

@@Ghfvhvfg What guide are you looking for in particular?

@Ghfvhvfg Жыл бұрын

@@DevOdyssey Nothig in particular but it’s interesting and it would probably be a good resource because Vides Help setting things up.Just a general guide.

@DevOdyssey Жыл бұрын

@@Ghfvhvfg If you search for pfSense or OPNSense videos on youtube, you can find many videos on how to get started with BSD based firewalls. I don't have any one in particular to recommend, but you will find plenty that help you start from scratch.

@tahaak 2 жыл бұрын

Mostly routers provided by ISPs suck and sometimes you even have to pay for them monthly. But FRITZ!Boxes are great for home use, they have excellent WiFi and many features.

@worldhello1234 2 жыл бұрын

You could choose to buy them instead.

@burprobrox9134 2 жыл бұрын

We used to homebrew routers A LOT back in the early 2000s. Before Wifi really. Was a fun project, but really pointless for 99% of folks. Definitely something for network engineers to do as they learn. If building a router isn’t fun, find a different career lol

@terrylyn 4 ай бұрын

One middle ground solution is to get off-the-shelf router and install custom firmware such as dd-wrt.

@sabamacx 2 жыл бұрын

My little $35 Mikrotik router is Linux but has first party support and Just Werks(tm).

@demirmahir 5 ай бұрын

Can I ask where you got the mini-ITX case? I can see it on their official site, but not really available for purchase.

@balls2bone Жыл бұрын

I'm using an HP T520 with a RTL8153 USB 3.0 Gigabit dongle. All is good so far (not tested speed using iperf3 yet). I have the 8GB SSD (using 24MB so far) which it came with installed, but downgraded the RAM to a 1GB stick I got for free (it has about 600MB RAM free). I previously used a "BT Home hub 5.0 type A" with OpenWRT on, but the throughput was only about half of what it should have been so my 300Mb/s pipe appeared to be 150Mb/s :'( ! I still use a couple of these as a seperate dumb APs (I have about 7 now, I neep getting given them).

@jan-hendrikdorner1659 6 ай бұрын

I live in Germany as well and use a Turris Omnia which is OpenSource and OpenHardware. It even have a SFP port …

@sirdewd2197 5 ай бұрын

Can you provide a link?

@jan-hendrikdorner1659 5 ай бұрын

@@sirdewd2197 sure: secure.nic.cz/files/Turris-web/Omnia/221010_Omnia_wifi6_datasheet_EN.pdf

@itsmegiorgio 10 ай бұрын

hang on a minute... the aliexpress thingy is really nice considering all of the hardware headaches you avoid yourself but... it does not have PoE for a Ubiquiti access point!

@atom6_ 2 жыл бұрын

The cheapest router is the ubiquity edgerouter x at $59, performs great and can be powered over PoE and also has a PoE out for a unifi accesspoint

@elduderino7767 2 жыл бұрын

you can probably get a m92p cheaper

@atom6_ 2 жыл бұрын

@@elduderino7767 single ethernet, no poe (i happen to have one, great little machine)

@elduderino7767 2 жыл бұрын

@@atom6_ thats a purpose built device and as such extremely limited if you want complete control and the ability to run any software/service you want you'll need proper x86/64 hardware and a $2 usb NIC is unlikely to be driven hard by your internet connection

@mgsystems596 2 ай бұрын

I've Itx motherboard with amd e2100 (9 watt pdw maximum) doble gigabit NICs with BSD 😊 its interesting all stufff in 8 Gb SSD

@JokeryEU Жыл бұрын

i'm waiting for the wifi 7 since its the new standard next year :)

