If you were in the market for a new Home Router today, what would you buy?

[aigomorla]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4-E...op-computer-2-0Ghz-windows10/32779903683.html

+ 32GB Msata SSD
+ 8GB of DDR3 SODIMM
+ Pfsense

Why?
Because its very close to enterprise level at the fraction of a price compared to real enterprise level.

And i also run PLEX, but that is on my NAS as a jail.
Why do i run PLEX?
Because once setup correctly, you can watch your library on almost anything.
Meaning Smart TV / Phone / Tablet

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow that's actually a really neat box!

 

[sdifox]

Wow that's actually a really neat box!

i7-4500 box
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pfs...-1d80-488b-bef8-7400e4ff7b97&rmStoreLevelAB=5

 

[mxnerd]

Why would you need 8GB memory for pfsense?

 

[sdifox]

Why would you need 8GB memory for pfsense?

depends on what you are doing. Snort for example needs ram. pfblockerng with big DSNBL list needs ram as well.

right now I have 4 vcore, 4GB ram and 20GB hdd space for the vm. with just base pfsense +pfblockerng I am hovering around 1GB ram use.

 

[simas]

Isn't this all crazy more expensive then a routine device from say Mikrotik - here is $50 device that would give you gigabit line routing, advanced OS (if you want to mess with it), supportability, low power consumption ,built in network discovery (Dude) ,etc.
https://www.balticnetworks.com/mikrotik-routerboard-750gr3-hex-w-enclosure-power-supply.html

Why build homegrown monster that is 5-10x the price to serve the same function?


separate question of people with Plex complex, how many of you regularly and routinely watch content on the tablet/phone/etc? I have Plex (and lifetime pass), have it set up, and have near zero reason to use it that way.. what was the point of creating multi thousand dollar sound system with excellent HDR TV if you want to watch high def content on 5 inch screen? if for some reason TV is not available, well there is 100Hz nice 35 inch computer screen, excellent audio codecs, advanced headphones similarly available. Why in the world I would be torturing myself watching my BD disk rips on my iPad? I can buy the remote access/travel argument and even then I would just load up the device not to depend on wifi quality in the hotel..

 

[sdifox]

Isn't this all crazy more expensive then a routine device from say Mikrotik - here is $50 device that would give you gigabit line routing, advanced OS (if you want to mess with it), supportability, low power consumption ,built in network discovery (Dude) ,etc.
https://www.balticnetworks.com/mikrotik-routerboard-750gr3-hex-w-enclosure-power-supply.html

Why build homegrown monster that is 5-10x the price to serve the same function?


separate question of people with Plex complex, how many of you regularly and routinely watch content on the tablet/phone/etc? I have Plex (and lifetime pass), have it set up, and have near zero reason to use it that way.. what was the point of creating multi thousand dollar sound system with excellent HDR TV if you want to watch high def content on 5 inch screen? if for some reason TV is not available, well there is 100Hz nice 35 inch computer screen, excellent audio codecs, advanced headphones similarly available. Why in the world I would be torturing myself watching my BD disk rips on my iPad? I can buy the remote access/travel argument and even then I would just load up the device not to depend on wifi quality in the hotel..

I don't know about anyone else, but for me, I needed a vm host for work. May as well run pfsense and plex in vms as well.

my tvs have either 4k media player or built in app support for plex. Chromcast, android tablets, ipads, etc in the house as well. It is about consistent access method for me. Remote access for friends and family is a plus.

 

[aigomorla]

Isn't this all crazy more expensive then a routine device from say Mikrotik - here is $50 device that would give you gigabit line routing, advanced OS (if you want to mess with it), supportability, low power consumption ,built in network discovery (Dude) ,etc.
https://www.balticnetworks.com/mikrotik-routerboard-750gr3-hex-w-enclosure-power-supply.html

Why build homegrown monster that is 5-10x the price to serve the same function?


separate question of people with Plex complex, how many of you regularly and routinely watch content on the tablet/phone/etc? I have Plex (and lifetime pass), have it set up, and have near zero reason to use it that way.. what was the point of creating multi thousand dollar sound system with excellent HDR TV if you want to watch high def content on 5 inch screen? if for some reason TV is not available, well there is 100Hz nice 35 inch computer screen, excellent audio codecs, advanced headphones similarly available. Why in the world I would be torturing myself watching my BD disk rips on my iPad? I can buy the remote access/travel argument and even then I would just load up the device not to depend on wifi quality in the hotel..

because its fun to build your own.
Also its extremely rock stable, more so then a tomato flashed router.

With a lot of ram, and good hardware, its going to be extremely stable, and you wont have to worry about anything bogging it down.
You can hammer it torrents, have multipul people in the family run many many devices, do all sorts of stuff.


As for plex, its part of my jails on my freenas server.
I had way more then enough resources on the server, that plex was sort of freebie for it.
Since all my movies / media is on my FREENAS, it only made sense to add the plex jail.

Plex will work on most SmartTV's. You just need to download the APP.

Plex also works on PS3 and PS4, and Xbone. So you really dont need a smart TV.

