[Fwirt]

You actually don't even need two interfaces on the box if you have a managed switch. It's not too difficult to configure your only interface as an 802.11q trunk port, and then you can use the managed switch as a sort of "interface expander". This is referred to as a "router on a stick" configuration, and it's how my home network is configured. Plus, if it's a PoE managed switch, you can install some cheap enterprise surplus Aruba IAPs around the house for Wi-Fi which is a lot higher quality than a consumer router or a mesh setup.

My home router was an old Thinkpad for a while, but then I switched over to a slightly newer Dell Optiplex that my work was throwing out. The plus side of that is that the i7 is total overkill for routing so I can also have my "router" run some VMs for network services and cut down on the number of boxen in my homelab rack.

Alpine is a great distro for this.

[lowdude]

I have actually been curious about this: How good can a WiFi mesh get latency-wise, given the right equipment, and how close would a consumer router setup be to that, do you happen to know?

[Fwirt]

With modern Wi-Fi the issue isn’t really latency, it’s jitter. Most of my only moderately tech savvy friends have mesh setups that they don’t find fault with, but were also significantly more expensive than my cobbled together setup. From what I understand, my Aruba IAPs can also be configured in mesh mode so only one of them actually needs a router connection, but it was easier to just run a second CAT6 cable through my attic.

[akdev1l]

>Wi-Fi which is a lot higher quality than a consumer router

I am not really sure about it. My ISP provided AP can do a gigabit over wifi.

I need to change it because the ISP hardcodes the dns for spying reasons.

But sadly to match that performance I need to spend like $180 to get an AP with that performance

[Fwirt]

My APs are “only” 802.11ac, but on the other hand they were only $8/ea. And all of the speed critical devices on my network are wired anyway. It’s good enough to stream 1080p/120hz from my gaming rig to my iPad with imperceptible jitter and sub 10ms latency so I’m happy. If they ever get flaky down the road I’ll just upgrade to the “latest” 10 year old sub $20 used enterprise gear I can get my hands on. And that’s not the oldest part of my setup, the router itself was made circa 2013 and my managed gigabit PoE switch is of indeterminate age but probably at least 20 years old if I had to guess. Networking tech changes a lot more slowly than some other areas.

[HexPhantom]

Nice balance of minimalism without feeling too barebones