Hi, I was planning to buy a Draytek 130 as a modem, and hook up a router behind it to manage my home network. The purpose is to replace my crappy ISP router.

I watched a couple of videos on YT and it looks like the 130 has a firewall, port forwarding and dhcp server... I already have wireless access points, and I use a Raspberry Pi running pi-hole as a dhcp/dns server, and a nas which does ddns updates and vpn server... so it made me wonder if I actually need a separate router. Could I just connect the 130 and rPi to a gig switch, and point the 130 to the rPi dns? Is that enough to route traffic around the network?

Maybe I missed something; what else does a router do? TIA.

Perhaps the first thing to note, is that is a router isn't hardware. Routing Software has to run on hardware of some description - be that a Raspberry Pi, or a PC ... or small plastic box that says "Router" on the front of it.

The primary job it has to do (in a domestic environment), is to provide Network Address Translation (NAT) - because you almost certainly, have not been assigned enough globally valid IP addresses to use on all your devices. On top of NAT, there is a whole host of other related functionality it may offer.

The device you choose to implement it on, is up to you. Hardware & software of your choosing may have performance or cost benefits - but may be far costlier in terms of your time 'mantaining' it!.

Regarding the Vigor 130 (at least the UK variant) - it doesn't do anything that your ISP-supplied 'router' - switched to bridge mode - can't do. (I believe there are versions for other markets, that may have more functionality). Of all things you may choose to do or buy, I would say that should be the last thing on the list, not the first

Others may have something else to add...

As he said, the Vigor130 will not work as a router; it's intended as a VDSL bridge for people whose router doesn't have DSL connectivity. If you want a router, use the vigor 2762ac etc.