Repurposing old notebook into wi-fi router

I understand it's probably a dumb question, however quick googling didn't help, so I decided to start a thread. I have an old notebook that I would like to use for OpenVPN, torrents... and wi-fi routing. It's capable of running 24/7 even in hot weather, and will be connected to isp via ethernet. I expect it to provide wireless connection to 4-5 devices at a time.
Can I make it do the job better than cheap wi-fi routers? Do I get it right that I need to buy some fancy expresscard wi-fi adapter with huge external antennae?

 

G502 is good but the weight kills it.


The 303 is using the same sensor as 502 (3366), definitely buying.

 

Wrong thread???

 

Weird, I definitely posted on the right thread.

If you click on the Logitech G303 thread you will be redirected to the new HP ultrabook thread. Must be something with NBR.

 

How about helping with my questions? =\ Do I need to get expresscard wi-fi with external antennae, or would the antennae integrated into display lid be enough for routing in apartment? Is it a stupid idea to have vpn server and wi-fi router on a single (some Linux distro) machine, security-wise?

 

Look up pfSense and guides on how to use it

 

octiceps, thank you, I will consider pfSense. Hope someone will answer my other question as well.

 

Notebook's own antenna should do fine. You could conceivably add an external card via USB so your router would have two radios like most routers do.
Notice that even if you have a dual band card in the notebook it can work either at 2.4GHz or 5GHz but not at the same time. That's why routers have separate adios for each band. If you wanted more range you could use a High Powered card like those made by Alpha.

That said I don't think it's the best idea ever unless you like fiddling with such projects. I would rather choose a router that supports OpenVPN via 3rd party firmware if I were you.

 

Not to mention the order of magnitude increase in power consumption of that notebook compared to a router, which adds up when you've got it running 24/7. Which is why I never bothered to dabble in pfSense with my old laptops. A cheap DD-WRT capable router is a much more cost-effective solution.

 

Agreed although not with the "cheap" part - since the requirement here is also to run torrent downloading - to match that we would have to have a torrent client on the router which can be done (OpenWRT) but torrent clients require quite a lot of RAM (multiple connections) and SoC would have to offer reasonable performance to be able to handle routing, torrent client, VPN and NTFS formatted HDD (for the torrents).

All in all lots of RAM and fast SoC won't make it cheap but still...

 

True but it will pay for itself within a year on the power bill

 

downloads, octiceps, thank you for your answers.

I expect to keep this notebook running 24/7 anyway, since I don't believe any reasonably-priced router will be able to handle routing+VPN+torrents+media-serving all at once. The logic is, since the notebook is always on anyway, to get rid of all other devices it can replace. I will consider alternatives like powerful routers, mini-pcs, etc. - however I really like the flexibility of a notebook, and the fact that you can always repurpose it. I generally like to tinker with notebooks, if it's cost-effective and doesn't take too much time.

 

If you really want to go with such a project maybe you should consider buying a used Eee PC or Acer Aspire One netbook - possibly with broken screen to make it even cheaper. You would end up with a single core Atom and up to 2GB RAM and whatever 2.5" HDD you like plus USB ports, Wi-Fi and Ethernet all in a small package with very silent cooling.

The only downside (apart from the fact that you'd have to buy such a device) is that I think these only used 10/100 Ethernet cards and you could use a Gigabit one.

EDIT: As it turns out you could buy a used Aspire One for $40-50 on eBay. Might be a good idea.

 

Now that I thought a little more on the subject... I would like to have:
* Wireless routing
* VPN
* Automated backup from my main notebook (2TB HDD)
* NAS (another 2TB HDD)
* Torrents (0.75TB-1TB, most data will be sorted and moved to main machine or NAS monthly)
* My own personal cloud-storage? (100GB max)

Notebook I originally intended to use is Acer Aspire 5930G. Currently it has T4500, 2GB RAM, Intel 5100abg Wi-fi, Ethernet, 2x2.5" 9.5mm HDD slots, powered eSATA, Expresscard/54 slot, empty second mPCIe slot. I can expand its' memory to 3GB or 4GB for cheap if required, and I understand it likely needs a better and/or second wireless interface. I also have 2TB HDD for NAS, 1TB for backup (to be replaced by 2TB later) and 0.75TB for whatever else - all 2.5" 9.5mm.

I don't want to invest much into the project because it's currently on the bottom of my priority list - I could run VPN and serve media on my main notebook (it's mostly for my phone anyway), turning off torrents when carrying it around and backing up on USB HDD - oh, and use cheap router for routing. But it's obviously not very comfortable, so I'm open to options.

 

Another idea... maybe it would be wiser to keep the routers and order Raspberry Pi 2 for torrents, vpn & media-sharing instead?

 

That would be a similar solution to repurposing an old Atom netbook - I think it's a good idea.

 

While I know it is not reasonable the R8000 supposedly would do all you are looking at. While I have the torrent capability, I also have no use for it. I still would like the USB 3.0 to work at the higher speeds but my WAN is no where near the speeds and DLNA has no issue with 5 HD streams so I really do not have too much to complain about.

I'll be honest and say I hated to put the money out. My router died and doing quick research I quickly went from Econo-N routers to the R8000. I figured though if I can get 9-10 years off this one, like the last, what the heck go for it.

 

TANWare, R8000 has 256MB RAM vs 1GB for Pi2 and 2GB+ for notebook... =/

 

agreed, but the how does each function with the allotted memory. Now XP on 2GB is a lot but Win7 or above needs 2GB to function without major lag. Pi2 I believe is Linux/(android?) based so 1GB is awesome but Pi2 can be a lot to configure with required hardware etc.

Since you can do much more of a customization with Pi2 it probably is the most powerful and flexible option. I just wanted a 1 box pnp solution and the R8000 fit the bill. I'll state though I am not too well versed with Pi2 so I am remembering from my research and while interesting I had lost my home network and did not want to spend the time educating myself.

Edit; Also I was not too sure about beam-forming or even 2 5GHz radios especially with automatic optimizations such as with the R8000 and other ac3200's

 

octiceps, downloads, TANWare, thank you for your suggestions. I ordered Raspberry Pi2.

 

Congrats and have fun with your new toy.