[Bradford] Which Router

[Mike]

Thanks for the contributions folks. I was somewhat remiss in not giving 
fuller details to start with, leaving you all to guess. Normally I would 
have put pfsense onto an old box and used my old Draytek modem-only for 
the bb connection.

The workshop mains are shared with the householder who is letting me use 
his premises, although everything else is self-contained with own 
entrance etc. There is no separate meter so no way of measuring, hence 
no way of knowing, how much fuel my part is using, just a promise to 
keep it as minimal as possible.

The need is to run a PC, a VoIP phone and the workaday laptop will be in 
and out frequently (mainly used on site, client visits, etc). The PC 
will be switched off when not in use. I'm not sure how wise it is to do 
that with a modem or router.

The Asterisk server is from a third party supplier hosted elsewhere, the 
accounting software, LedgerSMB is hosted on a "droplet" with Digital 
Ocean. That leaves nothing very demanding for the router to cope with 
beyond uploading some presentations (before and after visuals) by email 
to clients and handling calls.

Past experience makes me chary of installing anything over, for 
instance, a BT router for reasons some of you have mentioned. I do like 
Draytek kit but it is pricey for the needs as stated. It would leave 
lots of ability lying idle.

List subscriber Duncan Hughes has pointed to Mikrotik, which looks very 
good and is reasonably priced (thank you Duncan). The software can be 
downloaded and tested on a spare box too, 
http://www.mikrotik.com/download in case some of you may like to take a 
look. No modem in there, though.

Perhaps one of the smaller Mikrotik boxes with the Draytek modem, 
perhaps a new Draytek modem/router, as the best looking of the options 
available so far.

Thanks guys.

Mike

On 23/12/14 23:45, Laurence Horrocks-Barlow wrote:
> My two pence for a workshop/office would be either pfsense on an old pc
> / embedded board or a draytek router.
>
> I use pfsense at home, a virtual pfsense instance on a server in a DC
> and a Draytek at my remote office, all with ipsec configured and all
> have been running solid for years.
>
> -- Lauz
>
> On 23 December 2014 22:08:53 GMT+00:00, Darren Menachem Drapkin
> <darren.drapkin at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>     For the meagre use I give it,( a PC plugged in and the occasional laptop
>     by wireless) the virgin superhub performs quite well.
>
>     On Tuesday 23 Dec 2014 19:06:54 Robert Burrell Donkin wrote:
>
>         Yeh - a few years, the routers handed out were rubbish, which is
>         why I
>         was surprised by the good kit now often dished out
>
>         Robert
>
>
>     <big snip>
>
>
> --
> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>
>
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