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davegallant
2022-04-04 00:40:07 +00:00
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@@ -181,8 +181,8 @@ personal blog
<p>My aging router has been running <a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenWrt>OpenWrt</a> for years and for the most part has been quite reliable. OpenWrt is an open-source project used on embedded devices to route network traffic. It supports many different configurations and there exists a <a href=https://openwrt.org/packages/index/start>large index of packages</a>. Ever since I&rsquo;ve connected some standalone wireless access points, I&rsquo;ve had less of a need for an off-the-shelf all-in-one wireless router combo. I&rsquo;ve also recently been experiencing instability with my router (likely the result of a combination of setting tweaking and firmware updating). OpenWrt has served me well, but it is time to move on!</p>
<h2 id=pfsense>pfSense</h2>
<p>I figured this would be a good opportunity to try <a href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PfSense>pfSense</a>. I&rsquo;ve heard nothing but positive things about pfSense and the fact it&rsquo;s been around since 2004, based on FreeBSD, and written in PHP gave me the impression that it would be relatively stable (and I&rsquo;d expect nothing less because it has an important job to do!). pfSense can be run on many different machines, and there are even some <a href=https://www.netgate.com/appliances>officially supported appliances</a>. Since I already have a machine running Proxmox, why not just run it in a VM? It&rsquo;d allow for automatic snapshotting of the machine. There is a good <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdoBQNI_Ab8">video</a> on this by Techno Tim. Tim has a lot of good videos, and this one is about virtualizing pfSense.</p>
<h2 id=router-on-a-stick>Router-on-a-stick</h2>
<p>I had initially made the assumption that in order to build a router, you would need more than a single NIC (or a dual-port NIC) in order to support both WAN and LAN. This is simply not the case, because VLANs are awesome! In order to create a router, all you need is a single port NIC and a network switch that supports VLANs (also marketed as a managed switch). I picked up the Netgear GS308E because it has both a sufficient amount of ports for my needs, and it supports VLANs. It also has a nice sturdy metal frame which was a pleasant surprise.</p>
<h2 id=router-on-a-stick>Router on a stick</h2>
<p>I had initially made the assumption that in order to build a router, you would need more than a single NIC (or a dual-port NIC) in order to support both WAN and LAN. This is simply <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_on_a_stick#:~:text=In%20computing%2C%20a%20router%20on,switch%20via%20a%20single%20cable.">not the case</a>, because VLANs are awesome! In order to create a router, all you need is a single port NIC and a network switch that supports VLANs (also marketed as a managed switch). I picked up the Netgear GS308E because it has both a sufficient amount of ports for my needs, and it supports VLANs. It also has a nice sturdy metal frame which was a pleasant surprise.</p>
<p>After setting up this Netgear switch, it shoud be possible to access the web interface at <a href=http://192.168.0.239>http://192.168.0.239</a>. It may be at a different address. To find the address, try checking your DHCP leases in your router interface (if you plugged it into an existing router). I realized I was unable to access this interface because I was on a different subnet, so I set my machine&rsquo;s address to <code>192.168.0.22</code> in order to temporarily setup this switch. I assigned a static ip address to the switch (in <code>System > Switch Information</code>) so that it was in the same subnet as the rest of my network.</p>
<p>The web interface is nothing spectactular, but it allows for managing VLANs.</p>
<p>The following configuration will:</p>