Creating your own home router involves selecting components, configuring settings, and setting it up securely.
Creating your own home router involves selecting components, configuring settings, and setting it up securely.
One warning, it's VERY easy to make your own router that costs $100+/year in electricity. "low power appliances" that "suck" in terms of performance have their place. For what it's worth I have an Ubiquiti EdgeRouter-4 sitting, doing nothing and my landlord (fellow tech enthusiast/geek) is using a cheap TP-Link AIO router. It's good enough. Most of the benefits of "better router" come in the form of FQ_Codel /SQM based QOS and it mostly matters for uploads. $35ish (RIP pre-covid sales prices) Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X can handle most upload speeds well enough.
Discuss the power consumption aspect. It's surprising how quickly things add up, especially with devices that stay on continuously. Depending on your energy rates, a DIY system might not always be the best choice compared to high-end products with lower power usage if you factor in costs over several months. That said, if you're motivated to try it for learning and enjoyment, go ahead!
I agree, I was just confirming the OP's question. Thanks for sharing the links—it really helped.
It's manageable but the multiport cards are pricier than a new router. Unless you need full customization, it's not worth the investment. For hands-on work, you can find older 100 mbit cards on eBay. I've experimented with this concept before, but for decent cards you'll spend around 500 yen or more just on the hardware. CPU power isn't crucial, but more cores help. A used 12-core Xeon or a first-gen AMD EPYC (if affordable) would be ideal. Also note the system will consume about 150W per hour continuously, which adds up over time.
It's usually wiser to purchase a ready-made device for this task since they can run quietly at just 11W, while a desktop PC tends to draw more than 60W. You'd also need to keep the old router active for WiFi or obtain a dedicated WiFi Access Point, as WiFi requires careful tuning and certification—especially when trying to emulate a PC in that mode (most cards don't support it). On the other hand, the CPU you mentioned is far too powerful; it would easily handle 10Gbit speeds, let alone 1Gbit.
It's excessive. Have you observed many PFSense units using Celeron or Atom chips? You don’t need much processing power to manage a router. Still, I picked an 11th gen Intel NUC for my setup, so that’s no surprise. Do you have two network ports available? Are they already equipped? Regarding your router, does it support AP mode? That would determine if it’s usable.