I have an old DELL Optiplex 7020, I5-4590, lying about, kept meaning to sell it.
I just put Linux on my setup and then hang an AP off it for AX WIFI. Previously though I used a QNAP 2600AC card to host as an AP internally but, there's a lack of AX/AXE cards to host an AP using hostapd. There are a couple of M2's though that might work that run about $70 but I haven't tried them personally at this point and just waiting out the clock on WIFI7 options at this point since it will open up the door to 320mhz bandwidth.
Code:
sudo inxi -F
System:
Host: server Kernel: 6.1.0-060100rc5-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Console: pty pts/19
Distro: Ubuntu 22.10 (Kinetic Kudu)
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: Z690 Steel Legend UEFI: American
Megatrends LLC. v: 10.04 date: 11/17/2022
CPU:
Info: 12-core (8-mt/4-st) model: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700K bits: 64 type: MST AMCP cache:
L2: 12 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1929 min/max: 800/4900:5000:3800 cores: 1: 800 2: 3600 3: 801 4: 3600
5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 3600 9: 759 10: 3600 11: 800 12: 876 13: 3600 14: 931 15: 801 16: 822
17: 3600 18: 3600 19: 800 20: 3600
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel AlderLake-S GT1 driver: i915 v: kernel
Display: unspecified server: X.org v: 1.21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.3 driver: X:
loaded: modesetting gpu: i915 tty: 172x54 resolution: 3840x2160
Message: GL data unavailable in console for root.
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.1.0-060100rc5-generic running: yes
Sound Server-2: PipeWire v: 0.3.58 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi
IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: 60:a5:e2:e8:20:f6
Device-2: Aquantia AQC111 NBase-T/IEEE 802.3bz Ethernet [AQtion] driver: atlantic
IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 24:5e:be:4d:c4:53
Device-3: Aquantia AQC111 NBase-T/IEEE 802.3bz Ethernet [AQtion] driver: atlantic
IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 2500 Mbps duplex: full mac: 24:5e:be:4d:c4:54
Device-4: Aquantia AQC111 NBase-T/IEEE 802.3bz Ethernet [AQtion] driver: atlantic
IF: enp8s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 06:7e:4e:62:3b:e3
Device-5: Aquantia AQC111 NBase-T/IEEE 802.3bz Ethernet [AQtion] driver: atlantic
IF: enp9s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 06:7e:4e:62:3b:e3
Device-6: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE driver: r8169
IF: enp10s0 state: down mac: a8:a1:59:7a:82:f0
IF-ID-1: bo0 state: up speed: 2000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 06:7e:4e:62:3b:e3
IF-ID-2: bonding_masters state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
IF-ID-3: br0 state: up speed: 2500 Mbps duplex: unknown mac: 5a:ea:69:a9:d9:fb
IF-ID-4: nordlynx state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel type: USB driver: btusb
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 state: up address: 60:A5:E2:E8:20:FA
RAID:
Device-1: md0 type: mdraid level: raid-10 status: active size: 18.19 TiB report: 5/5 UUUUU
Components: Online: 2: sdd1 3: sdb1 4: sdc1 5: sde1 6: sda1
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 31.0 C mobo: 35.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 642 fan-2: 772 fan-3: 0 fan-4: 661 fan-5: 0 fan-6: 0 fan-7: 654
Info:
Processes: 530 Uptime: 2d 21h 22m Memory: 15.39 GiB used: 4.27 GiB (27.8%) Init: systemd
target: graphical (5) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.21
You have a lot of options before depending on your skill level, willingness to learn, and amount of research you put into it.
Very true. The easiest option is to use a preformed ISO as you mentioned but, taking something like Ubuntu opens all of the options and doesn't have the hang ups of some of the options listed with BSD as the underlying OS. There's some issues with HW that will drive people crazy when trying to roll their own setup. Being Debian based makes life easier as there are more updates / compatibility across vendors.
Taking the raw components or reusing the Dell mentioned and putting the OS on it is a simple enough venture. There are tons of "homebrew" instructions out there for implementing the DHCP / NAT / FW / etc.
I find working with IPTables is much more efficient than dealing with UFW though. I just put a "script" into my terminal to save it to a network drive, edit it, and then apply it to iptables vs dealing with the CLI and flying blind until you refresh the output. I might be using a total of 15-20 lines of rules at this point after playing with other options / methods in the past. Keeping things lean makes the packets flow as fast as possible.
I run a lot of different functions on the box though which is why you see the 12700K. While it's idle most of the time it's a huge boost to processing video files from OTA grabs in Plex. For just a router/vpn deice though there's cheaper options like the PI setups. The dell though since you already have it would work great. Just upgrade the NIC to whatever speed requirements you have internally / externally. I use a quad 5GE from QNAP because the price / performance made more sense and my raid / NAS portion of the box tops out just under 500MB/s.
If the ISP device has multiple ports you can use bonding to tie 2 x 1GE ports to get beyond the 1gig limits. I did this with cable to get to 1.2-1.5gbps on the gig plan. I've since switched to 5G for 1/2 the price though but still keep 2 cables plugged into that device for redundancy.