This New Device is 10x Better Than Your Router

Scammers have AI now, and even the router we build in this video can't stop the scam text that walks straight up to your phone. Bitdefender Scam Radar gives you a heads-up when a scam wave hits your area: https://bitdefend.me/90NetworkChuck


The government just banned your home router. Chinese state hackers were living inside consumer routers, so the FCC banned future foreign-made ones. And honestly? Your router was already slow, insecure, and boring. So in this video we replace my editor Mike's router (and yours) with OPNsense: a free, open source router and firewall running on a cheap mini PC. Whole-house ad blocking, encrypted DNS, a real firewall you control. Then I hand the whole thing to an AI agent (Hermes on a Raspberry Pi) to see if it can manage the router for us. Its first job: block an entire country.



🎓 Want to go DEEPER? VLANs, firewall rules, GeoIP country blocking, Suricata IDS, and the hardened version of the AI agent are all in my OPNsense course on NetworkChuck Academy: https://ntck.co/NCAcademy



RESOURCES / LINKS:
🛠️ Download OPNsense: https://opnsense.org/download/
🛠️ balenaEtcher (flash your USB): https://etcher.balena.io/
📖 The Realtek NIC driver fix (full written tutorial): https://blog.networkchuck.com
🧪 Test your ad blocking: https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock.html
📺 Set up your own AI agent (Hermes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQEgIo4Juxg
📺 What is DNS?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiQTs9DbtW4
📺 The original (6 years ago): your home router SUCKS!!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUzSsX4T4WQ


HARDWARE (the recommended devices I promised):
🖥️ Skip the driver headache (Intel i226 NICs): CWWK N100 4-port: https://www.amazon.com/CWWK-PC....-4-core-N100-Fanless
🖥️ The exact mini PC in this video (Getorli Ryzen 3 5300U, Realtek NICs): https://www.amazon.com/Getorli....-Display-Support-Com
🖥️ US-vendor appliance option: Protectli VP2430: https://protectli.com/product/vp2430/
🔀 Managed switch (for VLANs in part 2): MikroTik CRS310: https://www.amazon.com/MikroTi....k-CRS310-8G-2S-IN-in
📡 Wireless access point: UniFi U7 Pro: https://store.ui.com/us/en/products/u7-pro


TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - The government banned your router (here's the plan)
1:10 - Why you should build your own router
1:50 - The hardware: what can run OPNsense
4:04 - The Bitdefender Scam Forecast (Sponsor)
6:13 - Double NAT vs bridge mode: how to connect it
7:39 - Installing OPNsense (flash the USB, boot, install)
10:42 - No interfaces?? The Realtek NIC fix
12:40 - First login: your new router is ALIVE
13:22 - The setup wizard + secure DNS (DNSSEC, DNS over TLS)
16:12 - Whole-house ad blocking with DNS blocklists
17:38 - An AI agent takes over my router (Hermes)
20:08 - AI blocks an entire country
20:51 - What's next for Mike's network (part 2)
21:18 - A prayer for you


Starring my editors: Mike (the news anchor) and Austin (your Scam Meteorologist).


**Sponsored by @Bitdefender



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