@Caveman:

I have 100mbit WAN, but I wanna use OpenVPN, Snort +++

I'd go option 2.  It will offer everything you want for your current WAN connection plus some legs when your WAN connection inevitably gets upgraded.  And you're right about power consumption.  That 54W TDP number is a measure of the heat production of the CPU and dissipation potential of the cooling solution, and doesn't necessarily say anything about consumption at idle or at minimal usage.

@pfBasic:

I'm not convinced yet but my modem seems to have been acting flaky the last couple of days (speeds drop dramatically, reset modem and speeds are back to normal).

Does anyone have any recommendations for a quality DOCSIS modem?

I'm open to buying something nicer (business class hardware) used if it's worth it.

Little late to the party but I had really good luck with my Zoom 5370 on Cox when I was still on cable.  Super cheap for a 16x4 modem and as stable as anything I've ever owned.

Won't ever support gigabit, but for a $65 (new) buy, should hold you over until the Puma6 nonsense is truly resolved.

@patrick0525:

I beg to differ.
https://h20628.www2.hp.com/km-ext/content-webapp/document?docId=emr_na-c02241476

I stand corrected.

@nicolaj:

I'm very close to buying a Winyao Broadcom 5715 from here http://www.ebay.com/itm/Winyao-Broadcom-5715-Dual-Port-Gigabit-PCIe-NIC-Ethernet-Network-Card-Adapter-/132018667500

The main reason being it's a pcie x1 card, which is the port i have available. All the other nics are pcie x4 which is a different port. But i'm wondering if any of you guys have any experience with these cards?

Or mod a pcie x4 card and remove 14 pins so it fits in a x1 port and in theory it should then run x1. But i don't know if that is actually legit.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/dual-nics-on-pcie-x1-slot-recommendation.471/

I'm not familiar with the 5715, and it's not listed specifically with the bce or bge drivers in FreeBSD as far as I can see.

That said, if someone can confirm that one of these two drivers supports it then I suspect it would be fine.  I have one remaining hardware pfSense implementation (as opposed to the other 6 or so, which are all on ESXi) and it uses the bce driver and has been rock solid.

You don't need to buy the support just yet, this isn't a network configuration how-to issue, but a 'the hardware you sold me isn't working' issue. You can always call them for that.

Thank you for all your help.

a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush  ;D

Hi Everyone,

I started to fight with this lte modem to have it working in pfSense. And sort of succeded but it seems that something need to be done on the "system level" to get it working flawlessly.

Generally, first step is to convert possible E3372s modem from HiLink mode to Stick mode. HiLink mode offers ethernet interface with NAT done on the modem level. I found this mode quite usable on linux, windows and mac but unusable for router purposes due to private address assigned on the client side interface. Stick mode offers RAS mode and NDIS mode to work with, both usable when inserted to the router.

There are a lot of manuals to convert E3372s to different mode of operation. Also one thing to note - there are E3372h devices that are by default HiLink mode and may be converted where conversion is harder to do, and E3372s devices that have operator-flashed HiLink mode and conversion is easy as 123.

But to the point ;) The E3372s is detected as cdrom after inserting it to pfSense. Issuing command "camcontrol eject cd0" forces it to switch to the "modem" mode (possibly RAS mode). Then… I found this working unpredictably.

After "camcontrol" I created PPP interface pointing it to /dev/cuaU0.1 with proper operator configuration (APN name, dial string and init string - here I tried just ATZ and the one recommended on pfSense wiki, I see no difference). Then I assigned new interface, changed the configuration type to PPP and repeat (don't know why it is needed again as we already did that) the configuration from the PPP configuration. Enabled interface, and... success! I have working WWAN inteface to which I can switch by switching default gateway. All good and working!

But this works from time to time. After reinserting the modem to the pfSense, doing camcontrol again anything what I can achieve are PPP connections attempts round and round in the logs without success. To solve this I need to remove the PPP interface and Interface Assignment and recreate them again and SOMETIMES I get this working again. I can't find one single step by step procedure to have this repatable:

insert stick 2) issue command to switch mode (or automate this somehow by a script) 3) enable interface.

