Router reccomendations (good value for money)

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#3469518 12-Mar-2026 16:46

shrub:

neon:

OK, so that is interesting idea. I assume you are referring to this: https://a.aliexpress.com/_m0lhIfx

There are a whole bunch of similar mini pcs with pfsense on AliExpress for a lot cheaper too. How do this or the cheaper similar alternatives compare with something like the mirotik routers reccomended earlier?

Yes those are perfect. The N150 is 12th gen with a refresh so its got all the latest security etc but its DDR5. the J series are mostly DDR4 and much cheaper still 4 core and plenty enough for a router. Celeron id avoid 2 core and pull 15w power.

I bought a N100 the middle of last year with the intention of turning it into an OPNSense router, but before I got around to it, I started playing with Proxmox. And enjoyed fiddling with that so much that I haven't got around to turning it into a router, and I suspect I never will. It's a wonderful little beast, but can overheat and crash under heavy load, but I managed to fix this issue with an adjustable USB fan that is inaudible at its lowest setting, even right next to me on my desk.

I've decided a dedicated router might be a better idea, but can't decide between the Grandstream gwn7001 or the Mikrotik RB5009, but the Mikrotik seems to have quite the painful learning curve, especially as I have no desire to get into the weeds with learning advanced networking.

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tangerz

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#3469645 13-Mar-2026 11:56

Gurezaemon:

...I've decided a dedicated router might be a better idea, but can't decide between the Grandstream gwn7001 or the Mikrotik RB5009, but the Mikrotik seems to have quite the painful learning curve, especially as I have no desire to get into the weeds with learning advanced networking.

That's the thing. A big part of the decision about what to choose is "How in-depth am I prepared to go?"

bigreddog

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#3469650 13-Mar-2026 12:14

This ^, and determining the consequences to a stable home environment (and I don't mean technology wise) made me go with the Grandstream over learning the Mikrotik

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neon

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#3469651 13-Mar-2026 12:15

tangerz:

Gurezaemon:

...I've decided a dedicated router might be a better idea, but can't decide between the Grandstream gwn7001 or the Mikrotik RB5009, but the Mikrotik seems to have quite the painful learning curve, especially as I have no desire to get into the weeds with learning advanced networking.

That's the thing. A big part of the decision about what to choose is "How in-depth am I prepared to go?"

Haha, yeah, ive been debating about this a bit. On one hand, its nice to have things like deco units you just plug in and just works (and does about 80% of the things - quite conveniently actually), or on the other hand i can get 100% of the things but i need to spend the time (and study) to set things up, things can fail, i need to figure out manual software upgrades, things could get unreliable if you dont know what you are doing (quite a time sink) - ive gone down this route many times before (thus my proxmox cluster haha). This kind of time sink was nice when i was at uni with quite a lot of time on my hands - but now i just want things to work, reliably, without sinking all my precious free time debugging/maintaining haha.

I ended up ordering Grandstream gwn7001 as it was fairly inexpensive. Ill keep an eye on for some secondhand grandstream access points and switches. I think this is a good middle ground for now.

lxsw20

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#3469676 13-Mar-2026 13:23

As much as Unifi is no longer the "new hotness" the Cloud Gateway Ultra is worth a look too. Unifi and Grandstream certainly have an easier entry path in terms of setup and config that Mikrotik.

Chills

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#3469845 13-Mar-2026 19:36

If it’s not been suggested yet. Grandstream GWN7003 (Wired Router) has 2x 2.5Gb SFP (no plus) cages and packs a good amount of punch for ~ or - $200.

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#3471155 17-Mar-2026 16:02

At the latest with SSL/TLS DPI, the fun is over for current ARM thingies.

- NET: FTTH & VDSL, OPNsense, 10G backbone, GWN APs
- SRV: 12 RU HA server cluster, 0.1 PB storage on premise
- IoT: thread, zigbee, tasmota, BidCoS, LoRa, WX suite, IR
- 3D: two 3D printers, 3D scanner, CNC router, laser cutter

neon

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#3473453 25-Mar-2026 11:41

Hey all, im building up this grandstream network, and a bit stuck on what other devices i need.

So far, i have a GWN7001 router. and few GWN7660 access points.

Im currently looking for a POE switch to power the access points, and need help deciding what is a cost effective switch that would still achieve what i need. For context, i have a lot of simple unmanaged switches i can use, but i do not have any with POE.

I want to be able to put some devices in a different network (wired, and wireless), like the IOT devices etc. they need to be discoverable within this network, but not have access to other "primary" network. ideally have its own wifi SSID. I assume this is what VLANs are? What do i need to do to be able to have a specific wifi SSID for this VLAN as opposed to the primary network wifi, or guest wifi etc?
I want to be able to have some devices accisible on both primary network as well as IOT network (VLAN). Is this even possible? Eg: if i have a locally run adguard server or something, i want all devices reguardless of the VLAN to be able to access/use that.

So the main question is, what sort of switch do i need to get - does it even matter? There are a whole bunch of other brand (Cisco/Dell/Mikrotik etc) POE switches i can buy secondhand for cheap. Managed ones as well as unmanaged. I can also buy grandstream POE managed or unmanaged, but they tend to be more expensive. Is there a significant benefit for my usecase with using grandstream switch vs another brand - what about managed vs unmanaged?

