Roll your own Router - pfSense, etc
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Before vendors like Ubiquiti were on the market, DIY routers sometimes made sense. Vendors like SonicWall and Fortigate change many times more and you get quite a bit less than with Ubiquiti and some others. So just a few years ago, DIY made sense because there wasn't much cost effective on the market. But with vendors like UBNT available now, the need for DIY in the SMB space has all but disappeared. Even products like Meraki which used to have unique advantages don't have that place any longer with products like UniFi replacing them as well.
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@scottalanmiller Would knowing how to setup a DIY router (pf/vyos/etc) be a highly marketable skill?
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totally recent and relevant
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/09/the-router-rumble-ars-diy-build-faces-better-tests-tougher-competition/
and
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-ars-guide-to-building-a-linux-router-from-scratch/
Really want to do this eventually, although I don't really need it, at all. -
I used pfsense before I was introduced to the edgerouters. Once I learned it was s fork of VYOS and saw how easy it was to learn, and how inexpensive it was, I switched from pfsense and never looked back.
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@MattSpeller said in Roll your own Router - pfSense, etc:
@scottalanmiller Would knowing how to setup a DIY router (pf/vyos/etc) be a highly marketable skill?
I'd put that as a zero value skill.
Both because I've never heard of nor can I imagine a business willing to pay for that skill. But also because it's so trivial to pick up that skill, that's a one hour learning curve skill, basically. At least for pfSense. VyOS is a general router management skill set, but that's different. Knowing how to manage a router is different and valuable, knowing how to install one is worthless. -
@fuznutz04 said in Roll your own Router - pfSense, etc:
I used pfsense before I was introduced to the edgerouters. Once I learned it was s fork of VYOS and saw how easy it was to learn, and how inexpensive it was, I switched from pfsense and never looked back.
Same here, I used to build my own all of the time. All different kinds. We were on Vyatta for a long time before they went into Brocade. Then on VyOS. Things like Smoothwall before that. But Ubiquiti made it all make no sense any longer.
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That EdgeOS (Ubiquiti), VyOS (roll your own) and Vyatta (Brocade) share a skill set is valuable, too.
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I cannot think of a valid reason that I would build a roll my own now that EdgeRouters exist.
Like others are used to build pfSense boxes all the time
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Used to make sense to build your own, but it has been a while since I have seen a situation where I would recommend that.
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I've built one once... It was a Firewall / Router using straight up Linux, Shorewall, and ClamAV for a 10 meg connection. Our main firewall just went kaput, and the company was not responding to phone calls for support (it's a long story).
Set up Linux on a system with 8 NICs and went to town.
Edit:
It's not hard to build one if you understand the concepts of routing and such... Not for the faint of heart if you have to make one work well enough to be used in production.