@oooooooorion 2 жыл бұрын

From what I know about french ISP as a french myself, Orange is the only ISP not letting users enable bridge mode. Howerver, if you don't care that much about the tidiness of your network, you can just disable DHCP or forward all the ports to your new router and disable Wi-Fi. I don't know about Bouygues Telecom but I think they include a bridge functionality. SFR sure allows their users to turn on bridge mode (I am an SFR subscriber myself with a cable offer). Free has the most complete router given to their subscribers (the well known Freebox). If it is possible to enable bridge mode, you may just not want to because the given router is so good and so complete. When I'm at my grandpa's (which is a Free subscriber), I'm jussed pissed of I can't use DNS over HTTPS/QUIC/TLS because of some weird lobbying (in France lying DNSs are the only way to "block" a website which a court banned). Anyway that's all (PS : we don't have Verizon or Vodafone here, the only paneuropean ISP are Orange and Iliad [Free])

@wolfVFXmc 2 жыл бұрын

Orange in Belgium let's you enable bridge mode on their newer routers

@oooooooorion 2 жыл бұрын

btw: wtf electricity prices in germany are nuts (nearly twice as high as france's), long live nuclear energy

@oooooooorion 2 жыл бұрын

@@wolfVFXmc nice ! anyway Orange revealed (or will) a new livebox which may let users the possibility of enabling bridge mode

@mrsansiverius2083 2 жыл бұрын

I remember when Seeed's CM4 router was still called Chuck's

@royrms4618 2 жыл бұрын

this dude is slowly turning into a "super security villain" like who needs max security in his life, anyway i enjoyed every one of your videos thank you

@yomain7227 2 жыл бұрын

Was literally asking this question the other day lol

@623baller Жыл бұрын

do you still need a switch or just use the 4 ports if u go with the aliexpress router? also im assuming just gota use 1 of the port for access point to enable wifi?

@Quettesh 9 ай бұрын

There is a good middle ground, get an Openwrt compatible Mikrotik router and flash it on it instead of their (for most people too complicated) OS.

@joefreedman4403 Жыл бұрын

Curious to get your thoughts on an "off the shelf" option such as GLiNET Flint

@nziom 2 жыл бұрын

Am looking to change my router/modem firmware it doesn't have options to change speed per user all I got is QoS , a friend of mine used to have the exact same model as me and changed its firmware and was able to control it(speed per user) but he replaced his router a long time ago with one that have these features and doesn't have one that firmware anymore any recommendations?

@Namamiri Жыл бұрын

Hello there, your videos are really helpful. I wanted to build a 10gbit router from an dell optiplex with a i5-6500 and 16gb ddr4 ram with an SSD. I wanted to install a QNAP QXG-10G2TB NIC into it. For all extra devices i wanted to install a 10Gbit network switch. As i am from germany like you i would like to build a more efficient system. I am not sure if my decision to go for a used optiplex and using it is a good one.

@youreale 2 жыл бұрын

Not to mention... some cheaper, white label routers supplyed by ISPs are known to have serious security issues (man-in-the-middle DNS hijacking, for example) and rumor has it that some are intended to be used as cyber-wars tools, when the moment arrive. "Should you build Your own router"? It's not a stupid question at all.

@paulantoine1696 Жыл бұрын

The lack of patching... within a year or two of ownership of a consumer router is the main issue for me. Cosnumer routers frequently have bugs, needing rebooting weekly, and/or security vulnerabilities of course. There are literally millions of viable old routers out there, assuming they'd had their usually open source operating systems upgraded. It's a massive source of e-waste in my view as well.

@ProfessorVolland 2 жыл бұрын

Hello Wolfgang, came across your channel last week, love your content. I am using Qubes OS for a while and I am happy to say that with Nitrokey from Berlin, security for myself is very good. Additionally, Check out their most secure Linux phone 2. I assume you will love it. I am not sponsored or an employee, just a satisfied customer. Cheers from Greater Hamburg Area 🇩🇪

@squ94wk 2 жыл бұрын

You don't technically require 2 NICs. I'm running a Pi 4 in VLAN trunk mode and have one VLAN id for pppoe for my ISP and other networks using different VLANs. It's not ideal because in/out shares one NIC, but it's good enough for my bandwidth. I tried a non Pi SoC with 2 Gigabit LAN ports, but it didn't work with Ubuntu server out of the box, which is my OS of choice atm. Again, not the typical router OS, but it's much easier to build other stuff on.

@ChrisWijtmans 7 ай бұрын

not secure.