Hey all,

I'm looking into replacing my Verizon Fios router with one I can manage (configure DNS black hole, possibly setup a VPN connection, etc. etc.), but I'm hitting an overwhelming number of options, so I'm wondering what everyone else is doing. I'm basically looking for something which lets me access the underlying OS so I can easily fix(/break) things, and weighing the pros/cons of also having it do some file sharing stuff (Samba/NFS) or using it for hosting toy projects to show friends, with at least GbE speeds.

In terms of hardware, I've seen ClearFog Pro https://www.solid-run.com/marvell-armada-family/clearfog/ and it's big brother, ClearFog GT 8k https://shop.solid-run.com/product/SRM8040S64D04GE008V12GE/, both of which support running Linux (and then I could use things like iptables and dns-masq or whatever), but the review seem to be underwhelming. There is also pi-hole, which runs on Raspberry Pi hardware (and likely anything else), but I think that just does DNS, so I'd have to configure the routing on top of that; the problem there is that there is only 1 ethernet port on the Raspberry Pi, and a managed switch sounds a bit over the top for my setup (plus, noise).

The other option I see is a small tower with 2 ethernet ports, probably a standard x86 box, and a standard switch. One pro to that is I might be able to get 10GbE, which I feel like will matter within the next 5 years (my FioS connection is already 1GbE), the con is needing two separate devices.

In either case, I'd need a wireless AP, which is something I know next to nothing about. I think I want something supporting 802.11ac?

Thanks in advance for the suggestions! I'm relatively new to this list, coming from the Philly Linux User Group, so I don't know if there are different expectations :).

Charles