Do you have any router recommendations?

Questions
1

I am currently using an Edgerouter X.
However, this router is difficult to maintain because its OS is based on an old version of Debian 7 and has been heavily customized.

I am looking for a router that can be maintained with a similar feel to a standard Linux/BSD system. I don’t like embedded hardware with heavily customized Linux.

Given these requirements, should I set up OPNSense or pfSense myself?

Can OpenWRT be maintained with a similar feel to a standard Linux server?

Also, I prefer a router without built-in WiFi because dealing with radio wave regulations is a hassle (I already have a separate Wi-Fi AP anyway)

2

Have you researched this forum for the question you’re asking? I’m guessing that should answer your question.

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3
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4

My personal opinion is that all routers out right now are quite bad. I also want to use OpenWrt, but their OpenWrt One seems very meh based on specs + price. I already have a working router, but it’s a tp-link with no OpenWrt support :’(. I think the recommended gl.inet routers are nice, but they’re not a worthy upgrade for me personally. I’d want a tri-band wifi-7 OpenWrt router for my next router, but a good one like that doesn’t exist yet as gl.inet really fucked up their latest release. I’m waiting for OpenWrt Two.

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5

How about the Banana Pi OpenWRT router? That’s the one I recommend anyone since its release.

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6

Isn’t that the same as the OpenWrt One from my post? I think Gl.inet Flint 2 is strictly better although more expensive. As mentioned, if I was upgrading I’d want tri band wifi 7 router, but if I needed a router today I think both that OpenWrt One and Flint 2 are the best choices.

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7

I’m inclined to say and believe it will be a while before we see an Open WRT router supporting one of those brand new WiFi 7 routers with the best specs. But would love to know the second its available. I’d buy it right away.

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8

pfSense / OPNSense - Make one or buy Protectli.

OpenWRT - GLiNet, then disable Wi-Fi, flash OpenWRT.

Asus - Merlin firmware.

Synology sell some beastly routers and APs, stupidly stable and the interface is soo simply my 8 yr old son could configure it, but lacks features like Wireguard, I have one still and love it, but the lack of Wireguard is annoying, and honestly haven’t got around to setting it up since I moved house, I hide my traffic by using a VPN.

If you want the “best” subjective home networking gear, Ubiquiti is great, but I doubt their privacy policy is good, very apple like, works very well, but again, privacy, popular with home labbers.

If it was me today, and I could be bothered to set it up, I’d be looking at Protectli, always wanted to try pfSense /OPNSense

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9

What’s wrong with the Flint 3?

10

i like opnsense router. expensive but made in eu

11

There’s a million reddit threads that can answer this better than I can. As far as I remember its specs are bad even compared to its predecessor, but the price is higher and it doesn’t support OpenWrt. Virtually everyone said that Flint 3 is a downgrade if you already have a Flint 2. To me it feels like a cash grab from GLiNet.

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12

I want to point out that these are fully fledged firewall appliances like Fortigate.
They are not routers like the onces you get from your ISP or OpenWRT and might even bring problems with them if you try to use them like a router.

13

I switched shells to use bash on my OpenWrt router to mirror Debian a tad better, but that’s perhaps the extent of my knowledge. For more technical questions, you might be better suited asking on the openwrt forums btw.

14

The price is a little steep, but given the upgrade-ability and the relatively high spec, I’ve got my eyes on the Omnia NG. It first came to my attention from this itsfoss.com article.

15

this router is difficult to maintain

Would using the mainline of OpenWRT help? Or is it more of a bash script/config that you’re struggling with? Package dependencies?

maintained with a similar feel to a standard Linux/BSD system

That is quite generic and depends on what you’re used to I guess.
Some people deploy their configs with Ansible/Nix, some others just copy paste scripts from their dotfiles. :sweat_smile:

Given these requirements, should I set up OPNSense or pfSense myself?

