Best software/distro for rolling own 'net router

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Currently have a 4-5 year old D-Link DIR-655 n-class MIMO unit. It's getting old, suffering from several reboots per day, many are seeing this issue as these routers get a bit older.

After reviewing most units on NewEgg, I've come to the conclusion one must spend decent coin to get a router to handle lots of traffic. Not now, don't have the $$ to spend.

So, I'll roll my own with hardware I have. Currently, have 25Mb/sec cable modem and 2 options for a the attached firewall device/PC:

Hardware:
-Intel Dual-core Atom M/B CPU combo with 2GB RAM, onboard LAN
-USB Stick or hard drive (prefer USB stick if using Linux)
-300mb/s Rosewill WLAN PCI wireless network adapter
or
Windows 7 PC already setup (my AMD-based unit) and just need some robust firewall software to run on it.

My only requirement would that uPNP can work seamlessly like it currently does with the D-Link router. "Stream To Me" is a great app that works thru the firewall via uPNP, allowing one to stream music & vids to Apple iOS devices, even in non-native format, so I can listen to my FLAC files w/o the need convert, copy, etc. VERY nifty.

What linux distro is good/easy/reliable that might run on a USB stick?
or
What Windows software is easy to use and reliable for this task? (do I even want a front-facing Windows system directly attached to the cable modem??)

 

[2004tdigls]

a steal at this price, used to be over $100, and lifetime warranty

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3969353&CatId=2668

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
After reviewing most units on NewEgg, I've come to the conclusion one must spend decent coin to get a router to handle lots of traffic. Not now, don't have the $$ to spend.

Define "lots of traffic".

I've heard good things about ASUS RT-N16. It has fairly decent specs for a home router. 533 MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM - claims to support up to 300,000 sessions for P2P, although it's probably much less in reality. Allows you to run 3rd party firmare such at Tomato. About $85 after rebates.

 

[OVERKILL]

PFsense.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
PFsense.


+1 on pfsense.

you of course have 2 nic's ?

if not snag genuine intel ones they seem to work better.

 

[Rand]

Originally Posted By: 2004tdigls
a steal at this price, used to be over $100, and lifetime warranty

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3969353&CatId=2668


I got that one for 32$ I think the 100$+ one was the wnr 3700

in any event the OP was asking about software to turn a computer into a router.

 

[PandaBear]

Unless you have some special routing that you want to do at home for security and bandwidth limiting reason, I don't think you will need to roll your own wireless router and it may not be the best solution.

What you might want to do is to replace your defective router (or at least try another one to conclude that yours is defective or not), and identify what is the reason for the massive amount of connections (i.e. a particular machine or a particular type of connection), then maybe split out that workload into a different router or setup limits (i.e. using the QoS setting on Tomato or DDWRT).

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Guys, thanks for all the answers. I threw my hands up and went with the WNR3700 Netgear unit yesterday.

Speedtest.net has some surprising results as wireless connections on the old DIR-655 would rarely ever peak higher than 13Mb/sec. (Wired would hit 25-30Mb/sec.) On this new Netgear unit, wired or wireless is seeing 35-45Mb/sec at speedtest.net. NICE!

Range seems about the same.

WPS can easily be turned off, which is good in light of the recently-found WPS exploit:
http://www.esecurityplanet.com/wireless-...nterprises.html

 

[Rand]

I never use that. I dont know a single person who does.

I thought most of the time you had to press the button to activate it also... but again never using it..



still a very interesting exploit. thanks for posting the link.

 

[OVERKILL]

Yes, WPS seemed to be a solution to a problem nobody had. And an answer to a question nobody asked.