For a router, I'd pick some BSD-based OS. pf is much more efficient than iptables, although I only know this anecdotally. I'm a huge fan of pfSense which wrap

For a router, I'd pick some BSD-based OS. pf is much more efficient than iptables, although I only know this anecdotally. I'm a huge fan of pfSense which wraps a nice UI and some great tools (proxy, AV, analysis, etc.) into one big package. Worth a look. I used to run my home router on a little Qotom computer, but virtualized it to get rid of wires and boxes; works great. I'm running three pfSense boxes in various environments and can't say enough good things about 'em.