Sometimes /dev/ name changes to cuaU1.1, sometimes I got 2 cuaU devices sometimes 4 - this is what u3g reports.

Is there any simple way to see which cuaU device is which? any meaningful description to what i'm trying to bind to? it seems that u3g is responsible for this but I can't figure out what kind of interfaces are detected. Some usb_modeswitching would be nice also but still - I can't figure out to which exactly mode I need to switch to.

Also it would be nice to know if we're opeating in RAS mode or NDIS mode on this stick. I suppose it is RAS (as we're doing PPP) but i'm not that sure.... It seems NDIS mode works only in Windows and on Mac.

So, to sum up - it works out of the box. Sort of. It seems it needs some "cleaning" to have it working without messing around.

Any ideas, suggestions?

Hi Frank!

I would like to try testing my memory and disk drive this way.  I'm running an sg-2440 with internal M600 SATA drive.  Since this hardware does not have video and only one extra USB port, what version of pen-linux do you recommend?  And, how do I attach to the booted system?  I am familiar with using putty and communicating with the sg-2440 and I'm assuming that the pen-linux system you are recommending will need to be pre-setup to use a comm port????

Thanks for the pointers!!!

Gary

Hi all

those are notorious for high cpu use and slow speeds; can you add a pcie card?
I can not identify high CPU load/use. Unfortanetly, i can not add a PCIe card.

I use AX88179 usb nic with Firmware Version: ASIX AX88179 USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethusb-0000:05:00.0-1 in a pfSense vm using vmxnet3 driver. No complaints so far. Interested in how you test.
I use the axge driver (https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=axge&sektion=4) on a physical box - maybe the vmxnet3 driver on a virtual box is more stable.

I configured tagged VLANs for now, but hope to be able to use the USB NIC somedays.

@TalkativeTech:

Hi, i am going to buy some parts and a server case for my build. I have never built a computer and don't know where to start.

Google is your friend.

@TalkativeTech:

I have picked a 7th gen i3 and a cheap motherboard that has expansion bays.

As long as it serves your connection speed that should be fine.

@TalkativeTech:

What network card or something do. I need to get wifi up and running?

Is this one question or two? Intel NIC's are generally recommended and well supported. If yoou need wifi get a seperate access point, wireless support in FreeBSD is abysmal.

@TalkativeTech:

Also my isp doesn't allow 3rd party modems. I have to use theirs. What do i do their?

If you have access to the management interface set it to bridge mode. If not contact your ISP and see if they will set it to bridge mode.

@TalkativeTech:

I was also going to use a 128gb ssd for boot.

Overkill but it will work.

@TalkativeTech:

Also was going to buy a 2u case and have everything low voltage.

Not sure what 2U has to do with low voltage but if a 2U case works for your intended needs then get it.

@IggyB:

I'd like to share some information to you guys if you're having heat issues with your ci323 nano

The heat in Australia is crazy currently…

Fellow Australian; where abouts did you purchase the ci323? I am deciding between a CI323 or Qotom 150s/p N3150; however I could not find the CI locally? Great info on the heat issues; it greats pretty warm in SA and ave had heat issues with cheap modem/routers.

Good catch.

I am having the same problem… If this card was supported would enable a very good UK 4G solution as this is a very popular stick... :)

has anyone made any progress on this ?

Cheers

Rich

The solution needs to be a single device.  This is potentially getting deployed in very small environments.  Possibly even homes so it needs to be a simple solution in which someone can just plug it in and it works.  No complicated Sergio and multiple devices.

Ex. Run Ethernet to Poe injector to device done.

The enterprise solution has a more complex setup but we also deploy the solution as it is fully managed.

Must be a single device so non-it can connect it to the home router or directly to their internet connection.

The enterprise solution works with pfsense as we deploy enterprise AP's that can handle 500+ devices per Ap and require Poe switches and fiber but the small solution must be a single take it out and plug it in.  Looking at Mikrotik for this small solution.  So far it can do wifi, 4G, POE power, just not sure about gps NTP server.

Waiting to

very cool