Actually, I hadn’t thought about the router and I’m panicking now. My router is some MR9600, and the speeds through it are great, but I feel like I over paid for something that I can’t install my own firmware on. I think my pi.hole is the DCHP anyway, and now I’m really thinking I need to find a new router
You can buy some used mini-PC with reasonable CPU (i3-4150 handles Gigabit QoS with a lot of overhead) and USB-Ethernet connector with drivers supported by OpenWrt (eg. something from Tp-Link). With that and some used AP you’ll have a setup cheaper and better than any “real” router.
Have a look at mikrotik devices. OpenWRT images are actually kinda rare for them, but not because they’re locked down (they’re not) but because the included Linux with proprietary userland is very, very, neat: Those things administer like ISP-grade routers (which mikrotik also sells), not servers. No shell access, so if you want to run other shit on there make sure that there’s an OpenWRT image, the hardware is definitely decent and well-priced.
Goddamn right.
Actually, I hadn’t thought about the router and I’m panicking now. My router is some MR9600, and the speeds through it are great, but I feel like I over paid for something that I can’t install my own firmware on. I think my pi.hole is the DCHP anyway, and now I’m really thinking I need to find a new router
You can buy some used mini-PC with reasonable CPU (i3-4150 handles Gigabit QoS with a lot of overhead) and USB-Ethernet connector with drivers supported by OpenWrt (eg. something from Tp-Link). With that and some used AP you’ll have a setup cheaper and better than any “real” router.
Have a look at mikrotik devices. OpenWRT images are actually kinda rare for them, but not because they’re locked down (they’re not) but because the included Linux with proprietary userland is very, very, neat: Those things administer like ISP-grade routers (which mikrotik also sells), not servers. No shell access, so if you want to run other shit on there make sure that there’s an OpenWRT image, the hardware is definitely decent and well-priced.
I really like Asus routers with Asus Merlin if you want some extra features but don’t need anything too crazy