# Routers: Do-it-yourself or high-end consumer?



## Runefox (Apr 25, 2011)

So I've got a P4 running pfSense right now with two NIC's acting as my router. I'm quite pleased with it, but it puts out a lot of noise and heat, and also takes up a lot of room and draws more power from the wall than you'd want a router to draw. I'm trying to think of ways to reduce the power consumption and wasted space/generated heat, and I'm wondering if I shouldn't axe the pfSense box altogether and go for one of a couple different SoHo routers.

The pfSense box handles:


DHCP via Static ARP; It disallows any communication on the network except by recognized MAC addresses. I use this in conjunction with the old TP-Link wireless router I have bridged via a switch to manage both the wireless and wired portions of my network. Since wireless isn't a major concern for me (only my Wii and iPhone use it regularly), I'm fine with keeping it unencrypted.
Dynamic DNS (ZoneEdit)
NAT reflection to access forwarded ports via the WAN IP.
High amounts of traffic over the wire via gigabit ethernet, including multiple torrent clients (I live with other people who are also heavy internet users)
These are things that I don't really expect a home networking router to handle well. I don't have too much experience in using the many different forms of dd-wrt and OpenWRT, but I realize that they run on a lot of different hardware. I've narrowed my list of potential replacements to (in descending order of how impressed I am with them):


ASUS RT-N56U

Netgear WNDR4000 (or WNDR3700)
Cisco E3000 (E4200 not available in Canada)
Will any of these routers, with or without custom firmware, meet the same demands that pfSense is currently meeting? Is there something else I should be looking at? Should I stick with pfSense? I'd really like to reduce the power draw and heat of the networking gear here, and a new router would remove both the big tower router and the old TP-Link 802.11g router that I'm using as an access point.


----------



## LLiz (Apr 25, 2011)

Sounds like you should be asking this on a technology forum ;-)
I reckon your main limiting factor (regarding choice) is a bit-torrent client, why not get a good router sans the bit-torrent client and then get a good NAS that has a torrent client?


----------



## Runefox (Apr 25, 2011)

LLiz said:


> I reckon your main limiting factor (regarding choice) is a bit-torrent client, why not get a good router sans the bit-torrent client and then get a good NAS that has a torrent client?


 Actually, I don't torrent from the router itself. The main limiting factors for me are: Throughput/responsiveness, DDNS/ZoneEdit, NAT reflection and fine control over DHCP and the LAN in general. I'm kind of wondering if anything does that, or if dd-wrt does that, or what.


----------



## theinkfox (Apr 28, 2011)

i had the same question time ago, and finally decided for a pc with linux oriented router software.
this a list of the services i'm running right now on the router.
-firewall
-router
-package filter
-page filter
-open vpn server
-wizard reporter
-wan balancer and failover
-http, https, pop & smtp antivirus
-protocol filter
-ad, phish & spam blocker
-captive portal
-shared folders and printer

these are the machine specs
-P4 3.06 533Mhz 1MB
-2GB DDRI 400Mhz
-80GB PATA
-5 NICs (2 WAN - 1 LAN-WIFI VLAN1 - 1 LAN VLAN2 - 1 WIFI VLAN2)

now, what am i doing through this machine?
-renting internet conection (with 2x 40Mb conections) (25 users)
-renting temporary internet conection for guest users
-renting backup service and printing service
-torrent download and upload

i'm using "untangle" and trying to reduce the noise problems i replaced all the fans with temp autoadjustable fans now its barely audible

but if you want a simpler solution, this one with dd-wrt is like OMFG, and when i mean OMG, i mean OMG


----------



## Tissemand (Apr 29, 2011)

Runefox said:


> Actually, I don't torrent from the router itself. The main limiting factors for me are: Throughput/responsiveness, DDNS/ZoneEdit, NAT reflection and fine control over DHCP and the LAN in general. I'm kind of wondering if anything does that, or if dd-wrt does that, or what.


 I'm pretty sure dd-wrt has all those. I use dd-wrt on my ye olde wrt54g and it's been pretty amazing, automatically updates freedns records too :3

Although, I have to say: if you try torrenting through wifi, it tends to crap out after a few hours (atleast on the shitty hardware of the wrt54g).


----------

