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are you tired of your wireless router dropping your internet connection at the

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worst possible time well it turns out you can build your very own router

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that'll perform a lot better and it's a lot simpler to do than you might think

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but why do store bot and ISP provided routers tend to be so unreliable in the

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first place shutting down this this isn't Techquickie this is lonus Tech

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tips where we actually do the things we talk about so Bit Defender a staple in

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cyber security sponsored this video to show you how easy it is to get better

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performance and reliability as well as better security and privacy by building

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your own custom router and how you can even do it with your dad's Dusty old

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D the problem with your typical big box

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or ISP provided router is that they're usually not just a router instead

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they're often combo devices that include a wireless access point to provide Wi-Fi

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a switch to connect your local devices together and the literal router with

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which connects your local devices to the outside internet in a safe manner not

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only does this make it impossible to replace or upgrade any part

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independently of the others but each of these functions can be better performed

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by separate discrete devices now listen it's not realistic or economical to try

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to build your own switch or access point but the good news is that these devices

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are widely available at reasonable prices the router though that's a

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different story and that's what we're going to be focusing on building today

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pretty much any x86 computer from the last 10 or 15 years or so should work

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better than your typical Diaper Genie we're going to be using this Dell

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Optiplex 7010 that Anthony previously used to build a Home Server since it's

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small form factor won't take up too much space it only costs around 100 bucks on

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eBay and most importantly see right there it has an available PCIe gen 3

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slot that's important because we need at least two Network ports one for land to

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connect to our switch and one for when to connect to our modem or fiber box

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your old motherboard including this one probably only come with one Jack and

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while we could use that along with a separate port on another network card

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you'll want to make sure that both are well supported by your router operating

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system of choice more on that in a moment while most Network controllers

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may seem to work fine you may run into performance issues with certain chipsets

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and certain manufacturers so our recommendation is to stick to an

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Intel-based Nick whenever possible if you're unsure of what Nick you have or

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whether your Nick is compatible you can typically find the model on your motherboard box or product page and from

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there Google is your best friend if that's sounds like too much work you can

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easily find older dual Port Intel network cards like the i340 for around

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25 bucks on eBay or maybe even cheaper from a local electronics recycler we're

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going to be using the four port version of this card since we already had one lying around oh I don't even need a

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screwdriver if I did LTT Store.com the

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damn oplex are too good now if you happen to have greater than gigabit

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internet a single port Intel i225 2.5

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gig Nick can be had for around the same price and for 10 gig the Dual T Intel

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X540 T2 will run you around 50 to 70 bucks on eBay knock to a fan not

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included now since we're on the topic of Hardware our Optiplex is equipped with a

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core I 73770 and should be totally fine for

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running gigabit or 2.5 Gig if you want to go faster than that say 10 gig you're

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going to want more CPU power so make sure you check the recommended specs and

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ask around in the community to figure out what should work for you we're going

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to also be installing a 256 gig SSD which fits behind the hard drive pretty

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nicely and we're also going to take this hard drive out because that's just a bunch of extra power consumption we

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don't need with our Hardware ready it's time to talk software the two biggest

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players in the space right now are pfSense and open sense both of which are

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based on the Unix like operating system FreeBSD they're very similar because

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open sense started off as a fork of pfSense and you can't really go wrong

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with either but we like open sense for it's subjectively easier to use goey and

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more frequent updates for example on our own core router the main 25 gig Nick in

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it still isn't supported by pfSense if you're following along at home grab

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yourself a copy of open sense from the official site pick your architecture and

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select the VGA image type the other option is serial but if you use serial

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ports to manage your networking equipment you probably don't need to be watching this video to install open

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sense you can use a tool like eter or Rufus to make a bootable USB installer

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plug that into your soon Tobe router and select it from the boot menu let all the

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countdowns finish and if your computer happens to have an internal speaker like ours you'll be greeted with a noise that

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sounds a little bit like a Japanese rice cooker

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it's not unpleasant it's just a bit loud if your system doesn't have a display

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output you can install open sense onto your drive in a different system and

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then move it over but if you have a monitor look at that monitor with your eyeballs throughout the boot sequence it

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will ask for manual intervention a few times but you can just skip these once

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you're greeted by the login prompt take a second to check the port numbering on

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your system you can do this by taking a cable that's plugged into a nearby PC

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and putting into each port on the router and marking those ports down this will

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be important later once you're done hit enter to bring the login prompt back

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type installer as the username and open sense as the password don't worry here

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if you're not seeing anything show up it is actually typing it's just not showing

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it for security if you want to try open sense out you can instead log in as root

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for a live install but your settings will not survive a reboot without being

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manually backed up you have been warned select your keyboard layout if it's not

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the default US map hit install ufs select your boot drive hit okay on Swap

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and the confirmation and then open sense will install like a good little boy once

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it's done we'd recommend changing your root password to something a little more secure then you can exit and reboot Tech

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tip don't forget to remove the USB during the reboot otherwise you might

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boot back into the installer once you're booted back up plug your client system

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into the port selected as Lan in the console then navigate to

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192.168.1.1 in your browser log in with root and the password you set and Bam

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you now have a functional open sense router from here there's settings for

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just about anything you can imagine but be careful because it's very easily to

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entirely bork your router if you go and change settings you don't understand I'm

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going to show you guys a few important ones that will actually be helpful for you first and foremost is the DHCP

