After a hardware upgrade I ended up with a spare mini pc. Noticed these two icons and thought I might be able to use it as a WiFi access point with VLANs using OPNsense.
Is that possible? If so, what do I even need to buy to plug into there?
I don’t need it to do any fancy dhcp, dns or firewall stuff, I just need a WiFi access point with support for VLANs.
Before you start with this project, consider the power use of a full X86 system even at idle and compare that to a standard router.
If you are looking to run this as an access point permanently, the cost of power may add up.
I am not saying that you shouldn’t do it, but take it into account before deciding.
That’s a good point, I’ll see if I can figure out the power draw of this system somehow. Any tips?
Since you have the equipment at home you can just get a power meter and measure the computer and a router to see which uses most power over two hours.
Make sure to install the baseline for the computer before the test so it is fairly representative
The architecture doesn’t determine the power draw so much as the system design. I’ve got a Chromebox running an i3 and sipping 4.5w at idle.
I get that, it was just something I noticed when looking to build a NAS a few months ago, I was considering the power usage over time when compared with a Synology, and I seem to recall the Synology being much more power efficient, and when I saw OP talking about using a full X86 machine for an AP, I just thought it sounded very inefficient.