How about a $55 J3355 ITX https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157726 A $20 i340-t2 http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-I340-T2-Dual-Port-Ethernet-Adapter-Card-49Y4232-/332093948632?hash=item4d525782d8:g:cykAAOSwjDZYfPtF $16 for 4GB RAM http://www.ebay.com/itm/Laptop-Memory-Samsung-2GB-1Rx8-PC3-10600S-9-10-ZZZ-DDR3-M471B5773CHS-CH9-/381946490666?hash=item58edc8ef2a:g:DIIAAOSwux5YLNQX If the old computers case and PSU still work, throw it all in there and call it a day. If a 2009 AMD dual core @ 3.0GHz + PRO/1000 can meet your needs "without breaking a sweat" I'm betting a 2016 Intel dual core @ 2.0GHz + i340 will do it too. $91

Ordered build Case: Antec ISK110 VESA MB: Gigabyte, GA-H170-WIFI CPU: i3-6100T 8GB 2133Mhz SSD

Hi BlueKobold, Would you have any recommendations for brand hardware compatibility (authorized vendors) for the Jetway NF9HG-2930 mentioned above: 1. RAM 2. mSATA (full size). Many Thanks.

@Zaphon: So while I would love to upgrade both, and I'm looking for options on my home hardware.  But to be honest, in today's world where we're more worried about power consumption/etc. the older hardware runs circles around it sadly. No, newer hardware is both faster and more power efficient. (Comparing like-to-like; don't compare a goldmont tablet cpu to a server cpu from 8 years ago, compare a current server cpu to an old server cpu or a modern goldmont to something like an atom 330.)

Great - I'll run with 2.4 in the lab and see how I get on. Thanks again.

Am I better going for a full install on SSD or HDD - if so what do you use to mount the drive onto the chassis? I had a buddy do this with some plexiglass.  Worked well. I found a 3.5 to 2.5 adapter and modified it accordingly.

No argument from me. If I had something with a spare serial port I'd probably buy one.  ;D Steve

thank you

There is no VGA console on the XG-2758 but it has a USB accessed serial console. The instructions are slightly different to the SG series models are the two Vitual Com Ports are shown. For details see: https://www.netgate.com/docs/xg-2758/connect-to-console.html Steve

Yeah, this box would be perfect with Intel NICs. At this point I wish I had gone with a mini ITX build with Intel NICs. For now, I'm using the one working NIC with VLANs so I can have WAN & LAN on one cable. I downloaded the realtek drivers from their website and compiled them on a FreeBSD virtual machine (got the idea from a discussion on this forum), and then loaded them on my pfSense box. The craziest thing is that both NICs started working! But then I restarted and it was back to only one NIC. I haven't been able to get them both working since.

It was defective.  I just happen to have an i3-3240 gathering dust (and I did notice that I needed to go to the i5's to get AES-NI) so I'm throwing that in for now until I can find a decent deal on another i5-3470T.  I'm currently using the SFF as a test box and so far so good.  I got EXSi 6.5a and ProxMox installed on it with no issues (separate SSD's I have a bunch of small ones 60-100GB) so I'll use it to test a few different firewalls.  If I get solid performance from it I'll use it as my firewall/gateway.  If not I'll just keep running pfsense in a VM like I am now (current server has L5640 cpu's and I have no performance issues, the upgraded virtualization servers have E5-2670s).  Either way I think I'll keep my eyes on good deals on these SFF's since they make nice small ESXi servers.

The performance is likely to be pretty bad, and USB network adapters can be unreliable. If your connection is slow enough it might work. If you don't have the computer yet, get something else. If you're trying to reuse a computer you already have the easiest thing to do is just try it and see if it performs well enough for you.

Doesnt matter, none of the ports work either for dhclient or dhcpd (both ports are on the same nic)

@mafiosa: Supermicro 5018a ftn 4 vs HP proliant gen 8 dl320e v2 for 300 captive portal users(70 active) with 80mbps bandwidth and squid guard..Comment your views, which one should I go for? Since the Supermicro has a C2000 series CPU, go for the HP.  The C2000 is currently the subject of an issue causing increased failure rates after 18 months of operation.  Otherwise either will do fine.

I had a similar isdue when enabling the ipSec dashboard widget on my 2220. Traffic and Ipsec was still working, but no webgui. In your case - is it possible that a dirty shutdown had screwed something up? I used to work a lot through serial consoles which were tempermental at time… how about sending a few 'break' signals?