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settings by default open sense sets its IP range on the DHCP server from 100 to

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199 that means it's only going to allow for a 100 devices connected to your

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network for most home Gamers this is probably okay but you can also tweak

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this down to say 50 and this one up to 254 and that's going to give you over

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200 devices you can also set the DNS settings that your clients use here so

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if you want to use say cloud flare or Google DNS you'd want to put that in

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these fields and then make sure you hit save when you're done otherwise these

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settings won't apply it's also important to know how to update your system so to

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do so go to system firmware and then updates it'll check for any updates and

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then allow you to apply them the last thing you'll probably want to know is how to change your interface assignments

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these are going to be under interfaces and then assignments from here you can change your Lan or Wan ports if you want

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to use a different port and this is where you would assign a VLAN if that's

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something you know how to set up open sense has other cool features like being

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able to back up your config to Google Drive on a schedule I'd highly recommend

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setting that up you can disable the screaming rice cooker noise and you can port forward like any other router but

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be careful as the firewall is an important part of your network security

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aside from the Limitless customization potential frequent security updates and

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the ability to swap parts a DIY router encourages you to be more mindful not

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just in how your network is used but how your network is protected just like Bit

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Defender premium security isn't just an antivirus product it's a whole Suite of

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tools designed to encourage you to be more mindful about how you use your

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devices it's a password manager so you can stop us using password 123 for

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everything it's a VPN so you can stop using unsecured Hotel Wi-Fi to do your

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important banking it's a device Optimizer so your phone and computer

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don't get bogged down by temporary files from programs you installed 2 years ago

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only to immediately uninstall they have consistent top positioning in attacks

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and threat detection tests over the last8 years and Bit Defender premium

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Security offers unbeatable protection against spyware malware adwar and all

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other sorts of cyber threats with no compromise to your system performance

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you're not limited to your Windows system either as it works on Mac iOS and

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Android and you're covered for up to 10 devices it's easy to install easy to run

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and easy to check so save up to 59% on a year of Bit Defender premium security at

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the link down below you might have noticed by now that we only have a single land port assigned even if you

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had extra on your system and you wanted to use these for other devices to have

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to use software switching on these ports is very inefficient and typically can't

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run anywhere near line speed instead a cheap multi-port switch like this guy or

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the Netgear GS3 weight can be had for around 20 bucks on Amazon or they can be

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even cheaper if they have a plastic housing or fewer ports just make sure

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that it's full gigabit speed if you're running 2.5 gig or 10 gig these switches

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get a lot more expensive but we found a trend net 2.5 gig unit for 120 bucks and

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for 10 gig the cheapest option we could find is the ubiquity switch Flex XG with

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four 10 gig ports for 300 bucks once you have some form of switch plug it into

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the wall and then the landan port of your router and any of your other devices on your network can plug

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directly into the remaining ports the last last thing we need to reach feature

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parody with our combo unit is some Wi-Fi now there's a lot of options here

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ranging in price from literal trash you can find at any dump all the way up to

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Enterprise grade access points that can run you thousands of dollars many of the

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off-the-shelf home routers that we've been talking about replacing can be used

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purely for Wi-Fi by finding a setting called AP mode or bridge mode however

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the performance is usually pretty not great so unless you're trying to do this

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with Hardware you already have we'd recommend picking up a standalone access

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point like these from ubiquity or a mesh system like the TPL link Deco Netgear

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Orbee or Amazon's Euros system for the purposes of this video we have a

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ubiquity UniFi 6 long range which can be had for 179 bucks or the light version

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of it is only $100 you can also find them cheaper secondhand once your Wi-Fi

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is set up everything should kind of just function together so let's run a speed

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test this is on wired on my laptop here but we should be able to get full

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gigabit and we can see the CPU usage which is very interesting oh there we go

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two ping 700 800 900 megabits and we're

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only using like 7% CP usage which is pretty dang good let's check our upload

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speed it's basically the same Sweet let's try Wi-Fi it's not a very good test

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on the Wi-Fi cuz I don't know what it's set to but um I'm sure it's sure it's

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plenty fast yeah like 200 down that's pretty good we're in a very congested

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area right now there's a lot of access points and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth so I

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wouldn't expect the speeds to be too crazy but your mileage may vary of

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course if you're in a country where electricity is so expensive that running

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a 4090 is borderline unethical you may instead opt for something a little more

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power efficient micro PCS like this won't be as upgradeable but can be as

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much as 10 times more power efficient some of them even have 2.5 gig Ethernet

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built in now they do cost more upfront but depending on your electricity cost

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you might end up saving in the long run our Optiplex was somewhere between 30

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and 40 Watts while doing absolutely nothing and I'm sure a lot more when the

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CPU starts to crank up so your mileage may vary that's it then for 100 bucks on

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this Optiplex 20 bucks on a switch and 100 bucks for an access point we built

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an infinitely more configurable more upgradable more better router access

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point switch combo that you get to Tinker with all on your own you get

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better control of your network security and you get better control of your

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privacy it's fun for the whole family except when it doesn't work but surely

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this will work more than your ISP provided one so thanks to Bit Defender

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security by following the link in the description down below if you like this

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video maybe check out that one where we upgraded our office router and took the

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internet out multiple times in the middle of the workday it was funnier

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when we had like 15 employees but now that there's like 80 it's a it's a

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little prohibitive to do that yeah