One small router for my network...

[Ankareth]

..one giant leap for my network knowledge!

Hi guys, italian networking noob here.

I have a fairly decent IT backgound, but as it regards networks... I am lost.
Still, I understand that the modem-router given by my ISP (Telecom Italia, for a FTTC 100/20 connection) is at best suffucated by its hideous firmware.
Proof is that after a random time (usually a few hours, but sometimes 10s of minutes) the LAN part just stops working at all, but if I connet to the internet with a PPPoE connection made from windows I can browse without any issues.

So, right now my options are:

a) I keep the ISP router (a modified technicolor Modem Telecom AG plus VDNT-S ) and fight once more with the assistance hoping to get a new one that works;
b) I keep the router but using it just as a modem and get a proper router of my own;
c) I ditch the ISP router and get a new VDSL router.

Problem is that the ISP's VoIP works only on its own router (the credentials and whatsoever needed are hidden from the final user), so option c is ruled out. I really don't want to go through the assistance again, so I'll go for B)

And that's what and why I'm asking here (long intro, sorry!):

Since I have to upgrade, I want to do it properly: instad of another off-the-shelf box I would like to do it myself, maybe going a little overkill and start doing some services on my own, like DNS server, firewall, etc.
I tried to educate myself but I get a bit lost, so if I'm right i have the following options:

1) Give up and buy a SOHO router like a mikrotik, ubiquiti, draytek , DD-WRT or OpenWRT router and make do with it.
2) Buy a microserver like the HP gen8 and setting it up.
3) Buy a higher end router like a cisco or a mikrotik CCR and run everything on it.

My home network is still small, I have a couple of PCs, two phones (occasinally more), a bunch of consoles (PS2->4, wii) and a smart TV, but in the future i'll move in a new house where probably the family will grow, so I would like to get some expansion capability.
I would like to be able to manage my network (QoS, firewall, isolate guest network) and to tinker with some services (DNS server, NAS, maybe a web/email server in the future).

My budget is somewhat limited, I would love to stay under 300 euros, but for a VERY long term solution I can afford a couple hundreds more.


tl;dr: I have a small home network and I want to upgrade it noticeably. What should I get?

Sorry for both my english and my networking ignorance

 

[System Error Message]

The number of devices dont matter for a router, only throughput and features. At your speeds almost any mikrotik router will support it. Sure CCRs are great but all run the same OS. The only difference is only some can run dude server (RB3011, CCRs). If you want mikrotik take a look at the RB3011 as its much cheaper while supporting your speeds.

The RB3011 is currently in beta and will do up to 500Mb/s of NAT. Hopefully they will sort it out soon as its supposed to be able to be faster.

If you want a proper router both mikrotik, openwrt and x86 solutions work great but for x86 you are looking at something like pfsense or the difficult build it yourself from scratch with a linux/unix OS (i suggest not using windows server). Mikrotik and openwrt are poor choices for NAS, web/email server and pfsense is a pain if you want to set up NAS on it. All of these are focused to being routers so they dont do well in other tasks. Set up a raspberry pi or some low cost x86 server if you wish these features.

Remember that your current internet isnt fast enough to warrant a high end router so unless you're looking at gigabit internet within the next few years you dont need a mikrotik CCR or high end x86, so choose based on what you can afford and what you want from a router.

As for your ISP modem/router, try to find bridge mode on it so you can keep using VOIP. You still havent figured out your wifi yet, what will you use for wifi?

 

[Ankareth]

Hi, thanks for the answer, sorry if I didn't reply sooner but i missed the notification AND i just noticed that I probably posted in the wrong section....

At the moment my speed is 100/20, but I hope to upgrade to 500/500 as soon as ftth become available near my place.
My idea was this: since I have to upgrade (that router is REALLY bad), I could go for the stars and get myself a proper network; but I am also not that expert in this field, so I thought that the best would be to keep the isp box as modem and voip server only, while getting a really powerful box to do everything else. I ended up with my research to the hp microserver: until I upgrade my internet speed I could go with the 2 installed ethernet interfaces and using some hypervisor with multiple VMs (one for DHCP, one for routing, one for firewall, one for DNS, one for file server, etc etc.) so that I could manage and hopefully improve my network.

Si-fi side at the moment I was looking to the ubiquity AC indoor APs, like the UAC-AC-PRO, but right now I'm more focused on the router side. Also for the time being I have a few wireless router that I could use as temporary AP.

I was interested in the rb3011, but looking at the forums it seems that it's still in its developing stage, and I don0't really want to add difficult to my already steep learning curve XD

I was thinking about the rb2011 wireless one or the hAP AC (not lite), but I don't really understand how capable is the routerOS.. I mean, a router can act as a server for services like DNS and file transfer? Since I know it can do dhcp and NAT, probably it could.... I'm not interested in integrating a media server right now.

once more, thanks for the answer!