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As internet usage demands gradually increase, the performance of ordinary wireless routers can no longer satisfy the healthy online experience of today's internet.

To meet this demand, the protagonist of this chapter, "soft routing," was born. I will deeply share how I use soft routing and whether it is worth buying.

Soft Routing#

Soft routing is a type of industrial control device, commonly known as an industrial computer. You may not have heard of it, but it is likely used in various aspects of life, commonly found in industrial control applications across different fields. In simple terms, it is a mini computer that provides low power consumption and decent performance service scenarios.

The biggest difference between hard routing and soft routing is the hardware and software; soft routing relies on software to perform routing functions, while hard routing uses dedicated hardware to complete routing functions. We engage in soft routing to provide various services such as: (NAT traversal, DDNS, DNS resolution, Docker, NAS, VPN), etc.; because soft routing is essentially a computer, it can achieve "multiple soft routing" capabilities under VT-D virtualization. Sounds impressive, right?

But if I tell you that to fully utilize the performance of the machine in a non-professional manner, you need to learn the basic operations of Linux for specific "customization" in these scenarios, such as compiling your own soft routing firmware; if you are just starting, you can download pre-made firmware from the internet or follow YOUTUBE or Bilibili video tutorials to install the iKuai + OpenWrt system as an introductory soft routing.

Tinkering with soft routing can be quite time-consuming and labor-intensive. If you don't have the time, it might be better to sell it or let it gather dust at home, in which case I wouldn't recommend buying soft routing. Instead, you could try flashing a hard router to complete basic services.

How I Use Soft Routing#

My soft routing is placed in the living room alongside the optical modem. The "J4105 finished soft router" I purchased has dual gigabit network ports and was sold for 699 last year. It also requires a laptop's DDR4 memory and hard drive, and to use it normally, you need to equip a switch. I happen to have a hard router, the "Xiaomi AC2100," which can be modified to AP mode (wired relay) to become a wireless switch that coexists with the soft router, forming a simple home network structure.

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

I chose to use VMware EXSI for soft routing and installed several virtual machines: iKuai, ROS, OpenWrt, CentOS.

Among them, iKuai is used for manual switching in case ROS or OpenWrt encounters issues for temporary use. For daily use, I still rely on the combination of ROS + OpenWrt as a dual soft routing setup.

OpenWrt#

Previously, I used the high-end firmware made by Esir for OpenWrt, but due to the instability caused by too many plugins, I switched to my compiled firmware. I used several plugins I needed to complete NAT traversal, internet access, Docker, JD sign-in... Once configured, it generally doesn't require adjustments, and I just change nodes occasionally.

RouterOS#

I used the green version of ROS, which is directly connected to the optical modem in my home network. It mainly handles PPPOE dialing, DHCP server, DNS caching, IPV6, UPNP... It is very stable for daily use and has never crashed!

iKuai#

iKuai is generally used when the home network is down; I will turn it on for temporary internet access until I fix the other virtual machines, and I have only used it twice in a year due to errors in OpenWrt. The downside is that it requires more than 4GB of memory to install. In actual use, 2GB + others are sufficient, and it has a Chinese interface, making it a relatively user-friendly system.

CentOS#

I use CentOS to store downloaded movies and run a Minecraft server, utilizing NAT traversal through Frpc in OpenWrt. If there are several users, I manually turn on the fan for cooling. I also enabled SMB sharing, and I use FolderSync on my phone for incremental backups of my photo albums. However, I wouldn't store important data in the virtual machine, just in case that machine fails. (If you are willing)

So, is it recommended to buy?#

If you are willing to tinker, you can choose to play around with various features, provided you have strong search skills and a scientific internet environment. I have roughly outlined a recommendation guide for different groups of people below.

Recommended Buyer Groups#

• Very suitable for those who are not short on money
• Love to tinker with network devices
• Unsatisfied with their home network needs
• Need to run various services & applications
• University students tuning campus networks
• You have a large house with many people or devices and smart home internet access, allowing for flexible choices
• Renting a shared broadband connection

Not Recommended Buyer Groups#

• Non-university students using campus networks
• No time to tinker
• Only for scientific internet purposes
• Do not want to invest in optimizing home networks
• Price-sensitive individuals
• Those who do not know how to use Linux or soft routing systems

Hardware Suggestions#

Before purchasing, you can refer to the recommended specifications. Memory and hard drives can be chosen from finished products, while the quasi-system needs to be equipped by yourself, allowing for flexible choices.

Recommended: For configuration testing, you can refer to YouTube's Lao Bai 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 lower budget and want to play around, you can consider older Intel N series processors, but it’s better to invest in something that will last.

Network Ports#

If you are not playing with "multi-line multicast," dual network ports are sufficient for daily use. If you have multiple lines at home, you might consider 4 or more network ports, depending on how many multicast lines you have. Each device mainly connects to the switch and soft router; Intel network cards with drivers and virtualization are better than those from Crab, while others are basically the same.

Memory#

Purchase or use spare laptop memory. If you are not using virtual machines, 4GB is sufficient. If you plan to use virtual machines, consider 8-16GB, with no difference in frequency. Lower memory is not recommended unless you are not using virtual machines and just leave it idle.

Hard Drive#

Purchase or use a spare 2.5-inch SSD or mechanical hard drive from a laptop. SSDs are used for storing virtual machines, while mechanical drives are for NAS. If you are not using virtual machines, you can generally buy a second-hand msata SSD based on the interfaces on the soft router. [Tip: Do not buy second-hand mechanical hard drives; non-players should not take risks; most msata SSDs come from industrial computers.]

Conclusion#

It mainly depends on how you utilize soft routing. Like when I just saw YOUTUBERS introducing this little gadget, I admit I got carried away. After buying it and setting up dual soft routing, its presence in my home gradually faded, and I began to feel it wasn't worth it until I started to delve into Linux-like systems and squeezed every bit of performance from the machine, even running two Windows virtual machines on the campus network... that's the joy of tinkering.

This article simply describes my non-professional background. If experts have better usage methods, feel free to share. This article may be modified over time.

As for whether you think soft routing is a tax on intelligence, you can comment below and discuss with me.

If you ask me whether it's worth buying, I feel no regret while writing this article, and I will continue to use it. o (*≧▽≦) ツ┏━┓

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