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What Router Do You Use (upd 2023)?

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mapleLC:
I was searching the forum for router recommendations, and came across this old thread.  I think it deserves an update.  I have retired my Ubiquiti

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/what-router-do-you-use/msg560648/

My requirement is as robust a router as possible.  No wifi.  PoE is a good to have, as well as link aggregation, and optical/spf.  I am a fan of few years old enterprise stuff, so that's an option for me if anyone knows of good ones.

Otherwise, what router recommendations are out there now?

bateau020:
What type of routing do you need and what is the throughput and latency that you need? And do you need firewalling as well?

If you want to keep cost down and do not need ultra high speed and ultra low latency L3 routing between VLANs or LAN-WAN, I suggest you take a managed switch for the L2 stuff, and use a software L3 router (+firewall) in a VM. Vyatta, pfSense, whatever. In homelab situations (what you seem to be after), firewalling and VLAN routing requirements often mix. Capable L3 routers are very expensive, and often do not do exactly what you want. Apart from being loud and power hungry. Had a couple of brocade ICX switches for a while. My ears!

My homelab is based on a Cisco 350X series stack as backbone, mikrotik distribution switches, and pfSense as FW/L3 Router in a ESXi cluster (on Xeon D). 7 VLANs, 2 WAN links. pfSense takes care of the L3 routing, inter-VLAN firewalling, LAN-WAN firewalling, and WAN failover coordinator. LAN is all 10Gbps of course, on 1Gbps WAN links. Rock solid install, operational in this form since more than 7 years now. But I am thinking about upgrading, since the machinery starts to age, and it's been a couple of years since consumer grade ISPs here in France can provide 8+Gbps home links for low prices (that means: 50 EUR/month, and of course, unlimited traffic).
What material I'd take for the upgrade? No fundamental changes: Supermicro for the servers (Xeon D, and maybe some ARM), Mikrotik has not disappointed me (as long as you stick to L2), but Cisco I'd need to look. I'd want at least 25 or 40 Gpbs trunk links between my 2 racks, and Cisco is a bit expensive there.
By the way, please avoid Qnap. Nothing but hardware and software problems with that.

nfmax:
I use a FireBrick FB2900 ‘network contraption’ https://www.firebrick.co.uk/fb2900/ as a router, firewall, and VPN termination. Very capable, quiet and low power, but not cheap. I use the SFP port to link to managed switches for VLANs, and a Zyxel wireless access point. Very well supported, automatic and free software updates, 5 years guarantee on the hardware. No regrets so far

bingo600:

--- Quote from: bateau020 on January 29, 2023, 07:45:50 am ---I'd want at least 25 or 40 Gpbs trunk links between my 2 racks, and Cisco is a bit expensive there.

--- End quote ---

At work they bought fs switches , for a new standalone test setup - 40Gb
https://www.fs.com/de-en

They say the switches & SFP's are working well ...

bateau020:

--- Quote from: bingo600 on January 29, 2023, 08:18:13 am ---At work they bought fs switches , for a new standalone test setup - 40Gb
..
They say the switches & SFP's are working well ...

--- End quote ---

Although their SFPs are OK, I've had problems with their PoE switches. Mixed bag...

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