The main reason why i love plex, is because i have slowly started to covert h264 into h265 to converse space.
H265 is very brutal on Andriod OS, hence why plex will transcode it, and allow it to be streamed on almost any device that can run the plex app.

 

[Engineer]

because its fun to build your own.
Also its extremely rock stable, more so then a tomato flashed router.

With a lot of ram, and good hardware, its going to be extremely stable, and you wont have to worry about anything bogging it down.
You can hammer it torrents, have multipul people in the family run many many devices, do all sorts of stuff.

Yes it is, and to top it off, you can use multiple router OS on the unit to pick what you like best. I just switched to IPFire over pFsense. Not as powerful but QoS and other features much easier to set up.

Oh, and I spent under $250 for a quad N3700 Server board system with 8GB of RAM and PicoPSU. Runs 11-13 Watts at the wall and should be easily good for a gig plus (link aggregated board with 4 ports). Not sure what the N3700 will pump out encrypted (VPN).

But it is fun.....

I will say that the recent $40 Ubiquiti Edgerouter X was very tempting to try out though.

 

[simas]

I hear you - I went the same route and was building pfsense , elac, and other diy solutions earlier. really like pfsense.
what switched me towards using commercial solutions
- my time is limited, I really did not want for it to be wasted figuring out hacks and issues _especially_ since I end up being tech support for elderly parents and in-laws.
- a lot of times, commercial is way cheaper. I could not build anything for $50 that mikrotik wants for its device regardless of what qotom/industrial PC/shell I use. add things like memory, some form of storage, it is not even close.
- preference for many point solution vs all in one monster hosting everything under the sun in VM. what do you do when that monster is down (failure ,etc)? I rather have few 'enough' devices that host my data in form of very cheap sinology NAS machines that replicate between each other and with my Ubuntu than have one super machine running TR and trying to host everything. My library is not big enough to mess with FreeNAS and if I need to I just buy bigger drive..

Having said all of the above, I still run multiple servers at home, Windows domain, plex server, controller for Unifi network , have multiple VMs for special needs related to db development- so guilty as charged. Have not found a way out of that yet, like the convenience of domain, love the flexibility of Linux.

 

[simas]

"my tvs have either 4k media player or built in app support for plex. Chromcast, android tablets, ipads, etc in the house as well. It is about consistent access method for me. Remote access for friends and family is a plus. "

I switched to Nvidia Shield TV + Kodi for access to media on my LAN, still have Plex but find using it less and less.
Still do not get any fun of consuming your media on phone/tablet - what is the point of buying/renting/steaming high quality content (4k HDR,etc) to "enjoy" it on crappy screen with horrible sound, with zero immersion? On the road, I get it - there are little other options. but home? why in the world to do it?

 

[sdifox]

"my tvs have either 4k media player or built in app support for plex. Chromcast, android tablets, ipads, etc in the house as well. It is about consistent access method for me. Remote access for friends and family is a plus. "

I switched to Nvidia Shield TV + Kodi for access to media on my LAN, still have Plex but find using it less and less.
Still do not get any fun of consuming your media on phone/tablet - what is the point of buying/renting/steaming high quality content (4k HDR,etc) to "enjoy" it on crappy screen with horrible sound, with zero immersion? On the road, I get it - there are little other options. but home? why in the world to do it?

Cuz I am not always sitting in front of the tv?

My phone is 1080p :shrug: sure the sound is not great but my HT is still in boxes since I moved in nov 2011. 130lb speakers and three year old twins don't mix.

Plex was a fork of kodi.

Priorities.

 

[sdifox]

I hear you - I went the same route and was building pfsense , elac, and other diy solutions earlier. really like pfsense.
what switched me towards using commercial solutions
- my time is limited, I really did not want for it to be wasted figuring out hacks and issues _especially_ since I end up being tech support for elderly parents and in-laws.
- a lot of times, commercial is way cheaper. I could not build anything for $50 that mikrotik wants for its device regardless of what qotom/industrial PC/shell I use. add things like memory, some form of storage, it is not even close.
- preference for many point solution vs all in one monster hosting everything under the sun in VM. what do you do when that monster is down (failure ,etc)? I rather have few 'enough' devices that host my data in form of very cheap sinology NAS machines that replicate between each other and with my Ubuntu than have one super machine running TR and trying to host everything. My library is not big enough to mess with FreeNAS and if I need to I just buy bigger drive..

Having said all of the above, I still run multiple servers at home, Windows domain, plex server, controller for Unifi network , have multiple VMs for special needs related to db development- so guilty as charged. Have not found a way out of that yet, like the convenience of domain, love the flexibility of Linux.

Duplicate vms for pfsense and plex. Should the physical server go down, I can go back to run of the mill router til I revive the server. This ain't 59 data center.

 

[Burner27]

I have a Meraki MX64 I got for free for attending a webinar. Came with a 3 year license. Although the license renewal is outrageously priced - the device, functionality, and configurability is every cool.

I was using pFsense prior to this and it was rock solid.