David> I would like to build my own network router/gateway and I would like David> some feedback regarding options. This is a good option. David> I would like to separate the WIFI from the router. I plan on David> buying multiple Wireless Access Points to handle WIFI within David> the house and WIFI in the back yard. The backyard WAP will be David> powered over Ethernet. I'm using the TPlink EAP225 at home and I've been pretty happy with them. I've got the Ormada Java controller software running as well. The only annoyance is that if they lose their minds, the default subnet is 192.168.0.x and it defaults to .1 or .10 as I recall. Otherwise they seem to be pretty solid. I recently upgraded from a pair of Netgear WNDR3700s that I was running OpenWRT on. David> Also I want a router distribution that give me lots of David> flexibility in what I can install and is kept up to date with David> regard to security. For my home router I'm using OPNsense running on a PCengines APU with three 1gig network ports. I purposely didn't get the Wifi versions. I've also got a 64gb SSD in there as my boot media, and I'm using very little of the SSD, so I expect it to last quite a while. Now if you add a bunch of modules, I suspect that you really want to get a higher performance system. David> It looks like my choices for distributions are dd-wrt, openwrt, David> and tomahto (tomato). Any thoughts? I've given up on dd-wrt for the APs. It's just too painful to try and figure out which version of the software to use, etc. Maybe openwrt would have been a better choice? But this hardware was getting old and long in the tooth. For years and years I used m0n0wall since it was simple, fast, lightweight and just did the job right. So right now I''ve been using OpnSense for the past three or four years and I'm ok with it for my router. David> So far the only hardware option that I have encountered is David> Seeed Studio's ODYSSEY – X86J4105. It comes with a case and a David> power supply. The project is described in David> https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2020/02/24/how-to-build-your-own-openwrt-ro... Looks interesting. I'm using the apu2 from pcengines.ch and I like it because it's quiet and low power and handles my home network needs no problem. Probably the three interface version. I like them alot since they're solid state, no moving parts. If you have over 200gbit internet at home, then the APU2 might not meet your needs... but honestly, it's been working really well for me for years. I'm also running the latest 20.3 releasr of OpnSense and it's ... ok. Not wild about the GUI. And if you want to run traffic shaping, or anti-virus or squid proxy, then you will need a bigger box than the APU2 series. But at that point, you may as well find an old PC and use that. Good luck, John