Hi, I got a new router from my ISP, but it doesn’t even have an option to change the address of the DNS server…
So I’m gonna switch (if necessary also the ISP).
I have never used a custom router, so I would appreciate a push in the right direction. What can you recommend? Synology? FritzBox? Asus? Bridge Mode on the ISP router + RasPi?
The following I am running on a separate device, but if possible it would be nice to have it directly on the router device:
- PiHole
- Wireguard
- DDNS updater
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I have been using opnsense on a very cheap celeron nuc for a few years, very happy with it
I can second this, I’ve been running openwrt on an old office PC for many years and it has been performant, flexible, and most of all reliable, it just works
I personally would flick through the OpenWRT supported devices and pick the best supported device with 802.11ax.
How much bandwidth and flexibility do you want? OpenWRT is what I use on consumer hardware but many people here also swear by custom hardware with opnsense
swear by custom hardware with opnsense
…which is completely unnecessary and overkill for most people, even those with home labs, since OpenWrt can do it all.
Homelab is a hobby, and like other hobbies, people actually loves doing the “unnecessary and overkill” stuff.
I thought “unnecessary and overkill” is our actual name, and selfhosting is just a nickname
Think about it… with OpenWrt you can spend even more time tweaking around and doing things that may be more automation under OPNsense. :P But yes, fair point.
I won’t disagree but not everyone is the same
How much wifi and open-source do you really want?
If you are willing to go with commercial hardware + open source firmware (OpenWrt) you might want to check the table of hardware of OpenWrt at https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi and https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_864_ac-wifi. One solid pick for the future might be the Netgear WAX2* line or the GL.iNet GL-MT6000. One of those models is now fully supported the others are on the way. If you don’t mind having older wifi a Netgear R7800 is solid.
For a full open-source hardware and software experience you need a more exotic brand like this https://www.banana-pi.org/en/bananapi-router/. The BananaPi BPi R3 and here is a very good option with a 4 core CPU, 2GB of RAM Wifi6 and two 2.5G SFP ports besides the 4 ethernet ports. There’s also an upcoming board the BPI-R4 with optional Wifi 7 and 10G SPF.
Both solutions will lead to OpenWRT when it comes to software, it is better than any commercial firmware but be aware that it only support wifi hardware with open-source drives such as MediaTek. While MediaTek is good and performs very well we can’t forget that the best performing wifi chips are Broadcom and they use hacks that go behind the published wifi standards and get it go a few megabytes/second faster and/or improve the range a bit.
DD-WRT is another “open-source” firmware that has a specific agreement with Broadcom to allow them to use their proprietary drivers and distribute them as blob with their firmware. While it works don’t expect compatibility with newer hardware nor a bug free solution like OpenWRT is.
There are also alternatives like OPNsense and pfSense that may make sense in some cases you most likely don’t require that. You’ve a small network and OpenWRT will provide you with a much cleaner open-source experience and also allow for all the customization you would like. Another great advantage of OpenWRT is that you’ve the ability to install 3rd party stuff in your router, you may even use qemu to virtualize stuff like your Pi-Hole on it or simply run docker containers.
I’ve been very happy with Opnsense running as a VM on both ESXi, and now Proxmox. Lots of configuration options and able to setup some complicated firewall rules easily.
Also opnsense, but on thin client.
I have a Unifi router, switch and four access points. My setup works fine. Stable.
I see other people from work say they get dropouts over the work VPN but I have no issues at all. I’m not saying the hardware is their cause but ISP provided all in one boxes are just that. An all in one solution.
Jack of all trades, master of none. Forcing a router reboot to get the home Internet working again has become a thing of the past since I set up a unifi router and APs.
I’d had router/WiFi combos before running either dd-wrt, open-wrt, or tomato. None of them were stable. But I suspect that was because the hardware just couldn’t keep up, not because the open source software was faulty.
Fritzboxes are rock stable, and support Wireguard from FritzOS 7.5 onwards, see https://avm.de/service/vpn/wireguard-vpn-zur-fritzbox-am-computer-einrichten/
(Apparently NOT the cable versions!)
What nags me most with them is that you have no separate Firewall controll over their WiFi, and the WiFi range is not really great. So probably consider going with dedicated APs instead.
They are quite solid but be aware that the web UI is dog slow and the menus weirdly designed.
Adding another Mikrotik recommendation with the standard warnings – a bit of a learning curve, although it has a default configuration that “just works”. If you mess something up you can just apply the default config to get back online.
Don’t buy from Amazon. For whatever reason people have problems with those units. Fakes maybe? Who knows. If you’re in the US buy from streakwave, roc-noc, ISP supplies, Double Radius, or Getic (international shipping).
The RB5009 series is very good if you want something beefier with more ports.
Wireguard and DNS filtering (albeit not as fine tuned and automatic as pihole) can all be done on OpnSense
I recommend OpnSense on whatever modern low-power hardware you can get your hands on, ThinkCentre, NUC or whatever, if you are okay with a separate device for WiFi or do not need WiFi. WiFi APs can be had for as low as 20 bucks and are usually straight forward to set up, but you gotta shell out more if you want the latest and greatest connectivity.
There is also the possibility for adding WiFi directly to OpnSense but I have not even bothered touching it. If you love tinkering and suffering, that’s a route you can go.
