Thin client converted to a router

[CAPSBOY]

Hi all,

new here not sure this is right place to put this post … I have a thin client coming in the mail and want to turn it into a router (my Telstra one is locked down) looking at adding AC wifi and 8gb of ram up from 4gb . Now what should I do with the wifi .. should I look out for a mpcie with AP or can any of them work as a AP. I’ll be installing Openvpn and Pi-hole too. 
any other things I should look out for please let me know.

cheers 

Specs of thin client 

Wyse ZX0 AMD G-T52R 1.50GHz / 8gb Ram/ 8GB Flash Thin Client Z90S7

 

 

[Aragorn-]

personally, i use a specific standalone access point (Ubiquiti Unifi AC-Lite) and leave the router doing routery things.

 

Also means the AP's can be positioned in sensible place relative to the house/users, and the router can live in the boiler room out the way.

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 hours ago, CAPSBOY said:

Hi all,

new here not sure this is right place to put this post … I have a thin client coming in the mail and want to turn it into a router (my Telstra one is locked down) looking at adding AC wifi and 8gb of ram up from 4gb . Now what should I do with the wifi .. should I look out for a mpcie with AP or can any of them work as a AP. I’ll be installing Openvpn and Pi-hole too. 
any other things I should look out for please let me know.

cheers 

Specs of thin client 

Wyse ZX0 AMD G-T52R 1.50GHz / 8gb Ram/ 8GB Flash Thin Client Z90S7

 

What's your broadband speed as I suspect that CPU is going to struggle over 100Mbit and definitely wont cope with OpenVPN or WiFi duties at the same time.

What are you going to do about only having one ethernet port?

 

I highly advise against trying to use a PC as a WiFi Access Point.  I've played with this on and off for about 15 years and its an utter nightmare.  For one thing, a real Access Point will have at least two radios, this only has a single PCIe slot so is limited to one (USB adapters may work but they have shorter range and are prone to overheating as they are only designed for client use).  Also very few WiFi cards work well in Access Point mode, dedicated routers/Access Points often have licensed/custom firmware/drivers which we cannot use.

 

Pi-hole AFAIK is not a router OS so you'd possibly need to do a lot of work to get all this working.  Even as someone who uses Linux every day, I much prefer a proper router OS as configuring all the various options you might need on a router is a real PITA.  One mistake and your Internet is down, scrabbling for your phone to Google what you did wrong.

So to summarise can it be done, to some degree yes.  But I'd highly recommend much better hardware and a proper router OS if you plan to go ahead.  If you really want WiFi from the same box, a Linux based OS is essential as BSD has garbage WiFi support, but IMO its not worth the effort as you will be limited to very specific WiFi cards and it may need a lot of hoops to get 5Ghz working properly, if at all.  Or you may get stuck with only WiFi 4 (802.11n) working.

Bottom line, you could get a cheap router capable of running OpenWRT for as much as you'll end up spending on this project and it likely will perform better.

[Aragorn-]

The CPU wont care just doing routing duties, but yea, VPN will likely weigh pretty heavily on it... But it depends what your doing with the VPN... If its just a basic setup to let you access some things remotely rather than streaming tonnes of data, it'll probably be fine.

 

USB NIC perhaps for the other interface? 

[CAPSBOY]

Thanks guys I knew posting here would be the best … so you guys think the cpu wouldn’t handle the VPN and Pi-hole…. Hmmm what I’ll do is benchmark it when I get it .. I know it’s a old Dino in terms of the hardware but all I want is something to change regions and do ad blocking … also I have seen mods for another Ethernet port 

 

thanks for the help so far 

[Jameszy]

no AES-NI, she'll choke on VPN duties.. but should be fine for just regular old internet traffic.

 

AA-UK is correct, using this machine for a WAP will be a shitshow.. its never worked worth a darn.. if at all..  You'd for sure be better off buying a decent router (like upper end) and using this machine for piHole.. The router would most likely be more suitable for your VPN endpoint as well..

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 2/16/2021 at 4:53 PM, Aragorn- said:

The CPU wont care just doing routing duties, but yea, VPN will likely weigh pretty heavily on it... But it depends what your doing with the VPN... If its just a basic setup to let you access some things remotely rather than streaming tonnes of data, it'll probably be fine.

 

USB NIC perhaps for the other interface? 

Well I know pfSense recommend the following and bearing in mind they probably mean at least dual-core when the CPU in the above is single-core, single-thread.

101-500 Mbps

No less than a modern (less than 4 years old) Intel or AMD CPU clocked at 2.0 GHz. Server class hardware with PCI-e network adapters, or newer desktop hardware with PCI-e network adapters.

[CAPSBOY]

looks like you guys might be right there with the cpu … I’ve upgraded the ram and will be upgrading the storage (I feel the 8gb flash is slow) I’ll go with you guys and pop on pfsense and will see how it runs 

cheers 

 

[mbcbm]

I just finished a similar project.  I bought a Dell Wyse 5060 terminal with a Quad core AMD GX-424 2.4GHz processor.
I put 16 GB od DDR3 and a 128GB fits in the SATA DOM slot if you remove the platic housing.
Then I added an M.2 Gigabit ethernet adapter and cut a hole in the back panel to fit the socket (my dremel skills are not great, I could have taken my time...)

Et voila, a powerfull router and firewall running pfsense for under £100.