Uber router build

Bluecube · 23 Sep 2014 at 18:34

I was thinking about whacking together some old parts to make a multi network ported server doo dah to replace my wifi router. I'd likely run Windows on it just to get started. Would I be able to plug my BT fibre modem into this machine and feed all my network attached things via the multi network port cards? If so then gravy. The only thing that's bothering me is how to send a wifi signal out so my phone and tablet can connect to the net - can I just attach a wireless card and that'll be that?

bremen1874 · 23 Sep 2014 at 22:55

Using Windows for this makes no sense at all.

If you're going to do it then choose one of the existing Linux/BSD distributions created for the task. pfSense is an obvious option, but there are plenty of alternatives.

Unless you have a specific reason for doing this you'd almost certainly be better off just getting a decent off the shelf router.

Rroff · 23 Sep 2014 at 23:00

No point having multiple NICs - just connect a switch to it.

randal · 23 Sep 2014 at 23:10

More NICs if you want multiple networks, else like rroff says.

I'd go pfsense, or OpenWRT x86 if you fancy a challenge. Personally, pF everytime.

Rroff · 23 Sep 2014 at 23:14

I'd probably still use a managed switch with VLAN support unless it was something specific (they are so cheap its not really worth doing anything else these days).

Bluecube · 24 Sep 2014 at 08:08

Pfsense is exactly what I'm after. Thanks all for the suggestion. My current network is quite small at around five devices so I'm trying to avoid a switch just for neatness. For those wondering, I already have a decent router but, you know, it's no challenge! I'll likely try pfsense as an ESXi VM and see how I get on.

philip2009 · 24 Sep 2014 at 22:23

Bluecube said:
Pfsense is exactly what I'm after. ...

I'm using pfSense at the moment with a fanless Celeron mini-ITX box(I read a post somewhere that it can shift around 900 Mb/s from the WAN, but don't hold me to that). I think the next version of pfSense will have hardware accelerated encryption for CPUs that support it(not mine). I like it so far so will probably stick with it for a while.

EDIT:

Check out the pfSense forum or the sub-reddit.