DIY: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

== Getting Technical ==

DIY routers overcome the support limitations of commercial units, although until recently this has been at a cost of:

*acreage

*wattage

*additional terminology

Most DIY units have been based on superceded PC

*new mainboards now affordable - see below under "Hardware"

Additional hardware will be required, whatever main board is used:

*additional network cards

**most USB-Ethernet devices supported

**some USB modems will work in lieu one Ethernet card

*modem (if not provided by ISP as modem or Set Top Box)

*ethernet switch (unless only one computer will be accessing the Internet)

*WiFi Access Point

**if required

**might be implemented as a PCI/PCIe WiFi card in the routing PC

=== Hardware ===

Minimum suggested specs are approximately

*CPU - any X86 compatible of 333 Mhz or faster

**ARM CPU may now be viable in lieu x86 compatible see "Strictly for Geeks" below

*RAM - 256 MB

**additional functions, particularly caching, require extra RAM

*storage - 2 GB

**effective caching requires several GB more disk space

*network interfaces

**PCI, PCIe or USB-Ethernet required

**10 Mb/s suffice - unless running ADSL 2 or faster link

**'''NB''' - speed of other devices on the LAN is irrelevant, LAN performance depends on the ethernet switch deployed

Wattage for DIY has been somewhat higher than for commerical routers. A suitable objective, using 2010 or later componentry is 25 W. Lower wattage units are addressed under "Strictly for Geeks" below. CPU wattage is a poor indicator because other chips and peripherals consume somewhat more. Suggested basis for low wattage router:

#HP Proliant Microserver

#mainboards based on C50 CPU - which appears to have been used mainly in netbooks

#mainboards based on E350 CPU

#mainboards based on Atom CPU are something of an enigma

#*can be the lowest cost available but

#*wattage surprisingly high, because of associated chips

#mainboards based on VIA CPU

#*expensive unless s/hand

#*not particularly low wattage

#mainboards based on Pentium III CPU

#*reliability might be reduced because of age

#*zero cost & acceptable wattage

=== Software ===

Many Linux and BSD can be configured a gateway-router, but it is generally simpler and more watt efficient to use a specialised firewall/gateway distribution. Better known ones are listed in [[Linux_Distribution_Recommendations]] Although BSD based distributions such as Monowall are quite functional, their use would involve an additional learning curve for most people

=== Zoning ===

Software for DIY routers implements similar network zoning to that in commercial routers. An aspect that is different is the colour coding of zones:

*'''RED''' for untrusted/unfiltered Internet

*'''GREEN''' for most trusted, '''wired''' LAN connections

*'''BLUE''' for less trusted WiFi connections

*'''PURPLE''' for additional LAN zone

*'''ORANGE''' for Demilitarized Zone, (DMZ)

**not required by most home users

**typically used for stand-alone servers, to which access from the Internet is permitted

== Strictly for Geeks ==

Be aware that the following techniques can render commecial routers unusable and perhaps unrecoverable, if applied unsuccessfully.

=== openWRT ===

openWRT http://wiki.openwrt.org is a long standing project aimed initially at utilising improved software on commerical routers. More recently it has morphed to:

*a more general embedded Linux distribution for compact devices

*covering a much wider range of off-the-shelf devices

One of the more popular devices to which openWRT it is currently applied is the TP-Link TL-703N

*'''not''' sold on the Australian market

*must be sourced from China

*nearest equivalent on the Australian market appears to be the TP-Link TL-MR3020

=== Developer Boards ===

DIY routers based on bare boards utilising an ARM CPU have become viable during 2012.

*have potential to match commerical routers in wattage and acreage

**whilst maintaining advantage of frequent software updates

*require more careful matching of hardware and software

**ARM compilations are not as "portable" as x86 compilations

***advisable to select hardware having an ARM CPU series matching the compilation

*raspberry pi is best known hardware example - see [[Raspberry Pi]]

**IPFire is the only well-known firewall/router that has reached '''released''' level for it

**alternatively, raspbian could be adapted as a firewall/router for it

Developer boards typically have more RAM & CPU resources than openWRT devices thus making print servers and caching routers more practical.

