I’m gonna be moving into a new place soon and I’ll be setting up the Internet there. I want to experiment with setting up a local network with static IPs just for learning and fun, so I want my own router. I don’t want something hard to use because other people will be using the internet from it too. I don’t really know what the router market looks like, and I don’t want to support Reddit, so I’m asking here.

Ideally, this router would:

  • Be under $150 (but I might be willing to go a bit higher)
  • Be easily purchasable (no AliExpress specials)
  • Not sell data to corporations
  • Have a long life, ideally through easily set-up open source firmware but reputable proprietary is fine
  • Have good enough antennas to propagate signal across a small house
  • Support up to 500Mb/s sustained speeds

What do you think? Thank you for your help!

    • sobchak@programming.devEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      I had a Mox and it was the most stable router I’ve ever had. Never had to power cycle it, and I even have to power cycle my fancy Asus somewhat often.

  • yeehaw@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Any old hardware and run opnsense or pfsense (the former preferred)

    • exu@feditown.comEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      OP mentions antennas, presumably for WiFi, so forget about OPNsense, PFsense or most other BSDs.

  • Chulk@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I bought a Flint 2 GL-MT6000 and I’ve been pretty happy with the choice.

    • its currently on sale for $125
    • it comes with a custom version of open-wrt, but it can be flashed to a different firmware
    • easily purchaseable through their site
    • I have not had signal issues in my place, but YMMV
    • sustained speeds are at least 500Mb/s
    • supports features like VLAN, which is part of why I bought it

    Side note: Flint 3 just came out, but I’m not familiar enough with it to recommend.

  • Blaster M@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Let me go out on a limb and rec a cheap mini computer with 2 mini gigabit (or more) ethernets, and either pfsense or opnsense. Those two run on anything that has an x86_64 cpu and easily update. Not any harder to learn to setup than mikrotik, and has lots more capability.

  • moseschrute@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I know this isn’t gonna be super popular with the lemmy crowd, but if you’re looking for something really robust, customizable, but also pretty easy to use, Ubiquiti has been great. The cloud gateway max specifically. I think it’s $200 with no storage, but they have other slightly stripped down models for less. But you also need an access point. That’s kinda the benefit though is you can upgrade the access point independently of the router.

    They also have the dream machine if you want a more traditional all in one router + wifi solution.

    • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      +1 for Ubiquiti, but I’d suggest one of the cheaper models with built in WiFi unless you plan on having an intricate network.

  • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    You’ll probably need 2 devices: one actually connected to the external line (ie the modem part) and then your actual router / wifi access point(s).

    Personally, I have a Fritzbox router configured into bridge mode so it just deals with the line signal and passes all the PPPoE / internet comms to a pfSense box I built (ie anything… an old thin client, new microATX, etc…)

    I then have separate POE WAPs for wifi around the house, but pfSense can deal with radio drivers too if separate WAPs are too much today.

    This way, if something goes wrong I can always go back to a single domestic router, keep the family happy, download anything I need to fix my setup and then move forwards again.

    I like having separate components with an up/downgrade path

  • Natanox@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Not sure about the availability in your region, however I have good experiences with AVM Fritz!Box routers. They are proprietary but extremely easy and reliable without sacrifycing security or features. They’re from a german company and basically the go-to router vendor here by both ISPs and in retail.

    • littleomid@feddit.orgEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Same. I got a FRITZ!Box and it can do 90% of things I need. You can’t set VLANs to my knowledge. Worth knowing.

  • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    As others have said, get something that works with OpenWRT. It’s unbelievably flexible and the OpenWRT forum can be really helpful, both for finding ways to implement things and for solving problems.

  • bigpEE@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    If you want a wealth of information on what makes a good router/WAP, read https://www.wiisfi.com/. Or skip to the Recommendations section for hardware picks. I do recommend cross referencing for an OpenWRT compatible router

  • frongt@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Pretty much any router will handle that.

    If you want do open source, you can do something like opnwrt on hardware they support. Or, build the whole thing yourself with opnsense on any device that can run FreeBSD.

    • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Most routers don’t support open source firmware. If you want privacy and firmware updates, it needs to be supported by OpenWRT.

      • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        FWIW their Kasa line of smart switches started getting pretty shitty about needing an account and internet access to work.

        • youmaynotknow@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          You can still run the smart switches locally if you have the ones that support matter. But yeah, the old ones do require internet connection, which sucks.

  • LemmyNubs@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I’ve been very happy with the Glinet Flint2. I think it checks most (if not all) your boxes.