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Okay, the king of mini routers, that’s what I crowned it — Extreme Gamer
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Many beginners are confused (迷惑的迷, also 痴迷的迷) about soft routers and directly buy industrial computers priced between 800-1300 yuan, which are expensive due to the hard drive and memory. When they get it home, they realize it’s unnecessary… This article will help clarify a key misconception in choosing a soft router.
Introduction to NanoPi R2S
The CPU of the NanoPi R2S uses the RK3328, a 4-core A53 ARMv8 64-bit 1.5Ghz, with 1G memory. It uses a TF card as the system disk, which saves costs on excessive CPU, memory, and hard disk for large soft routers (hereafter referred to as R2S).
R2S is somewhat like a mini card-style computer, featuring two gigabit ports, making it ideal for building a soft router. I spent a total of 230 yuan on RS2 + TF card + power supply + network cable, and its performance can handle 1000M bandwidth (note: it can actually reach around 940M, but other factors may affect this, yet this bandwidth is already quite good).
Flashing the System to the TF Card
After downloading the firmware, extract it until you get an IMG file. Then use imaging software to write it to the TF card. I use Win32DiskImager on Win10; if you are on Mac or Linux, I recommend using Etcher.
Wiring and Usage
First, look at the “wiring diagram”. Note that in the diagram, ISP represents the service provider, but here it indicates the optical modem, as I wanted to keep the diagram simple… As you can see: connect the optical modem to the WAN port of the R2S; connect the LAN port of the R2S to the WAN port of the router.
First Login
The default login address for the firmware I flashed is 192.168.2.1. The first thing to do after logging in is to change the configuration of the WAN and LAN ports in “Network – Interfaces”. Beginners buying soft routers often worry about this configuration, thinking it’s too difficult… Actually, it’s quite simple, especially once you understand the logic.
After the first login, go to “Network – Interfaces” to configure: for the WAN port, select the PPPOE dial-up mode; if your optical modem dials, select DHCP client (this is the default); then set the LAN port to an IP segment that does not conflict with the hard router. Assuming your hard router is commonly 192.168.1.1, then the soft router’s LAN port can be set to 192.168.10.1, allowing access to the management page of the hard router from the former and the management page of the soft router from the latter, without conflict.
Then for the hard router settings, since the soft router is dialing, the hard router no longer needs to dial. Set its PPPOE dial mode to automatically obtain IP mode (different routers have different descriptions; mine is described this way, similar to DHCP client above).
Testing Speed and Sharing Screenshots
About All in One
As a beginner, I rely on the guides found on Baidu; however, many articles emphasize All in One. Thus, many articles that beginners find are based on this concept, but it has been misused. So let me talk about All in More (a term I made up, mainly to explain the concept).
“All in One” roughly means packing many functions into one device, but I believe this actually increases the complexity of the device. If one component fails, it can cause multiple functions to become unusable, making it hard to pinpoint, troubleshoot, and rebuild the issue. Why should a router run Linux and decode 4K videos…
“All in More” is my definition: each device performs its role, A function is completed by device A, B function is achieved by device B, with each device acting as a part. A router should focus on being a router, not dealing with graphic rendering! When should one use All in One? Simple: when it meets the needs without interfering with any party and can achieve combined benefits.
In Conclusion
As the saying goes: “Planting grass without pulling it out, the spring breeze brings it back to life.” This article hopes to provide those who have been tempted by soft routers with an opportunity to reconsider, as the NanoPi RS2 is compactly designed, with performance sufficient to meet gigabit bandwidth usage, and in fact, many people do not even reach gigabit networks, so it can be used for many years. If you are also one of those tempted, don’t forget… to give a thumbs up! Haha ~
