Hi all,
I’m slowly moving into the self hosted mindset specially for privacy, security and sailing the high seas. This community has been invaluable but I’d like to know which routers you use that fit well with this and plays nice with the services we’re hosting.
I’m mostly thinking about wifi support, openwrt, vpn (not a hard requirement), vlans, etc. I know probably a networking community would be a better place for this question, but I think this might be useful for other “self-hosters”
I use Mikrotik RB5009 because it’s easy and very powerful. It has zerotier and wireguard built in. I’m slowly getting into OPNSense, but I’m not too familiar with it yet.
I also run ubiquiti wifi, but am planning on changing to another system in the future.
My core switch is a unifi 24 enterprise. It’s the only affordable and semi quiet switch that is multigig, POE, and semi layer 3.
I currently run 6 vlans. Users, servers, management, IoT, LAN only, and DMZ.
Can only agree on Mikrotik routers. All are using RouterOS, which works the same on all their devices, from routers to switches and access points.
They are relatively cheap for the capabilites you’re getting. They have their own scripting language, two APIs (their new one is REST-based).
GUI (winbox is recommended, and plays nice with wine. Wouldn’t recommend web interface, just cumbersome) and CLI exists.
They have a lot of builtin functionality, like DHCP server, DNS server with static configuration, and even file sharing. Some models are powerful enough to run Docker images on (yes, that’s builtin…).
We’re running a couple of hundred and don’t have much problem with them.
Yes, but a caveat is that not all of their switches can run RouterOS. Some can only run SwitchOS, which I’ve heard is on its way out… So avoid that hardware.
I have an RB5009 router and I like it a lot.
You are completely right about SwitchOS, and it is even more exciting that some models sells in two versions, with the only difference being called CSS* for SwitchOS, or CRS* for RouterOS. And the SwitchOS-enabled model is much cheaper, so customers ordering for themselves almost always pick the wrong one (that is, SwitchOS, which we can’t manage properly in our automations and other software solutions).
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| AP | WiFi Access Point |
| CGNAT | Carrier-Grade NAT |
| DNS | Domain Name Service/System |
| HA | Home Assistant automation software |
| ~ | High Availability |
| IP | Internet Protocol |
| IoT | Internet of Things for device controllers |
| NAT | Network Address Translation |
| PCIe | Peripheral Component Interconnect Express |
| SSD | Solid State Drive mass storage |
| VPS | Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting) |
9 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 7 acronyms.
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I have a Dell OptiPlex 7050 acting as a router. But I don’t do any port forwarding. Instead, I have an Oracle Always Free VM that is connected to my server via a WireGuard tunnel. The cloud VM acts as reverse proxy to all of the services that I host. The OptiPlex 7050 is running OpenBSD.
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. 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.
If you want full open-source hardware and software you need a more exotic brand like this https://www.banana-pi.org/en/bananapi-router/.
Both solutions will lead to OpenWRT when it comes to software, it is better than any commercial firmware but there’s a catch about open-source wifi. The best performing wifi chips are Broadcom and those don’t usually see open-source software support**. MediaTek is the open-source alternative and while they work fine they can’t, unfortunately, beat Broadcom. As most hardware is Broadcom they have 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.
It might be overkill and some sysadmin don’t like using them but Ubiquity with their Unifi model is all I’m using at home. USG as my router/firewall, 24-port 500w PoE switch, unifi cloud key for interface, and an AP-AC-Pro for WiFi access. The access point is enough to cover all my house and even my backyard.
+1 for Ubiquiti here too. My network is a fair bit smaller, but I have a regular Dream Machine for WiFi, router and firewall, and just an 8 port poe switch for two AP-AC-Pros and two cameras. The ecosystem is very expandable too, so I can easily add devices if I’m running out of capacity.
They’re a little pricier, but definitely worth it IMO for something that just works with minimal tinkering. Networking setup is quite easy as well, Mactelecom networks on YT has some great videos on that.
