What options do I have for routers that are under $100 USD?
What options do I have for routers that are under $100 USD?
I have my AP’s setup and all I need now is sine sort of firewall appliance. I am hopping to make it run openwrt as that’s what I’m used to using. I’m looking at a nanopi but they seem expensive and overpowered to me. Is there a cheap alternative?
A "free" option if you have some PC hardware lying around is to run OPNsense/pfSense instead of buying a dedicated box. I say "free" since it will use more power and require more time to configure and manage.
Alternnatively, I ran one of TP-Links AX consumer router/AP combos for several years and it was solid. Even had an OpenVPN server built in. I can look up the exact model if you're interested.
6Look at Mikrotik. Very affordable and extremely powerful. Only do this though if you know what you are doing with networking
5More than a few, but here's a few I'd recommend in that price range (NOTE: Not beginner friendly)
Mikrotik Router only, no AP - $95
4What do you want to do? How fast is your internet? 1Gbps fibre requires something much beefier than 50Mbps.
How many servers do you have going? Are people accessing them from outside?
How many people in your household? Are they gamers and need low latency? Heavy streamers? Working from home needing VPNs?
Without this context just look at a pricelist.
2I am looking for a device that can keep up with a gigabit connection
1I've been very happy with Ubiquity Edgerouters the last few years. Their ER-X model can do 1Gbps total... So if you're downloading at 500Mbps then you can upload at 500Mbps. It come in about USD 60 I think.
Next level up is the Edgerouter Lite 3. It is much beefier and can easily handle 1Gbps both ways and even faster. It's just under $100. 99 or so. Maybe you can find it on special.
They are really prosumer and definitely much stabler than typical consumer routers. Eg I haven't reset mine in more than 2 years.
It's not open source like mikrotik but they are very hacker and tech use friendly. Most things work via CLI. And most advanced router functions are supported.
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If you had a pc already with two NICs, you could do sophos xg home on it or a pfsense/opnsense. I’m planning on virtualizing a VM on a cheap mini ryzen box that meets that (ace magician makes one for $300).
1Do you need the latest router, or just "a" router? I usually get mine for like $10 at Goodwill. They're a couple years old when I get them, but they work fine and I don't need anything fancy.
1Best option by far is a PC with Opnsense installed on it.
1What're you doing? I'd recommend Mikrotik, since you can do just about anything on it for cheap. It does however have a significant learning curve.
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