[Noisebridge-discuss] WiFi router for the cool kids?

[Jonathan Lassoff]

On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 12:09 PM, Bob Eastbrook <baconeater789 at gmail.com> wrote:
> My Netgear N600 WiFi router has served me faithfully, but lately has
> been having problems.  Time to replace it.  I keep it behind a pfSense
> firewall, which I love.
>
> I'm looking for recommendations.  I could just get a new WiFi access
> point and keep pfSense around, or I could consolidate everything into
> one device.  I'd love to have something which made setting up a SSL
> VPN a cinch.  I'm also into traffic graphs.
>
> I looked at access points from Buffalo which came with DD-WRT
> installed, but they don't have great reviews when it comes to WiFi
> performance.  I love the idea of having DD-WRT pre-installed though.
>
> What are the rest of you guys using these days?

At home, I run a Soekris net4801 running Debian/GNU Linux and am doing
all my routing, firewalling, QoS, and bridging on there.

For WiFi access, I use a combination of a Cisco Aironet AP1200 for 2.4
Ghz (solid box, but the least FOSS part), and a Ubiquiti Nanostation
LoCo M5 for 5 Ghz.

I love having a Linux box, as I can run and do just about anything I
can think of on there.
It's a low-horsepower platform, but it's great for routing < 500 Mbit speeds.


If you're looking to experiment, I'd echo Adrian's suggestion that you
check ODM boxes based on Atheros 9k series SoCs. They have decent FOSS
support these days, and I experiment running Linux/OpenWRT on those.

Cheers,
jof