[SOLVED] Router Distro for public IP routing

[MadMage999]

I have used several router distros over the years, but most of them are designed for simple home router/firewall using NAT.

Now I have a block of public IPs and am beginning to hook people up as WISP customers, my needs have changed.

Can anyone share experiences or recommendations for router distros that work well for routing public IPs?

[GreyGeek]

https://startyourownisp.com/posts/hardware-platform/

[MadMage999]

https://startyourownisp.com/posts/hardware-platform/

Thanks again, GreyGeek. Well I actually had this site bookmarked already. I am planning to buy an ubiquiti router soon, and that's fine, they're inexpensive and I THINK it will do what I need it to, hahaha.

I was hoping there was a linux distro that could do what I need but all I kept coming across in my search was BSD distros that refuse to boot from optical or USB media. Nice work BSD guys! </sarcasm>

[GreyGeek]

What do you anticipate as your maximum range? 3 to 5 miles?

[MadMage999]

What do you anticipate as your maximum range? 3 to 5 miles?

Well I plan to do some testing myself with a laptop and a point to point link just to see for myself what the experience out in the field is like, but until I finish those surveys there are some really nice tools from ubiquiti that generate coverage maps based on the hardware specs, topographical data and related math.

One such tool is here: https://link.ubnt.com/#ap.device.ant...&version=1.0.2.

As you might be able to see from the map I linked the terrain and relatively low height of the access points means I am aiming for my local neighborhood to start with. Maybe a mile or two until I can afford to build a tower and raise the access points higher. I'd really rather start small and experiment with a lot of stuff BEFORE I sign up any paying customers and even when I start in earnest I'd prefer to keep the density of each cell in the network relatively low, so I'm not shooting for a really long range so much as a mesh of lower range cells meshed together or backhauled to a nearby fiber connection.

[GreyGeek]

That map is a neat tool!
Good luck on your endeavor!

[MadMage999]

That map is a neat tool!
Good luck on your endeavor!

Thank you most graciously.

I think I can use a standard linux distro with some tools like https://www.quagga.net/ and standard subnet addressing schemes with perhaps a little VLAN magic if really necessary and make it work.

[GreyGeek]

Quagga looks good!
You seem to be going about it in a level headed manner, not jumping into the deep end of the pool until you get things straightened out.

[MadMage999]

Quagga looks good!
You seem to be going about it in a level headed manner, not jumping into the deep end of the pool until you get things straightened out.

Thanks for the compliment! I also joined network engineering stack exchange because I realize a lot of this is off topic for KFN. I just like this community. :-)

[GreyGeek]

Yup. The older and more forgetful I get the less useful I am around here but, like you, I like the company!

[Qqmike]

@MadMage999 & GreyGeek: I think you're both useful and you both should stick around!

[MadMage999]

@MadMage999 & GreyGeek: I think you're both useful and you both should stick around!

Well alright. That's probably the nicest thing anyone has said to me this week at least. :-)

As an update to this thread I think I nailed down the subject of the OP, namely a router distro for public IP routing:

Routing is so native to Linux (it's built into the kernel for crying out loud) that it's kind of pointless to look for a "router distro" so I've decided to drop my GUI requirement and do one of two things:

1. Use a normal router distro and manually adjust the routing tables for public IP routing (no NAT). This is fairly easy now that I've understood it, and I wrote a new entry into my blog so that I can refer to it as needed.

2. Skip the router distro, use any linux distro whatsoever (Kubuntu for the win!) and just setup routing manually (see above blog reference)

3. Use VyOS. Which is a distro specifically built for enterpise/carrier grade routing, albeit with no webgui, but once I understood what needed to be done on the CLI it was dead simple.