Difference between revisions of "DIY"
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| − | == Getting Technical == |
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| − | DIY routers overcome the support limitations of commercial units, although until recently this has been at a cost of: |
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| − | *acreage |
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| − | *wattage |
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| − | *additional terminology |
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| − | Most DIY units have been based on superceded PC |
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| − | *new mainboards now affordable - see below under "Hardware" |
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| − | Additional hardware will be required, whatever main board is used: |
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| − | *additional network cards |
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| − | **most USB-Ethernet devices supported |
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| − | **some USB modems will work in lieu one Ethernet card |
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| − | *modem (if not provided by ISP as modem or Set Top Box) |
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| − | *ethernet switch (unless only one computer will be accessing the Internet) |
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| − | *WiFi Access Point |
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| − | **if required |
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| − | **might be implemented as a PCI/PCIe WiFi card in the routing PC |
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| − | === Hardware === |
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| − | Minimum suggested specs are approximately |
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| − | *CPU - any X86 compatible of 333 Mhz or faster |
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| − | **ARM CPU may now be viable in lieu x86 compatible see "Strictly for Geeks" below |
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| − | *RAM - 256 MB |
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| − | **additional functions, particularly caching, require extra RAM |
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| − | *storage - 2 GB |
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| − | **effective caching requires several GB more disk space |
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| − | *network interfaces |
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| − | **PCI, PCIe or USB-Ethernet required |
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| − | **10 Mb/s suffice - unless running ADSL 2 or faster link |
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| − | **'''NB''' - speed of other devices on the LAN is irrelevant, LAN performance depends on the ethernet switch deployed |
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| − | Wattage for DIY has been somewhat higher than for commerical routers. A suitable objective, using 2010 or later componentry is 25 W. Lower wattage units are addressed under "Strictly for Geeks" below. CPU wattage is a poor indicator because other chips and peripherals consume somewhat more. Suggested basis for low wattage router: |
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| − | #HP Proliant Microserver |
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| − | #mainboards based on C50 CPU - which appears to have been used mainly in netbooks |
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| − | #mainboards based on E350 CPU |
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| − | #mainboards based on Atom CPU are something of an enigma |
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| − | #*can be the lowest cost available but |
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| − | #*wattage surprisingly high, because of associated chips |
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| − | #mainboards based on VIA CPU |
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| − | #*expensive unless s/hand |
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| − | #*not particularly low wattage |
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| − | #mainboards based on Pentium III CPU |
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| − | #*reliability might be reduced because of age |
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| − | #*zero cost & acceptable wattage |
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| − | === Software === |
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| − | Many Linux and BSD can be configured a gateway-router, but it is generally simpler and more watt efficient to use a specialised firewall/gateway distribution. Better known ones are listed in [[Linux_Distribution_Recommendations]] Although BSD based distributions such as Monowall are quite functional, their use would involve an additional learning curve for most people |
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| − | === Zoning === |
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| − | Software for DIY routers implements similar network zoning to that in commercial routers. An aspect that is different is the colour coding of zones: |
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| − | *<span style="color:#c93800">'''RED'''</span> for untrusted/unfiltered Internet |
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| − | *<span style="color:green">'''GREEN'''</span> for most trusted, '''wired''' LAN connections |
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| − | *<span style="color:blue">'''BLUE'''</span> for less trusted WiFi connections |
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| − | *<span style="color:#800080">'''PURPLE'''</span> for additional LAN zone |
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| − | *<span style="color:#FF8000">'''ORANGE'''</span> for Demilitarized Zone, (DMZ) |
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| − | **not required by most home users |
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| − | **typically used for stand-alone servers, to which access from the Internet is permitted |
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| − | == Strictly for Geeks == |
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| − | Be aware that the following techniques can render commecial routers unusable and perhaps unrecoverable, if applied unsuccessfully. |
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| − | === openWRT === |
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| − | openWRT http://wiki.openwrt.org is a long standing project aimed initially at utilising improved software on commerical routers. More recently it has morphed to: |
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| − | *a more general embedded Linux distribution for compact devices |
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| − | *covering a much wider range of off-the-shelf devices |
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| − | One of the more popular devices to which openWRT it is currently applied is the TP-Link TL-703N |
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| − | *'''not''' sold on the Australian market |
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| − | *must be sourced from China |
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| − | *nearest equivalent on the Australian market appears to be the TP-Link TL-MR3020 |
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| − | === Developer Boards === |
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| − | DIY routers based on bare boards utilising an ARM CPU have become viable during 2012. |
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| − | *have potential to match commerical routers in wattage and acreage |
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| − | **whilst maintaining advantage of frequent software updates |
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| − | *require more careful matching of hardware and software |
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| − | **ARM compilations are not as "portable" as x86 compilations |
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| − | ***advisable to select hardware having an ARM CPU series matching the compilation |
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| − | *raspberry pi is best known hardware example - see [[Raspberry Pi]] |
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| − | **IPFire is the only well-known firewall/router that has reached '''released''' level for it |
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| − | **alternatively, raspbian could be adapted as a firewall/router for it |
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| − | Developer boards typically have more RAM & CPU resources than openWRT devices thus making print servers and caching routers more practical. |
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| − | --[[User:Rpeters|Rpeters]] 15:34, 1 September 2013 (EST) |
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| − | [[Category:Technical Info]] |
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| − | [[Category:Recommendations]] |
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