Ditching the converged home network

I've had it with consumer grade home networking gear. In the past year, I have burned through 3 wifi routers from different vendors. The latest a $250 Nighthawk X6. Yes, I realize that the 50+ systems I have on my network is abnormal, but the problems continuously arise from the 2.4Ghz wireless radios being un-reliable, not the router CPU (OK, at least not the CPU on the Nighthawk x6). This is a danger of having the devices converged together, one component failing makes the whole device unusable.

In this latest batch of issues, I got sick and tired of it. Either I find a router that has the ability to handle the devices, but not the complex networking topology I need to support or one that does everything I need with a price tag north of $500. This time, things are different. I ordered a mini-system and loaded pfsense on it. Router/firewall that can handle complex network configurations: Check. This configuration can handle all the internet bandwidth that Cox allows me to throw at it. I haven't benchmarked it yet, but I believe firmly that it will handle a full gigabit of traffic. I'll update this when I do benchmark it.

Wait, you may say, what about the wireless? For this, I ordered a Ubiquiti AC Pro. This is the hardware I have been recommending for several years to small businesses due to quality and ease of use. This provides better wireless coverage than any consumer router I have yet put my hands on, and honestly, for geeks like me, it provides all the control I could ever want for my home network.

My all in cost is under $400 and my network is stable and provides the high performance I demand. Should the wifi go south, I can replace that component, should the router go south, it is again, a component replacement. Most importantly, the calls when I am traveling from the wife and kids about the network being down have come to an end.