Cool idea,but

[Edward78]

It would be good if you could get 1 with the firmware & software already on a version that you could buy.

[Levent]

You can. https://www.pfsense.org/products/

[Edward78]

8 minutes ago, Levent said:

You can. https://www.pfsense.org/products/

Oh cool thanx.

[LIGISTX]

39 minutes ago, Edward78 said:

Oh cool thanx.

The sg1100 is good for up to about 5-600 mbps internet. If that’s all you need, it’s a fantastic value. If you need faster WAN, will need to step up to the more expensive options. 

[Edward78]

Wow, this video makes it sound a bit hard.

 

[seanondemand]

Here's the thing: realistically, the worst thing that will happen to us normal people on old, old routers would likely be something like our routers becoming part of a botnet or something to that effect. If you're someone like, a journalist investigating human rights in some dictatorship, this would definitely be something to worry about (although you've probably got bigger problems tbh). 

 

Normies who go to Costco and buy whatever mesh set is on sale at the time will be fine. pfsense, Ubiquiti, all that stuff is cool and great, but is gear for hobby-ists, people who care. My 60-plus parents, and let's be honest, most people, don't care. They just want something they can plug in, set up once, and not worry about until I suggest they buy something new in like, 9 years. And it'll be fine.

[LIGISTX]

1 hour ago, Edward78 said:

Wow, this video makes it sound a bit hard.

 

Harder in what way? The setup? That video is him using a little mini PC and installing pfsense. If that is the hard part, buying a netgate (pfsense parent company box) would remove the need to instal pfsense yourself. But that isn’t the difficult part; configuration is. 
 

Id recommend start watching lots of videos and reading lots of posts about pfsense and then consider making the jump. But a good question to ask yourself is “why do I want or need this?” You don’t need it, but maybe you want it. I wanted it so I can have multiple subnets and use vlans because I enjoy learning and wanted a project. 

[Falcon1986]

2 hours ago, LIGISTX said:

You don’t need it, but maybe you want it. I wanted it so I can have multiple subnets and use vlans because I enjoy learning and wanted a project. 

This.

 

Agreed.

 

3 hours ago, Edward78 said:

Wow, this video makes it sound a bit hard.

 

It's not as difficult as you might think. Follow the guide; I followed CrossTalk's and Lawrence Systems' tutorials to install on an HP thin-client with additional NIC, upgraded RAM and SSD.