this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
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What's stopping me from building my own router?
You don't need to build your own router. All you need to do is flash open source firmware like OpenWRT on a supported router to prevent it from spying on you.
Nothing. Get a mini pc with 2 or more ethernet ports and install openwrt or opnsense or maybe others I haven't tried, get a standalone wifi AP so if you ever want to upgrade anything you can do it separately, get a network switch to connect additional wired computers or wifi APs.
Then get in all the homelab groups and find the coolest stuff you also want and start making the home network made by you and for you.
If you already have a wifi router that can be flashed with custom firmware you can also use that to start out and use it as a wifi access point for a more powerful pc router later
Knowing how.
All routers are just Linux computers managing slightly better than average network cards. (Home routers, obviously. Beefy carrier hardware is different).
A basic setup is essentially installing Linux and then running a handful of commands for packet forwarding. The figuring out how to do it without wifi crashing will take longer because that software is wonky.