It'll be hard to find one at that price. You may find something with a 2.5G NIC but whether or not it will actually route at line speed is highly unlikely.
Your best bet to keep prices low is to add a 2.5G NIC to an old PC. Even that may not work
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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Out of curiosity, why are you not sure if adding a 2.5G NIC would work? From my reading almost any PCI-E port should be able to handle line speed for a 2.5 gigabit connection except PCI-E 3 x1.
Many of the 2.5g optics don't comply with standards and may not work in some devices.
I've never done it so I can't say for certain.
I typically buy purpose built routers which advertise routing speed benchmarks
PCIe 3.0 x1 is plenty for 2.5G.
Maybe, depending on your requirements:
- L009 - $120 - 2.5gbps SFP uplink for fiber, but only 1gbit LAN
- unmanaged switch w/2.5gbps ports - ~$95 - just a switch, but if you're looking for sending data between machines on the same network, this should do it
- TP-Link ER707-M2 - ~$200 - about the cheapest with two 2.5gbps ports, so you could have a 2.5gbps vlan and uplink; lots of options if you can go $200+ (see also Mikrotik RB5009)
You might get lucky finding a device with two SFP 2.5gbps ports.
If you're looking for something consumer grade with Wi-Fi integrated, I recommend not bothering. Get a great Ethernet router and a separate access point. Anything inexpensive is either going to suck, or it's going to be in separate pieces (router and access point).
When my ISP finally upgrades to multi gig, I'll be buying something like the ER707-M2 and a 2.5gbps switch. I wish I could find a simple router with like 3-4 SFP (e.g. the CRS305; has RouterOS, so maybe it'll work?) and get an SFP switch or two.
Take the advice, at this point anything >1gig is not going to be cheap. You're officially into "premium" and "enterprise" levels of networking.
You should add another zero to your price.
$100.0 🙏
If it's basic routing and NAT, https://mikrotik.com/product/l009uigs_rm might work? It's listed as $119, so just outside your budget.
If you start using a lot of firewall rules that can't fastpath, that performance will dip significantly. And if it's lots of tiny little packets (Ie 64 bytes, even 512 bytes instead of the full mtu 1518 bytes), that will also hit performance.
Check the test results.
Otherwise, you could repurpose an older computer, put a 2.5g NIC pcie card in, and run opnsense. Although, finding a reliable 2.5gbps network card is going to eat into your budget.
I presume the router will hand off to a 2.5/5/10gbps network? Or does the router also need to be a switch and have multiple 2.5gbps ports?
Unfortunately, consumer "cheap" is only just catching up to 1gbps. Which is a huge amount of bandwidth for regular consumers to actually be able to fully use.
2.5gbps+ is still in the niche/specialist/hobby range with prices reflecting that.
The GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) travel router has one 2.5 gig port. It's priced a little above $100 but some sales might still be going on for it to bring the price below that amount.
The other ethernet port is only 1 gig, so no client would be able to reach the full speed, but you could theoretically share the connection between wired and wireless clients.
Considering I don't have any wired devices capable of above gigabit speeds this may not be a bad option. The openwrt based software looks like a plus as well.
Maybe try looking for used ones for sale in your area. Might be the best bet to get something good for very cheap.
Used ones are Cheap but mostly Gigabit as 2.5 Gigabit routers aren't mainstream enough for the 2nd hand market to be flooded with them.
Sub $100 is hard, but a FRITZ!Box 5530 Fiber has one 2.5G port (and a port where you put your fiber wire in). It's like $150. Not sure about availability in the US though.
My ISP will provide an Optical network terminal with a 2.5G port. I will still need a router. Also I am not from the US.
I am pretty happy with a Dynalink WRX36 Wifi 6 AX3600 router which has a 2.5 Gbps capable WAN port and 4 * 1 Gbps ports for LAN. I replaced the vendor firmware with OpenWRT which is working well nowadays, you just have to follow the install instructions closely. It can be had for $79.
I would prefer two 2.5Gb ports but that sounds like a good router at that price.
After some research, it seems there is a huge mark up for consumer grade routers outside of China.
For example a Asus ax6000 router with dual 2.5Gb ports cost only cost only $110 in china while a similar version I can get locally cost $300. Also there seem to be a local forum thread discussing those routers from and perhaps I am beter served finding answers there.
Also I tried pfsense some time ago with only Gigabit NIC and eventually repurposed the machine as a hypervisor. Maybe I can go back to pfsense but considering I need to get a 2.5Gb network card and the power requirements required for a software router to route 2.5G internet I am not too keen.