Hackaday · Creativity & design

DIY Router Project: OpenWrt Driver Issue and OPNsense Success

The author details their experience building a DIY router from old PC hardware, encountering driver issues with OpenWrt and subsequently switching to OPNsense.

An attempt to use an e-waste PC as a router with OpenWrt for x86 failed due to missing drivers for the Intel 82574L Ethernet controllers in the generic image. The necessary drivers are in the e1000e package, but only e1000 was present.

OPNsense, a FreeBSD-based firewall and network security platform, was chosen as an alternative. It offers extensive features beyond basic routing, targeting commercial applications.

The author used a 2012 Intel Atom D2500CC board with 2GB DDR3 RAM and opted for a 128GB SATA SSD for storage, aiming to install OPNsense from a USB stick.

The OPNsense 'VGA' image was selected and successfully booted on the 64-bit capable Atom CPU, dispelling initial concerns about hardware compatibility.

Installation took approximately 11 minutes. Upon reboot, OPNsense automatically assigned the second Ethernet interface (em1) as WAN and the first (em0) as LAN, with DHCP enabled on the LAN interface.

Initial speed tests using browser-based tools yielded inconsistent results, but a dedicated speed test application showed speeds closer to the ISP's claimed rates, suggesting browser limitations.

The connection via the OPNsense router remained stable, with low ping times. The author plans to explore OPNsense's advanced features further and find better benchmarking methods.

AI-samenvatting op basis van de bron.