Hello,

I am thinking of building a device for home use, but foremost: for the fun of building a "system"

I currently have a CATV internet connection with 50/5 Mbps, upgradable up to 80/5. My current DualWAN SOHO router is a bottleneck as it cannot route more than cca. 25 Mbps from WAN to LAN, and on WiFi it never goes above 11 Mbps... I am sure residential fibre will also arrive at my place sooner or later, so I want to build something that can handle 100-120 Mbps+ at least when those speeds become available. Also, I have a couple of backup links: ADSL with PPPoE, some HSxPA modems/routers. I also have a neighbour who gets his internet from me on 100 Mbps Ethernet.

So I need a box with at least 3 WAN ports, a few LAN switch ports (switch), 100-150+ Mbps throughput from WAN->LAN using NAT, a G or N WLAN AP with good bandwidth. If there is a possibility for USB (for 3G modems, printers, storage) that would be great, but I can live without that. My current router also has inbuilt VoIP ATA, so it would be a nice extra to have that option on the new router, maybe a light Asterisk, but that again is an extra.

I want to have failover from CATV to DSL, and if that also fails, to 3G, or load balance between DSL and 3G... Also, I want to be able to manage QoS and bandwidth my neighbour can use on the various interfaces.

What RouterBoard do you recommend for me? Also, What else do I need beside the motherboard? Ie. cards, cables, power supply, case, CF card?
I was thinking about the 493AH, but I am not sure.

You should take a Look at the RB 433UAH - it should do most of the stuff you want (except VoIP ATA):
* FastEthernet (might hurt lateron if you get Fiber with > 100 Mbit)
* USB (for HSxPA, not for Printing)
* Wireless

The 433UAH can work with all your WAN Links (Cable, PPPoE over DSL and HSxPA USB Stick), but is limited to only 3 LAN Ports and FastEthernet.
You also need a Case, Power Supply, a wireless card and an antenna (or two, if you use Wireless-N). All of that stuff can be bought where you get the Board from.

Dear hedele,

Thanks for the hint. I still have not chosen a routerboard, I am currently hesitating over 3 models: 433UAH, 493AH and 600. All of these have features I like (USB / 9 ports / gigabit) , it would be great to see them built in one

Browsing this forum I found people complaining about:

- RB493AH having a low throughput if the ports are used as switch
- RB600 being noisy

What I see is that ISPs are increasing their residential bandwidth, and although at the place where I live 80 Mbps is the maximum, there already are places with 120 Mbps, and fibre coverage has just started to grow. So a router with GE ports would be forward thinking. But I am afraid of the noise of fans as I have to sleep close to the router. Also, then I will need to buy a separate switch. Or two. As it has no USB, I need a separate router for 3G (I have two capable units, but why use more power than necessary?)

As for the 493AH, I like that it has 9 Ethernet port, which would spare me the cost of a switch. But if throughput is really as low as people complain, it is of no use. Also, I need to run the 3G connection using a separate router.

The 433UAH has the advantage of the USB-port for 3G, but then again I need a switch, and still have no gigabit...

At this very moment I am inclined to choose the RB600. But is it not too loud to sleep close to it?

RB600 doesn't have a Fan or any other moving parts, I don't get it - how can it be noisy ? Maybe the other posters meant wireless transmission noise ?

Not sure if he meant noise on the link, but possibly I just misunderstood what he posted:-)

Anyway, does the RB600 require fans to be installed? I see that the brochure mentions fan control. Is it possible to run it without any cooling when run at normal room temperatures?

normally RB600 are shipped with no fans, and there is no specific need for a fan. It comes with heatsinks. Fans can be connected if you have the device on a pole in a desert for example

So yesterday I bought an RB600A + R52N, case, antennas, powersupply and got the unit assembled. The most difficult thing was finding a suitable RS232 cable
I now have ether2 as a WAN-port with DHCP-client, ether1 as LAN with DHCP server, and NAT between the two ports.

I have upgraded the OS to 4.x, and the wlan1 interface has now appeared, and I already see the SSID broadcast. But I am a bit stuck with setting up the wlan1 to act as a simple home AP. I have tried bridging wlan1 with ether1 (the LAN port) but I seem unable to achieve any real result. Can anyone point me to a good step-by-step manual on how to setup a plain simple wireless AP with a DHCP server it shares in common with ether1?

UPDATE: I do not know what I did, but the AP started to work

It is slow though... Interestingly, while I get the full 50/5 Mbps on wired link, I only get about 15 / 3 on WLAN... So it requires some more experimentation I think.