Hmmm… if you want passive - looked at some of the flex risers (someone linked those on eBay in some of those DYI Firefox threads, some SATA HDD mod or what it was.)

Hello vyruz, any news on this? I suggest the same as @Harvy66 4 Core / 2 - 4 GB or 8 Core / 4 - 8 GB based on the new Intel C2xxx CPU SoC if VPN becomes a really point in this game, also likes Squid and Snort, if not so, I will suggest the new Alix APU 1d4 as a complete bundle. This would be, saving power small enough upgradeable powerful enough long time usage

both will do the job. the gigabyte board has two realtek nics while the asrock only has one. you need to add a network card of some type to the amd board. get some ebay intel network cards, or a single card with two ports. personally, i would go athlon 5350 and asus am1 as it unofficially supports ecc ram. i would use the intel ebay cards on same.

Hello, I really would in normal suggest, to place the Cameras and a storage like a NAS inside of a DMZ and let them then there able to connect to the Internet, this is not affecting the LAN side and is also more secure as I see it right. But related to the missing ports to do so, I would also recommend to set up VLANs and then only connecting via VPN to the pfSense from the outside, this will be securing the entire LAN but otherwise you are able to connect to the cameras also. It must not be that the pfSense is routing alone the entire LAN traffic. A DGS-1500-20 Switch from D-Link is offering much more ports then others and also 2 SFP+ Ports for under 200 €! DGS-1500-20 20 x 10/100/1000 RJ45 Ports 2 x SFP Ports 2 x SFP+ Ports 1 x RJ45 Console Port Layer3 feature set and able to route the VLANs selfs! This can also be taking load from the pfSense firewall.

Hello, Was going to get it with the mSSD so I would have the option for snort. The same as @kejianshi was telling but on top from me, here in Germany where I am living, I am able to buy the pfSense Book [Pfsense: The Definitive Guide] for nearly ~35€ and then there is not really all inside what is new, what was changing and what is urgent to do, but then I have to read this book and on top then to understand what is really going on, to build and install the pfSense like this guys would be able to do, but this is not really all as I see it right, because the install service when a reinstall is needed will also shorten time that you now have to waste.  :( Will it be the same as buying it with the software preinstalled? Never! If you buy it from the pfSense store you only have to unpack and power. Are there any guides for installing pfsense on this hardware yourself? Via Google surely here in the forum also buying the book can bring you some more knowledge But this is needing much time and time is also money!  ::) With the mSSD option I dont really have anything to flash it with so I am not sure how I would get pfsense on it. Once more again, and why know 150 € saving was a big deal?  :-\

Because on ebay I can get all that for under $250. Here is an Alix APU complete bundle and an ideal choice to start with pfSense! Alix APU Bundle and they are shipping world wide! ~230 € [Qute]I guess the only requirement is that it runs pfsense, not sure what other requirements are needed.  And not so easy to answer, but power saving and able to upgrade with something likes a modem, mSATA or a WiFi card would also be a good option on top, or? There is no end goal other than learning and then maybe using it as a router/firewall/vpn. Then buy the Alix one it is an ideal beginning choice and has in my eyes also a high grade for reselling if at one day you must buy something else to fit your needs, but with the saved power, you will be able to have mSATA and a WiFi card easily get out of this "game".

Hi stephenw10, thank you very much for your comment! Since I'm not interested for any VPN tunnels or similar, I think I won't miss this functionality, but thanks for pointing that out.  ;)

Yeah by power hungry I meant it'll use a lot of electricity, generate a good deal of heat, require fans that will make noise, etc. It's more than powerful enough of a system for what you're wanting to do, just maybe not desirable to mess with for power consumption and heat generation reasons. Any old PC in the sub-$200 range is probably going to be an older CPU that's equally power hungry. My recommendation would be to buy one of our options at store.pfsense.org. :D If you want to DIY, there are a number of threads here and on our sub-reddit about people's DIY builds. Lot of people build Atom systems for home use which don't cost much more than what you're talking there, and with the greatly lessened power consumption, might pay for themselves.

