Was rather shocked to find BT hubs don’t allow you to change DNS servers anymore and force you to use their own ones, so I can’t properly setup adguard.
What routers are people using now that are reliable and will let me control my own network configuration
Check out the OpenWRT Table of Hardware, it has a list of firmware mod-able off the shelf WiFi routers that work with, you guessed it, OpenWRT. It’s rather versatile as it’s Linux based and can handle VLANs, multiple SSIDs, and of course, you can change the DNS servers.
If you want a Linux router instead of a BSD one for hardware compatibility, it will run on anything pfsense or opnsense will run and on much much more.
I use pfsense on my own metal. I can recommend it- never caused me any issues in the 4 years I’ve been using it, now. Even seamlessly updated major version twice.
I bought a cheapish small PC with 4 Nics and ran pfsense for a long time, that’s your best best. I’ve ended up with a Ubiquiti Dream Machine, less time to tinker and higher need for production with working from home
I had an old unifi ap in a box, after flashing the latest firmware half the features disappeared (or started requiring a cloud key / some other shitty upsell)
the hw was perfectly capable of ipv6 dhcp relaying or whatever it was, just locked behind a different price tier + another physical device
Does the bt hub let you turn off DHCP? I had a similar issue with my ISP router, but it let me turn off dhcp and then I ran pihole which can run its own DHCP server.
Then, the DHCP server can tell all clients to use your preferred DNS server.
I haven’t used adguard, but it can probably do the same. If not, you can run a DHCP client on the same box probably.
If you don’t want to go the route with building your own hardware there is also mikrotik with which I’m pretty happy. Something like the hex s is pretty cheap and has a sfp port if you have fiber.
Excellent choice. I’m running a physical Routerboard and a virtual RouterOS inside my hypervisor for redundancy.
The license for virtual RouterOS is dirt cheap and has more features than you could ever dream of with any of the the big network device manufacturers.
The physical devices are very well designed for their relatively modest price and likewise fully featured. Perfect for any home lab or to play around with IEEE conform protocols.
Can confirm, I bit the bullet for a CR2004 last year and it took me a couple of weeks at least to set it up the way I wanted. Powerful, but steep with a capital S.
I love my Microtik hEX S. It takes a minute to get used to the menus, but I really like how everything is laid out and managing using winbox. For 70 bucks it has a hell of a lot of features.
Before that I used a Ubiquiti Edgerouter X which I liked pretty well but I was not a fan of the web interface, it felt very dated; I also had issues with certain firmware updates that made the device pretty unstable. Eventually it kind of just died so I replaced it with this. I think I paid $50 for the ER-X, definitely recommend spending a little more for the hEX S.
One thing the hEX S can not do (at least that I have found) that the ER-X can that I care about is running a MDNS repeater. I have a couple subnets including one for IoT devices so this is necessary, as a slightly jank solution I ended up spinning up an Ubuntu server VM with separate NICs on the subnets I wanted to repeat between and running this binary to do the deed: https://github.com/geekman/mdns-repeater - if anyone knows of a better solution plz let me know.
What I did is I bought a cheap small PC with an Intel chip (i5), some RAM and an SSD. You can find these with more than one NIC pretty easily from Amazon, and they are just normal computers: only small and quiet. Then go with a virtualization platform such as Proxmox, and to that, install opnSense as the router distribution and use the rest of the processing power to run everything else in your house in virtual machines: Home Assistant, media server, you name it… Just search Amazon with something like “router pc” and you get a long list of machines below and over 200 euros that are more than enough for your home. Computers like this one.
The great thing about opnSense is how it gets regular updates. And when you use a normal PC as your router, you run the latest FreeBSD kernel and get updates basically as long as opnSense is developed.
You probably also want a Wi-Fi. These boxes usually miss it, and even when they have a Wi-Fi card, opnSense is not really great for setting wireless networks. I just bought a few APs from Ubiquiti. They are a bit on the expensive side, but I just don’t need to touch these things after setting them up and the network never fails on me. There are also much cheaper APs in the market, just get anything that fits to your budget and plug it to the router.
I did this for a while, but decided to just run opnsense on bare metal, I didn’t want my whole network going down if I had to restart Proxmox or something. It’s way overkill but it’s running opnsense, adguard and will soon be running ngnix hopefully.
It’s also a good choice. What I like about opnSense is how it’s basically just a distribution you update from the shell, feels more like a real operating system compared to OpenWRT, which is usually flashed to the router.
One of the 4 port atom pcs on Amazon, or even one of the arm ones, the key is ethernet ports and remember you’ll need to handle your wifi. Put debian, pfsense, openwrt, whatever you like, it’ll be great.
One of the openwrt systems, a high end glinet isn’t bad, just any of the better ones.
Had a freebsd server that run a vnet jail for routing, was glorious, no notes, jut perfect.
