For many households in Germany, a Fritzbox is the standard solution: connect it, enter your internet credentials, and your network is up and running. For a simple home network, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But once you want more control over your network, you can quickly run into limitations.
I had been using a Fritzbox 7490 for quite some time. It did its job reliably, but by now it felt noticeably slow and simply did not offer enough flexibility for the network setup I had in mind.
So I decided: the Fritzbox had to go – modem and firewall would become two separate devices.
My New Setup
The internet connection now essentially consists of two devices:
- DrayTek Vigor 167 as a dedicated DSL modem
- J6412 mini PC with 8 GB of RAM running OPNsense
The Vigor 167 now handles nothing more than the DSL connection itself. Routing, firewalling, DHCP, VLANs and the actual network management are handled entirely by OPNsense.
This turns the traditional all-in-one router approach into a much more flexible setup:
Internet / DSL
│
DrayTek Vigor 167
│
OPNsense
J6412 / 8 GB
│
Managed Switch
│
├─ Users
├─ Servers
├─ Wi-Fi
├─ IoT
└─ Additional VLANs
Why Go Through All This Trouble?
The main reason was not raw internet speed.
I wanted to properly segment my network.
Servers, regular user devices, Wi-Fi equipment and IoT devices do not necessarily need to communicate freely with each other. With OPNsense, VLANs can be combined with very specific firewall rules to control exactly which devices and networks are allowed to communicate.
A smart TV, for example, has no reason to access my servers. The same applies to most IoT devices: they usually do not need unrestricted access to the entire internal network.
A proper firewall makes this kind of separation much easier and much more transparent to manage.
More Control with Zenarmor
In addition to OPNsense, I am also running Zenarmor. This provides much more detailed insight into network traffic and allows traffic to be controlled using individual policies.
This becomes useful even for very ordinary household scenarios.
Devices such as a TV in a child's room can have their own dedicated policies. Certain services or application categories can be blocked, allowing me to block YouTube specifically on that device without having to disable YouTube for the entire household.
For me, the real advantage is therefore not one particular feature, but the combination of:
-
- VLANs
-
- Firewall rules
-
- Device groups
-
- Individual security policies
-
- Traffic analysis
Can the Small J6412 Handle It?
This was one of the most interesting questions for me when building the system.
The Intel J6412 is certainly not a powerful desktop processor. Nevertheless, the results in everyday operation have been surprisingly good.
During normal operation with OPNsense and Zenarmor running, CPU utilization is typically around:
-
- 28–30% user load
-
- 5–7% system load
-
- roughly 35% total CPU utilization most of the time
This still leaves a healthy amount of processing headroom.
Temperature and Cooling
Thermally, the system is also performing very well.
The mini PC is actively cooled by a Noctua fan, which is even running through a Silent / Low-Noise Adapter at reduced speed.
The fan is practically inaudible.
Despite the low fan speed, CPU temperature over longer periods stays roughly between:
37 and 45 °C.
The installed 8 GB of RAM is also more than adequate for my current setup. So far, neither CPU nor memory usage indicates that the system is anywhere close to its limits.
For my current DSL connection, the J6412 is therefore more than sufficient.
How Much Does It Cost?
Of course, switching to this kind of setup is not particularly cheap.
My costs were approximately:
| Component | Price |
|---|---|
| J6412 mini PC with 8 GB RAM | approx. €240 |
| Used DrayTek Vigor 167 | approx. €100 |
| Total | approx. €340 |
Depending on the existing infrastructure, you may also need a managed switch and suitable access points if you want to use VLANs consistently throughout the entire network.
A Fritzbox is obviously much easier to get up and running.
Conclusion
Spending around €340 just to replace a Fritzbox is a significant amount of money.
If all you need is internet access and Wi-Fi, this kind of setup is probably unnecessary.
But if you really want control over your network, a combination of Vigor 167 and OPNsense opens up an entirely different range of possibilities.
VLAN segmentation, detailed firewall rules, Zenarmor, individual policies for specific devices and extensive monitoring options are exactly the features I wanted.
For me, the switch was therefore absolutely worth the additional cost and effort.
The Fritzbox was easier.
OPNsense is far more flexible – and that was exactly the point.
