Hello selfhosted.
My router just burnt up and instead of buying a new one, I’m thinking of turning my own built NAS/home server into a router. Is this possible?
The server in question is a normal computer running debian, where I have a few disks in RAID and host some web services. The motherboard only has one RJ45 port, so my guess is that I have to at least get a network card that supports 2 ports. I’m no stranger to linux but physical networking is not my home field, though I’m very interested.
If someone could point me in the right direction, I would be more than happy.
Not sure if others already said this (I seem to see mostly comments explaining how to do it, but didn’t read them all), but, while it’s certainly feasible, you may not want to do that.
A router is the cornerstone of your network (if it goes down, so does the network) and if you are a self-hoster you’ll probably fiddle endlessly with your home server, and of course break it from time to time… the two things just don’t go well together.
Personally, I’d recommend getting some second-hand router appliance that can run openwrt and use that (make sure to check the flashing procedure before deciding what to buy - some are easier than others). Or you could get a dedicated x86 machine… probably overkill though.
I truly understand this sentiment, and if I ever find it troublesome to maintain, I will do just that, but right now I just want to use this as an excuse to fiddle around haha ;). I don’t run anything high-profile and my server uptime is still on par with the frequent power outages in my area
