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Cheapest router that suports 2.5G internet? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/networking

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I may soon be upgrading to 2.5Gbps internet, however all the routers that support said speed seem to be expensive. Is there any that cost less than $100?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

If it's basic routing and NAT, https://mikrotik.com/product/l009uigs_rm might work? It's listed as $119, so just outside your budget.
If you start using a lot of firewall rules that can't fastpath, that performance will dip significantly. And if it's lots of tiny little packets (Ie 64 bytes, even 512 bytes instead of the full mtu 1518 bytes), that will also hit performance.
Check the test results.

Otherwise, you could repurpose an older computer, put a 2.5g NIC pcie card in, and run opnsense. Although, finding a reliable 2.5gbps network card is going to eat into your budget.

I presume the router will hand off to a 2.5/5/10gbps network? Or does the router also need to be a switch and have multiple 2.5gbps ports?

Unfortunately, consumer "cheap" is only just catching up to 1gbps. Which is a huge amount of bandwidth for regular consumers to actually be able to fully use.
2.5gbps+ is still in the niche/specialist/hobby range with prices reflecting that.