Like most things, really. I used to build routers from old PCs, but eventually those tiny appliances caught up with the performance/functionality I need.

You can do a lot of routing on a $70 Mikrotik, although they might not be "easy".

▲ esseph 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I really want to end up with one of these for at least a few months: https://mikrotik.com/product/rds2216

▲ bombcar a day ago | parent [-]

At $2k out the door that's way more reasonable than I thought it'd be.

Too bad I can't fill it with old spinning rust.

▲ a96 a day ago | parent [-]

And no (mention of) ECC.

	▲	simoncion a day ago \| parent [-]
		On printed page five of the brochure [0] it mentions `Size of RAM 32 GB ECC RAM type DDR4` On the one hand, it'd be nice if that was mentioned everywhere that the RAM size was mentioned. On the other hand, perhaps ECC RAM is effectively mandatory for Enterprise equipment, so mentioning it is redundant? IDK, I don't often purchase that sort of stuff. [0] <https://cdn.mikrotik.com/web-assets/product_files/RDS2216-2X...>

▲ j45 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

For sure, it's a path and passage towards devices like that.

Everyone has a starting point, starting with soemone has lying around is one thing.. the quicker they can get going the more they can get to leveraging the real power in most devices.