For the love of God, if you’re going to install PfSense, just get OpnSense instead. It’s just better.
I always use separate router / firewall and WiFi AP. That way I can upgrade WiFi to any device I like without touching the router.
what do you mean upgrade WiFi to any device?
For example, upgrade /n AP to /ax. The router may keep working for LAN connections while you are playing with WiFi.
I use an entry level router ASUS RT-AX53U with OpenWrt. WiFi 6, IPv6, Guest VLAN, DNSCrypt (DoH), Adblock, Firewall are few things I have configured with OpenWrt.
Even if you don’t buy ASUS, make sure your router is supported by OpenWrt. It’s a Linux distribution that runs on routers and PCs to configure home networking.
I’m very happy with my FritzBox (7590), it handles de ADSL connection to the ISP, supports various DDNS providers, Wireguard VPN, 4 port gigabit switch (5 of you don’t need the WAN port), guest WiFi with client isolation.
It also has basic media server and NAS functionality (with USB3 external hard drives).
Of course you can change the DNS server and other network controls like QOS, wake on LAN, port forwarding, different profiles with parental controls, filters, connection times, etc.
They also seem to take security seriously.
One more for mikrotik (I run the VM version on a small linux box).
I tested a ton of those (pf/opn-senses, VyOS, even Cisco), and noone of the free ones can handle IPv6 in a reasonable way in 2024, which is slightly bizzare. Mikrotik has some annoyances, but it’s rock solid as a router.
I don’t use its container features and instead run podman in a vm next to it. Works great.
How do you mean? IPv6 in OPNsense is working fine.
OpnSense is incapable of proper DHCPv6-PD, that’s when your route receives a prefix from upstream and delegates parts of it downstream. More specifically, it does the delegation, but it doesn’t add the relevant routes, effectively blackholing the allocated prefixes.
VyOS fixed this specific bug since I reported it. RouterOS and IOS never had it.
I’m isolated from this I suppose as I still use a separate line for upload. PD delegates and opens ports. What CIDR ranges do you use?
PD delegates the whole prefixes, i.e. it allows the subrouters to ask for a subnet of the size they need.
I’ve been super happy with mikrotik, currently running mikrotik hex s, and ubiquity u6-lr for wifi, have had 0 issues, no need to reboot etc. Plenty of customizing if desired. A learning curve tho if you do want to start messing around
I purchased the same router about 2 months ago and love it…cant recommend mikrotik enough.
Ya been rocking it I’d say close to 2 years no 0 issues. The old ISP modem had to be rebooted every few weeks before I had the mikrotik and unify combo… And the hex s is super cheap to buy now!
If you’re new, something like Uniquiti UniFi stack is very beginner friendly and well polished.
If you’re planning to run your own hardware, the usual recommendation seems to be pfsense or opnsense on a modern lower end system (Intel N100 box for example).
Bearing in mind that a router is only responsible for routing (think directing the packets where to go). You’d also want to have access points to provide WiFi for your wireless devices. This is where UniFi stack makes it easier because you can just choose their access point hardware and control through single controller. Whereas rolling your own you’d be looking at getting something else to fill that role.
he following I am run
I second everything said here.
UniFi is a good starting place, and pfsense is good if you really want to dig in.
On one hand I love unify on the other I wish i never went this route. They do make it very simple to manage a whole suite of devices. But updates sometimes feel “Alpha/beta” some more advanced stuff requires editing jsons in the devices them self. Also recently the battery in my cloud key gen 2 has blown and their is no way to replace it without replacing the whole cloudkey. Thing lasted like 2 years. which is ridiculous. Personally I have started to look in to Mikrotik which is a load more advanced and has a higher learning curve. but if I am forced to edit jsons and use scripts to do some more advanced things i might as well.
Sorry for the slight rant… just be aware what you can get your self in to.
Thing lasted like 2 years. which is ridiculous. Personally I have started to look in to Mikrotik w
Good points – I’ve never ran into any issues with UniFi personally.
At the time I was self-hosting the UniFi Controller on my Proxmox server for a switch and an AP. So i suppose your mileage may vary with UniFi.
As far as routers go, I’ve been running a pfsense for a while and its been great. There is definitely a bit of a learning curve and it’s not something that I’d recommend to someone who has little networking knowledge. Once you understand how to work with it, there is very little you can’t do.
Mikrotik has pop-ed up on my radar recently too, might have to give them a look.
Edit: Phrasing.
All ill say is ROS script is a huge PITA.
So, making a script that takes an object of vlan/port assignments, and running the required commands to ensure the config of the mikrotik matches the declared vlan/port assignments.The besy way ive seen to build/manage them is to use a compile step to go from some sane declarative config in order to build the actual ROS script to make the changes.
I just havent got round to making that a thing.I hope they are working on a native python API, so i can script in a sane language, and run it directly on the mikrotik.
Config files are easy to import/export/edit/read, tho.
It does mean you have to reset to default when you update a config file (or configure the device live, then export the config)
I recently bought an x86 passive cooled box from Topton, an aliexpress merchant, that was recommended by ServeTheHome, a great youtube channel/blog that reviews all kinds of networking equipment for homelabs. Since it’s x86, you can pretty much install anything on it, in my case OPNSense. I recommend you watch some of their videos/read their blogs and see what fits!
