I’m looking at getting a gateway device to replace the ISP router that sits between the internet connection and the mesh WiFi.

I am running pi-hole on a (very old) raspberry pi, but I know some gateways get quite fancy so I’m wondering if it’s possible to have pi-hole on the gateway itself, to run as DNS and DHCP servers?

Other things I’m looking for in a gateway are VPN as a client (preferably Wireguard) and PoE ports for cameras.

If it’s possible to host something like pi-hole directly on the gateway then hardware recommendations are appreciated!

    • Dave@lemmy.nzOP
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      4 months ago

      Thanks, so what I should look for is a gateway running OpenWRT, which can run docker?

      • CameronDev@programming.dev
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        4 months ago

        I think its better to keep your gateway basic, and run extra services on a separate raspi or similar. Let your router/gateway focus on routing packets.

        • Dave@lemmy.nzOP
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          4 months ago

          I’m not overly against keeping them separate. It’s just I have a lot of stuff piling up and consolidating would have been nice 😆

        • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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          4 months ago

          Agreed. I would also reconsider ditching the ISP router. You can still connect your gateway to it, and having the ISP device on premises can mean they might not blame your equipment for a line issue.

          • Dave@lemmy.nzOP
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            4 months ago

            It’s a little bit more complicated than I made out. For one, the network is super unstable and restarting the ISP router seems to fix it. I want to replace the router to test the theory that it’s the problem.

            Secondly, this is a bring your own router to the ISP situation, but the router came from another ISP, but they are all the same ISP in the end because one company owns a whole bunch of ISPs and sends the same router to all the customers of all the child companies. Long story short, it’s the router they would have issued to me, but they didn’t, because a different subsidiary sent it to me before I changed ISPs to take advantage of a special because I live in a country where the lines are open and anyone can start an ISP using the existing lines but if you get big enough to be competition then the big company will buy you out and pretend it’s still a separate company. But if it doesn’t work well then it’s up to me to solve unless I am willing to pay the ~$10USD for them to send me the ISP router that is supported by them but it will be the same cheap router as I already have. Ok that’s not a very short story but that’s why it was easier to just call it an ISP router 😆

      • tired_n_bored@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Yes you can install Docker on OpenWrt but do your own research as if I remember correctly you have to thinker with it

  • hungover_pilot@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Most of the more advanced gateways have some sort of DNS filtering built in. Opnsense has an adguard plugin, pfsense has pfblocker-ng, openwrt has a few different options, Unifi and mikrotik both have solutions too I think. Usually you can just load the same block list that pihole uses into the filtering software and you are good to go.

    If you want the most flexibility and want to use the same hardware for both gateway/DNS and want to try out different DNS/router solutions a hypervisor would give you the most options. But it would also be the most complicated.

    • Dave@lemmy.nzOP
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      4 months ago

      One of the things I use pi-hole for is to set customer DNS entries so anyone on the network will be redirected directly to the self hosted services when the type in the appropriate domain name. So it’s not just about the filtering (which I also want), but also the (network wide) custom DNS entries.

      I’m also happy with simple. I’m not overly against keeping the pi-hole and gateway separate but was just wanting to know if combining them would be an option (which is sounds like it is, but not super easy).

      • hungover_pilot@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Both opnsense and pfsense allow custom DNS entries so you still have that as an option. Probably the other options do too but you’ll just have to verify.

        But if you want to keep it simple I would just keep the pihole as a separate device. A lot of the built in options aernt quite as easy to setup and don’t have the best UI compared to pihole IMO.

        • Dave@lemmy.nzOP
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          4 months ago

          Thanks, yeah I will consider the options. Would be nice to have it in one as the raspberry pi is aging (it’s an original model B) and the gateway should be plenty powerful enough to run it, plus it would rule out the pi-hole to router connection as a possible reason for the unstable network.

  • Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyzB
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    4 months ago

    Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    Fewer Letters More Letters
    DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, automates assignment of IPs when connecting to a network
    DNS Domain Name Service/System
    IP Internet Protocol
    PoE Power over Ethernet
    Unifi Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand

    [Thread #955 for this sub, first seen 7th Sep 2024, 10:25] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

  • Codilingus@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Not sure if it’s exactly what you’re after, but Unifi gateways can install NextDNS with a script provided by NextDNS. It’s all the same lists as Pi-Hole, and possibly more intelligent ones, too. Bonus points are it makes every device in your home use encrypted DNS, as well!

    I’m using it on a Dream Machine Pro, and the new Cloud Gateway Ultra.

    • Dave@lemmy.nzOP
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      4 months ago

      I had been considering the Dream Machine Special Edition, though the website lists it as $500 but it’s gonna cost more like $750USD if I get it locally 😅. At least it’s available locally though, unlike some of the others listed in this thread which are gonna be hard to get.