New Router Purchase

Tue Nov 5 17:11:48 MST 2019

Just another thought.  I use PFsense (which uses FreeBSD) on a small
micro-atx board, a 4 port 1GB pcie NIC card, an msata ssd (160GB)  and 8GB
RAM.  Why because I had them after an upgrade to a gaming rig from one of
my sons machines.  I can already hear the comments "That's overkill", and
"You're using too much power" comments.  But my needs where simple, I
needed a fast, reliable, isolated connection for business use, while
allowing for 2 separate gamers (with VR) to game while, 3 people to
independently stream Netflix, Hulu, etc, youtube, while allowing for secure
wifi.

I chose to wire my house with CAT6 to all of the major streaming devices
and to my office and separate cabled connections into 3 separate networks
(1st socket in NIC is WAN) with one of the cabled networks connecting my
older Cisco/Linksys AC router set in ad-hoc mode.  All big
streaming devices and gaming rigs are on CAT6, which leaves laptops,
smartphones, and tablets on the Wifi.  everything is firewalled by mac
address, including wifi which is on WPA2 enterprise.

I have estimated that I could build this system again with purchased
components for the same price as a high end consumer AC router, or an
extended mesh system. I also don't broadcast my SSID.

After 3 months of solid uptime we started have intermittent outages, with
severe packet loss.  After arguing with Cox for a few days they finally
sent out an engineer to review their connections and look at the modem.
While checking the modem he asked when I had started having issues.  I
simply went to the Pfsense web portal went to system monitoring set the
duration to 3 months and asked him which Graphana graph he wanted to look
at.  We pulled up the packet loss and quality graphs.  By looking at the
graphs he could tell that this was a line connectivity problem.  Sure
enough one of their connectors outside had worn through the outer jacket
because of a faulty crimp job by their techs. exposure to the air was
finally taking its toll on the line. I was sold on PFsense the second he
put is line monitor in his pocket and want to diagnose from the PFsense
graphs.  I also like that with a click I can install Squid or Wire Shark as
plugins to PFsense.

At work we have been replacing our older Cisco router/firewall units with
NetGate units running PFSense.

On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 11:12 AM Michael Butash <michael at butash.net> wrote:

> Granted, hardware goes bad, but it's "working yesterday, dead like a brick
> now" bad usually.  Hardware almost never degrades in just performance, save
> some Cisco devices using non-ecc memory over the years (why they don't sell
> load-balancers anymore).
>
> Software may leak resources, kids/roommates might overconsume sessions
> torrenting to abuse router cpu, but hardware alone won't diminish
> performance over time.  I still say audit your traffic patterns with some
> network tools, but having a better router too never hurts.
>
> Oddly I've found decent (netgear, cisco) wifi routers at my local Goodwill
> in Peoria, I just verify they can use dd-wrt images while there, how much
> memory/cpu they have (if they can use full or limited images).  For a while
> was hooking up friends and family with decent units for less than $7 each.
> Ebay you can probably find better options, but as long as it's flashable
> with dd-wrt, you're likely not going to get one gone "bad" if it works at
> all.
>
> -mb
>
> On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 5:20 PM Stephen Partington <cryptworks at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I have had a router go bad. The rom failed.
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 28, 2019, 4:13 PM Michael Butash <michael at butash.net> wrote:
>>
>>> I really don't find routers "go bad" as they outlive their usefulness.
>>> Most people find their routers can't handle their usage when providers
>>> offer 100mbps+ connections, but sometimes something is simply abusing your
>>> network, and your router isn't good at showing it to you.
>>>
>>> Coming from the enterprise space, when something stops working, I see
>>> what is wrong, as something is always wrong if it's broken.  In a consumer
>>> router, what is usually the matter is something creating too many sessions,
>>> or simply exceeding bandwidth capabilities.  Ahem, Bittorrent, or some
>>> other uncontrolled vermin.  Some people it's 5 people watching netflix at
>>> the same time, or heavy gaming.
>>>
>>> I can usually feel when my network is broken at home, and almost always
>>> find a reason for it.  Only time I upgrade is when I want to test a new
>>> piece of kit I got from ebay.
>>>
>>> I've run cisco asa, netgear/dd-wrt routers, fortigate firewall
>>> currently, considering getting a palo alto.  My netgear flashed with dd-wrt
>>> was great for years, a R710 nighthawk, and only reason I upgraded to my
>>> fortigate was just to dogfood features for customers of mine using
>>> fortigate.  I got lucky buying a fortigate on ebay, 2 years later some
>>> large defense contractor company keeps paying for my enterprise support on
>>> the unit for full filter and threat feeds on it, so at least my tax dollars
>>> go for something good finally.
>>>
>>> -mb
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Oct 26, 2019 at 12:17 PM <techlists at phpcoderusa.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> It appears I am having Internet router problems.  Occasionally I will
>>>> not be able to access the Internet for a few seconds to a minute or so.
>>>> This morning I was not able to access the Internet at all.
>>>>
>>>> I am with Cox and have a home office business account.  I called Cox
>>>> and they suggested bypassing my router and connect directly to their
>>>> modem.  That worked.  Based on that I think my router is going bad.
>>>>
>>>> I had turned off the modem and the router for a maybe an hour or so
>>>> while I did other things.  I now have access.
>>>>
>>>> I would like a secure router.  Cox says almost any modern router will
>>>> be secure.  Security is a big issue.  When I look at all the WiFi that is
>>>> available in my neighborhood I see maybe 10 routers.  That is scary!
>>>>
>>>> Since I have a business account that allows servers I have been using
>>>> port forwarding.  I am a programmer and occasionally I fire up my laptop
>>>> turned server for testing.
>>>>
>>>> I also have set up my WiFi to only accept those devices that I have
>>>> configured by MAC address.
>>>>
>>>> Any toughs on my pending router purchase?
>>>>
>>>> Thank you so much for all your feedback!!
>>>>
>>>> Keith
>>>>
>>>>
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-- 
James

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