Project Sentinel: Why?
This is an FAQ/predicted questions post for Sentinel, to hopefully explain a bit better why I'm going this hard for something that a lot of people would probably buy a prebuilt solution for.
Why not buy a repeater?
Repeaters suck. They're underpowered, overpriced and have minimal configurability. It's unlikely I'd find an extender that wouldn't throttle our Internet speeds (we get 700Mbit on a good day!) for less than a hundred bucks that's reliable and as flexible as I intend Sentinel to be.
Why not get your own Internet line?
This is something we've considered but we're unsure of if it can be done without doing something to alarm the landlord. We have some wiring in our apartment already, and an old router that isn't in service (we'd be replacing it), so we could possibly get a new line, but in addition to that, I'm sick of subscriptions. I live on disability, I don't have the money to keep allocating to more monthly expenses. My ADHD makes it a nightmare to manage all this crap. We have perfectly usable Internet speeds. We just need more flexibility. That's what Sentinel is for.
Why not move out?
I live in Canada and I'm disabled. Despite the hell involved with existing here, I'm incredibly lucky to have somewhere to live where I have more than $200 left after rent and groceries.
Why not buy a proper router with firmware you could modify with OpenWrt/DD-WRT?
An OPi ZW2 with all the kit I'll need is less than $100. The router I gout last year and need to use more was $100 on sale. That said, a friend of mine recently recounted how he pulled off a similar shenanigan with DD-WRT in his youth, so if Sentinel fails, this is a likely fallback.
Are you just looking for an excuse to buy a new toy?
Little bit. But I am genuine in my aims and my confidence here. The least Sentinel has to do is route packets, an incredibly cheap task. Plus I'm holding out on buying it until I have my proof of concept ready.