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Is it possible to install FreeBSD on a typical home router such as the NetGear DG834G?

Or is there an alternative that is suitable for a home setup?

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Oct 14 '11 at 2:34

closed as off topic by Mark Henderson♦ Oct 14 '11 at 3:40

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1 Answer

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FreeBSD only runs* on x86 and amd64 hardware. Since most home routers are using a different kind of cpu (like ARM) it will not work.

You can find a list of supported hardware over here: http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=50

Personally I can recommend the Soekris hardware, but if you don't have the budget for that than ALIX is a reasonable alternative.

*as corrected by @wormsparty this is not 100% true, it is possible to run on other hardware but having a fully functioning router is a different question

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Am I missing something? FreeBSD claims to support alpha, amd64, ARM, i386, ia64, MIPS, pc98, ppc, sparc64, sun4v, xbox. – wormsparty Oct 13 '11 at 12:11
@wormsparty: there's a difference between "runs on" and "fully functional". From my experience it can be quite the challenge to get a fully functional FreeBSD firewall on a MIPS system. I would be very interested in any articles claiming different because I have been looking for a way to replace my old router. – WoLpH Oct 13 '11 at 15:37
Upvoted unexplained downvote. – EJP Oct 13 '11 at 23:06
See zrouter – hangover Oct 14 '11 at 4:01

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