This guide is a tutorial and step-by-step guide to help you build the same router I decided to assemble for myself. pfSense emerged as the winning option, as it is an open-source solution for getting an enterprise grade router out of commodity hardware by providing the software to run it for free (both libre and gratis). After researching prosumer and entry level enterprise grade routers, I stumbled upon pfSense. The answer to my problem was to put together an open source router with parts hand selected to support the features and functionality I was looking to have for my network. While your ISP rules your modem with their firmware (unfortunately), you have control and choice over what router you run along side it. Also, watching a perfectly good (and still useful) consumer router become a security nightmare due to stagnated firmware and/or loss of vendor support left me wanting more control over my connection to the Internet. The desire for VLANs and other advanced network management features/services left me searching for alternative solutions to just buying another off-the-self solution. I heard you shouldn't use WiFi but it only need to handle 1-2 devices, so might be fine.Ubiquiti UniFi 802.11ac UAP-AC-PRO-US Access PointMĪfter many years of enjoying consumer “routers” – which are actually three devices conveniently merged into a single device with a handy web configuration interface (router, switch, and wireless access point) my networking needs finally reached a point where I had to step up to “enterprise” grade devices.

It need to handle at least 100/100 network. Also concerned about power usage, hence I'm not sure about using my old system as it needs to be online 24/7

I heard you shouldn't use WiFi but it only need to handle 1-2 devices, so might be fine. It has an SATA port so I could add an normal SSD. So $530 and $40 for a wle200nx I can get,ĬPU: Intel Core i5-4200U Dual Core, 4 threads, Up To 2.6GHz Or I can buy this for $300 but would need a GB switch ($30) and AP ($200)īut I rather not have additional hardware. 3570k, 16GB RAM, and for $300 I can buy chassis, network card / wifi, SSD, CPU cooler. So I need to buy a new router and was thinking of getting a PFsense or OPNsense router for more control and monitoring of the network.

Pfsense router hardware