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Guys please in your privacy journey don't forget the routers (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by aprehendedmerlin@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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before buying expensive routers check OpenWRT's table of hardware and buy one that is supported by the current OpenWRT release and has decent specs. There is a detailed installation guide for each supported device in the wiki too so there are no excuses it's dead simple and Free yourself from stupid hardware manufacturers and their planed obsolescence products.

Edit: also here is the new version of the table of hardware with more details They seem to have buyers guide too in the wiki.
Edit2: seems like GL.iNet devices ship with OpenWRT out of the box with their GUI on top and you still have access to openwrt under the hood if you need it which sounds awesome so look into them if you're interested. Thanks you guys who brought them up.
Edit3: there is firewall sulotion called OPNSense which is not limited to commercial routers like OpenWRT and can be run on any x86 hardware of your choice (like N100 mini pcs) so like into it if you're interested. Many thanks to the guys who contributed in the comments
Edit4: Sorry for the multiple edits but some of you guys suggest some fantastic insights that I had to add. Anyways here is a list of good candidate devices for hassle free installation and yet powerful enough hardware from OpenWRT's Forum

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[-] ZeDoTelhado@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

You can use on any computer really (with network connections of course).

I use on a minisforum PC with 2 NICs attached to it. For this solution is usually needed APs (which tends to be better in general, just more expensive). There are people that even use opnsense with proxmox (which is a VERY advanced use case) to have the machine for more things.

One interesting detail: with opnsense you can actually have on the same machine adguard for DNS installed as a service for opnsense (and use opnsense to actually force all DNS to to there, as long is not doh, but that is a bit of a different story).

this post was submitted on 29 May 2025

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