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[Weaver]

I have an odd couple of questions about the capabilities of different router models. This might mean digging into the manual for the device or poking around in its “Advanced > Advanced” UI.

1. If your router is a DHCP server, can you customise its operation so that it can publish various particular DHCP options of your choice? (Some DHCP servers will let you publish an option identified by a number (which is an information 'type' identifier) and a string which is the value.

2. If your router is a local caching proxy / relay DNS server (meaning that clients on your LAN send their DNS queries addressed to the router itself which then if need be sends a query out to external DNS servers) then are you able to define your own DNS record entries? For example on my router I can define a DNS record that maps the domain name "printer" to 192.0.2.199 say, or to 2001:db8::cec1:0055.

3. Is your router very locked-down in UI terms?

[Chunkers]

Hi Weaver!

I think the kind of functions you are looking for don't really feature in most home / consumer devices, largely to keep things simple for us normos out there.  I think the vendors dumb down the firmware for a variety of reasons, keeping things simple and also to minimise the need for updates.

On the DHCP side, I have had a bunch of consumer routers and all I have ever really seen is enable / disable server, defining IP block ranges and IP reservation options.  I have seen routers where you can define multiple DHCP IP ranges but I am not sure I have ever seen what you are referring to.

As you know I have a passing interest in DNS caching from my thread here as I am having some DNS issues.  I have yet to find (although it may well exist) a non-hacked consumer router tha has a DNS caching function without hacking the CLI and installing BusyBox addons - services are usually limited to choosing DNS servers and Dynamic DNS capability.  One exception - I think my Zyxel VMG8924 router does allow you to set up DNS routes manually but not much else (I only use it as a modem though).

Both of the above observations are true of my current TP-Link TL-ER5120 which, by home standards, is a pretty complex dual-WAN device with a load of "Advanced" options.

I am obviously switching to pfSense shortly having assembled my DIY router, pfSense gives you an insane amount of configurability - which could be a plus or minus in my case

Chunks

[Weaver]

I imagine that a lot of ISPs want to minimise support costs by not letting users fiddle around with stuff. However I'm not so sure about routers that are sold to end users direct and which have to compete on features.

The reason for my question is that I'm in the very early stages of doing some design work and want to find out what is and is not feasible.

[G.DMT]

Hi weaver.
 It has been quite a while since I have had the free time to post on here, but I did happen to notice your question and given your circumstances, I can recommend a selection of fairly simple solutions for you.

As long as your current modem/router/access point (firebrick?) has either of the options to
1) disable the inbuilt DHCP, or preferrably
2) forward / delagate DHCP to another host / IP address

then there is a choice of very flexible and powerful solutions available to the home enthusiast.

Many popular router distros often use dnsmasq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnsmasq

Ideally you can administer it via a web GUI, with the option to manually tweak the config files if required.

My preference would be to install OpenWRT on a suitable router, like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252667510654?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

or this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232189826688?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

or Gargoyle https://www.gargoyle-router.com/wiki/doku.php?id=supported_routers_-_tested_routers

or similarly you could use ipfire http://www.ipfire.org/
which has downloads for x86 or a supported ARM single Board computer  like Raspberry Pi.
http://wiki.ipfire.org/en/hardware/arm/start
 which can also be silent, fanless and ultra low power, so very cheap to run.

I hope this helps, any questions, just ask! 

[Weaver]

My apologies kitizens, it is not that I want to do these things myself - I already can - but I'm doing a survey to see how many other popular router models have anything like these kinds of facilities. I'm not hopeful that the results would be good.

[Weaver]

Actually one other thing. I'd be interested in a packet capture showing a DHCP or DHCPv6 conversation with your router particularly if it is one supplied in large numbers as CPE. I'm asking because I'd like to know what info beyond the bare minimum is included in the packets.

[Chrysalis]

The trend I am noticing is a minimisation of features.

I think this is for a few reasons.

To keep support costs down, this includes both after sales support and cost of developing firmware updates.
To add a missing feature to a new model if it ever gets popular.
To segregate products in different market segments.

e.g. I remember when I had adsl router's I was able to mess with IDS stuff on the firewall, that kind of feature is now very uncommon.

For this reason the most powerful consumer devices in terms of capabilities are going to be devices running one of the following

ddwrt
openwrt
asuswrt
pfsense
tomatousb

In my opinion the last 2 are the most feature rich in the GUI part of the firmware. With asuswrt the least feature rich in the gui, that only gets listed because it has entware support and can be made powerful via the cli configuration.

[d2d4j]

Hi

The Draytek can do both 1 and 2, and ui not locked down but if using dhcp options, the ui changes overwrite any dhcp options set via cli

I have checked this from a 2830

I hope that helps

Many thanks

John