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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Take Control If you have a spare computer with 2 NICs laying around, why not roll your own router? pfSense is great!
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Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty | |
|  Bupkis
join:2002-07-16
Hillsboro, OR | Re: Take Control Amen to that! | |
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Quake110
join:2003-12-20
Ottawa, ON | Or buy a Linksys WRT54GL and load it with tomato (firmware). If you want MLPPP (combining 2 dsl lines together), get Tomato/MLPPP.
The firmware is open source so there's no way a feature like that is going to be there. | |
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Cjaiceman
Premium,MVM
join:2004-10-12
Parker, CO
 ·Comcast Workplace
·Comcast
1 edit | Re: Take Control said by Quake110  :Or buy a Linksys WRT54GL and load it with tomato (firmware). If you want MLPPP (combining 2 dsl lines together), get Tomato/MLPPP. The firmware is open source so there's no way a feature like that is going to be there. The WRT54G is underpowered for most power users, most consumer grade routers are underpowered as well. I had a WRT54G w/ tomato and DD-WRT as my router, but every time I would fire up bittorrent or a streaming HD feed it would lock up. I tried 3 of them, they just can't take the speed. A pfsense box works much better and has yet to lock up, 2 years running! | |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
 ·North State Commun..
| Re: Take Control said by Cjaiceman :said by Quake110 :Or buy a Linksys WRT54GL and load it with tomato (firmware). If you want MLPPP (combining 2 dsl lines together), get Tomato/MLPPP. The firmware is open source so there's no way a feature like that is going to be there. The WRT54G is underpowered for most power users, most consumer grade routers are underpowered as well. I had a WRT54G w/ tomato and DD-WRT as my router, but every time I would fire up bittorrent or a streaming HD feed it would lock up. I tried 3 of them, they just can't take the speed. A pfsense box works much better and has yet to lock up, 2 years running! This was my experience as well. DD-WRT was an especially bad offender. Trying to perform QoS while running a small torrent session would choke it. Tomato was MUCH better on the same hardware, but browsing was still painful with downloading a torrent. The Buffalo WHR-G54S was a tad better, but still not powerful enough.
I have zero problems now since I switched to a real computer and I'm much happier. | |
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Quake110
join:2003-12-20
Ottawa, ON
·Velcom
| said by Cjaiceman :said by Quake110 :Or buy a Linksys WRT54GL and load it with tomato (firmware). If you want MLPPP (combining 2 dsl lines together), get Tomato/MLPPP. The firmware is open source so there's no way a feature like that is going to be there. The WRT54G is underpowered for most power users, most consumer grade routers are underpowered as well. I had a WRT54G w/ tomato and DD-WRT as my router, but every time I would fire up bittorrent or a streaming HD feed it would lock up. I tried 3 of them, they just can't take the speed. A pfsense box works much better and has yet to lock up, 2 years running! Does pfsense support MLPPP (Because Bell throttles the DSL lines of 3rd party ISPs and MLPPP circumvents that).
Also, what's the computer you're using as a router? I have an AND K6-2 300 mhz sitting in a corner and it would be great to know if it would be powerful enough. | |
| | | KodiacZiller
join:2008-09-04
73368
| Re: Take Control said by Sir Meowmix III : quote:
If you have a spare computer with 2 NICs laying around, why not roll your own router? pfSense is great!
Because not every wants another device sucking 60W+ from their outlet to do something as simple as routing when there are numerous MIPS devices which can run OpenWRT or Tomato which use a fraction of the power AND usually include a four-port switch. WRT-54GL, WHR-G54S, etc, etc. Exactly. I have an old Athlon 950Mhz machine here that I could use as a router but instead it just sits in the corner.
There are three reasons it isn't used:
1) The thing sounds like a jet engine.
2) It makes the room very hot, which increases the use of AC.
3) I don't want a bunch of idle CPU cycles sucking up more energy when all the box is doing is routing which takes very little CPU power anyway.
Instead I use the WRT54GL flashed with Tomato and I see the same speeds as I do without the router, even when torrenting. Never had a problem with either. It's rock solid, doesn't use much energy, and is silent. | |
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aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
 ·Verizon FIOS
1 edit | said by pnh102 :If you have a spare computer with 2 NICs laying around, why not roll your own router? pfSense is great! I used a PC as a router back in the 90's. It's much easier and more convenient now to just use a standalone router.
I'm using nine Dlink Gigabit switches and a Dlink DGL4500 router. I have been very pleased with them since I have used several brands of routers and gigabit switches over the last 8 years. | |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Re: Take Control said by TKJunkMail :said by pnh102 :If you have a spare computer with 2 NICs laying around, why not roll your own router? pfSense is great! That works, but there is a cost - more electricity to run a PC than a small retail WIFi router. If you have a home media server, just combine them all into one like I have.
Shuttle K45 SFF
Celeron E1200
1GB RAM
Windows 2003 R2 Standard
Routing and Remote Access
DHCP / DNS
UPnP Media Server for my Home Network (stream my DVD collection to my 360 as an extender)
PRTG for Traffic Graphing
cFos for Traffic Shaping
I kept my 802.11n router as an AP because I want to use the 802.11n PCI card for my desktop so I can move it to a location that doesn't have wired ethernet access. But you could easily turn it into an 802.11n AP too! You can do this with Linux for free, although it's a bit more difficult and not as intuitive. | |
| Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL | but then you will need a switch and wifi AP also can that system do gig-e 2 ways like the DIR-655 can also it will need to be done for about $100 as you can get a DIR-655 for that price. | |
| cornelius785
join:2006-10-26
Worcester, MA
| i like the idea of using a dedicated computer as a firewall box thing. i have a linux box myself being used as a firewall plus much more. imo, if you are going to dedicate and entire computer, you might as well turn into a full server too, if you have the time, patience, and knowledge to do so. i have no intention of getting any special purpose firewall hardware for a home network. | |
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