Since the WERA BBS is _the_ font of knowledge (and _the_ pit of stupid) on the interwebs, I figured I'd ask here, since most of the sites that talk about this stuff are pimping something/someone. I need to set up a VPN for multiple devices, for outbound access only. My router (Netgear R7000) is compatible with both Tomato and DD-WRT. My focus is on streaming speed, not so much on lots of features. I'm not hosting anything or presenting FTP or NFS to the outside world. I don't need all the WIFI bells and whistles either; I'm using the router strictly as a Gig-E traffic cop. My wireless is handled by several POE-connected WAPs, not by the router. I haven't decided yet on a VPN server provider, but leaning toward NordVPN. So which router software would work best?
In all seriousness, toss the netgear and either shove a couple GigE cards in a cheap PC or get a real router. Neither DD-WRT or Tomato will be 100% stable over time due to a combo of memory leaks, limited RAM and a SoC operating right at the edge of it's thermal envelope.
While I like horsepower running an "an old PC" just for routing purposes is foolish from a power usage perspective. However if you are going use that PC to run the router and say a Plex server or some other things in VM's then that's a great way to go. If you are merely looking to ensure streaming quality on stuff your pulling on from Netflix or some other streaming service than looking into using QOS is the better way to go and that's the feature set I would be looking at in either of those Distros to see who does a better job at supporting QOS on your hardware. Having said that I gave up on consumer level routers long ago and ran a couple Cisco 2811's for a long time and have since switched over to Ubiquiti's EdgeRouter Pro. The only feature set missing from the ER-8 Pro is a full PIM implementation. That's only necessary however if you are running multicast traffic in the network.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't have the money or the space for another computer, not even a cheap one, and if I were to consider that kind of space and power requirements I'd probably go back to a commercial-grade router.
I ran a Cisco router in my previous house, where I had a fairly large network, and did all kinds of stuff with it. Now I'm in a much smaller space, and my needs are less complex, plus I have power, space, and noise constraints I didn't before. I looked at the EdgeRouter Pro, and it's got fans The baby EdgeRouter (ER Lite), does not, and would probably be more than sufficient for my needs based on the specs. Any experience with it?
While we on this topic, FiOS needs to use their router from my understanding for displaying the guide, menu, etc...would a switch be a better idea for a home LAN connected to their router?
If you want fanless the ERL is the way to go. Still a very capable little router. All my shit is in the basement in it's own space so fans are no big deal. Heat however was once we finished the basement and now it all has it's own A/C as well.
If FIOS is anything like our customers deployments they use their device to VLAN out the video traffic from the rest of the IP traffic. All the fiber deployments out customers run segment that traffic at the ONT before it enters the house. I'd have to know more about their deployment configurations but fi they are indeed acting as the NAT gateway for everything behind that router than a switch would be all you'd need. However if you want to keep everything you own not visible to them you could stick it behind another router. If they deploy their equipment in such a fashion that your internet traffic is passed over a simple bridge in their device than you'd need a router as they would be doing not NAT on that traffic for you. If they are providing you triple play services than they are likely doing everything you need in their device.
This, x1000! I have a pfSense edge firewall setup with pfBlockerNG, pftopNG (for NetFlow analysis), and squid proxy with DNS black hole. I use two Ubiquiti UniFi Pro's as my wireless access points and use the pfSense firewall to server DHCP and routing: https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-pro/ You can build one yourself or buy a preconfigured appliance: https://www.pfsense.org/products/ Once you go pfSense, you'll never go back.
I've had a Linksys WRT-54G router running DD-WRT for about 5 years now. Haven't had any issues but I'm not really using much of any of the advanced features in it.
ASR9900 behind a Label Switch Router so you keep your 100Gb optics costs reasonable and you can run a lean core (possibly deploy segment routing over labels as ships in the night with BGP for safety). I would recommend something like 4x palo alto 7080 for firewall and smaller units for VPN. Sorry, this is my industry but I don't know.
No...you know shit. Just not anything that's helpful in this instance. If I need some MPLS questions answered you'll get the call.
