Editing Project Router101 (section)

== Project Overview ==
A "business grade" router is often the first project for most home-labbers. It's central to most tasks done within your lab. Having a solid router with the features and capabilities is key to a successful home lab. 

Describe the project, what are the expected outcomes? Are there tangible benefits to completing this project? (Ex: Setting up Nagios allows you to monitor the health of various facets of your network) Are there common pitfalls with this project or generally things to watch out for? 

==== Prerequisite Projects  ====
* [[Project_Hypervisor101|'''Setup a hypervisor 101''']] - If setting up a virtual router

==== Specialised Hardware ====
* A "whitebox" router platform like [https://www.netgate.com/solutions/pfsense/#on-premises NetGate], [http://www.qotom.net/category-29-b0-Micro+PC.html Qotom] can be used if you don't want to use an old desktop or run a virtual router 


==== Projects built on this projects ====
* Almost all projects listed in this wiki rely on your router in some way
* [[Project Router201|'''Setup a router 201''']]

=== Implementations ===
* [[Project Router101_pfSense|'''pfSense''']] (recommended) 
** Pros to pfSense
*** Free Open Source Software
*** Has all the features you might want
*** Huge community and lots of guides for available features 
*** Very mature platform
** Cons to pfSense
*** Available features can be overwhelming
*** Some features are more complex to setup
* [[Project Router101_Untangle|'''Untangle''']]
** Pros to Untangle
*** Easier interface for some 
** Cons to Untangle
*** The simplicity of the UI sometimes hides or otherwise blocks more advanced features
*** User community is smaller so it can be more difficult to find resources
* [[Project_Router101_Edgerouter|'''Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X''']] 
** Pros to EdgeRouter X
*** Simple UI 
*** Many advanced features
*** 5 Gigabit ports
** Cons to EdgeRouter X 
*** Need to buy the specific hardware, though it's affordable 
*** The simplicity of the UI sometimes hides or otherwise blocks more advanced features
*** User community is smaller so it can be more difficult to find resources
* [[Project_Router101_SophosXGHome|'''Sophos XG Home''']] 
** Pros to Sophos XG
*** Simple UI
*** License with full features free for Home use
*** Many advanced features (Cluster, IPs, Websecurity, Firewall, Userportal, SSL/IPSec VPN, SSL/IPSec Point2Point VPN)
*** Can be installed as Physical or Virtual
*** Big community of IT-Professional and Home-Lab Users.
** Cons to Sophos XG
*** Log File troubleshooting, could be integrated better in the UI.