Ask Slashdot: Can You Roll Your Own Home Router?

'My goal is to have a firewall that I trust,' writes Slashdot reader eggegick, 'not a firewall that comes from the manufacture that might have back doors.'

I'm looking for a cheap mini PC I can turn into a headless Linux-based wireless and Ethernet router. The setup would be a cable modem on the Comcast side, Ethernet out from the modem to the router and Ethernet, and WiFi out to the home network.

Two long-time Slashdot readers had suggestions. johnnys believes 'any old desktop or even a laptop will work.... as long as you have a way to get a couple of (fast or Gigabit) Ethernet ports and a good WiFi adapter... '

Cable or any consumer-grade broadband doesn't need exotic levels of throughput: Gigabit Ethernet will not be saturated by any such connection...
You can also look at putting FOSS firewall software like DD-WRT or OpenWrt on consumer-grade 'routers'. Such hardware is usually set up with the right hardware and capabilities you are looking for. Note however that newer hardware may not work with such firmwares as the FCC rules about controlling RF have caused many manufacturers to lock down firmware images.
And you don't necessarily need to roll your own with iptables: There are several BSD or Linux-based FOSS distributions that do good firewall functionality. PFSense is very good and user-friendly, and there are others. OpenBSD provides an exceptionally capable enterprise-level firewall on a secure platform, but it's not designed to be user-friendly.

Long-time Slashdot reader Spazmania agrees the 'best bet' is 'one of those generic home wifi routers that are supported by DD-WRT or OpenWrt.'

It's not uncommon to find something used for $10-$20. And then install one or the other, giving a Linux box with full control. Add a USB stick so you have enough space for all the utilities.
I just went through the search for mini-PCs for a project at work. The main problem is that almost all of them cool poorly, and that significantly impairs their life span.I finally found a few at the $100 price point that cooled acceptably... and they disappeared from the market shortly after I bought the test units, replaced with newer models in the $250 ballpark.

Share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments.
Can you roll your own home router?

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