I would wholeheartedly recommend Ubiquiti products. I use an EdgeRouter X and Unifi AP Lite and get almost no loss of speeds over WiFi compared to connecting directly to the modem. Also no packet loss or poor reception.
Their devices run Linux so you can ssh directly into them if you want to change something. All config options are also available via the command line interface.
If you want a consistent UI experience, choose one of their several "lines" and stick with it for all your hardware, i.e. use a Unifi Security Gateway + a Unifi Switch instead of the EdgeRouter X. This will allow you to control all your devices from the same interface. I went with the heterogenuous combination because it suited my needs.
It is worth noting that the edgerouter-x, which is only $48, and its more expensive cousins have a pretty good origin of their OS. Ubiquiti's EdgeOS is a fork of Vyatta. UBNT hired most of the talented Vyatta developers when Vyatta was acquired by Brocade. Vyatta is based on Debian.
The ER-X is actually a little Debian box with a decent GUI.
Unless you have >600 Mbps symmetric gigabit home internet, an ER-X is more than fast enough for routing, firewall/NAT functions for the average residential user.
It is also a really good way to economically separate the functions of router and wifi. Have a router that is a wired 1000BaseT router with no wifi. Buy one or two of the 802.11ac Unifi dual band access points, priced anywhere from $75/ea to $200/ea depending if you want 2x2 MIMO or 3x3 MIMO, or wave2 functionality.
Set up the unifi controller as a virtualbox VM on your laptop that you use to provision it and make changes. The controller does not need to remain persistently on the LAN once the APs are configured.
I remember early on the edgerouters had performance problems with all kinds things (e.g. IPv6) since their hardware-offloading support was lacking, I assume that has improved by now?
Short answer: EdgeRouter 4 ($199) or EdgeRouter Lite ($99).
Long Answer: It depends.
The ER-X / ER-X-SFP are architected as a switch with a router hanging off an internal 1Gb/s full-duplex link. Every routed packet crosses that link twice -- once in, once out -- so they can only do 1Gb/s of combined routing.
For most purposes, traffic patterns are heavily asymmetrical so this isn't a meaningful limitation, but to get > 400-500 Mb/s symmetrical performance you need any of their other models.
The ERLite-3 and ER-4 are the next best models for home use. Both are fanless, low-power, and capable of line-rate symmetrical routing across all ports simultaneously. ER-4 doubles the RAM, has twice as many faster CPU cores, adds a dedicated SFP port, has an internal PSU, and an optional rackmount kit.
ERPoe-5 is an ERLite-3 with one port replaced by a 3-port switch and 24v/48v PoE (early units shipped with a 24v PSU, buyer beware if you need 48v PoE).
ER-8 / ERPro-8 have 8 routed ports, are rackmount-only, and have fans that aren't suitable for living / work spaces. The Pro adds 2 SFP combo ports and a slightly higher clocked CPU. The newer ER-4 is much more powerful and costs less.
ER-6P is an ER-4 with two more copper ports, an external PSU, and 24v PoE (standard PoE is 48v).
Note that the ER-X, ER-X-SFP, and ERPoe-5 are the only models with switched ports. You can bridge routed ports to emulate a switch, but that forces traffic out of the hardware offload engine and seriously compromises performance. Buy an external switch or a model with switched ports if you need switched ports. For the money, the ER-X makes an excellent compact managed switch with a much nicer UI than typical cheap web-managed switches.
On the UniFi side, the USG is equivalent to the ERLite-3 and the USG-PRO-4 is an ERPro-8 with half the ports. An updated model based on the ER-4 / ER-6P platform is expected but not any time soon.
Has Ubiquiti started shipping the toolchain necessary to build their Linux, or are they still violating the GPL?
When last I checked, you could not compile your own kernel for Ubiquiti devices and get something that worked the same way as before -- the switch ports, IIRC, and probably other stuff.
My firewall runs actual Debian Stable, gets updates to everything including the kernel, and happily handles the gigabit that VZ claims to be delivering to my house. (Actual speeds tested vary from 700-950Mb/s.)
Depends on how many gigabit ports you want. I wanted five, so it pulls about 20W idle and 45W max. If you can survive with 2 and a WLAN, you can get down to about 5W idle and 25W max.
Nothing is as small as custom non-PC hardware. However, I think mine is reasonably small and you can go to a NUC size for 2 gigabit ports.
I really like the Unifi gear for home use; it’s industrial-grade without completely breaking the bank (can get a good 2 AP setup for $400). PoE is a nice touch that makes it really easy to just snake a cable from a closet and leave a full-power AP in the attic.
The remote management tools are really nice if you have multiple sites (parents house, vacation home, etc) to manage. 1% problem for sure, but for a little bit more than a crapbox integrated router you can get an enterprise-grade modular managed solution.
UniFi is awesome for managing the extended family's stuff, tho I've been leaning towards AmpliFi Mesh (another Ubiquiti product line) for those who don't have very fast Internet -- the phone app is super friendly and supports remote management.
As a geek with more complex networking needs -- multi-WAN, site-to-site VPN tunnels, lots of port forwards -- EdgeRouters are the way to go. UNMS gives me some centralized management and insights into what's happening with my EdgeOS (and AirMax) gear. Rest of my network is UniFi APs and switches.
Actually, I would use the Edge line for exactly what it is marketed for e.g. your network interconnect (internet <-> internal network) and internal network backbone and the Unifi products to connect the Edge powered backbone network to devices.
This way you get the best of both worlds. Especially since the EdgeRouter line is absolutely one of the best on the market when it comes to network throughput (which you really want if you have 1000mbps+ fiber behind it)
Their devices run Linux so you can ssh directly into them if you want to change something. All config options are also available via the command line interface.
If you want a consistent UI experience, choose one of their several "lines" and stick with it for all your hardware, i.e. use a Unifi Security Gateway + a Unifi Switch instead of the EdgeRouter X. This will allow you to control all your devices from the same interface. I went with the heterogenuous combination because it suited my needs.