The package selection on OpenWrt is an appealing factor, but I can also run any of those on a standalone server or RPi.
I feel like a router is best served by a purpose-built OS, that is heavily focused on that task, and restricts the execution of arbitrary software, for obvious reasons. I suppose one could single-handedly customize a general purpose distro for that task, but I'd rather trust a group of dedicated and more talented hackers to do this for me.
That, and I'd rather not manage nftables rules directly. :) Though it would be a great learning experience, so I'll think about it.
well, in this case, unless something changed recently this is definitely not openwrt
(care to elaborate?)
I like that with openwrt, you can configure whatever you want. As I got more comfortable with it, I would just build it myself.
It's pretty easy:
git clone https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt
cd openwrt
./scripts/feeds update -a
./scripts/feeds install -a
make menuconfig
make -j$(nproc)
my initial builds were sort of experimental, but it was kind of fun and eventually I learned to customize exactly what I wanted. For example I would use ipv4 only and strictly control the ip addresses of all my machines. (current openwrt doesn't allow it, you have to turn off ipv6 using sysctl). I set up privoxy and some machines do updates through the proxy which whitelists what they can get to. I use vlans, and it keeps traffic segregated well. I configure out wifi/bluetooth from some machines that don't or shouldn't use them.
make menuconfig
make -j kernel_menuconfig
make -j $(($(nproc)+1))
I had no idea about RouterOS connecting to strange IPs, I'll look into that. Can you link to some research that confirms this, why it's done, and how it can be disabled?
I do like how configurable OpenWrt is, and didn't know it was that easy to make a custom build. I'll probably give that a try the next time I have to set it up. Thanks again.
I recently upgraded to a CRS326-24S+2Q+RM, and the experience with RouterOS feels much better compared to OpenWrt. Winbox is super polished, everything is well laid out, and it makes even advanced configuration very easy.
I do run OpenWrt on a few APs, and it works fine for that simple use case, but for anything more advanced, I prefer RouterOS. Sure, it's not open source, and not as extensible to allow you to run a bunch of services on it, but those can run on any other server just as well.