4 ms·

PC Engines with OpenBSD or Debian Linux. 100% open source hardware, firmware and software, not this closed-source "RouterOS" which is probably bugged.

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
Yes, this is easily superior to most options; Debian/OpenBSD/whatever is far more trustworthy than any commercial offering (and many noncommercial options), and hostapd isn't especially hard to set up - a bit of effort up front and then you can just sit on it for years with no more maintenance than installing updates (and even that can be automated with unattended upgrades in Debian). The result is a capable little box that will get security updates indefinitely and which only serves your interests.
- zajio1am 5y ago
  I also use PC Engines Alix with Debian as home router and it is in many ways superior to commercial options, but quality of wifi drivers in Linux is long-term issue. Also note that in unpatched hostapd channel bonding (40MHz and more channels) does not really work. There is a check whether neighboring channel is crowded (which always is due to overcrowded spectrum) that disables channel bonding. AFAIK Openwrt has patch that allows to override this check, but Debian does not. As a result, i get consistently higher wifi speeds from commercial wifi APs than from my Alix router.
dehrmann 5y ago
I tend to use OpenWRT on Mikrotik devices, but I used a board from PC Engines, and I was was impressed by it. The hardware is very standard, and their support was good. I had a question about the max power the mini PCI port could supply. I got an answer and info on a change I can make that adds a capacitor to help in this scenario.
_joel 5y ago
Lovely little systems. Used them to build VPN gateways and for our OOB access at POPs etc.
ahepp 5y ago
I agree that this is what I would want to use, but doesn't the lack of any kind of specialized switching hardware make it uncompetitive in terms of price/power consumption/speed? I have on order a mikrotik rb5009UG+S+, which has nine gigabit ethernet ports, one 2.5 gigabit ethernet port, and a 10g sfp+ cage. It has zero fans and benchmarks show it capable of 10 gigabit routing. It costs less than $200. I love vyos, and I would definitely prefer an open source router. But people I talk to love their mikrotik products. It doesn't seem like the old ones are being abandoned.

yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago

Yes, this is easily superior to most options; Debian/OpenBSD/whatever is far more trustworthy than any commercial offering (and many noncommercial options), and hostapd isn't especially hard to set up - a bit of effort up front and then you can just sit on it for years with no more maintenance than installing updates (and even that can be automated with unattended upgrades in Debian). The result is a capable little box that will get security updates indefinitely and which only serves your interests.

zajio1am 5y ago
I also use PC Engines Alix with Debian as home router and it is in many ways superior to commercial options, but quality of wifi drivers in Linux is long-term issue. Also note that in unpatched hostapd channel bonding (40MHz and more channels) does not really work. There is a check whether neighboring channel is crowded (which always is due to overcrowded spectrum) that disables channel bonding. AFAIK Openwrt has patch that allows to override this check, but Debian does not. As a result, i get consistently higher wifi speeds from commercial wifi APs than from my Alix router.

dehrmann 5y ago

I tend to use OpenWRT on Mikrotik devices, but I used a board from PC Engines, and I was was impressed by it. The hardware is very standard, and their support was good. I had a question about the max power the mini PCI port could supply. I got an answer and info on a change I can make that adds a capacitor to help in this scenario.

_joel 5y ago

Lovely little systems. Used them to build VPN gateways and for our OOB access at POPs etc.

ahepp 5y ago

I agree that this is what I would want to use, but doesn't the lack of any kind of specialized switching hardware make it uncompetitive in terms of price/power consumption/speed? I have on order a mikrotik rb5009UG+S+, which has nine gigabit ethernet ports, one 2.5 gigabit ethernet port, and a 10g sfp+ cage. It has zero fans and benchmarks show it capable of 10 gigabit routing. It costs less than $200. I love vyos, and I would definitely prefer an open source router. But people I talk to love their mikrotik products. It doesn't seem like the old ones are being abandoned.