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I'm in the market for a new network appliance router that either has the following features, or can be modded to have the following features:

  • Dual Stack (ipv4, ipv6)
  • On-Board Configurable DNS Server
  • Wireless
  • ...and VPN Support

Do they make such a router?

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...or do you have to build it? (it's for a home network). – leeand00 Mar 3 '11 at 23:19
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They do exist, just not on the budget of your typical home network router. Once the device exceeds the cost of a spare PC running a hand-tuned Linux, that hand-tuned Linux starts looking mighty attractive. – SysAdmin1138 Mar 3 '11 at 23:22
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Not really, the wording is fine; it asks if there exists a router with the specified features. There is a definitive answer, either yes (and make/model given), or no, no such router currently exists. – Synetech Mar 4 '11 at 3:27
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@SysAdmin1138, I think you are forgetting to factor in the cost of electricity to run that Linux box; it ain’t cheap and not everybody lives in an apartment where electric is included. – Synetech Mar 4 '11 at 3:28
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@Syntech I agree this isn't a question of "which should I buy" it's a question of "what options do I have" given the criteria. Can four people please re-open my question? – leeand00 Mar 4 '11 at 12:29
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migrated from serverfault.com Mar 3 '11 at 23:24

This question came from our site for system administrators and desktop support professionals.

closed as off topic by ChrisF, Shinrai, BloodPhilia, Moab, DMA57361♦ Mar 4 '11 at 9:13

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2 Answers

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Most of the routers that can be re-flashed to DD-WRT or OpenWRT should meet your requirements. This may void your warranty. Something with 8MB or more flash, and 32MB more memory should work well. Currently Atheros Wifi cards are best supported.

At least one manufacturer is distributing DD-WRT firmware and is open to re-flashing with alternative software. See the OpenWRT Table of Hardware for options. I run an ASUS WL-500G Premium providing DNS, DHCP, IPv6, and firewalls for both IPv4 and IPv6.

  • DHCP and DNS are provided by DNSMasq.
  • IPv6 is provided by a 6to4 tunnel to Hurricane Electric
  • radvd is installed for IPv6 auto-configuration.
  • Firewalls are implemented using shorewall-lite and shorewall6-lite.
  • I have OpenVPN installed, but not configured.

Comcast appears to be one of the few North American IPSs that is working on IPv6. They have been working with the OpenWRT to release code for a dual stack home router. They have been testing implementation and deployment IPv6 using 6RD tunnels. This helps bypass problems with cable modems that don't yet or can not support dual stacks.

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DNSMasq? Hmm, I was using bind9 on a Linux box, but I understand DNSMasq is easier to configure. – leeand00 Mar 4 '11 at 12:34
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@leeand00 DNSMasq is the default server. Bind versios 9.6.1 is available in the installable packages. There are a lot of packages available although for many of them I would want more flash and memory than I have. I counted 4772 lines in the package list. – BillThor Mar 4 '11 at 20:29
Thanks Bill, I think I'm gonna go the invalidate my warranty route. I just ordered one of these babies: wiki.openwrt.org/toh/buffalo/wzr-hp-g300h – leeand00 Mar 13 '11 at 18:57
@leeand00: That's one of the ones I have been looking at for a future replacement. – BillThor Mar 13 '11 at 22:54
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up vote 1 down vote

Currently the home LAN router industry seems to be completely ignoring IPv6, which is very disappointing.

The following web page seems to be keeping tabs on this:

  Routers - SixXS Wiki
  http://www.sixxs.net/wiki/Routers

Fortunately, there are some LinkSys and other home LAN routers that can take a customized firmware and there are some open source projects that will handle just that. I believe many of these projects focus on using Linux for this (I think OpenBSD would be an ideal fit as well given its excellent reputation for paranoid security), which could make it possible for you to include OpenVPN and other such technologies to better meet your needs. Additional research will be required on your part because you'll need to decide which hardware you're going to use, and then that would limit your selection of which custom firmware you may be able to use.

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It’s not just the networking manufacturers that are ignoring consumer IPv6; ISPs are also ignoring it! I’ve read that neither Comcast nor Cox in America, nor Rogers nor Bell in Canada have plans to support it anytime soon. (I bet that Korean, Japan, the UK, and and so on already do or will soon… :-|) – Synetech Mar 4 '11 at 3:32
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