I recently moved into a home, that whether I like it or note, is rather “smart”.
There is a Ring video doorbell, Ring camera out the back and Wi-Fi radiators throughout, not to mention the Wi-Fi fridge, dishwasher, washing machine, hot water tank and Amazon Echo Dot that I was recently gifted.
In total, I think there are around 18 Wi-Fi devices in the house before I add any of my own.
Router choice
When first moving in, I only had an old Netgear WNR1000v3 router that would barely give a single client 40MBps connection, let alone be able to support 20+ devices moving forward. It also really couldn’t handle the fibre internet speed, given it is from 2011.
I also tried an old Plusnet hub that I had kicking around, but apparently they lock the PPPoe details to only allow Plusnet accounts?
Trusting the advice of my dear friend Ollie after discussing his “2022.11.14 Low Power Firewall” research spreadsheet, I settled on buying a Beelink U59 Pro N5105 mini PC (that would also arrive the next day).

You can find a good performance review including power benchmarks for this device on CNX Software.


