VATS luck build , bruh . Never scope again . <| sep |> So , as I ' m sure you ' re aware , a generic router you get is actually a router , firewall , switch , and AP built into one device . pfSense is an open source routerfirewall that ' s built on top of LinuxOpenBSD . It ' s pretty simple to setup as it has a nice GUI but it also supports a lot of advanced features . It basically can run on anything with a processor , memory , HDD , and a NIC . Now optimally you want something that has at least 2 x GB Intel ports . I have my pfSense currently running on a mini ITX computer with an i 52500 k as I had it laying around , but that consumes a little more power . Some people use devices like M i c r oApplianceIntelPFSensedpB 01 AJEJG 1 Arefsr 11 ? ieUTF 8 qidtelsr 81 keywordspfsense which are low power and fanless . Some people buy little boxes like Q u a d C o reGraphicsBarebonesZBOXCI 323 NANOUdpB 0179 S 50 UUrefsr 19 ? ieUTF 8 qidtelsr 89 keywordspfsense where you add your own RAMHDDSSD and it ' s also low power . The only thing that sucks is that this stuff costs money . Even when you buy used gear , it ' s still not as cheap as buying generic stuff . You can go to Best Buy and get some crazy Nighthawk all in one device for $ 200300 . With this route you ' re going to spend $ 200 on a pfSense routerfirewall , ~$ 30100 on a managed switch , and $ 50100 on an AP but you have much more control over your environment . Or you could go with a Ubiquiti routergatewayfirewall for ~$ 100 and then add on a managed switch and AP . Or some people buy a virtualization server and run their pfSense firewall on a VM . Decently equipped servers can be had for $ 200500 when all said and done . There ' s really a lot of options . I work in an area of netsec and have my switch mirroringSPANing all the traffic to Snort which sends all the alerts to a Splunk box . You can also run Snort directly on a pfSense box .