Recently, I’ve noticed that many friends want to try the soft routing system OpenWRT. Today, we’re starting to update various posts related to soft routing!

What is a soft router?

A soft router refers to using a desktop or server with software to create a routing solution, mainly relying on software settings to achieve the functions of a router; while a hard router uses specialized hardware, including processors, power supplies, and embedded software, to provide predefined router functions.

Baidu Encyclopedia

In simple terms, it means using the electronic devices we have at hand in conjunction with software to achieve router functionality.

Can a computer be turned into a router?

Basically, any computer you have used can be turned into a soft router, and the underlying soft router system is developed on Linux. If your computer can install a Linux system, it can definitely install a soft router system.

Today, we will first discuss how to write OpenWRT to a USB drive.

First, you need to obtain the resources suitable for x86 OpenWRT.

The main text begins

There are many files available for download, find a version that suits you. If you are just starting with soft routing, it is recommended to download the 【full-featured version】 and test and adjust step by step.

The full-featured version has many integrated functions, such as: ad blocker, *** server, etc.

This example uses the 【full-featured version efi】.

Remember to downloadRufus.exe!

After downloading, you need to extract it first.

The extracted file is an .img file, and ensure that the path and filename do not contain Chinese characters.

Double-click to open rufus.exe

At this point, insert the prepared USB drive, which needs to have more than 1GB of available space, preferably 2GB or more. As for the interface, it doesn’t matter much since it’s not a very large system package. After inserting the USB drive, check if it is recognized correctly.

Note: The process will format every partition on the USB drive, so please back up any data on it in advance!

Next, click 【Select】 and find the prepared image file.

Then click 【Start】.

Wait for it to complete.

Once the writing is complete, you can connect it to your computer to use OpenWRT.

–End–

A computer with one network card can also act as a router, and multiple network cards can also serve as a router; it all depends on how you set it up. The upcoming tutorials will explain various methods of using soft routing.

As a novice, I use a soft routing system, and sometimes I find it very comfortable, but at times it can be quite frustrating. After all, my OpenWRT is set up on a virtual machine, not installed directly on a physical machine.

Alright, let’s stop here for today. Interested friends can subscribe to the soft routing tag!

Thanks to @Gxnas for their help!

Finally, although we are already familiar with it, don’t forget to like and check it out!