These are cool:
https://www.gl-inet.com/

Many options to choose from and with OpenWRT. Would try to get a 5ghz supporting version though.

I used to get routers compatible with DDWRT, flash them with DDWRT until I got 2x routers with bad flashes and stopped working.
After that I decided to buy a more professional router so I decided to go with Synology router RT2600c a bit expensive but is an amazing router.

https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/RT2600ac

You just set it up and then you forget about it, all updates are done automatically.

I used DD-WRT for years on my old Linksys 600N until it died. Really nice. I couldn't afford a decent router that supported DD-WRT and ended up with a D-link. I went the building a router option.

I use IPfire. Other than a bit of a hard landing into the world of network setup, it has worked out great. The nice thing is that the system requirements for a router are pretty low, so if you have some spare hardware laying around, you might already have all you need. I built mine on a 2007 MSI Industrial series ITX board. It cost me $20 (a new SSD for it). It handles our two Access points and numerous other wired devices for my whole family without breaking a sweat.

Honestly, given the choice and money were no concern. I'd probably go with Wolfyrion's opinion. There's something to be said about professionals doing it right (Cause when I look at IPtables, I'm pretty sure I'm looking at the Matrix). Second would be Build a Router. I like IPFire, but the UI looks like the 1990's came back with an unintuitive vengeance. It's pure Linux under the hood, so I can sort of understand what's going on if something weird happens. Pf/OpenSense both look really nice, are BSD based, and have fairly large communities. I'll probably try them in the future.

Hope that helps.

Quoting: wolfyrionI used to get routers compatible with DDWRT, flash them with DDWRT until I got 2x routers with bad flashes and stopped working.
After that I decided to buy a more professional router so I decided to go with Synology router RT2600c a bit expensive but is an amazing router.

https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/RT2600ac

You just set it up and then you forget about it, all updates are done automatically.

Does the Synology router collect data on you? that was one of the other reasons I was thinking about using DD-WRT. The netgear router that I am currently using now has the option to send user information to netgear. I disabled that function but it does not make me fell good about my router.

Linksys WRT3200ACM is a good option, if you can afford it - go for it. Recent WRT models have two partitions, so if a flash goes wrong, you can fall back to previous partition easily. A very neat feature usually used in professional routers.

I'd use only something that allows open source system on it.

Since you asked what we are using; A few years back I swapped out my wrt54G for an Asus RT-N66U,that I immediately flashed with tomatoUSB.

My only complaint about this router is that it's a bit underpowered for what I use it for - running two permanent VPN tunnels on the router itself with source based routing the tunnels tend max out at arround 5MB/s - but then on the rare occasion I need to go faster than that I can just open up a tunnel on my desktop directly.

I'm on my second pfSense box and will never go back to regular routers.
I have two access points cause I have one network for my security cameras and one for regular use (phone and a laptop). The rest is ethernet as I hate the wifi speeds with a NAS etc. in the house :P

My real reason to ditch routers is that I just don't want to fiddle around with flashing and upgrading DD-WRT anymore and I don't have to worry about the box itself being unsupported because of some limitation down the road. I feel that pfSense is more professional and secure too, and feelings are important ;). I also have more than enough CPU power for whatever internet connection I get in the next few years.

Use OpenVPN to connect phone and (private) laptop to my home network whenever I'm out. I have a VM that has x2goserver installed so I use it all the time instead of syncing setups between machines (I don't like syncing stuff with online accounts anyway).

Also bought two mikrotik routers last year, but they're only used as switches as I wanted to have 10G between my boxes upstairs/downstairs. They're updating regularly and have a ton of options, but they're very different in the way you configure them. Lots of command line stuff if you want to really dig in. Not really something I care for. NAS on 1G and server downloading/uploading @300mbps creates some traffic. Also ended up buying a cheap 10G Intel NIC for my NAS.

I don't do anything fancy with my pfSense box and I'm no security expert, but I do like to know I can configure it however I want. There's also pretty logs to look at when you have to figure out some stupid config error caused by some bright idea at 2AM in the morning.

Quoting: TiedemannI'm on my second pfSense box and will never go back to regular routers.
I have two access points cause I have one network for my security cameras and one for regular use (phone and a laptop). The rest is ethernet as I hate the wifi speeds with a NAS etc. in the house :P

My real reason to ditch routers is that I just don't want to fiddle around with flashing and upgrading DD-WRT anymore and I don't have to worry about the box itself being unsupported because of some limitation down the road. I feel that pfSense is more professional and secure too, and feelings are important ;). I also have more than enough CPU power for whatever internet connection I get in the next few years.

Use OpenVPN to connect phone and (private) laptop to my home network whenever I'm out. I have a VM that has x2goserver installed so I use it all the time instead of syncing setups between machines (I don't like syncing stuff with online accounts anyway).

Also bought two mikrotik routers last year, but they're only used as switches as I wanted to have 10G between my boxes upstairs/downstairs. They're updating regularly and have a ton of options, but they're very different in the way you configure them. Lots of command line stuff if you want to really dig in. Not really something I care for. NAS on 1G and server downloading/uploading @300mbps creates some traffic. Also ended up buying a cheap 10G Intel NIC for my NAS.

I don't do anything fancy with my pfSense box and I'm no security expert, but I do like to know I can configure it however I want. There's also pretty logs to look at when you have to figure out some stupid config error caused by some bright idea at 2AM in the morning.

What kind hardware are you using for your pfSense box?

Quoting: chui2ch

Quoting: TiedemannI'm on my second pfSense box and will never go back to regular routers.
I have two access points cause I have one network for my security cameras and one for regular use (phone and a laptop). The rest is ethernet as I hate the wifi speeds with a NAS etc. in the house :P

My real reason to ditch routers is that I just don't want to fiddle around with flashing and upgrading DD-WRT anymore and I don't have to worry about the box itself being unsupported because of some limitation down the road. I feel that pfSense is more professional and secure too, and feelings are important ;). I also have more than enough CPU power for whatever internet connection I get in the next few years.

Use OpenVPN to connect phone and (private) laptop to my home network whenever I'm out. I have a VM that has x2goserver installed so I use it all the time instead of syncing setups between machines (I don't like syncing stuff with online accounts anyway).

Also bought two mikrotik routers last year, but they're only used as switches as I wanted to have 10G between my boxes upstairs/downstairs. They're updating regularly and have a ton of options, but they're very different in the way you configure them. Lots of command line stuff if you want to really dig in. Not really something I care for. NAS on 1G and server downloading/uploading @300mbps creates some traffic. Also ended up buying a cheap 10G Intel NIC for my NAS.

I don't do anything fancy with my pfSense box and I'm no security expert, but I do like to know I can configure it however I want. There's also pretty logs to look at when you have to figure out some stupid config error caused by some bright idea at 2AM in the morning.

What kind hardware are you using for your pfSense box?

Something like this:
https://www.iwill.no/en/iwill-ecolan-celeron-kaby-lake-6-x-lan-viftel-s

It's a i3-7100U in mine though.
The store I bought it from doesn't have them anymore so not sure where to find one with more info right now.

You can always just DIY too. For my previous one I bought a Mini-ITX MB with a passively cooled 1037U CPU and put it in a small case with a quad Intel card. The CPU has to support AES, other than that it doesn't matter much.

We don't have a lot of options here in Norway (small country) so I usually buy stuff from Aliexpress/eBay and what not. There's also the option to buy from Netgate directly.