Hi all, I’m looking to upgrade my router from the default one that came from my ISP.
I don’t need anything super fancy, just something with 4+ lan ports (1gbps is ok, 2.5gbps would be nicer), 1 WAN Port, Wifi-6 (802.11ax), and the ability to have an isolated IoT network (using a vlan for this would be nice).
Any suggestions? I’d like to keep the price down if possible. This is just for my home network.
You could go pfsense and add a wireless card.
You’re in selfhosted, so most people here are going to suggest you self host something like pfsense or opnsense, which would give you everything you need, but you know being self hosted you’re going to have a steep learning curve.
Otherwise go pick up any router at best buy, they’re all assorted levels of garbage.
I’d say both opn/pf sense are fairly easy to get started with. Now for something small I’d suggest openwrt.
For a full setup you can’t beat xxsense as firewall and router and stand alone AP’s for WiFi.
How much wifi and open-source do you really want?
If you are willing to go with commercial hardware + open source firmware (OpenWRT) you might want to check the table of hardware of OpenWrt at https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_16128_ax-wifi and https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_available_864_ac-wifi. One solid pick for the future might be the Netgear WAX2* line. One of those models is now fully supported the others are on the way. If you don’t mind having older wifi a Netgear R7800 is solid.
If you want full open-source hardware and software you need a more exotic brand like this https://www.banana-pi.org/en/bananapi-router/.
Both solutions will lead to OpenWRT when it comes to software, it is better than any commercial firmware but there’s a catch about open-source wifi. The best performing wifi chips are Broadcom and those don’t usually see open-source software support**. MediaTek is the open-source alternative and while they work fine they can’t, unfortunately, beat Broadcom. As most hardware is Broadcom they have hacks that go behind the published wifi standards and get it go a few megabytes/second faster and/or improve the range a bit.
** DD-WRT is another “open-source” firmware that has a specific agreement with Broadcom to allow them to use their proprietary drivers and distribute them as blob with their firmware. While it works don’t expect compatibility with newer hardware nor a bug free solution like OpenWRT is.
I absolutely love my Synology router and access points. You can start with one and then if needed just add others for a mesh network. The RT6600ax has all of the features that you’re looking for. My .02.
I’ve run Synology since they got into the router game and I unfortunately I cannot recommend them. I adore their NASes and they are rock solid but the routers aren’t tested properly in my opinion. I live in a VERY Wi-Fi contested area and it really affects their hand-off between nodes in their mesh, which means a device often stays connected to the wrong node up to a point where there’s simply no connection. I thought it was a 1st gen problem but after upgrading to their 2nd gen systems it hasn’t solved the problem.
I’m moving to another router/mesh system now, which I’ve tested and it works considerably better.
MikroTik hAP ax3 seems to fit the requirements and is what I’m currently running. They add their enterprise features into the “consumer” packages, allowing you to set up VLANs, meshes, etc
I’m surprised more people in the selfhosting community aren’t recommending Mikrotik.
Their cheapest routers have all the same software features as their enterprise gear. They’re also one of the only companies who makes most of their routers and switches capable of being powered with POE in and redundant DC power.
All of their newer ARM based routers support running docker containers natively on the routers extra features. You can run PiHole/AdGuard, nginx, tailscale, etc. directly on your routers hardware.
I’ve been running a hexS for 3 years without any issues. I run multiple VLANs and wireguard directly on it, and it has an SFP port that I can use for an ONT module to get a fiber connection directly to my router from my ISP. I think it cost me $60 when I bought it.
