It is much, much easier than it used to be. The documentation and videos alone available make something like this a very welcoming learning experience that anyone can complete step by step by pausing a video and replaying it.

Like most things, really. I used to build routers from old PCs, but eventually those tiny appliances caught up with the performance/functionality I need.

You can do a lot of routing on a $70 Mikrotik, although they might not be "easy".

I really want to end up with one of these for at least a few months: https://mikrotik.com/product/rds2216

At $2k out the door that's way more reasonable than I thought it'd be.

Too bad I can't fill it with old spinning rust.

And no (mention of) ECC.

On printed page five of the brochure [0] it mentions

  Size of RAM   32 GB ECC
  RAM type      DDR4

On the one hand, it'd be nice if that was mentioned everywhere that the RAM size was mentioned. On the other hand, perhaps ECC RAM is effectively mandatory for Enterprise equipment, so mentioning it is redundant? IDK, I don't often purchase that sort of stuff.

[0] <https://cdn.mikrotik.com/web-assets/product_files/RDS2216-2X...>

It's because it's mandatory that it should be front and center on any list of specs. But better late than never, I guess. Thanks for digging it up.

> It's because it's mandatory that it should be front and center on any list of specs.

Eh... I could go either way on that. Spec sheets and marketing copy for these things don't include the phrase "Runs on electricity!" because that property is effectively mandatory. If ECC is effectively mandatory for enterprise-grade networking gear, I can totally see not mentioning it.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure it's -infuriatingly- not at all mandatory for SOHO/"prosumer" gear, so it's important to mention for things you're selling in those markets.

For sure, it's a path and passage towards devices like that.

Everyone has a starting point, starting with soemone has lying around is one thing.. the quicker they can get going the more they can get to leveraging the real power in most devices.

the naming is part of the confusion. consumer "routers" are really NAT gateway + DHCP server + DNS cache + WiFi AP + maybe a firewall, all in one box. separating them makes each piece clearer.

There's also a layer 2 switch connecting the pieces together.

You don't even need more than one NIC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_on_a_stick

Iirc classic WRT-841 and similar "300Mbit WiFi" generation 4-100Mbit-ports Wi-Fi routers had the CPU attached via an on-SoC gigabit link to a vlan capable switch that has the 4 100BASE-TX ports exposed.

Are there links I can read up on this? Ethernet as on-chip bus blows my mind.

I guess it's cheaper than having to redesign an entire SoC, but still...

These SoCs are often purpose built for networking. The CPU just connects to an internal switch chip instead of an external jack.

Mikrotik makes block diagrams of some of their Routerboards available. This is a hAP AC3, for example

https://i.mt.lv/cdn/product_files/RBD53iG-5HacD2HnD_201031.p...

It runs on a Qualcom IPQ4019 single-chip Wi-Fi system-on-chip (SoC)