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Apart from tinkering about with my Raspberry Pi, which I am most impressed with.

I have decided to build my own router, as I am fed up with off the shelf router's not doing what they are supposed to do .

Starting with an old Compaq Evo N410c to act as the actual router, booting from a Compact Flash card, I will use the existing ethernet port for the WAN link, add a gigabit card bus card for the LAN and use my Netgear WNR3500 as my wireless access point, a decent router, but it keeps dropping DHCP on the wireless.

There is loads of Linux router distro's which are suitable for the job, I really like the look of http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/X86 which I am familiar with, however I have been unable to install it on the old Compaq.

BSD is apparently the king of router software/firmware, especially http://www.pfsense.org/

This project may take months complete in the same way my Ubuntu server did, which I am sure would have ended up been a WHS box if it wasn't for Ian and his guide, maybe Ian could write a guide for a "homebrew" router

Andy

Never heard of a homebrew router before.

I'm intrigued, apart from your router being flaky, what do you want it to do that it can't?

I'm gonna have to read up about this

Ian.

Ah allsorts of fancy stuff load balancing for one, it is not just about the features, cost is an issue too, for a decent wireless N gigabit router you would be looking at least £100, my homebrew one would cost me about £30-40, along with satisfaction of building my own, a bit like building a server.

Andy

This looks interesting http://m0n0.ch/wall/

Ian wrote:Never heard of a homebrew router before.

They've been around for a long time, both in software and hardware form.
Just about any board with low power consumption and two Ethernet ports, running Linux, is a router.
Dedicated distros add easy of use and/or advanced functionality.

I'm intrigued, apart from your router being flaky, what do you want it to do that it can't?

Basically, for the same reasons you'd build an Ubuntu server with Samba and SnapRaid and whatnot, instead of buying a ready-made NAS :-)
Mostly, being able to do what you want, knowing what your router does, and DIY satisfaction (in that order, AFAIC).
With a consumer appliance, you generally get just a Web interface. If the UI lacks something you need, or worse, if it's not actually doing what it says, well too bad...
Working around those problems means hacking around to get telnet/ssh access, or totally replacing the firmware/OS (like WRT on the original Linksys home routers)... So if you're going to hack, why not do it properly from the ground up, on hardware that will not shackle you ? :-)

I'm gonna have to read up about this

Hope you're not in a hurry :-)

As Andy said, there are boatloads of solutions out there. ZeroShell and M0n0wall are two interesting ones, but there are plenty more.

I think I am going to go with M0n0wall as it has all the features I need without all the extra stuff that is available in the more "Enterprise" targeted distros.

M0n0wall is a very light solution as it installs on a 64MB CF card and by the looks of it a little easier to configure.

Working around those problems means hacking around to get telnet/ssh access, or totally replacing the firmware/OS (like WRT on the original Linksys home routers)... So if you're going to hack, why not do it properly from the ground up, on hardware that will not shackle you ? :-)

That is why I am going to use an old Laptop, more than enough grunt for the O/S or firmware if you like and relatively cheap to run.

Thanks fpp for your input, most useful.

Andy

Glad to be of help... Now that my Ubuntu/SnapRaid server seems to be stabilized (crossed fingers :-), I may try my hand at one myself.

I'm still using a good old WRT54 running Tomato, which is a lot better than Netgear firmware, and less hassle than WRT, but still not as transparent as I'd like it to be...

And with the kids growing up, I'm going to need an industrial-strength level of control at home too :-)

A quick update:

I have ordered a 4GB Compact Flash card to install the router OS on, a CF to 44pin IDE adapter and a gigabit card bus network card.

Looking forward to getting this running, but by the time everything arrives I wil be back at work.

Andy