MacMini as home router with AP

s10010001

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 17, 2002
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Hey guys, quick question.

Im helping my neighbor with his network. He is fairly tech savvy but no network admin (nor am I). His current setup is a Cable Model (16x8) with 300mbps service into a Verizon/Frontier FIOS router that is setup to be a normal router and gets internet from the cable modem. He owned it, so he's using it. Wifi is off on the FIOS router as he has a dedicated POE AC AP to feed the house Wifi. He also has a MacMini acting at a server, time machine, plex, file share.

His router is giving him problem (turning off randomly). This is where I come in, is there any reason he can't or shouldn't run the Cable modem right into the minis ethernet and the AP into the same mini Mac mini via TB Ethernet adapter and just share the internet connection? Effectively making the Mac mini the Router.

Thought? Security? vs just buying a decent home router?
 
never mind, the EdgeRouter X is only sale for $50, that will pair nicely with his UBT AP.
 
I've had this setup before. Would definitely suggest using another piece of gear like you mentioned. Edgerouter is probably the smarter choice. Something about the network being its own thing just simplifies things. I virtualized my router and put all of my stuff on a single machine - it was a pain in the ass when I had to do patching or reboot stuff. Just easier with it separated out.
 
The Edgerouter X is really low on processor hp. From what I've read about it, it can only manage 60-80Mb/s transfer rate as a router.
 
The Edgerouter X is really low on processor hp. From what I've read about it, it can only manage 60-80Mb/s transfer rate as a router.

You read wrong then. Early speed tests for the ER-X put it at (off the top of my head) ~500-800 Mb/s. Now that hardware offloading has been implemented for it throughput should be even better.
 
well below 300MBPs and no intentions on going fast anytime soon. Its plenty of speed for them.
 
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Yes, it works. I do exactly this at one of our sites with a PFSense Virtual machine to provide a VPN. That being said, you may not get maximum speeds depending on the NICs you use. If you are using WiFi much, the Mini's don't have the fastest WiFi capabilities either. They certainly have enough processing power to handle it though, and don't take up a ton of space doing it.

OS X does have built in "Sharing" network connections that works as a poor man's router if you just want to test it out without sinking a lot of time or configuration into something like PFSense. OS X does have a built in firewall and such, although I've never actually done anything with it other than leave it at whatever default settings are, and never had any issues.
 
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