Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Your Router Sucks. Build Your Own Instead!”.
Are you tired of your wireless router, dropping your internet connection at the worst possible time? Well, it turns out you can build your very own. Router that’ll perform a lot better and it’s a lot simpler to do than you might think. But why does store-bought and ISP provided routers tend to be so unreliable in the first place, this isn’t Tech quickie. This is Linus Tech tips where we actually do the things we talk about so bitdefender a staple in cyber security sponsored this video to show you how easy it is to get better performance and reliability, as well as better security and privacy by building your own custom.
Router and how you can even do it with your dad’s Dusty old Dill, the problem with your typical big box or ISP provided router, is that they’re, usually not just a router instead they’re often combo devices that include a wireless access point to provide Wi-Fi a switch To connect your local devices together and the literal router, which connects your local devices to the outside internet in a safe manner. Not only does this make it impossible to replace or upgrade any part independently of the others, but each of these functions can be better performed by separate discrete devices. Now: listen, it’s not realistic or economical to try to build your own switch or access point, but the good news is that these devices are widely available at reasonable prices. The router, though, that’s a different story and that’s what we’re going to be focusing on building today. Pretty much any x86 computer from the last 10 or 15 years, or so should work better than your typical Diaper Genie.
We’Re going to be using this Dell Optiplex 7010 that Anthony previously used to build a Home Server, since it’s all form factor won’t take up too much space. It only costs around 100 bucks on eBay and, most importantly, see right there. It has an available pcie gen. 3 slot that’s important, because we need at least two Network ports, one for Lan to connect to our switch and one for wan to connect to our modem or fiber box.
Your old motherboard, including this one, probably only come with one Jack, and while we could use that, along with a separate port on another network card, you’ll want to make sure that both are well supported by your router operating system of choice. More on that, in a moment, while most Network controllers may seem to work fine, you may run into performance issues with certain chipsets and certain manufacturers. So our recommendation is to stick to an Intel based Nick whenever possible, if you’re, unsure of what Nick you have or whether your Nick is compatible, you can typically find the model on your motherboard box or product page and from there. Google is your best friend.
If that sounds like too much work, you can easily find older dual Port Intel network cards like the i340 for around 25 bucks on eBay or maybe even cheaper from a local electronics recycler, we’re going to be using the four port version of this card. Since we already had one lying around, oh, I don’t even need a screw driver if I did lttstore.com damn optiplexes are too good. Now, if you happen to have greater than gigabit internet, a single port Intel, i225 2.5 gig Nick can be had for around the same price and for 10 gig. The Dual Port Intel X540 T2 – will run you around 50 to 70 bucks on eBay, not to a fan not included.
Now, since we’re on the topic of Hardware, our Optiplex is equipped with a core i7 3770 and should be totally fine for running gigabit or 2.5 Gig. If you want to go faster than that say, 10 gig you’re going to want more CPU power, so make sure you check the recommended specs and ask around in the community to figure out what should work for you, we’re going to also be installing a 256 gig Ssd, which fits behind the hard drive pretty nicely, and we’re also going to take this hard drive out, because that’s just a bunch of extra power consumption. We don’t need with our Hardware, ready it’s time to talk to software, the two biggest players in the space. Right now are PF sense and open sense, both of which are based on the unix-like operating system for absd they’re very similar, because opensense started off as a fork of pfSense, and you can’t really go wrong with either. But we like open sense for its subjectively easier to use GUI and more frequent updates, for example, on our own core router. The main 25 gig Nick in it still isn’t supported by pfSense. If you’re, following along at home, grab yourself a copy of opensense from the official site, pick your architecture and select the VGA image type, the other option is serial. But if you use serial ports to manage your networking equipment, you probably don’t need to be watching this.
Video to install opensense, you can use a tool like etcher or Rufus to make a bootable USB installer plug that into your soon to be router and select it from the boot menu. Let all the countdowns finish and if your computer happens to have an internal speaker like ours, you’ll be greeted with a noise. That sounds a little bit like a Japanese rice cooker. It’S not unpleasant! It’S just a bit loud.
If your system doesn’t have a display output, you can install opensense onto your drive in a different system and then move it over. But if you have a monitor, look at that monitor with your eyeballs throughout the boot sequence. It will ask for manual intervention a few times, but you can just skip these once you’re greeted by the login prompt, take a second to check the port numbering on your system. You can do this by taking a cable, that’s plugged into a nearby PC and putting it into each port on the router and marking those ports down.
This will be important later, once you’re done hit, enter to bring the login prompt back type installer as the username and open sense. As the password don’t worry here, if you’re not seeing anything show up, it is actually typing, it’s just not showing it for security. If you want to try open sense out, you can instead log in as root for a live install, but your settings will not survive a reboot without being manually backed up. You have been warned, select your keyboard layout.
If it’s not the default, US map hit, install ufs, select, your boot drive, hit, OK on Swap and the confirmation, and then opensense will install like a good little boy. Once it’s done, we’d recommend changing your root password to something a little more secure. Then you can accident, reboot Tech tip, don’t forget to remove the USB during the reboot. Otherwise you might boot back into the installer once you’re booted back up plug your client system into the port selected as Lan in the console then navigate to 192.168.1.1. In your browser log, in with root and the password you set and Bam, you now have a functional, opensense router from here there’s settings for just about anything.
You can imagine but be careful because it’s very easy to entirely board your router. If you go and change settings, you don’t understand, I’m going to show you guys a few important ones. That’Ll actually be helpful, for you. First and foremost, is the DHCP settings by default. Opensense sets its IP range on the DHCP server from dot 100 to dot 199..
