DYI Router/pfSense

[Tyrius]

Hello,

I saw a lot of videos in youtube about using old PC hardware to build a great router.

Those videos were using pfSense as OS.

 

Now they are a few years old and I wonder: Is pfSense still the go-to choice for a diy-router-OS? Are there others I should look into?

Also how about security? Is a pfSense router more vulnerable than buying a mainstream router?

 

Thanks for all insights you can give me!

[KemoKa]

PFSense is based on FreeBSD, which means you can install it on tons of stuff. it's also highly expandable, meaning you aren't limited to the built-in utilities on mainstream routers. This combined with a much larger development base means that it's generally more secure, more versatile, more open, and because you usually want to use an old PC you have a router with hardware that is an order of magnitude more powerful than conventional hardware. And you aren't beholden to some arbitrary and possibly-not-in-your-best-interest whims that a large, profit-seeking corporation imposes on people who use their products.

[Bacon8tor]

I cant answer to many in-depth questions but I recently used an old pc with a q6600 and 8 gb of ram with an 80Gb hdd , as my pfsense router, as well as some Gb intel NICs and a Gigabit switch. Kept everything basic settings, and only added squid proxy mainly for the caching. As far as security, I can only imagine tat pfsense if done right is more secure than a standard router. There are some other Router OS' out there like m0n0wall , smoothwall    havent tried or looked into them much.  All in all I ave been happy with pfsense, had a little trouble getting it to recognize my wan (took a few restarts of machine and modem for it finally to pickup my IP) also for myself I am going to another gb nic and Ubiquiti Unifi access point and do away with my wireless router(even though its just acting as a access point now) .  I will finish with saying that it has speed up my connection alittle mainly with the computer on wifi(only 2 in my house) before pfsense they would only get about 1.5-3Mbps (steam download ) now I see a consistent 5mbps no drops very solid connection. 

 

hope this helps a bit , 

[Tyrius]

Sure, hearing any experience on this matter helps a ton!

To me I thought as well that "normal" routers aren't that secure anyway, so it can't be much worse/might even be better. (Also because I assume it to be used less that other routers, and the most used stuff is always under attack the haviest)

 

Also the option to cache files (like windows updates) as well as the option to set up openVPN on it made it very appealing to me.

[JJOATz]

@Tyrius As far as retail routers go, some allow you to flash the firmware which allows you to vastly improve their capabilities; though nothing compared to pfSense, Smoothwall, etc. I'm speaking of DD-WRT, Tomato, etc of course. I'm interested in pfSense as well, so while I'm of no help with it I'm very interested.