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
I have been using opnsense on a very cheap celeron nuc for a few years, very happy with it
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.
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.
