Setup your own router

Why build your own router?

Commercial home routers like the popular Fritz!Box are convenient, but they hide much of what makes a network tick. Building a router on a Raspberry Pi 5 lets you control every part of your network stack. You can add advanced routing protocols, integrate multiple internet connections, or experiment with firewall rules and VLANs. When combined with Debian Linux and the Free Range Routing (FRR) suite, the Pi becomes a flexible, upgradeable router for a fraction of the price of enterprise gear.

Note on experience: Setting up a router on a single‑board computer is an advanced DIY project. Expect to work with the command line, edit configuration files, and research solutions when troubleshooting. However, you’ll gain a much deeper understanding of networking than any consumer router can provide.

Choosing network interfaces

A router needs at least two network interfaces. The Pi 5 has a built‑in 1 GbE port. For the LAN interface you can use a USB 3.0 Ethernet adapter. Many 2.5 GbE USB adapters work out of the box. Stick with chipsets that have kernel drivers (Realtek’s RTL8156B is common). Each USB 3.0 port has its own 5 Gbps lane.

Installing Debian on the Raspberry Pi

Choose the Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) image for your Pi 5, download the xz‑compressed file and verify the checksum. Download the image directly from here. Or select one here.

1. Get a Debian image

2. Get a Debian image

Use the dd-command to copy the image to the SD card:

3. Setup a user and SSH

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