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With the gradual increase in internet demand, the performance of ordinary wireless routers is not enough to meet the healthy internet access requirements of today's internet.

In order to meet the corresponding needs, the protagonist of this chapter, "soft router," was born. I will share in-depth how I use soft routers and whether it is worth buying.

Soft Router#

A soft router is a type of industrial control device commonly known as an industrial control computer. You may not have heard of it, but it is used in various industrial control applications. In simple terms, it is a mini computer that provides low power consumption and decent performance for service scenarios.

The biggest difference between a hardware router and a soft router is the hardware and software. Soft routers rely on software to perform routing functions, while hardware routers have dedicated hardware to perform routing functions. We play with soft routers to achieve various services such as (intranet penetration, DDNS, DNS resolution, Docker, NAS, VPN), etc... Because soft routers are essentially a computer that can achieve the "multi-soft router" gameplay with VT-D virtualization, doesn't it sound amazing?

But if I tell you that if you want to fully utilize the performance of the soft router in a non-professional environment, these scenarios require specific "customization," such as compiling your own soft router firmware, then you have to learn the basic operations of Linux no matter what. If you are just getting started, you can download ready-made firmware from the internet or follow YouTube or Bilibili video tutorials to install the "AiKuai" + "OpenWrt" system as an entry-level soft router.

Tinkering with soft routers can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. If you don't have time, you might sell it or let it sit at home and collect dust. In that case, I don't recommend buying a soft router. Instead, you can try flashing a hardware router to provide basic services.

How I Use Soft Routers#

I placed my soft router in the living room with the optical modem. The "J4105 ready-made soft router" I purchased is a crab dual gigabit network port quasi-system that was sold for 699 last year. I also needed to equip it with DDR4 memory and a hard drive from my laptop. To use it normally, I also needed to have a switch. Fortunately, I had a "Xiaomi AC2100" router that I had played with before. By setting the router to AP mode (wired relay), it became a wireless switch that can coexist with the soft router to form a simple home network structure.

In my home network, the soft router is directly connected to the optical modem via ETH0, and another virtual network card comes out from ETH1 and goes to the wireless switch.

For my soft router, I chose to use VMware ESXi and installed several virtual machines: "AiKuai", "ROS", "OpenWrt", and "CentOS".

Among them, AiKuai is used for temporary use when ROS or OpenWrt encounters problems. For daily use, I still use the combination of ROS and OpenWrt.

OpenWrt#

I used to use the comprehensive firmware made by Esir for OpenWrt, but because there were too many plugins and it was not very stable, I switched to using the firmware I compiled myself. I installed several plugins that I needed, such as intranet penetration, internet access, Docker, and JD check-in. Once configured, it doesn't need much adjustment. I usually just change the node~

RouterOS#

I use the green version of RouterOS, and in my home network, it is directly connected to the optical modem. It mainly handles PPPOE dial-up, DHCP server, DNS caching, IPV6, UPNP, etc. It is very stable and has never crashed during daily use!

AiKuai#

AiKuai is usually used when the home network is down. I will turn it on temporarily until I finish debugging other virtual machines. I have only used it twice in a year, both times because of errors in OpenWrt. The disadvantage is that it requires more than 4GB of memory for installation, but in actual use, 2GB+ is enough. It has a Chinese operating interface and is a relatively worry-free system.

CentOS#

I use CentOS to store downloaded movies and run a Minecraft server. I use Frpc in OpenWrt for intranet penetration. If there are more people, I manually turn on the fan for heat dissipation. I also enable SMB sharing and use FolderSync on my phone to back up my photos incrementally. However, I don't store important data in virtual machines in case something goes wrong with that machine. (If you are willing to...

So, do I recommend buying it?#

If you are willing to tinker with it, you can choose it to explore various possibilities. The premise is that you have strong search capabilities and an environment for bypassing internet censorship. I have provided a recommended guide for the general population below.

Recommended Buyers#

• Suitable for those who don't mind spending money
• Love to tinker with network devices
• Not satisfied with the network at home
• Need to run various services & applications
• College students who want to tweak optimize campus networks
• If you have a large house with many people or multiple devices and smart home devices that need internet access, you can make flexible choices
• Sharing broadband in a rental house

Not Recommended Buyers#

• Non-college students using campus networks
• No time for tinkering
• Only need to bypass internet censorship
• Not interested in optimizing home networks
• Price-sensitive individuals
• Those who don't know how to use Linux or soft router systems

Hardware Recommendations#

Before you make a purchase, you can refer to the recommended data. You can choose pre-configured hardware with memory and hard drives, or you can choose to configure your own quasi-system. The choice is flexible.

Recommended: Configuration tests can refer to YouTube's "Old White" Jackstone

CPU#

The CPU determines your internet speed. For beginners, you can choose Intel J-series processors such as (J4015, J4125, J205). If you have a low budget and just want to play around, you can choose older models of Intel N-series processors, but it's better to go for a higher-end option for a more comfortable experience.

Network Ports#

Dual network ports are enough for daily use if you don't play "multi-line multicast." If you have multiple lines at home, you can consider 4 or more network ports, depending on the number of multicast lines. Various devices mainly connect to the soft router through a switch. Intel network cards have better drivers and virtualization support compared to crab network cards, but other aspects are basically the same.

Memory#

You can purchase or use spare laptop memory. 4GB is enough if you don't play virtual machines. If you want to play virtual machines, consider 8-16GB. The frequency doesn't make much difference. It is not recommended to use lower memory unless you don't play virtual machines and just leave it there.

Hard Drive#

You can purchase or use spare 2.5-inch solid-state drives or mechanical hard drives from laptops. Use solid-state drives to store virtual machines and mechanical hard drives for NAS. If you don't play virtual machines, you can buy a second-hand msata solid-state drive based on the interface on the soft router. [Tip: Don't buy second-hand mechanical hard drives unless you are a gamer and don't want to become a desperado; most msata solid-state drives are from industrial control machines.]

Conclusion#

It mainly depends on how you utilize the soft router. When I first saw YouTubers introducing this little gadget separately, I admit that I was excited. After buying it and setting up a dual soft router, the feeling of its presence slowly faded away until I started to get in touch with Linux-like systems and fully utilized every bit of its performance. I could even run two Windows virtual machines and connect to the campus network... That's the fun of tinkering.

This article is a simple description based on my non-professional background. If there are better ways to use it, please kindly point them out. This article may be modified over time.

As for whether you think a soft router is a smart tax, you can leave a comment below and discuss it with me.

If you ask me if it's worth buying, I don't regret it while writing this article, and I will continue to use it. o (*≧▽≦) ツ┏━┓

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