What router are you running? I'm running a Mikrotik right now, and for under $100 the features it gives me are insane.
Mikrotik here as well. The feature set is superb and isn't locked behind obnoxious paywalls like most routers (oh, you want to run BGP or OSPF? That requires a $5000 commercial router). Sure, you may only have $100 worth of hardware so your physical capacity is limited, but you can use every software feature you want even with their cheap routers. If I want to isolate my guest wifi from my LAN, I can easily do it. If I want to setup routing to another router on my home network (I used to do this for reasons), I can do it. If I want to log every botnet trying to bruteforce my network to build a custom blacklist, I can do it. If I want to watch connections on the wire to figure out why blocking 45.0.0.0/8 breaks Netflix title enumeration (a freaking Chinese IP range I'd normally block), I can easily do it. If I want to watch every connection some smart tv's ad-spam connects to, I can do it...and no more ads. If I want to setup a VPN back to my house, easy-peasy.
Good look doing that with most residential routers even at triple the price. Either they wont have the feature at all, or it'll be so cumbersome that it's nigh unusable.
Mind sharing which model you use, their collection is immense
I use this currently for home use: https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_ac2
I've run higher end gear in home, but it's a waste of money. The Hap AC2 has all the software features I'd conceivably want, and enough hardware/throughput for home use. The integrated wifi is decent. The price point is amazing for what you get (other home router manufacturers seem to think a router that can terminate VPN conmections should cost hundreds of dollars, which is just crazy).
The only downside is that because it"s relying upon internal antennas, it comes in a plastic case that's light enough to easily knock over. At least compared to the metal cases you'd usually see Mikrotik gear in, which tend to be heavy enough that if you bump them they're not going to move.
I also have some dumb switches scattered around the house to cut down on ethernet runs and avoid running out of ethernet jacks on the router.
Mikrotik is some great stuff, you're right. The $99 I spent on a unit a few years back was a great investment. They even provide a basic setup now, mine had to be programmed from the ground up.
I'm glad they added the basic setup. It's much more fun to start by fiddling with "fun stuff" like custom firewall rules rather than "Ok, the last time I setup a DHCP client so I can plug into my modem was five years ago, how the heck did I do this last time..."
I agree, although I learned quite a bit about lower-levels of networking by doing it the hard way.
Last one I set up was just confirm I wanted to use the 88.1 net and go.
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