OPNSense is OpenBSD, so it will be quite a bit different from your current Debian.
Also, OpenWRT and OPNSense are also quite different as a whole.

Can OpenWRT be maintained with a similar feel to a standard Linux server?

No expert (yet) but the docs are EXTENSIVE and there is definitely a way to back it up or automate the whole process with specific build images + import all the packages you need with the official package manager. :+1:t2:

Also, I feel like this question doesn’t specifically match a router recommendation. :hugs:

I went a big rabbit hole as of lately and I’d say the opposite actually: some of them are no-brainers and are quite good given the OpenWRT forum. :+1:t2:

OpenWrt One seems very meh based on specs + price

This is where I’d tend to disagree. If you don’t have huge needs like SFP28 or alike, that 1GB of RAM + CPU is definitely more than enough. The current situation is that the R4-pro will probably be one of the first routers to fully embrace a stable SFP+ with a stable WiFi 7 milestone.
Meanwhile, it is still very early days on a lot of aspects.

One of them, being WiFi 7 as a whole. Looking at the threads, it is still very experimental and hacky to have something decent working. That’s also without talking about the shielding, casing situation etc etc…overall if you don’t own a 3d printer and are not already very knowledgeable with OpenWRT, it sounds like a big leap of faith to commit to it now.

The stocks aren’t also super full and the main seller is still making adjustments to the heatsink, they are still not running mainline OpenWRT either, and all of this is like ~2 weeks fresh news as of today. While the whole package is about 300€+ for the basic kit of having something potentially fully broken.

TLDR: the R4 Pro is very early adopter, but so is WiFi 7 tbh. Without even talking about the fact that you might not even get any clients for it or that it might perform just worse than a proper clean WiFi 6 setup.

So yes, the OpenWRT Two might be similar to the R4 Pro (or at least inspired from it), but it’s not there yet and that is probably why the release is delayed too.
If you really want to upgrade, there is probably no open source hardware available indeed but it might also just be marketing material anyway. :woman_shrugging:t2:

I think, it’s definitely the most Apple-y as in very popular, easy to use and powerful as a whole but I’m sure there are better alternatives in terms of raw power for the same price.
Most people that buy Ubiquiti are probably fine being locked in their ecosystem and commit to buying all of their networking gear from them I assume. :grin:

I’d be looking at Protectli

I was very tempted a few months ago too but then saw that it’s pretty much over-priced chinese boxes that could be bought for far cheaper and probably overkill if you don’t plan to have a NAS, Proxmox etc…running on it. Which is (AFAIK) quite a bad idea to mix & match networking with everything else.

Not sure I fully understand why it’s so expensive, probably IDPS and other firewall-specific things :blush:

Yes, exactly for why it’s a flop.
But for the cash grab: I would tend to say that it’s more of a “product released too soon”. WiFi 7 is just not mature enough from what I read.

From what I can see, only the Omnia (non NG) is officially supported in mainline OpenWRT as of today

It looks cool! :rocket:

Few random notes from me:

  • passive cooling? damn, the throughput and those SFP+ ports are heating up quite a lot if you push them with copper (from what I understood of 10 Gb setups)
  • I am not sure how Qualcomm is performing but MTK is still the official go-to recommendation
  • from what I read, SoCs like MTK are meant to offload some work with their hardware rather than “brute force” it with raw power by using x86/arm, but I guess that if heat/consumption is less of a prio in comparison to raw performance, it might be cool! :star_struck:
  • not sure about the CPU, but the other specs look comparable to the R4 Pro (I’m no expert but there are some matches on both sides haha)
    • only 2 GB of RAM tho, but plenty overkill if not running your entire homelab on it I assume
  • the whole Turris thing looks quite cool
  • company looks nice, not shipping 20 products at the same time but looks like they are focused on a few good products
    • also the second :czechia: company that I know doing routers now[1], cool to see variety!

  1. First one being mono.si ↩︎

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