Recently discovered OpenBSD and a lot of cool projects with it. One of
those are DIY network routers. Any chance you all might be able to
help a newcomer get started?
reddit / BSD

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[deleted] · 2021-03-06 19:01

[deleted]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
teksimian · 2021-03-06 19:16

I've been running a freebsd gateway / router for years on a PC engines
setup for years. very happy with it.

I will work to virtualize it next

----------------------------------------------------------------------
moosepile · 2021-03-06 19:50

My knowledge is dated but I learned-by-doing over OpenBSD’s 3.8 - 5.5
ish releases and would up with a hobby and a production network of
about 30 sites with additional connectivity to other vendor VPN
setups.

Learning PF and learning with a mind to the version you are using is
probably key to me. The internet is full of examples and other shit
but they don’t always hold up long as valid. I personally feel I was
better served with the man pages and an almost Reddit-esque habit of
trolling the mailing lists (Marc.info was my go to).

----------------------------------------------------------------------
7yearlurkernowposter · 2021-03-06 20:28

Be less interested in throughout and more interested in packet
processing. It’s rather easy to fill up a network connection with
today’s hardware but remember a runt packet takes the same amount of
time to process as a large one.
Many people doing this will just ask “what hardware can fill my
connection” and that doesn’t give you the full answer you need.
I know it’s not the build a pc route but also look into [octeon
devices](https://www.openbsd.org/octeon.html) some are quite well
supported and will use less power than most PC hardware. I’ve had one
running OpenBSD for ~4 years now though I do hope to go back to an x86
solution if the dark fiber near my house ever lights up.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
SaturnFive · 2021-03-07 04:40

PC Engines APUs are recommended frequently but they're a bit bigger
than a phone and also not dirt cheap. You could probably get away with
a Pi and a USB hub + USB ethernet and USB WiFi NICs if it's just a toy
project.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Lucretius_5102 · 2021-03-07 08:24

I recently put together an OpenBSD router with an HP T620 Plus thin
client and 4-port Ethernet card from eBay. I’m very happy with it. I
believe the newer T730 would work well too. If you go this route, make
sure you get a 90W power adapter. The 65W adapters frequently listed
are not compatible with the Plus model that has the all-important PCIe
slot.

Also, try to go with an Intel-based network card. The onboard chip for
the T620 Plus is Realtek but I have no problem with speed or CPU usage
attached to a 1Gbps WAN connection.

The official OpenBSD “FAQ” has a great tutorial for a basic router
under the pf firewall section, but I also recommend the pf-badhost and
unbound-adblock scripts, with associated helper programs.

For DNS server, I used “example 3” in this guide:

https://calomel.org/unbound_dns.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------
StephaneiAarhus · 2021-03-13 18:27

I wrote my installation on my blog.

https://www.22decembre.eu/2016/05/27/openbsd-router-en/