[SOLVED] Edgerouter vs Pfsense box (was Home networking segmentation)

[Enialis_Nailo]

TLR Skip to the edit

So here's my problem, I'll try to articulate this as well as I can. What I want to do is split my incoming internet connection into two separate networks, one for everyone else in the house, and one for my lab so that i can take say 30% of my total bandwidth and reserve it exclusively for my lab environment through hardware instead of using the QoS settings on my router. i was wanting to use a smart switch for the lab and plug my current router into that as an AP for the rest of the house, but i'm not sure thats the correct solution.

I really need to make sure that my lab never dips below that 30% so my "home" devices have to fight over the other 70% of the bandwidth through software QoS without ever effecting the lab environment. What would the proper hardware setup to acheive this be? This is also essentially a project to learn more about segmentation and vlan in general, I'm aware that this may be overkill for a home network but would like to do it regardless.

EDIT: After further research, it seems like this topic has changed into an Ubiquity Edgerouter vs Pfsense box so i have changed the topic accordingly.

Would a pfsense box or Edgerouter be more appropriate for this situation and what are the pros and cons of each?

Also, to be clear, im dont neccisarily need to upgrade because im shaping large amounts of traffic, rather than a more powerful router i really need a more precise router to shape extremely small amounts of traffic.

 

[kanewolf]

So here's my problem, I'll try to articulate this as well as I can. What I want to do is split my incoming internet connection into two separate networks, one for everyone else in the house, and one for my lab so that i can take say 30% of my total bandwidth and reserve it exclusively for my lab environment through hardware instead of using the QoS settings on my router. i was wanting to use a smart switch for the lab and plug my current router into that as an AP for the rest of the house, but i'm not sure thats the correct solution.

I really need to make sure that my lab never dips below that 30% so my "home" devices have to fight over the other 70% of the bandwidth through software QoS without ever effecting the lab environment. What would the proper hardware setup to acheive this be? This is also essentially a project to learn more about segmentation and vlan in general, I'm aware that this may be overkill for a home network but would like to do it regardless.

I would recommend building a pfSense firewall and using the traffic limiting capabilities -- https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/book/trafficshaper/limiters.html

 

[Enialis_Nailo]

I would recommend building a pfSense firewall and using the traffic limiting capabilities -- https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/book/trafficshaper/limiters.html

Do you have any recommendation's for a pfsense box that are around ~$200USD? the netgate boxs are over-priced and under-specced.

 

[Enialis_Nailo]

It also seems like an Ubiquity Edgerouter would work? If anyone has any thoughts chime in, may have to change the topic now to pfsense box vs edgerouter.

Would a pfsense box or Ubiquity Edgerouter be more apropriatte for this situation? Should i combine the two?

 

[SamirD]

Since this is just for learning, build a pfsense. You don't want to try to have a ubiquity and a pfsense since that would be like having 2x routers.