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For my home network I've purchased a networking appliance form-factor computer, which is basically a regular old an i3 with VT-x support in a fanless case and 4

For my home network I've purchased a networking appliance form-factor computer, which is basically a regular old an i3 with VT-x support in a fanless case and 4 2.5GiB NICs. I've installed my favorite stable Linux distro that gets regular automated security updates in both host and a VM, and I've device-mapped 3 of the NICs into that VM. The remaining NIC remains unattached to anything unless I want to SSH in to the host. I'm running UFW and Shorewall in the VM to perform firewall and routing tasks. If I want to tweak anything I just SSH in to that VM. I have a snapshot of the VM disk in case I mess something up so I can trivially roll back to something that I know works. I've purchased a couple of cheaper commercial WiFi access points, and I've placed them in my house with channels set up to minimize interference. Prior to this I've gone through several iterations of network products from the likes of Apple, Google, and ASUS, and they all had issues with performance and reliability. For example infuriating random periods of 3-5 seconds of dropped packets in the middle of Zoom conferences and what not. Since I've rolled my own I've had zero issues, and I have a higher degree of confidence that it's configured securely and is getting relevant security updates. In short, my home network doesn't have a problem unless some significant chunk of the world that's running the same well-known stable Linux distro also has a problem.

tmoertel 2y ago
Out of curiosity, which networking appliance form-factor computer did you purchase?
- steelframe 2y ago
  It's a HUNSN RJ36. It came preloaded with pfSense, as many of them do, but I immediately made a full disk backup and then wiped and installed with a Linux distro because, well, "This is Linux. I know this." You're going to find a lot of people who strongly prefer one over the other, and you may find you prefer pfSense over a "do-everything-yourself" Linux distro if you give it a shot. There are also Linux distros that are targeted for network appliances, and setting them up (correctly) can be easier if the distro is built for the task. There are quite a few machines in this category, and what's in stock at any given time tends to rotate relatively quickly. I think the one I bought might still be available, but you will want to check to see if there is something with specs that will work better for your use case.
fckgw 2y ago
This attack affected modems so even with all that fancy hardware you would still be dead in the water.

tmoertel 2y ago

Out of curiosity, which networking appliance form-factor computer did you purchase?

steelframe 2y ago
It's a HUNSN RJ36. It came preloaded with pfSense, as many of them do, but I immediately made a full disk backup and then wiped and installed with a Linux distro because, well, "This is Linux. I know this." You're going to find a lot of people who strongly prefer one over the other, and you may find you prefer pfSense over a "do-everything-yourself" Linux distro if you give it a shot. There are also Linux distros that are targeted for network appliances, and setting them up (correctly) can be easier if the distro is built for the task. There are quite a few machines in this category, and what's in stock at any given time tends to rotate relatively quickly. I think the one I bought might still be available, but you will want to check to see if there is something with specs that will work better for your use case.

fckgw 2y ago

This attack affected modems so even with all that fancy hardware you would still be dead in the water.