Honestly I just bought a small mini PC and installed Linux on it — that’s my router. I got sick of consumer trash anyway and decided to roll my own. The mini PC is overkill, you can get by very modest hardware.
I do have an old laptop, and I could install OPNSense on it, though I’m not sure if it has a second NIC card, which seems to be a requirement for running any router software on a PC. Please correct me if I’m wrong, tho.
Yeah that’s kind of the downside. I considered using a Raspberry Pi but it felt weird to use its Ethernet port alongside some micro USB → Ethernet adapter that probably wouldn’t hit 1 Gbps anyway.
I used an USB Ethernet adapter on my OPNSense setup and it wasn’t stable enough. It basically required a reboot every other day. A PCI-E ethernet card solved my stability issues. Just my experience.
So I have a TP-Link that can’t be flashed with OpnWrt/ddwrt/pfsense. What can I do to harden my router?
Disconnect it
Honestly I just bought a small mini PC and installed Linux on it — that’s my router. I got sick of consumer trash anyway and decided to roll my own. The mini PC is overkill, you can get by very modest hardware.
… Has anyone attempted to turn an old android smart phone into a router?
I do have an old laptop, and I could install OPNSense on it, though I’m not sure if it has a second NIC card, which seems to be a requirement for running any router software on a PC. Please correct me if I’m wrong, tho.
Yeah that’s kind of the downside. I considered using a Raspberry Pi but it felt weird to use its Ethernet port alongside some micro USB → Ethernet adapter that probably wouldn’t hit 1 Gbps anyway.
Ah, so it just needs another ethernet port, if I understand you correctly? So an ethernet adapter would work?
I used an USB Ethernet adapter on my OPNSense setup and it wasn’t stable enough. It basically required a reboot every other day. A PCI-E ethernet card solved my stability issues. Just my experience.