--[[User:Rpeters|Rpeters]] 15:34, 1 September 2013 (EST)

[[Category:Technical Info]]

[[Category:Recommendations]]

DIY: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 00:52, 20 February 2016

Navigation menu

Page actions

Page actions

Personal tools

Navigation

Search

Tools

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== Getting Technical ==
-DIY routers overcome the support limitations of commercial units, although until recently this has been at a cost of:
-*acreage
-*wattage
-*additional terminology
-Most DIY units have been based on superceded PC
-*new mainboards now affordable - see below under "Hardware"
-Additional hardware will be required, whatever main board is used:
-*additional network cards
-**most USB-Ethernet devices supported
-**some USB modems will work in lieu one Ethernet card
-*modem (if not provided  by ISP as modem or Set Top Box)
-*ethernet switch (unless only one computer will be accessing  the Internet)
-*WiFi Access Point
-**if  required
-**might be implemented as a PCI/PCIe WiFi  card in the  routing PC
-=== Hardware ===
-Minimum suggested specs are approximately
-*CPU  - any X86 compatible of 333 Mhz  or faster
-**ARM CPU may now be viable in lieu x86 compatible see "Strictly for Geeks" below
-*RAM  - 256 MB
-**additional functions, particularly caching, require extra RAM
-*storage - 2 GB
-**effective caching requires several GB more disk space
-*network interfaces
-**PCI, PCIe or USB-Ethernet required
-**10 Mb/s suffice  - unless running ADSL 2 or faster link
-**'''NB''' - speed of other devices  on the LAN is irrelevant, LAN  performance depends on the ethernet switch deployed
-Wattage for DIY has been somewhat higher than for commerical routers.   A suitable objective, using 2010 or later componentry is 25 W.  Lower wattage units are addressed under "Strictly for Geeks"  below.  CPU wattage is  a poor indicator because other chips and peripherals consume somewhat more.   Suggested basis for low wattage router:
-#HP Proliant Microserver
-#mainboards based on C50 CPU - which appears to have been used mainly in netbooks
-#mainboards based on E350 CPU
-#mainboards based on Atom CPU are something of an enigma
-#*can  be the lowest cost available but
-#*wattage surprisingly high, because of associated chips
-#mainboards based on VIA CPU
-#*expensive unless s/hand
-#*not particularly low wattage
-#mainboards based on Pentium III CPU
-#*reliability might be reduced because of age
-#*zero cost & acceptable wattage
-=== Software ===
-Many Linux and BSD can be configured a gateway-router, but it is generally simpler and more watt efficient to use a specialised firewall/gateway distribution.  Better known ones are listed in [[Linux_Distribution_Recommendations]]   Although BSD based distributions such as Monowall are quite functional,  their use would involve an additional learning curve for most people
-=== Zoning ===
-Software for DIY routers implements similar network zoning to that in commercial routers.  An aspect that is different is the colour coding of zones:
-*<span style="color:#c93800">'''RED'''</span> for  untrusted/unfiltered Internet
-*<span style="color:green">'''GREEN'''</span>  for most trusted, '''wired''' LAN connections
-*<span style="color:blue">'''BLUE'''</span>  for less trusted WiFi connections
-*<span style="color:#800080">'''PURPLE'''</span>  for additional LAN zone
-*<span style="color:#FF8000">'''ORANGE'''</span>  for Demilitarized Zone, (DMZ)
-**not required by most home users
-**typically used  for stand-alone servers, to which access from the Internet is permitted
-== Strictly for Geeks ==
-Be aware that the following techniques can render commecial routers unusable and perhaps unrecoverable, if applied unsuccessfully.
-=== openWRT ===
-openWRT http://wiki.openwrt.org is a long standing project aimed initially at utilising improved software on commerical routers.  More recently it has morphed to:
-*a more general embedded Linux distribution for compact devices
-*covering a much wider range of off-the-shelf devices
-One of the more popular devices to which openWRT it is currently applied is the TP-Link TL-703N
-*'''not''' sold on the Australian market
-*must be sourced from China
-*nearest equivalent on the Australian market appears to be the TP-Link TL-MR3020
-=== Developer Boards ===
-DIY routers based on bare boards utilising an ARM CPU have become viable during 2012.
-*have potential to match commerical routers in wattage and acreage
-**whilst maintaining advantage of frequent software updates
-*require more careful  matching of hardware  and  software
-**ARM compilations are not as "portable" as x86 compilations
-***advisable to select hardware having an ARM CPU series matching the compilation
-*raspberry pi is best known hardware example - see [[Raspberry Pi]]
-**IPFire is the only well-known firewall/router that has reached '''released''' level for it
-**alternatively, raspbian could be adapted as a firewall/router for it
-Developer boards typically have more RAM & CPU resources than openWRT devices thus making print servers and caching routers more practical.
---[[User:Rpeters|Rpeters]] 15:34, 1 September 2013 (EST)
-[[Category:Technical Info]]
-[[Category:Recommendations]]