Running a unifi dream machine se right now, mostly because I want someone else to handle security (I know it’s not much, I just don’t have any bandwidth for that now). Works fine, but I’m using unifi wifi so it’s a tie-in there.
If you want a retail system, either openwrt or unifi, I know why people have issues with ubiquiti, but it’s probably the best prosumer hardware and software you can get without using your own. I haven’t used pfsense much, maybe that would change my mind.
I’ve got a Mikrotik RB4011, and I couldn’t be happier with it. It definitely has a learning curve, but once I got it setup how I want, it just works. I’m sure some other options have the same feature, but one of my favorite things is a script I have run every night that emails me a backup.
I’ve only ever had to use it a few times, but having a recent backup of my router on hand all the time is nice.
I’ve been very happy with my RB5009. I ditched my Edgrouter X because it’s not getting software updates anymore. Pros and cons to both, but Mikrotik/RouterOS is starting to make a lot more sense to me, and at this point I’m more comfortable with it than I ever was with EdgeOS.
Pfsense is fantastic. Extremely flexible. I am contemplating switching to opensense when it’s time for an upgrade (it’s been running seamlessly for many years, but someday I’ll need to).
Note that it’s a router, not a wireless access point. For that I use a few Ubiquity APs (I forget the model).
pfSense is indeed fantastic. The best part about it is you can install it on pretty much anything, as long as you have a couple reasonably fast network interfaces and an okay-ish processor depending on the network load it will just work. Also has OpenVPN server baked in which is pretty cool
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Check out the OpenWRT Table of Hardware, it has a list of firmware mod-able off the shelf WiFi routers that work with, you guessed it, OpenWRT. It’s rather versatile as it’s Linux based and can handle VLANs, multiple SSIDs, and of course, you can change the DNS servers.
deleted by creator
This!
If you want a Linux router instead of a BSD one for hardware compatibility, it will run on anything pfsense or opnsense will run and on much much more.
Firewalla Gold is nice. Has lots of advanced but in a more user friendly interface.
I run OpenWRT on a RaspberryPi and it’s great. Happy to answer questions.
Where did you attach the second ethernet NIC?
I used USB Ethernet adapters in both USB ports. TP-Link UE300, been rock solid.
I use pfsense on my own metal. I can recommend it- never caused me any issues in the 4 years I’ve been using it, now. Even seamlessly updated major version twice.
Opnsense or openwrt devices.
This is the way. Love OPNsense!
I bought a cheapish small PC with 4 Nics and ran pfsense for a long time, that’s your best best. I’ve ended up with a Ubiquiti Dream Machine, less time to tinker and higher need for production with working from home
ubiquiti are too sales-pushy imo
Ive never bought from them in a professional sense, but I also work with sales, so my bar for pushy is higher than many.
I had an old unifi ap in a box, after flashing the latest firmware half the features disappeared (or started requiring a cloud key / some other shitty upsell)
the hw was perfectly capable of ipv6 dhcp relaying or whatever it was, just locked behind a different price tier + another physical device
fuck em
Does the bt hub let you turn off DHCP? I had a similar issue with my ISP router, but it let me turn off dhcp and then I ran pihole which can run its own DHCP server.
Then, the DHCP server can tell all clients to use your preferred DNS server.
I haven’t used adguard, but it can probably do the same. If not, you can run a DHCP client on the same box probably.
If you don’t want to go the route with building your own hardware there is also mikrotik with which I’m pretty happy. Something like the hex s is pretty cheap and has a sfp port if you have fiber.
Excellent choice. I’m running a physical Routerboard and a virtual RouterOS inside my hypervisor for redundancy.
The license for virtual RouterOS is dirt cheap and has more features than you could ever dream of with any of the the big network device manufacturers.
The physical devices are very well designed for their relatively modest price and likewise fully featured. Perfect for any home lab or to play around with IEEE conform protocols.
Mikrotik. The depth and breadth of a tiny Hex S is mind blowing.
I like mikrotik, but if you’re not familiar with routers and their configurations, then it’s going to be a steep learning curve.
The hex S is wonderful. I don’t have one but I keep going back to look at it and weigh my options.
I don’t need another router, I really don’t. But it’s so nice! But I don’t need it!
I have Juniper, Cisco, watchguard, sonicwall, ubiquiti… So many routers and firewalls, I really do not need another one.
But I want one.
Can confirm, I bit the bullet for a CR2004 last year and it took me a couple of weeks at least to set it up the way I wanted. Powerful, but steep with a capital S.
I love my Microtik hEX S. It takes a minute to get used to the menus, but I really like how everything is laid out and managing using winbox. For 70 bucks it has a hell of a lot of features.
