I like OpenWRT but it does require knowledge and time to maintain.

I would suggest getting a router that runs OpenWRT or OPNsense. That will let you configure anything you need to. It’s open source firmware so it will respect your privacy.

If you go with OPNsense, you will need separate access points since it runs on a PC. The Unifi access points work well for that.

You can strike a balance with higher-end (in quality) consumer or small business networking gear.

If it’s in your budget, I’d suggest buying a simple router like the Ubiquiti Edgerouter X, run some Ethernet and rely on a switch and access points for WiFi (I use Ubiquiti U6 Pro but I wouldn’t be too picky about it). I’ve never been into the “mesh” WiFi networking concept because it doesn’t make sense to use the air as your backhaul (if you can help it).

What I wouldn’t recommend is buying some beefed up consumer all-in-one router. It’ll cost a fortune, your coverage won’t be as good and once it’s time to upgrade you’ll be forced to replace the entire thing.

Hopefully this helps.

Depends on how good the ISP router is. I’ve had one that had most of the advanced settings available, so I didn’t feel the need to change. For a while I had offloaded DHCP and DNS and VPN to a Raspberry Pi. It’s very much possible to make do with the ISP router. That ISP would let you passthrough the public IP to a box on your network which lets you do a lot of stuff without going into bridge mode, so I could make my server the target while still letting the router do the routing so if my server was down it didn’t take the whole network with it.

Then I got a bad one where it won’t even let you set up port forwards unless the device is registered over DHCP so my static stuff and VMs didn’t work. Got my EdgeRouter X back online to get my stuff done.

I do use VLANs and stuff now so it makes sense for me to use my own router. With everything getting breached these days, I have a VLAN just for my computers, another one for smart but trusted-ish devices (the TV’s gotta reach the NAS), one for IoT that’s completely shielded off.

What you’re missing out on depends a lot on what features you don’t have you could make use of. If you have like 3 devices using the network like I did when I lived alone, yeah you’re probably not going to miss out on the VLANs. But maybe you want to do ad blocking network-wide. Maybe you’d want to better prioritize interactive traffic like VoIP and video calls or games. Maybe you want a reverse proxy or VPN that works even if your home server is down. Maybe you want your kids to not hog all the bandwidth. There’s a lot of things a router can do.

So if the ISP router does everything you want and you’re happy with its performance, it’s fine. Just keep it in mind, when you start being like “I wish it had X and Y features” maybe consider an upgrade then.

If you have the option of not getting a router from your ISP, I would definitely recommend bringing your own. If they provide it regardless and you’d be replacing it through unofficial means, eh, if it works well…

Am I likely to be annoyed about where the fiber comes into the house?

That one depends on the company installing it. When I got it installed they asked me exactly where I wanted the fiber to terminate and ran it through the house to an outlet under my desk. So let them know and they might put it where you need it.

As for the router, I recommend buying a mini PC with at least 2 Ethernet ports and 4GB of RAM and running OPNsense. It’s great and will give you all the control you need. Or you can repurpose any old PC you have lying around and just add some Ethernet ports on a PCIE card.

Metronet will be supplying an Optical Network Terminal, probably like this one:

This is basically the equivalent of a modem for cable networks. It does not provide routing functions. You’re probably stuck with the ONT they supply, but it shouldn’t matter much, definitely not for anything internal.

It looks like Metronet normally supplies Eero WiFi mesh devices for home networking - are the ones you currently have supplied by Metronet? They might just replace the modem with the ONT and leave the existing Eero gear, or they might upgrade the Eero gear to support the higher speed available on the fiber network.

In any case, if you are using ISP-supplied network devices then you don’t control the router, which means you can’t set up things like port forwarding to access your home network from outside, or configure VLANs to segregate devices on your network, or control things like DHCP.

Technically there’s no reason you have to use the Eero devices from Metronet, you should be able to plug any router into the ONT WAN port and have internet service. If you don’t want to get too deep into network config, then any modern consumer WiFi router will work (but not a modem/router AIO device). If you want to have a bit more control, look for one that supports OpenWRT.

I went through this at the beginning of the year, it get 900/900 fibre, settled on openwrt running on a nanopi r4s. My other options were a nanopi r6s with openwrt, or nuc type hardware/server running something like pfsence/opnsence etc. The openwrt install took about 5mins then a couple of hours of exploring various menus options etc, which I didnt end up changing.

What am I missing out on as a regular internet user by using the default equipment.

You miss an understanding about what your devices do. Including the devices you got from your provider.

As a consequence, you remain clueless when your devices get attacked and taken over.

What am I missing out on as a self-hoster by using whatever equipment metronet gives me?

You miss the chance of securing your network.

As a self hoster, you are a little bit more attractive, and there are more possibilities of attacking your devices, than a typical PC or mobile user.

My suggestion is an extra router with OpenWRT between the metronet device and all your other stuff. You will get some better understanding just by configuring your OpenWRT for the first time. Their documentation is very good.

Typically a Fiber ISP will run Fiber optics only to your DEMARC (or Demarcation) point. This will be usually where your main cable (before any splits) or DSL line used to come in (in the US they’ve been using Orange tubes to indicate this and it will usually run to a panel in some closet or laundry). At the DEMARC they’ll install one of two things: a basic fiber to ethernet converter which will provide you a single ethernet port and a pure tap to the internet, or a Gateway device that will convert the fiber to multiple eithernet with NAT (usually providing other capabilites like TV, Phone, etc).

If you have the latter, you may not get much say in what you can do with your connection, and would be limited to a DMZ mode that is configured on the Gateway. What you put behind the converter or gateway is up to you.

Performance and how configurable things are, plus ease of use.

For instance, my default router/modem device from my ISP was super clunky and confusing. I needed to set up some custom port forwarding and firewall rules. The aftermarket router I bought was faster, had way better wireless coverage, and the UI was so much easier to set up the configs I needed.

So it’s up to you, from what you said, seems like you probably would be good with the default from your ISP.

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

10 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 8 acronyms.

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