OpenWrt has a generic x86 PC build that can also be used to turn basically any random PC into a router, complete with an operating system actually designed and developed for that purpose.

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moffkalast 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And of course probably 1000x the power usage compared to the average off the shelf router that runs off a borderline microcontroller.

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socalgal2 7 hours ago | parent [-]

good point! I think you can run it on a PI though.

	▲	moffkalast 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Otoh it would make sense if you could combine it with a home server, then it's just a side process and you actually save power by not having an extra device. Though you'd still need a switch or two. And a fiber modem which already has a router and a switch built-it. Oops.

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adolph 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

OpenWRT is great if it fits your use case. If one has reason to stray from the happy path a disadvantage is that the OpenWRT uses a single binary like Busybox and doesn't use glibc. This is great for embedded/low power machines like the OG WRT54G, but not as optimal for when you have an entire random PC. I don't recall the exact things I was looking for but I moved on to pfSense and didn't look back.

	▲	znpy 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> This is great for embedded/low power machines like the OG WRT54G, but not as optimal for when you have an entire random PC. There are steps in the middle :) I'm running OpenWRT on the recent WRT3200ACM and it's going beautifully.

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anthk 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Alpine Linux too.