Today's real champion is this one. One of my PC Engines APU devices - I don’t remember the exact year I bought it, probably 2017.
It worked at my home as a router/firewall with OPNsense for several months, then in 2018 I installed it at a client’s site, "as a temporary emergency solution". Still running OPNsense, always kept updated, and it hasn’t missed a bit since then.
During a severe thunderstorm, the access point and switch connected to it were fried, but it kept going - silently and reliably. Zerotier, Wireguard, port forwarding, bandwidth graphs - all handled in a hot office, often with the air conditioning turned off during holidays.
It did everything, and it still works.
The client moved to a new location this morning, and the APU was replaced with a more powerful device (in anticipation of a future Internet upgrade). I decided to take it back with me (technically, it’s still mine) - they couldn’t find the power adapter, probably still packed in boxes, but up until 07:30 this morning (the last time I connected to the server behind it via VPN), it was perfectly reliable.
I’ll probably keep using it - I have others - maybe in the office as a file server with two attached drives.
Honor to the device, honor to OPNsense, honor to FreeBSD.
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