Your Router Sucks. Build Your Own Instead!

are you tired of your wireless router

dropping your internet connection at the

worst possible time well it turns out

you can build your very own router

that'll perform a lot better and it's a

lot simpler to do than you might think

but why does store-bought and ISP

provided routers tend to be so

unreliable in the first place

this isn't Tech quickie this is Linus

Tech tips where we actually do the

things we talk about so bitdefender a

staple in cyber security sponsored this

video to show you how easy it is to get

better performance and reliability as

well as better security and privacy by

building your own custom router and how

you can even do it with your adds Dusty

old dip

foreign

[Music]

the problem with your typical big box or

ISP provided router is that they're

usually not just a router instead

they're often combo devices that include

a wireless access point to provide Wi-Fi

a switch to connect your local devices

together and the literal router which

connects your local devices to the

outside internet in a safe manner not

only does this make it impossible to

replace or upgrade any part

independently of the others but each of

these functions can be better performed

by separate discrete devices now listen

it's not realistic or economical to try

to build your own switch or access point

but the good news is that these devices

are widely available at reasonable

prices the router though that's a

different story and that's what we're

going to be focusing on building today

pretty much any x86 computer from the

last 10 or 15 years or so should work

better than your typical Diaper Genie

we're going to be using this Dell

Optiplex 7010 that Anthony previously

used to Build a Home Server since it's

all form factor won't take up too much

space it only costs around 100 bucks on

eBay and most importantly see right

there it has an available pcie gen 3

slot that's important because we need at

least two Network ports one for Lan to

connect to our switch and one for wan to

connect to our modem or fiber box your

old motherboard including this one

probably only come with one Jack and

while we could use that along with a

separate port on another network card

you'll want to make sure that both are

well supported by your router operating

system of choice more on that in a

moment while most Network controllers

may seem to work fine you may run into

performance issues with certain chipsets

and certain manufacturers so our

recommendation is to stick to an Intel

based Nick whenever possible if you're

unsure of what Nick you have or whether

your Nick is compatible you can

typically find the model on your

motherboard box or product page and from

there Google is your best friend if that

sounds like too much work you can easily

find older dual Port Intel network cards

like the i340 for around 25 bucks on

eBay or maybe even cheap from a local

electronics recycler we're going to be

using the four port version of this card

since we already had one lying around oh

I don't even need a screwdriver if I did

lttstore.com

damn optiplexes are too good now if you

happen to have greater than gigabit

internet a single port Intel i225 2.5

gig Nic can be had for around the same

price and for 10 gig the Dual Port Intel

X540 T2 will run you around 50 to 70

bucks on eBay not to a fan not included

now since we're on the topic of Hardware

our Optiplex is equipped with a core i7

3770 and should be totally fine for

running gigabit or 2.5 Gig if you want

to go faster than that say 10 gig you're

going to want more CPU power so make

sure you check the recommended specs and

ask around in the community to figure

out what should work for you we're going

to also be installing a 256 gig SSD

which fits behind the hard drive pretty

nicely and we're also going to take this

hard drive out because that's just a

bunch of extra power consumption we

don't need with our Hardware ready

it's time to talk to software the two

biggest players in the space right now

are PF sense and open sense both of

which are based on the unix-like

operating system for ebsd they're very

similar because opensense started off as

a fork of pfSense and you can't really

go wrong with either but we like

opensense for its subjectively easier to

use GUI and more frequent updates for

example on our own core router the main

25 gig Nick in it still isn't supported

by pfSense if you're following along at

home grab yourself a copy of opensense

from the official site pick your

architecture and select the VGA image

type the other option is serial but if

you use serial ports to manage your

networking equipment you probably don't

need to be watching this video to

install opensense you can use a tool

like etcher or Rufus to make a bootable

USB installer plug that into your soon

to be router and select it from the boot

menu let all the countdowns finish and

if your computer happens to have an

internal speaker like ours you'll be

greeted with a noise that sounds a

little bit like a Japanese rice cooker

it's not unpleasant it's just a bit loud

if your system doesn't have a display

output you can install opensense onto

your drive in a different system and

then move it over but if you have a

monitor look at that monitor with your

eyeballs throughout the boot sequence it

will ask for manual intervention a few

times but you can just skip these once

you're greeted by the login prompt take

a second to check the port numbering on

your system you can do this by taking a

cable that's plugged into a nearby PC

and putting it into each port on the

router and marking those ports down this

will be important later once you're done

hit enter to bring the login prompt back

type installer as the username and open

sense as the password don't worry here

if you're not seeing anything show up it

is actually typing it's just not showing

it for security if you want to try open

sense out you can instead log in as root

for a live install but your settings

will not survive a reboot without being

manually backed up you have been warned

select your keyboard layout if it's not

the default US map hit install ufs

select your boot drive hit OK on Swap

and the confirmation and then opensense

will install like a good little boy once

it's done we'd recommend changing your

root password to something a little more

