Question: I would like to setup an IDS/IPS (network intrusion prevention and detection system) like [snort](http://www.snort.org/), but I would prefer not have to dedicate a computer to handle it.

Are there any applications or routers that can be hacked or some other free or not too expensive IDS that I could use?

I would prefer real time notifications.

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I can use pretty much any operating system I guess, that runs on either x64/x86 or custom routers. I have about 50 machines to monitor so not a lot. (Including devices and phones etc). I have a couple of SonicWall routers, and a few dLInk routers. I have one router running ddwrt. 

Thanks for all of the responses so far.

Answer: 
Try out [Suricata](http://www.openinfosecfoundation.org/index.php/download-suricata). 

> 
> Suricata is a rule-based ID/PS engine that utilises externally
>  developed rule sets to monitor network traffic and provide alerts to
>  the system administrator when suspicious events occur. Designed to be
>  compatible with existing network security components, Suricata
>  features unified output functionality and pluggable library options to
>  accept calls from other applications.
> 
> 
>
You can run snort on your local machine, either through a virtual machine or directly if you're running a unix variant already. Unfortunately advanced intrusion detection systems require huge signature files and a lot of processing power to run in real time which is going to rule out all consumer routers. The big enterprise router manufacturers don't add full IPS/IDS feature sets to their routers so they don't compete with their firewall and dedicated IPS products. Some vendors do add a small amount of IPS/IDS functionality to their routers but since this requires so much cpu to run you're going to have to have a beefy router. What router do you currently have and how many machines would you like to monitor?