The 2.3 snapshots have been based on FreeBSD 10.3-PRERELEASE for a while now.

the patch went in to STABLE-10 December 27
https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/commit/b65a25360bf453761bef728656d2499296150eb6

So this has been fixed in 2.3 for quite a while now.

All OP needs to do is load pfSense 2.3, and his NUC will work.

@BlueKobold:

But then please make sure that the LEDs are really corresponding to the workload and not that they are
not able to use by pfSense.

The status LEDs do apply to connectivity on each interface, and there is a nice large 2x20 backlit LCD that tells me in percentage what the workload is, exactly how many kbit/mbit in and out, state table usage, CPU utilization, etc.  ;)

I would try adding '-d sat' to your smartctl command.  I use this to query the SMART data on my USB external hard drives.

My command (under Linux) is something like:

There are other types you can pass with '-d', but this is the only one that's ever worked for me.

@coxhaus:

I am new but interested.

I am having a hard time deciding whether the OP is running the AT&T modem in bridge mode when he tests the pfSense build?  It is easy to tell.  If the pfSense build is getting an outside IP address.  Otherwise he has double NAT working against him.

I just got TWC 300 megabit connection.  I am trying figure out how to maximize my connection speed.

AT&T does not offer the ability to do a bridge mode, only the crappy IP Passthrough.

@duren:

but how much less reliable than the Chinese 1037U's?

Considering the NUCs are most likely made in Taiwan (I believe), what makes you think they are any less/more reliable? The one vbcn purchased has already got an issue.  ;D

The 1037U on Aliepxress have Intel CPUs and Intel NICs supported by pfSense, the SDD and RAM you can buy locally if that helps your peace of mind (although they too are probably Chinese made…).

And for all the posts in the Hardware/Vendors forum you are going to be hard pressed to find a single complaint about these boxes (from people who have actually bought and are using them). I'd recommend buying one and trying it, no VLANS needed.

Or listen to BlueKobold and go buy a far more expensive Jetway box (which is also going to be made somewhere in asia...  ;D )

well darn. Wish I knew more about coding, I'd be tempted to investigate.

Are teh power savings of an mSATA or M.2 really worthwhile? Even if they are more energy efficient, does it really justify the cost given the higher cost to buy and replace them?

No the cost is to high, but this was not your question, it was more the question if the SSD or mSATA
is saving more electric energy compared against a spinning HDD.

Also, where in Germany are you from/do you live? I was stationed in Heidelberg/Mannheim a few years ago, and I would kill to go back. My daughter was born in Schwetzingen.

Lower Saxony, in the near region of Hannover.

I ran an optiplex 160 for about a year with version 2.2. It worked fine. Very easy to install and the performance was ok. You will need to configure vlan's and have a smart switch to create your WAN and LAN networks.

Its not a bad little setup for home. The fanless design worked well and power usage was very low.

…just came back to add this:

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=87434.msg480143#msg480143

...is also seen with the MS-9877 (also Atom D525 @ 1.80GHz). Temp of cores at 65°C (pfsense 2.2.6 64 bit full install with SSD wih TRIM, finally :-D )

With much older Atom Z510 had temps arround 45°C at exactly the same load (32 bit pfsense 2.2.6 full install with SSD).

powerd enabled (tried minimum and hiadaptive yet). didn't buy much yet. waiting for doc to tell me the cooling is shyte...

Or did I forget about some essential options to be set in the BIOS? Any suggestions highly appreciated!

yeah, I'm having the same thoughts.. Ok I'll get an unlocked Huawei modem today and try my luck the third time

So I fired it up. Sounds like it's about 35 to 40db. Not to bad if you're not in a quiet room but definitely makes a LOT of noise on startup. Sounds like any other server on startup. Screams like a 747, then idles down.

Seems to idle at about 63Watts according to my watt meter. 63Watts isn't a lot but it isn't a little either and that's just with one power supply. Even with only one power supply installed it's 63 watts.

Anyone know what the Cisco 300 idles at or any of the other suggested switches with 10Gb?

BTW, I'm not trying to hijack the thread, just as curious as the creator of the thread as I'm also in the market for a decent switch but I don't want to spend 1,200 getting one either :P

Agreed. Unfortunately I need to get this one in place and have run out of time but I'll be building another one soon for CARP, that one will get further testing as this one will for now meet the needs of the two internet connections. One is 24Mbps the other 40 totally about 60Mbps.

The reason I was trying to get more speed was for future reliability. So that if by chance the internet connections up here get faster and more stable this thing would be ready for the task and for general bench mark purposes.

With this next one I'm going to do just as you said. Two machine, one on each side and then hammer traffic through it. First stock then with one package at a time.

For those that were helpful, thank you. Some of you  ??? :-X

@realityman_:

Will do, good settings to know.  I don't believe my provider uses PPPoE so I shouldn't have that problem :)

The best will be if you get a real static public IP address from your provider! Then all CPU cores will be in usage
and this "problem" is not affecting you. The other custom settings might be a good realizing a good start with this
hardware for you. Good luck and have fun with this hardware.

I have started playing around with pfSense on an older PC with two NICs so I am considering this option or getting a 2220 or 2440.

The SG-2220 will not handle 1 GBit/s at the WAB interface as I see it right. And the PPPoE connection is
only using one CPU core at the moment to handle the WAN speed. But if you don´t need the PPPoE part
you will be really surprised.

@BlueKobold:

Seems like the flash storage is bad in my pfsense sg-2440 unit so iam looking for a mSATA disk to be used instead.

Write to the support email address from the pfSense shop.

Create an account register your device call for assistance

Anybody know if Kingston SSDNow MS200 mSATA  is compatible? It was the cheapest one I could find since i dont need that much storage or speed.

Be sure that this mSATA is capable of the TRIM support.
16 GB = firewall only and some logs
32 GB = firewall and Snort
64 GB = firewall, Snort and Squid
120 GB and more = firewall, Snort, Squid as a caching proxy and HAVP

Located in europe and don't have to send the unit to USA so thats why its easier just to buy another storage.

From this pdf http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/sms200s3_en.pdf it looks like the ssd supports trim and 30gb shouldn't be an issue since its normally runs on the 4gb emmc flash.

I ended up just wireless bridging it to pfsense as per usual.  It never works very well, but it works.  Just have to reboot the device every few days.

I really hate cell service.

After all my fussing around my configs are as such….

/boot/loader.conf
autoboot_delay="3"
vm.kmem_size="435544320"
vm.kmem_size_max="535544320"
if_igb_load="YES"
kern.maxfilesperproc=32768
kern.maxfiles=65536
comconsole_speed="115200"
hw.usb.no_pf="1"

/boot/loader.conf.local
kern.cam.boot_delay=10000
kern.ipc.nmbclusters="1000000"
net.inet.tcp.tso=0

As a note to anyone else. If you add a card that uses the same driver/chipset that you already have your interfaces (in this case igb#) may very well move. In my case igb0,1,2,3 moved to 4,5,6,7 and the new card received 0,1,2,3.

I just saw this thread while researching this problem.
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=93393.0

It does not look good. The thread does tell me what the problem is. The Mass Storage device is defaulting to usb config 0. You need to find a way to change that..Maybe issue an eject command. usb_modeswitch usually handles that on USB cellular devices with Mass Storage showing. Not sure if it would help you..