[ale] Microtik vs Ubiquiti vs DIY router...go

[Alex Carver]

On 2019-05-02 08:49, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Originally I used an old Linux box as my router.  It had great flexibility
> but the UI sucked.  And it ate power like there was no tomorrow.
> 
> Then I switched to a netgear running dd-wrt.  That was better and worked
> for a long while.  But then that broke (my guess is that it was a victim
> of the ~2000 bad-cap incident).
> 
> Next I went with a Mikrotik RB750.  The UI is nice, but there is one
> feature it has failed to support (IPv6 source-based routing).  I could
> live with that shortcoming, but then I changing my network to AT&T Gigabit
> fiber and the microtik could no longer keep up.
> 
> So I swapped to a Ubiquiti Edgerouter Pro.  This can definitely keep up
> with the gigabit network, and has been serving me well.  It, too, falls to
> the no IPv6 source based routing issue, but apparently this is being fixed
> in current firmware (I have not updated it, yet).
> 
> My network also leverages an ER-X as a bridge/switch with MAC-based
> forwarding to route around an AT&T NAT table limit.  This also runs at gig
> speed, but it's not doing anything other than the MAC NAT.
> 
> The rest of my network, once I deploy it, is going to be Unifi hardware,
> including at least 2 switches and a bunch of APs (probably AC-NanoHD).
> 
> Would I go back to Linux as a router?  Maybe.  But it's nice having a 1U
> box in my rack with a nice web-ui and the line performance I require. 
> Also, it's less expensive, IMHO.  Of course YMMV.
> 
> -derek

I was considering one of those or possibly a bit lower at the ER-4 or
ER-8.  I don't even have 100 Mbit at home (I'm stuck at 25Mb down/3 Mb
up) so I don't even max out the current Raspberry Pi gateway.  However,
hanging more USB adapters isn't really a scalable option which is why
I'm looking upwards towards the Microtik, Ubiquiti or rolling something
with a bigger machine like the one Raj pointed out.

The sticky points for me are being able to write big blocklists into
them (I currently have ipset on the router for a variety of filtering
tasks) and failover since I want to later add a LTE gateway device to
provide backup service for critical functions.