FritzBox discussion

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Mod note: This thread was forked off from https://www.ixsystems.com/community/threads/zfs-cache.85420

I had a VM with DHCP and DNS server, configured with 1 G of memory for years. These are two of the three areas where the "Fritzbox" while being a decent router otherwise, leaves a bit to be desired.

 

[Ericloewe]

I had a VM with DHCP and DNS server, configured with 1 G of memory for years. These are two of the three areas where the "Fritzbox" while being a decent router otherwise, leaves a bit to be desired.

Are they worth the hype? I almost pulled the trigger almost a decade ago, but then the Asus RT-N66U blew me away with the fact that it got updates and the Wi-Fi was actually good. The much-hyped Cisco/Linksys of the time was a miserable piece of crap.

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

They are as I repeatedly stated quite decent. Stable, with a rich feature set for consumers, good support and frequent long term updates.
Their VPN implementation is opaque, badly documented and hopelessly outdated. Their DNS forwarder has some limits in its rebound attack prevention and refuses to deliver AAAA records it considers "inside". The DHCP server is limited in configuration options and the UI to map a static IP address to a device is arcane to say the least. Apart from that - great ;)
On the pro side: if you have a combined DSL or cable uplink with SIP telephony, it's sufficient to pick your provider, enter your phone number, good to go. Very good DECT access point. I defined a second SIP link to my office PBX, so now I have the work phone extensions on my desk at home. Not forwarded but the real connection, customer sees the correct caller when I dial out.
This is the main reason why I keep this device, phone has got to be trouble free.
I moved the VPN, DHCP and DNS forwarder to a Ubnt Edgerouter I run inside my home network.
Ah ... did I mention really good IPv6 support? Including prefix delegation to cascaded routers. I really wonder why they refuse to bring their IPsec up to date. No IKEv2, IKEv1 with aggressive mode hardwired ... meh.

HTH,
Patrick

 

[Patrick M. Hausen]

@Patrick M. Hausen, @Ericloewe, you're side-tracking this thread.

Correct, I apologize. Since @Ericloewe is endowed with moderator superpowers, he might split the thread. Please?

 

[Ericloewe]

Looks slightly weird, but it's now forked off.

On the pro side: if you have a combined DSL or cable uplink with SIP telephony, it's sufficient to pick your provider, enter your phone number, good to go.

That's useful. In Portugal, SIP on a separate VLAN over GPON is typical these days, which is a very similar situation. As an SIP noob, configuring a Cisco ATA was an experience I dread repeating.

Very good DECT access point.

That's something I kinda miss. The basic Gigaset thing I have is a bit rudimentary and unpleasant to use.

now I have the work phone extensions on my desk at home

Some other time, we might have called that pure masochism, but these days...

Including prefix delegation to cascaded routers.

Now that's cool.

 

[Tigersharke]

IMHO it would be truly nice to see more hardware compatibility with FreeBSD, specifically wifi nics. I can only wish for and wait, I do not have *any* skill with drivers and could not attempt writing nor porting them. With regard to 802.11ac, it would require hardware to even test.

So, if those drivers were to appear, we could build our own box, equip it with the wifi hardware of choice, and install OPNsense or some other firewall/router ware and not be dependent upon the whims of a corporation. This is why I have an OPNsense firewall/router as it is, but for wifi to the degree that is obtained from the Comcast/Xfinity Arris box, will have to wait. :/ This also stymies any other pre-built FreeBSD based hardware that includes service and etc, so that it would be almost like buying from the big corps.

I saw something, have a bookmark somewhere too, for some way of censoring phone calls by way of a whitelist I believe, using a raspbery pi of some variation. My dad insists upon answering damn near *every* call that comes in, which does damn nothing but make the spam calls worse or more frequent. It was even mentioned that this will help the spammer (scammer) know that the number is valid and answered by a human, solidifying it as a number to harrass.. but to no avail. What would be best, is if he was the only one to hear all the times the phone rings.. but that won't happen either.
*throws up hands in disgust*