Router Advice for Home Use (pfsense vs Asus)

[Xiphan]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm about to get fibre at home which has prompted me to look at upgrading my home network which includes replacing my DSL router with a WAN router. My ISP has supplied me with a Huawei WS5200 but this ShortCircuit video from last year has tempted me to consider an Asus router. I've previously used an Asus router and I really enjoyed their QoS features for prioritising game traffic to my machine when I was playing online. I also appreciated the parental controls it has for blocking naughty things that I didn't want my 8 year old niece looking at.

 

The Asus router I am keen on is the RT-AX88U because it has 8 gigabit network ports. However, for the price of that router I wonder if I wouldn't be better off building a dedicated pfsense box with something like the PC Engines APU2 and combining it with a decent gigabit switch and a wireless AP? While I did enjoy QoL features of the Asus router I also had gripes with how long the router took to restart and the constant need to reset all the settings on the device every time there was a firmware update for it. If I didn't reset all the settings it would freeze after a while and I would have to hard reboot the device every time it froze.

 

Would a pfsense box be better in this regard and would I be able to configure it with similar, if not better, features than what the Asus router can do? The main features I am looking for is prioritising game traffic and parental controls for blocking adult content. Also if it has a feature that can let me do away with running a separate device for Pi-hole that would also be a big plus.

 

[WereCatf]

4 minutes ago, Xiphan said:

The main features I am looking for is prioritising game traffic and parental controls for blocking adult content

Pfsense does support QoS, but it's not designed with games in mind and as such you'd need to learn yourself how to make it work well for such. As for parental controls, no idea.

5 minutes ago, Xiphan said:

Also if it has a feature that can let me do away with running a separate device for Pi-hole that would also be a big plus

Yes.

[Biomecanoid]

8 minutes ago, Xiphan said:

Hey everyone,

 

I'm about to get fibre at home which has prompted me to look at upgrading my home network which includes replacing my DSL router with a WAN router. My ISP has supplied me with a Huawei WS5200 but this ShortCircuit video from last year has tempted me to consider an Asus router. I've previously used an Asus router and I really enjoyed their QoS features for prioritising game traffic to my machine when I was playing online. I also appreciated the parental controls it has for blocking naughty things that I didn't want my 8 year old niece looking at.

 

The Asus router I am keen on is the RT-AX88U because it has 8 gigabit network ports. However, for the price of that router I wonder if I wouldn't be better off building a dedicated pfsense box with something like the PC Engines APU2 and combining it with a decent gigabit switch and a wireless AP? While I did enjoy QoL features of the Asus router I also had gripes with how long the router took to restart and the constant need to reset all the settings on the device every time there was a firmware update for it. If I didn't reset all the settings it would freeze after a while and I would have to hard reboot the device every time it froze.

 

Would a pfsense box be better in this regard and would I be able to configure it with similar, if not better, features than what the Asus router can do? The main features I am looking for is prioritising game traffic and parental controls for blocking adult content. Also if it has a feature that can let me do away with running a separate device for Pi-hole that would also be a big plus.

 

pfSense is one of the best router OS you can use. It has all the features one would need. You can have QOS, load balancing / failover, block content including ADS etc etc

[Biomecanoid]

5 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Pfsense does support QoS, but it's not designed with games in mind and as such you'd need to learn yourself how to make it work well for such. As for parental controls, no idea.

Yes.

I an behind a pfSense firewall right now, I have no idea why you say it's not designed for games.

[WereCatf]

Just now, Biomecanoid said:

I an behind a pfSense firewall right now, I have no idea why you say it's not designed for games.

Because it doesn't have an up-to-date list of presets for games.

[Biomecanoid]

17 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Because it doesn't have an up-to-date list of presets for games.

That has nothing to do about being designed for games. You may call it not easy for beginners or not user friendly.

 

Its a firewall you input the ports you want to open and it just works. You are supposed to know the ports of the applications you use, if you rely on presets you don't know what is going on and who says the presets are correct and don't open ports that are unnecessary.

 

Its 1 min job to find the ports an application uses if you search online. pfSense is not for total beginners but it's easy enough to learn.

 

pfSense is a robust firewall that you forget it exists because it just works without issues. I have it for more years than I care to remember lol

 

 

[WereCatf]

Just now, Biomecanoid said:

That has nothing to do about being designed for games. You may call it not easy for beginners or not user friendly.

 

Its a firewall you input the ports you want to open and it just works. You are supposed to know the ports of the applications you use, if you rely on presets you don't know what is going on and who says the presets are correct and don't open ports that are unnecessary.

You are harping about something I didn't say. I didn't say the QoS-engine wouldn't work for games, I said Pfsense isn't designed with gaming in mind. Two entirely different things. A router that is designed with gaming in mind will have those kinds of presets, making it easy for people to set up QoS for the games they like to play.

[Biomecanoid]

5 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

You are harping about something I didn't say. I didn't say the QoS-engine wouldn't work for games, I said Pfsense isn't designed with gaming in mind. Two entirely different things. A router that is designed with gaming in mind will have those kinds of presets, making it easy for people to set up QoS for the games they like to play.

I didn't say anything about QoS. The presets present in some consumer routers/modems are mainly for NAT port forwarding this is what is required for applications to pass thru the firewall. Without NAT, no internet.

 

QoS is secondary and its used for prioritizing traffic its just a nice feature but not essential.

 

pfSense is above total beginner level and for people who know the ports needed and don't rely on presets.

 

If you start building a small PC just for a router, assemble all the parts, install freeBSD pfsense on it, configure all the networking, configure PPOE or bridge with the modem ,configure all the plugins etc then you are capable of making simple firewall rules without presets.

 

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Biomecanoid said:

QoS is secondary and its used for prioritizing traffic its just a nice feature but not essential

I am fully aware of what QoS is, I do not need an explanation on that.

1 minute ago, Biomecanoid said:

I didn't say anything about QoS.

But I did. Many modern gaming-routers do have presets for games which also include setting the game up in the QoS-queues.

[Biomecanoid]

7 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I am fully aware of what QoS is, I do not need an explanation on that.

But I did. Many modern gaming-routers do have presets for games which also include setting the game up in the QoS-queues.

I don't know why anyone would want automatic QoS rules. 

 

QoS is for putting in order the traffic according to your personal needs. I may want VOIP 1st, Browsing 2nd, and Gaming 3rd the router would not know that, it can't read my mind.

 

If you rely of things settings themselves up automatically then you surely don't have the optimal settings, you may be doing more harm than good and surely don't have control.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Biomecanoid said:

I don't know why anyone would want automatic QoS rules

Easy: because the Average Jane and Joe and their kids don't know any better nor do they want to know.

3 minutes ago, Biomecanoid said:

If you rely of things settings themselves up automatically then you surely don't have the optimal settings, you may be doing more harm than good and surely don't have control.

Possibly. I don't have any personal experience with gaming-routers, so I don't know how good their easy-to-use presets actually are.

[Biomecanoid]

5 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Easy: because the Average Jane and Joe and their kids don't know any better nor do they want to know.

Possibly. I don't have any personal experience with gaming-routers, so I don't know how good their easy-to-use presets actually are.

The Average Jane and Joe should not mess with the advanced settings of the router because you can seriously messes things up.

 

QoS is not an simple as it may seem and you can totally f@ck your internet up with the wrong settings, most people should leave it disabled.