I’ve been wrong about routers for a while. Any time I talked DIY routing/firewalls, I defaulted to pfSense or OPNsense on a mini PC… but the more I tinker, the more I think a “normal” consumer router flashed with OpenWRT can be the best of both worlds. In this video I walk through what OpenWRT is, why I’d pick it over an x86 box in a lot of home lab setups (especially if you actually want Wi‑Fi), and the real downsides like the learning curve, add-on complexity, and limited storage/compute on many routers. I used a Dynalink DL‑WRX36 (Wi‑Fi 6, 4x gig LAN + 2.5GbE) and followed the device guide to get from stock firmware to OpenWRT. That includes enabling SSH, booting an initramfs/kernel image, flashing the factory image, and then doing the initial LuCI setup: WAN/LAN, Wi‑Fi (2.4/5GHz), and some performance tweaks like software/hardware flow offloading. I also cover practical “homelab” add-ons: using the package manager, why I’m cautious about upgrading individual packages, installing attended sysupgrade, and setting up Tailscale so I can reach my router and LAN remotely (including exit node/subnet routing). Finally, I talk power draw (about 8W) and the reality check: storage limits can block heavier tools like AdGuard Home, so you need to pick hardware with your goals in mind.