Advanced Networking with OpenWRT: Build Firewalls, VPNs, and Mesh Networks

Unlock the true potential of your network infrastructure with "Advanced Networking with OpenWRT: Build Firewalls, VPNs, and Mesh Networks." This comprehensive guide delves into the heart of OpenWRT, starting with its modular system architecture and offering advanced firmware customization techniques tailored for power users and network professionals. Readers are expertly guided through intricate topics such as device porting, driver integration, and establishing robust upgrade and recovery routines, ensuring network resilience at every stage.

Spanning the full spectrum of contemporary networking needs, the book provides hands-on instruction across critical areas including interface management, bridging, VLANs, and quality of service (QoS) optimization. Master advanced wireless configurations, multi-SSID policies, mesh networking protocols, stateful firewalls, and packet filtering with the latest standards-including the transition to nftables and deep packet inspection capabilities. The VPN section demystifies secure remote networking with WireGuard, IPSec, and OpenVPN, illustrating hybrid architectures like mesh-over-VPN for powerful, flexible deployments.

With its cutting-edge treatment of dynamic and policy-based routing, multi-WAN strategies, monitoring and telemetry, and centralized management APIs, this guide stands at the forefront of modern network engineering. Security is woven throughout with guidance on firmware hardening, application isolation, intrusion detection, and secure management. Rounded out with explorations of emerging trends such as SDN, edge computing, and the integration of OpenWRT in IoT environments, this book is an indispensable resource for professionals seeking to build secure, high-performance, and future-proof networks.