Steve,

Thanks for all your help. I think I will leave my Firebox alone for now. I am thinking about putting Snort on my Windows Server 2008. Looking at different typologies here. Looks like just need another NIC on it and SPAN a port on a switch. I am not very good with Linux…PfSense is awesome though...

I am using a motherboard with a 82579LM on it and pfSense.  It's not running ESXi but a raw install of pfSense and it's working great.  FWIW.

Power consumption for 10Gbe is considerably higher than 1Gbe, just as 1Gbe is much higher than 100Mbit.

I agree that 200W for a 24-port isn't great though.  My Dell PowerConnect 8132F switches are rated at a max of 176W for either 32-ports of 10Gbe or 24-ports of 10Gbe and 2 ports of 40Gbe (which is how mine are configured).

EDIT:  Just noticed that those Netgear switches are twisted pair.  That will raise the power consumption considerably.  In that case, 200W for 24 ports is pretty good.

pfSense dopes not currently support any 802.11N features. Whilst some of those cards may work they will only work at 'G' speeds. The important thing is find out what chipset they use. The most up to date and comprehensive list of supported cards is here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AojFUXcbH0ROdHgwYkFHbkRUdV9hVWljVWl5SXkxbFE&hl=en

Steve

You might want to get this card that in used for the alix kits if it works with your board.

http://store.netgate.com/KIT-ALIX-DCMA82-DUAL-P192C34.aspx

@Kr^PacMan:

I'm using one of my Raspberry Pi's as an live-monitoring tool for the pfsense box. I just log in through SSH and using iftop to monitor the traffic real-time. Pretty nice if you have an extra monitor just standing around.

Yeah those kinds of setups are great, ideally suited for that sort of task. There is also the recent release of a new BeagleBone that looks interesting. I can't quite tell from a quick scan of the specs if the ethernet on that is wired through the USB but at a glance it doesn't look like it. That may prove to be a more promising target in that sort of market, if one were to exist.

This is how I handled this problem on my Firebox:

(excuse the dust, this was literally just pulled out of service an hour ago, it just happened to be still on my living room floor)

My roommate had a random low-profile copper heat sink sitting around, so that plus some thermal epoxy (a heat sink clip tab was broken in the process of disassembling the thing) and a 120mm hole cut directly above it kept this idling at 47C constant.  The 60mm CPU fan and 3x 40mm rear fans were all removed, the 120 on top is the only fan in use.

It went from screaming to silent as a result of this conversion.

Take a look at the release notes for the 2.0.3 update.

I just installed it.

The reason I did this, was because it mentioned something about "forgetting" DHCP addresses instead of renewing.

I'm hoping this will resolve the issue.

I welcome any opinions on this resolved issue versus mine.

Is the Dell T110 a good "off the shelf" box for running pfsense?

I am actually going to be using ubnt unfi! Actually, they have install instructions on their community forums for running their controller software on top of pfSense. But I think for multiple layers of redundancy, virtualization and two physical hosts would probably be the best option.

Hi guys, thanks for trying to help. I was managed to get the card working by recompiling kernel in bsd 9.1 with bwi device. Now the challenge is to setup pfsense as a VM with wireless support.

OK, but question was not about used parts and quad intel cards :(

I have a neoware CA22 (WinNet P680) unfortunately no CF socket soldered, only pads. I will try to solder a CF socket on my CA22, can someone with a XTC-1300 unit (factory installed CF socket) please post a picture of the CF area with the CF card removed of course, I want to see if some missing resistors on mine are populated on the units with factory installed CF socket. Thanks.

Wonder what's the price. A real option as a lilttle desktop client for web browsing / office things.

Do a search in the forum.
But let me save you a little time: read the posts here: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,61232.msg330391.html#msg330391

Yeah that system is sweet, 6 NIC's, 4 serial ports, Ivy Bridge… it has everything!! But yeah I bet it is PRICEY!!

maybe something like this would do the job for you:
http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor120.html

I am using them in some of my setups with Pfsense on fireboxes and it just works!  ;D

If you're going for an external AP, I'd recommend a Ubiquiti Unifi.  Read Amazon reviews… Good stuff

@Clear-Pixel:

The majority of people running Pfsense are very technically inclined individuals which at some point will want to use options which are available to extend there firewall beyond a normal consumer firewall.

For an individual that just wants a cool Pfsense firewall for bragging rights, yea maybe a Atom platform is right for them. But if they want to extend there firewall they will find they have limited themselves by using the Atom platform.

For myself, I just wanted the ability to run my VPN directly on the router without a loss of bandwidth attributable to the CPU in the router in addition to enterprise-grade wireless.  There isn't a single consumer-grade router that could perform the VPN aspect.  Even the coveted Asus Dark Knight couldn't.  A sad state of affairs indeed.

Ok had a question: Based on what I read, seems like there is some confusion on whether it is possible to run virtualization (ESXI) on Atom-based boards.  What I would want is pfSense running (only having 2 OpenVPN instances running) as well as an instance of XP with Maximus Arcade / AirPlay Server / Plex