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Right now I'm using a Fortigate 101E, but eons back I used a simple PC built as cheaply as possible, installed Linux, ip_forward = 1, and iptables.
I am, however, tempted to build something semi-professional based on a banana pi, as I need something custom for work.
Can I ask why you need something custom for work? I'm myself curious how I'll make my DIY set up play nice with my job's VPN 😅
Highly niche requirements not serviced by available hardware without costing waaaay too much. For example, we're currently using Cisco Meraki MX85, and even they're not quite there.
returns after some googling oh my LOL i see
My setup consists of an x86 “network appliance”. They’re low-cost, low-power, sometime headless units that can run most any open-source software solution. Even with RAM as bad as it is, you can find these for less than $200 from multiple sources if you’re okay with 2.5Gbps. If you did need more than that, you’d have to build something custom likely, unless it’s a small-business class device.
If you’re just getting into the network software side of things, I recommend experimenting off-Internet for a while with a few different operating systems. Find which one has a user-interface you enjoy and can wrap your head around since in a personal homelab, they almost all meet the requirements. My personal choice for software ended up being OPNSense.
I run all of my other services that aren’t network related on separate hardware via a managed switch just to keep things isolated and the rest is up to you.
That actually sounds fantastic, low power, low cost, repurposed tech meets a trifecta I didn't really know was possible and is exactly what I'd want.
I'm not really sure what anyone would need > 2.5 for tbh. If anyone wants to tell me, I'd appreciate it, I see so many network guys on YouTube talking about 10gig, and I don't know why 😅
I have OPNsense running on a 2nd-hand Dell Optiplex SFF, which I added 2-port NIC(s) to (initially Gigabit RJ45, then later 10Gbit SFP).
Currently it's running bridged from my ISP router, but I'm in the process of wiring the fibre directly via a SFP transceiver to the NIC. I believe you can do adblocking on OPNsense itself via Unbound, but I prefer to do that via a separate PiHole (VM).
I ran a linux box with two gigabit Intel NICs for years with iptables. Almost any device can do it.
Like others say, opnsense is prob your best bet unless you like the abstraction of iptables
I don't know for sure what I like or don't like, but I am pretty sure I do not want to start with iptables. Thank you :)
I'm running openWRT on a nanopi R5S. It's tiny, robust, cheap, and uses very little power. It came with FriendlyElec, a fork of openWRT designed specifically for the device, but if flashed the standard version onto it so I could get more support from reading forums. I don't know if that was the right move.
It was a bitch to get set up right, but that's due to my lack of experience, not the device. It didn't help that there was a major update to OpenWRT/LuCI right in the middle of my figuring out the program, that drastically changed the GUI. It also didn't help that I was setting up a NAS, and a proxmox server at the same time, so anytime something broke I had 3 system to troubleshoot.
All that aside, it's been working great since setup with zero maintenance. It does get hot enough that I don't set it on any other device, but it never throttles itself or overheats.
Lol thanks for that, it's nice to talk to someone else who also just dove right in instead of the usual online experts who've been at it for forever 😅
OpnSense running on an ex-lease HP i3-something SFF desktop. Added several cheap half-height GigEth PCIe cards for the LAN bridge.
It is way over spec for what OpnSense needs but it was cheap and extensible.
UPS power supply.
There's a tangle of PoE injectors which makes me sad. PoE PCIe cards appear to be ludicrously expensive here for no apparent reason.
@EmilieEasie I have two physical devices, both running OpenWRT. One is a Linksys MR7350. It is only doing wifi; no dhcp server or dns or anything. The other is an old Rock64 board with a usb ethernet adapter plugged in; that's the router connected to my ISP and handles dhcp, dns (w/ adblock), and so on.
At one point I had set up two raspberry pi 4s to act as wifi access points running debian (with hostapd manually configured, and various wifi usb adapters plugged in), but I got sick of Pis.
I got an N100 motherboard with 4x GB ports and installed ubuntu. Configured 1 port for the ISP, 1 port for a guest network, and bridged the last two with a WIFI PCIe card for the trusted network. hostapd to manage the wifi, and it took a couple tries before I found a card that really handled AP mode well. dhcpd, radvd. bind 9 for DNS, integrated with dhcpd so clients can declare their own hostname. There's a separate pihole in front of that. Took a while to discover that I had to specifically configure dhclient to the ISP to request IPv6 prefix delegation. The guest network port goes to a ddwrt router.
It also runs a mythtv backend, a couple web sites; immich, jellyfin, and paperless ngx containers. In my head, it's more of a server with router functions glued on, where [...]sense is more of a router with server functions glued on.
I was comfortable with cli administration, and the router side sort of grew organically, with a little victory each time I could unplug another appliance - first a WAP, then a switch. opn/pf-sense is probably an easier way to get into the DIY space, especially if you want to replace your whole infrastructure at one time.
In my head, it’s more of a server with router functions glued on That was also how I thought of your machine in my head by the time I got to this part of your comment