this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
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Honestly I just bought a small mini PC and installed Linux on it — that’s my router. I got sick of consumer trash anyway and decided to roll my own. The mini PC is overkill, you can get by very modest hardware.
... Has anyone attempted to turn an old android smart phone into a router?
I do have an old laptop, and I could install OPNSense on it, though I'm not sure if it has a second NIC card, which seems to be a requirement for running any router software on a PC. Please correct me if I'm wrong, tho.
Yeah that’s kind of the downside. I considered using a Raspberry Pi but it felt weird to use its Ethernet port alongside some micro USB → Ethernet adapter that probably wouldn’t hit 1 Gbps anyway.
Ah, so it just needs another ethernet port, if I understand you correctly? So an ethernet adapter would work?
I used an USB Ethernet adapter on my OPNSense setup and it wasn't stable enough. It basically required a reboot every other day. A PCI-E ethernet card solved my stability issues. Just my experience.