Unless I am misreading your post, it is showing 148,000,000 bytes per second (AES192, which is what I will use due to the timing attacks on 256), which is 1gbit/s.  I was also assuming that the test only used a single core, so if I had 2 clients, I could possibly get 750mbit - 1gbit per client (possibly a little less due to losing turbo when using both cores).  Or am I wrong somewhere?

Would you be willing / able to do an iPerf test over OpenVPN to test the real world performance?

And either way, I was looking at crypto cards, and understand the VPN14x1 series to be in popular use.  Is that the one that is often recommended?  What about the Exar DX 1700 series?

@wallabybob:

I suspect if you want something to handle several thousand pings in close succession then you may need a more capable CPU. However if want something that will handle predominantly file download traffic (with at worst, an occasional short ping flood) then the Alix is probably just fine.

Thanks a lot for the answer, it has helped me a lot, looks like i'll have to go look for a larger CPU.

I'm currently using an Asus Hummingbird with pfSense and can confirm that VLAN is working.

@Cry:

Those are chipsets that are listed, not card models. A quick Google tells me that the 8390MT uses the 82540 chipset.

Thank you.

@tester_02:

That's old hardware.   That setup always had issues with cd bootups (dvd's were new then).
To narrow it down.
1.  Put a windows bootable cd in your system and see if it tries to boot.  Will prove your hardware.
2.  Put your burnt livecd on another system to prove the burnt cd/dvd.

If both above work, then it's a hardware compatibility of pfsense with your hardware (guessing via chipset).

Hi tester

thxs for your kind input.

I did that before entering the forum, my setup as a CD Writer not DVD , so i burned it in a CDrom compatible.

Setup works fine with winxp i formatted yesterday and installed XP, running ok, the XP SP3 booted and installed sucessfully with no problems.

Specs from motherboard

Asus Motherboard A7V266-C

separate graphic card running

but it has a chip  VIA VT8233a

i will test running the boot cd in another machine now..

Don't know why i coulnd find them, but thx for the links. After looking thru those i decided to go down to a desktop motherboard, a i5 2500k and 8 GB non ecc ram.

Looking forward to getting things up and running on that :)

Not meaning to hijack this thread. Just wanted to pitch in to this great community.

i3/i5 system is not going to suck up $20/month of power. More like $2 o r$2.5 (use PowerD !!) even if you keep hammering the router with 30+ users. That's about $24 to $25 a year. Still cheaper than the under powered Atom junk.

I used an i3 system for 6 months and now using i5 with 8GB RAM since past 3 months.. Haven't noticed much of a change in my electric bill. Keeping in mind I have now close to 50 network hungry bulldog users, dual WAN 100/16Mbps (50/8Mbps each) internet, 4 VLANs and network is hogged up 80% or more 24/7. Also to add on top of that, I am running Snort on both WANs, HAVP, Squid, SquidGuard & LightSquid.
All this is in a small Thermaltake enclosure.

Of course you don't need or want this. But keep in mind that later on if you don't need pfSense to run on it, you can turn it into a full blown desktop or Hackintosh.

The FreeBSD hardware support list is useful but its not an exhaustive list. That is, there are supported devices which aren't on the list.

802.11n is not supported in FreeBSD 8.1 and hence not supported in pfSense 2.0.

However there are a number of chipsets which support 802.11n which can be used in pfSense 2.0 in "802.11g compatibility" mode.

I think you have two options:

If you really want 802.11n features use a 802.11n capable external AP Use a 802.11g mini-PCI card "for now" and upgrade it to 802.11n card when pfSense supports it and you need the 802.11n features.

I have read reports of Atheros 802.11n capable chipsets working with pfSense but can't provide any further information.

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Full_install_on_Netgate_Hamakua

Somehow you have to create another partition to have that work.
Follow that guide and It works very smoothly.

Thanks for everybody's help !

Hello,

I have the exact same issue, It is happening with three different Toshiba drives that I got.
I guess there is some problem somewhere with these HD.

The issue is described more precisely here : http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,41127.0.html

This is really weired. Because using another HD from another brand, I don't seem to have this problem.

Have you finally been able to move on with your install ?
Keep me updated.

Thx.

@ozric:

Does everyone know if there are 1gbit cx 10 nics supportet?

I need a 10gbit link to our switch with pfsense.

Best regards

Cards based on the 82598EB will work.  You're going to need a monster box to actually push 10Gb of traffic though, and depending on your typical packet size, it may not actually be possible, regardless of the CPU.

EDIT:  Clock-for-clock, the fastest CPU right now is the Intel Xeon E3-1290, so if anything could do 10Gb it would be this.  The E3-1270 is only 200Mhz slower and about 1/3 the price, so I'd probably go with one of those unless this is a "price is no object" problem.  Going wide and accepting a slower clock speed will hurt you on pf and ipfw performance, so don't think you can throw a dual or quad socket system with 16 or 32 cores at this and have it work.

Duly noted sir.  ;D  Only need either of the 2 for now but I'll see if I can snitch a free T7400 from my friend.

http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,40399.0.html

this information might be relevent to you?

Hi wallabybob,

it seems like I'm the only one who runs pfSense on this VIA MB or has problem with it. I've found just this thread on this forum :)

We'd noticed this behaviour seems like the LAN Bypass feature is turned on - luckily we'll maybe have a chance to check the BIOS configuration and revision tomorrow.

I'll let you in.

@wallabybob:

The FreeBSD man page for the driver for the Atheros USB WLAN chips doesn't list AP mode as supported. See http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=uath&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+8.2-RELEASE&arch=default&format=html

The cheapest Atheros PCIe card I know of is the TP-Link TL-WN781N which is a 802.11n card. 802.11n is not yet supported in FreeBSD but some pfSense users have reported that they have had Atheros 802.11n cards working with pfSense 2.0 builds but without 802.11n features. This card is available from retail outlets near me for less than the local equivalent of US$20. At the price its probably worth trying. The FreeBSD man page for ath, the driver for some Atheros chipsets indicates the multiple hostap feature is not available on all supported chipsets. I've been a satisfied user of an Atheros based PCI WLAN card for a few years. I have no experience of the TL-WN781N which I have suggested.

Good info :)
I guess i will just have to pick one up and hope for the best.

Thanks a lot for your help.

If any one else want to have a say, don't hesitate :)

@pf2.0nyc:

Those Dell boxes are great platforms - cheap, easy to fix, easy parts, etc.

Why not buy two and keep them side-by-side "just incase"??

I was thinking of that. I am not sure if they have any more left though….