I host a nextcloud instance, a NAS, and a few content portals for things like ebooks and music (internal only). I’ll be migrating Smartthings to Home Assistant eventually. We’re going to be upgrading to fiber soon and I have the opportunity to rebuild my wife’s network with a long term outlook (we’ll likely be here for years). Currently we have an older eero mesh system over cable internet. My desk is right where the cable currently comes in so all my Ethernet devices can live near the router.
My question is this:
What am I missing out on as a self-hoster by using whatever equipment metronet gives me?
What am I missing out on as a regular internet user by using the default equipment.
Am I likely to be annoyed about where the fiber comes into the house?
If it makes sense to buy my own router or access point(s), what is a reasonable balance between “daddy Bezos please read all my emails” and “you’ll never be secure until you build a router from custom circuit boards you custom ordered and hand assembled in a secure area”.
I’d like to avoid complex configuration, but if I can surface advanced options when needed, that would be great.
My Linux knowledge is intermediate.
My networking knowledge is begintermediate.
You can strike a balance with higher-end (in quality) consumer or small business networking gear.
If it’s in your budget, I’d suggest buying a simple router like the Ubiquiti Edgerouter X, run some Ethernet and rely on a switch and access points for WiFi (I use Ubiquiti U6 Pro but I wouldn’t be too picky about it). I’ve never been into the “mesh” WiFi networking concept because it doesn’t make sense to use the air as your backhaul (if you can help it).
What I wouldn’t recommend is buying some beefed up consumer all-in-one router. It’ll cost a fortune, your coverage won’t be as good and once it’s time to upgrade you’ll be forced to replace the entire thing.
What they say, plus I wouldn’t recommend Mikrotik HW, which I went with based on Reddit recommendations for much the same use case as yours. Pretty clunky to set up, had to debug some idiosyncracies with the help of the forums, their wireless gear is slow, and it all runs hot AF.
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You can strike a balance with higher-end (in quality) consumer or small business networking gear.
If it’s in your budget, I’d suggest buying a simple router like the Ubiquiti Edgerouter X, run some Ethernet and rely on a switch and access points for WiFi (I use Ubiquiti U6 Pro but I wouldn’t be too picky about it). I’ve never been into the “mesh” WiFi networking concept because it doesn’t make sense to use the air as your backhaul (if you can help it).
What I wouldn’t recommend is buying some beefed up consumer all-in-one router. It’ll cost a fortune, your coverage won’t be as good and once it’s time to upgrade you’ll be forced to replace the entire thing.
Hopefully this helps.
What they say, plus I wouldn’t recommend Mikrotik HW, which I went with based on Reddit recommendations for much the same use case as yours. Pretty clunky to set up, had to debug some idiosyncracies with the help of the forums, their wireless gear is slow, and it all runs hot AF.
How recent is your experience with Mikrotik? How old is the hardware you tried out?
Recent. cAP AC (1yo) and cAP lite (3yo) are still running in my household, and RB4011iGS+RM (3yo) was until about a month ago.
Those all in one routers are fun to play with assuming they aren’t Broadcom based. OpenWRT can do a lot
I usually play around with travel routers and OpenWRT but if I had an old router laying around maybe I’d do something fun with it.