secure then you can accident reboot Tech

tip don't forget to remove the USB

during the reboot otherwise you might

boot back into the installer once you're

booted back up plug your client system

into the port selected as Lan in the

console then navigate to

192.168.1.1 in your browser log in with

root and the password you set and Bam

you now have a functional opensense

router from here there's settings for

just about anything you can imagine but

be careful because it's very easy to

entirely board your router if you go and

change settings you don't understand I'm

going to show you guys a few important

ones that'll actually be helpful for you

first and foremost is the DHCP settings

by default opensense sets its IP range

on the DHCP server from dot 100 to dot

199. that means it's only going to allow

for a hundred devices connected to your

network for most home Gamers this is

probably okay but you can also tweak

this down to say dot 50 and this one up

to dot 254 and that's going to give you

over 200 devices you can also set the

DNS settings that your clients use here

so if you want to use say cloudflare or

Google DNS you'd want to put that in

these fields and then make sure you hit

save when you're done otherwise these

settings won't apply it's also important

to know how to update your system so to

do so go to system firmware and then

updates it'll check for any updates and

then allow you to apply them the last

thing you'll probably want to know is

how to change your interface assignments

these are going to be under interfaces

and then assignments from here you can

change your Lan or Wan ports if you want

to use a different port and this is

where you would assign a VLAN if that's

something you know how to set up

opensense has other cool features like

being able to backup your config to

Google Drive on a schedule I'd highly

recommend setting that up you can

disable the screaming rice cooker noise

and you can port forward like any other

router but be careful as the firewall is

an important part of your network

security aside from the Limitless

customization potential frequent

security updates and the ability to swap

parts a DIY router encourages you to be

more mindful not just in how your

network is used but how your network is

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the link down below you might have

noticed by now that we only have a

single Lan Port assigned even if you had

extra on your system and you wanted to

use these for other devices to have to

use software switching on these ports is

very inefficient and typically can't run

anywhere near line speed instead a cheap

multi-port switch like this guy or the

Netgear GS 308 can be had for around 20

bucks on Amazon or they can be even

cheaper if they have a plastic housing

or fewer ports just make sure that it's

full gigabit speed if you're running 2.5

gig or 10 gig these switches get a lot

more expensive but we found a trendnet

2.5 gig unit for 120 bucks and for 10

gig the cheapest option we could find is

the ubiquity switchflex XG with four 10

gig ports for 300 bucks once you have

some form of switch plug it into the

wall and then the Lan Port of your

router and any of your other devices on

your network can plug directly into the

remaining ports the last thing we need

to reach feature parity with our combo

unit is some Wi-Fi now there's a lot of

options here ranging in price from

literal trash you can find at any dump

all the way up to Enterprise grade

access points that can run you thousands

of dollars many of the off-the-shelf

home routers that we've been talking

about replacing can be used purely for

Wi-Fi by finding a setting called AP

mode or bridge mode however the

performance is usually pretty not great

so unless you're trying to do this with

Hardware you already have we'd recommend

picking up a standalone access point

like these from ubiquity or a mesh

system like The tp-link Deco Netgear

Orbee or Amazon's Euro system for the

purposes of this video we have a

ubiquity UniFi 6 long range which can be

had for 179 bucks or the light version

of it is only a hundred dollars you can

also find them cheaper second hand once

your Wi-Fi is set up everything should

kind of just function together so let's

run a speed test this is on wired on my

laptop here but we should be able to get

full gigabit and we can see the CPU

usage which is very interesting oh there

we go two ping 700 800 900 megabits and

we're only using like seven percent CPU

usage which is pretty dang good let's

check our upload speed it's basically

the same Sweet let's try Wi-Fi it's not

a very good test on the Wi-Fi because I

don't know what it's set to but I'm sure

it's I'm sure it's plenty fast yeah like

200 down that's pretty good we're in a

very congested area right now there's a

lot of access points and Wi-Fi and

Bluetooth so I wouldn't expect this

piece to be too crazy but your mileage

may vary of course if you're in a

country where electricity is so

expensive that running a 40 90 is

borderline unethical you may instead opt

for something a little more power

efficient micro PCS like this won't be

as upgradeable but can be as much as 10

times more power efficient some of them

even have 2.5 gig ethernet built in now

they do cost more up front but depending

on your electricity cost you might end

up saving in the long run our Optiplex

was somewhere between 30 and 40 Watts

while doing absolutely nothing and I'm

sure a lot more when the CPU starts to

crank up so your mileage may vary that's

it then for 100 bucks on this Optiplex

20 bucks on a switch and 100 bucks for

an access point we built an infinitely

more configurable more upgradable more

better router access point switch combo

that you get to Tinker with all on your

own you get better control of your

network security and you get better

control of your privacy it's fun for the

whole family except when it doesn't work

but surely this will work more than your

ISP provided one so thanks to

bitdefender for sponsoring this video

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in the description down below if you

like this video maybe check out that one

where we upgraded our office router and

took the internet out multiple times in

the middle of the workday it was funnier

when we had like 15 employees so now

that there's like 80 it's a it's a

little prohibitive to do that