Any insights are appreciated :)

tangerz

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#3473456 25-Mar-2026 11:54

neon:

Hey all, im building up this grandstream network, and a bit stuck on what other devices i need.

So far, i have a GWN7001 router. and few GWN7660 access points.

Im currently looking for a POE switch to power the access points, and need help deciding what is a cost effective switch that would still achieve what i need. For context, i have a lot of simple unmanaged switches i can use, but i do not have any with POE.

I want to be able to put some devices in a different network (wired, and wireless), like the IOT devices etc. they need to be discoverable within this network, but not have access to other "primary" network. ideally have its own wifi SSID. I assume this is what VLANs are? What do i need to do to be able to have a specific wifi SSID for this VLAN as opposed to the primary network wifi, or guest wifi etc?
I want to be able to have some devices accisible on both primary network as well as IOT network (VLAN). Is this even possible? Eg: if i have a locally run adguard server or something, i want all devices reguardless of the VLAN to be able to access/use that.

So the main question is, what sort of switch do i need to get - does it even matter? There are a whole bunch of other brand (Cisco/Dell/Mikrotik etc) POE switches i can buy secondhand for cheap. Managed ones as well as unmanaged. I can also buy grandstream POE managed or unmanaged, but they tend to be more expensive. Is there a significant benefit for my usecase with using grandstream switch vs another brand - what about managed vs unmanaged?

Any insights are appreciated :)

See the post I just made in your other thread about PoE injectors...

The benefit of staying within the one ecosystem, in your case Grandstream, is the ability to mange all devices from a single management interface. You could get a separate brand switch, (Cisco etc), but would need to manage that from it's own interface.

The use cases above are all possible, but requires managed switches, (VLAN capable), which can be made to work as you describe above.

openmedia

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#3473577 25-Mar-2026 13:32

There could be a lot of cheap TPLink ones in the near future

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/24/fcc_foreign_routers/

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

neon

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#3473634 25-Mar-2026 15:54

tangerz:

See the post I just made in your other thread about PoE injectors...

The benefit of staying within the one ecosystem, in your case Grandstream, is the ability to mange all devices from a single management interface. You could get a separate brand switch, (Cisco etc), but would need to manage that from it's own interface.

The use cases above are all possible, but requires managed switches, (VLAN capable), which can be made to work as you describe above.

Thank you for that reassurance.

The part im a bit confused is, would i be creating the VLANs on the router, or the switch? And if i create lets say two or 3 VLANs on the router (GWN7001), can the access points (GWN7660) connected to the router indirectly (there maybe couple of switches in between the router and the access points that maybe of other brands) then able to direct some wifi devices to different VLANs? can the access point create multiple wifi SSIDs that send clients to different VLANs defined in the router?

I assume the only real benefit of having a managed switch is so that you can essentially send different physical ports to different VLANs (or implement some other restrictions etc). But if the original VLANs are defined on the grandstream router, and its connected to another brand (lets say cisco) managed switch, can the other brand switch now route individual ports to different VLANs from the original grandstream router?

openmedia:

There could be a lot of cheap TPLink ones in the near future

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/24/fcc_foreign_routers/

I would assume that this would be in US right? so maybe ebay. But that also maybe a bad thing since if TPLink gets banned in US, then they may likely have trouble supporting old devices =/

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#3473636 25-Mar-2026 16:03

802.1q https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.1Q

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

tangerz

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#3473640 25-Mar-2026 16:13

neon:

Thank you for that reassurance.

The part im a bit confused is, would i be creating the VLANs on the router, or the switch? And if i create lets say two or 3 VLANs on the router (GWN7001), can the access points (GWN7660) connected to the router indirectly (there maybe couple of switches in between the router and the access points that maybe of other brands) then able to direct some wifi devices to different VLANs? can the access point create multiple wifi SSIDs that send clients to different VLANs defined in the router?

I assume the only real benefit of having a managed switch is so that you can essentially send different physical ports to different VLANs (or implement some other restrictions etc). But if the original VLANs are defined on the grandstream router, and its connected to another brand (lets say cisco) managed switch, can the other brand switch now route individual ports to different VLANs from the original grandstream router?

For VLANs to work, managed switches are required. Different brands can work together no problem.

There's a great video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JszGeQPTo4w

Earbanean

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#3473653 25-Mar-2026 16:35

tangerz:

For VLANs to work, managed switches are required. Different brands can work together no problem.

There's a great video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JszGeQPTo4w

Not necessarily. If VLAN tagging based on Wifi SSID were all that the OP needs, then a managed switch is not required. However, if wired devices need to be tagged, then yes you need a managed switch.

tangerz

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#3473656 25-Mar-2026 16:44

Earbanean:

tangerz:

For VLANs to work, managed switches are required. Different brands can work together no problem.

There's a great video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JszGeQPTo4w

Not necessarily. If VLAN tagging based on Wifi SSID were all that the OP needs, then a managed switch is not required. However, if wired devices need to be tagged, then yes you need a managed switch.

My response is based on the use case the OP is asking about, which is a network including switches...

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