That means it’s only going to allow for a hundred devices connected to your network for most home Gamers. This is probably okay, but you can also tweak this down to say dot 50 and this one up to dot 254 and that’s going to give you over 200 devices. You can also set the DNS settings that your clients use here. So if you want to use, say cloudflare or Google DNS you’d want to put that in these fields and then make sure you hit save save when you’re done. Otherwise these settings won’t apply. It’S also important to know how to update your system, so to do so. Go to system firmware and then updates it’ll check for any updates and then allow you to apply them. The last thing, you’ll probably want to know, is how to change your interface assignments. These are going to be under interfaces and then assignments from here you can change your Lan or Wan ports. If you want to use a different port – and this is where you would assign a VLAN – if that’s something you know how to set up opensense, has other cool features like being able to backup your config to Google Drive on a schedule.
I’D highly recommend setting that up. You can disable the screaming rice cooker noise and you can port forward like any other router, but be careful as the firewall is an important part of your network security. Aside from the Limitless customization potential, frequent security updates and the ability to swap parts, a DIY router encourages you to be more mindful, not just in how your network is used, but how your network is protected. Just like bitdefender premium security isn’t just an antivirus product.
It’S a whole Suite of tools designed to encourage you to be more mindful about how you use your devices. It’S a password manager, so you can stop using password123 for everything it’s a VPN, so you can stop using unsecured Hotel Wi-Fi to do your important banking. It’S a device Optimizer, so your phone and computer don’t get bogged down by temporary files from programs you installed two years ago only to immediately uninstall. They have constant top position ears and Bit Defender premium Security offers, unbeatable protection against spyware, malware, adware and all other sorts of cyber threats, with no compromise to your system’s performance, you’re not limited to your Windows system, either as it works on Mac, IOS and Android, and You’Re covered for up to 10 devices, it’s easy to install easy to run and easy to check so save up to 59 on a year of bitdefender Premium security at the link down below.
You might have noticed by now that we only have a single Lan Port assigned, even if you had extra on your system, and you wanted to use these for other devices to have to use software. Switching on these ports is very inefficient and technically can’t run anywhere near line speed. Instead, a cheap, multi-port switch like this guy or the Netgear GS 308 can be had for around 20 bucks on Amazon, or they can be even cheaper if they have a plastic, housing or fewer ports. Just make sure that it’s full gigabit speed if you’re running 2.5 gig or 10 gig.
These switches get a lot more expensive, but we found a trend: net 2.5 gig unit for 120 bucks and for 10 gig. The cheapest option we could find is the ubiquity switchflex XG, with four 10 gig ports for 300 bucks. Once you have some form of switch plug it into the wall and then the Lan Port of your router and any of your other devices on your network can plug directly into the remaining ports.
The last thing we need to reach feature parity with our combo unit is some Wi-Fi. Now there’s a lot of options here, ranging in price from literal trash you can find at any dump all the way up to Enterprise grade access points that can run you. Thousands of dollars, many of the off-the-shelf home routers that we’ve been talking about replacing, can be used purely for Wi-Fi by finding a setting called AP mode or bridge mode.
However, the performance is usually pretty not great, so unless you’re trying to do this with Hardware, you already have we’d recommend picking up a standalone access point like these from ubiquity or a mesh system like The tp-link, Deco, Netgear, Orbee or Amazon’s Euro system. For the purposes of this video, we have a ubiquity UniFi, 6 long range, which can be had for 179 bucks or the light version of it is only a hundred dollars. You can also find them cheaper second hand, once your Wi-Fi is set up, everything should kind of just function together, so let’s run a speed test. This is on wired on my laptop here, but we should be able to get full gigabit and we can see the CPU usage, which is very interesting. Oh there we go two ping: 700, 800 900 megabits and we’re only using like seven percent CPU usage, which is pretty dang good. Let’S check our upload speed, it’s basically the same Sweet. Let’S try Wi-Fi it’s not a very good test on the Wi-Fi, because I don’t know what it’s set to, but I’m sure it’s I’m sure it’s plenty fast, yeah, like 200 down, that’s pretty good, we’re in a very congested area.
Right now. There’S a lot of access points and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so I wouldn’t expect the speeds to be too crazy, but your mileage may vary. Of course, if you’re in a country where electricity is so expensive that running a 40 90 is borderline unethical, you may instead opt for something a little more power.
Efficient micro, PCS, like this, won’t be as upgradable, but can be as much as 10 times more power. Efficient, some of them even have 2.5 gig ethernet built in now they do cost more up front, but depending on your electricity cost, you might end up up saving. In the long run, our Optiplex was somewhere between 30 and 40 Watts, while doing absolutely nothing and I’m sure, a lot more. When the CPU starts to crank up, so your mileage may vary. That’S it then, for 100 bucks on this Optiplex 20 bucks on a switch and 100 bucks for an access point. We built an infinitely more configurable, more upgradable, more better router access point switch combo that you get to Tinker with all on your own.
You get better control of your network security and you get better control of your privacy, it’s fun for the whole family, except when it doesn’t work. But surely this will work more than your ISP provided one. So thanks to bitdefender for sponsoring this video bitdefender premium, Security offers threat protection for up to 10 devices, and that includes an unlimited VPN. A password manager and priority support so save 59 on a year of bitdefender Premium security by following the link in the description down below. If you like, this video, maybe check out that one where we upgraded our office router and took the internet out multiple times in the middle of the workday.
It was funnier when we had like 15 employees. So now that there’s like 80, it’s a it’s a little prohibitive to do that. .