Before that I used a Ubiquiti Edgerouter X which I liked pretty well but I was not a fan of the web interface, it felt very dated; I also had issues with certain firmware updates that made the device pretty unstable. Eventually it kind of just died so I replaced it with this. I think I paid $50 for the ER-X, definitely recommend spending a little more for the hEX S.
One thing the hEX S can not do (at least that I have found) that the ER-X can that I care about is running a MDNS repeater. I have a couple subnets including one for IoT devices so this is necessary, as a slightly jank solution I ended up spinning up an Ubuntu server VM with separate NICs on the subnets I wanted to repeat between and running this binary to do the deed: https://github.com/geekman/mdns-repeater - if anyone knows of a better solution plz let me know.
What i love about Mikrotik is. You buy it once and own it. Unlike something like Cisco or Juniper. You got tons of licensing fees.
Been using my Hex S for 4 years and couldn’t been happier. It’s crashed on me the total amount of zero times.
I got a hEX S a few weeks ago and I love it
I converted everything over to Mikrotik earlier this year. Excellent hardware and software and cheap. But has a bit of a learning curve.
What I did is I bought a cheap small PC with an Intel chip (i5), some RAM and an SSD. You can find these with more than one NIC pretty easily from Amazon, and they are just normal computers: only small and quiet. Then go with a virtualization platform such as Proxmox, and to that, install opnSense as the router distribution and use the rest of the processing power to run everything else in your house in virtual machines: Home Assistant, media server, you name it… Just search Amazon with something like “router pc” and you get a long list of machines below and over 200 euros that are more than enough for your home. Computers like this one.
The great thing about opnSense is how it gets regular updates. And when you use a normal PC as your router, you run the latest FreeBSD kernel and get updates basically as long as opnSense is developed.
You probably also want a Wi-Fi. These boxes usually miss it, and even when they have a Wi-Fi card, opnSense is not really great for setting wireless networks. I just bought a few APs from Ubiquiti. They are a bit on the expensive side, but I just don’t need to touch these things after setting them up and the network never fails on me. There are also much cheaper APs in the market, just get anything that fits to your budget and plug it to the router.
I did this for a while, but decided to just run opnsense on bare metal, I didn’t want my whole network going down if I had to restart Proxmox or something. It’s way overkill but it’s running opnsense, adguard and will soon be running ngnix hopefully.
It’s also a good choice. What I like about opnSense is how it’s basically just a distribution you update from the shell, feels more like a real operating system compared to OpenWRT, which is usually flashed to the router.
Lot of good choices:
One of the 4 port atom pcs on Amazon, or even one of the arm ones, the key is ethernet ports and remember you’ll need to handle your wifi. Put debian, pfsense, openwrt, whatever you like, it’ll be great.
One of the openwrt systems, a high end glinet isn’t bad, just any of the better ones.
Had a freebsd server that run a vnet jail for routing, was glorious, no notes, jut perfect.
Running a unifi dream machine se right now, mostly because I want someone else to handle security (I know it’s not much, I just don’t have any bandwidth for that now). Works fine, but I’m using unifi wifi so it’s a tie-in there.
If you want a retail system, either openwrt or unifi, I know why people have issues with ubiquiti, but it’s probably the best prosumer hardware and software you can get without using your own. I haven’t used pfsense much, maybe that would change my mind.
I’ve got a Mikrotik RB4011, and I couldn’t be happier with it. It definitely has a learning curve, but once I got it setup how I want, it just works. I’m sure some other options have the same feature, but one of my favorite things is a script I have run every night that emails me a backup.
I’ve only ever had to use it a few times, but having a recent backup of my router on hand all the time is nice.
I’ve been very happy with my RB5009. I ditched my Edgrouter X because it’s not getting software updates anymore. Pros and cons to both, but Mikrotik/RouterOS is starting to make a lot more sense to me, and at this point I’m more comfortable with it than I ever was with EdgeOS.
Pfsense is fantastic. Extremely flexible. I am contemplating switching to opensense when it’s time for an upgrade (it’s been running seamlessly for many years, but someday I’ll need to).
Note that it’s a router, not a wireless access point. For that I use a few Ubiquity APs (I forget the model).
pfSense is indeed fantastic. The best part about it is you can install it on pretty much anything, as long as you have a couple reasonably fast network interfaces and an okay-ish processor depending on the network load it will just work. Also has OpenVPN server baked in which is pretty cool
It also comes with a dyndns-client built in. Very useful for updating the address of the OpenVPN server.
I just ordered a Netgate SG-1100 and I am beyond excited to spend the next few days seeing what this thing can do.
I just bought my own hardware and loaded PFSense. Put the ISP modem in bridged mode to disable all of their nonsense.
I set the DNS servers I want in PFSense and that filters down to everything on the network.
Surprised that no one has mentioned the Fresh Tomato project
There’s a ton of functionality built into it, and it is regularly updated.