From previous posts by gonzopancho, I suspect prototypes of pfsense may already run QA on the bare metal of https://www.pfsense.org/hardware/pfsense-store.html#c2758 It can be but is also only guesswork and nothing anyone can trust really on, so as I see it like in other posts here in the forum also where explained, better buy a CPU that comes with AES-NI and if this CPU will also comes with Intel QA, it might be nice to have for the future usage, but once more again nothing I would count on! For the ESXi it would at the time the best choice to go with a Intel Xeon E3 or E5 together with ECC RAM, to build a stable box that is also sorted by AES-NI and VD-T assets. For sure I personally would really prefer to buy a crypto accelerator card likes the Exar DX-1700 Series and I must not think about all this things.

on your main office, the one where everyone connects to, I would use a supermicro c2758 with 16gb+ ecc ram and a sata-dom 32-64gb @ SLC memory. this is the main unit that everyone dials into. for the other offices, you can build the same unit over for each, maybe with less ram, or even get a gigabyte celeron-j rig with 4-8gb and a regular sata ssd @ 128gb. if you want it rock solid, go supermico everything. you can use the 4 core atoms instead of the 8 cores to save about 60-70$ per box. I would just get the 8 cores. the xeon d is also almost out, and would make for a more capable main box, but at greater cost.

Since you say you're already running the stuff, instead of relying on performance numbers achieved in an unknown way on a different software, why not simply test it yourself to see if performance is "enough" for your needs?

I'm just going to point out that Paul, Netgate's COO, used to work at Tipping Point as the VP Business Management / VP Product Management. IJS…

@YoMan: I have a question regarding AES hardware decoding.  How important is it to have a CPU that supports hardware AES decoding if you are running OpenVPN?  What speed limitations would there be running pfsense on OpenVPN with a modern processor (eg Celeron 1037U)? I am trying to decide what type of hardware to get for my first pfsense router build. Thanks Today:  not really. But when OpenVPN 2.4 ships (and we get it in pfSense), then AEAD (basically: aes-gcm) will be supported in OpenVPN, and you're really going to want a CPU that can do AES-NI (or the ARM analog, or better: QuickAssist) at that point. The other issue is that tun/tap are a terrible performance bottleneck, but we're working on that, too.

Here are some of the items for auction. Intel D945GCLF2 Mini ITX Atom motherboard http://ark.intel.com/products/42491/Intel-Desktop-Board-D945GCLF2 I can probably throw in a 1GB stick of RAM for this. Netgear 16 port 10/100 unmanaged switch http://netgear.com/business/products/switches/unmanaged/FS116.aspx#tab-techspecs Netgear 16 port gigabit unmanaged switch http://netgear.com/business/products/switches/unmanaged/GS116.aspx#tab-techspecs PCI ADSL Modem descibed here (not the OP's Traverse card) - https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=79929.msg436451#msg436451 Also some misc. Mini-PCIe wireless cards, at least one works as hostap and I will find out exactly what they are.

That link isn't working for me, can you post something I can use for an ebay search?

http://www.hardocp.com/article/1999/01/01/bx62_viking_funeral/ ;D

Hi Fabzster, I would prefer to go with a Intel based server network adapter to be on the sure side to get maximum performance and support under pfSense. If you go by a dual port or quad port Intel based server network adapter is not really interesting, but be aware of the desktop one, they would be running also fine and are also supported for sure too, but the server adapters are using a DSP (digital signal processor) on the card that is taking much of the load and tasks from the main cpu and so far you get a real good network adapter. For home usage, my suggestion is; Intel desktop adapters Soekris LAN1841 Quad NIC and for productive networks; Intel server NICs HotLava NICs (Intel based) Related to your question I´ll go with the Intel i350T2 , pci-Express (4x) Dual-port gigabit lan server adapter , 10/100/1000mbps , Intel i350 chipset

@Blooregard: I'm working in a similar project, and I was considering that: http://www.lannerinc.com/products/x86-network-appliances/rackmount/fw-8896 Talking with Lanner engineering about FreeBSD 10 compatibility they said me that it hangs on boot with this network appliance…. It's a very brand new model and I suspect that is in fact compatible, but with some workaround to boot... Is someone there using a similar equipment? (Same CPU and chipset) I'm considering similar hardware too, tips are welcome!  ;) 1 from for that! Thanks for sharing your experiences, we where also looking forward to a bigger and faster instance to run pfSense native installed on and we where playing arround with the brand new Lanner-FW8895 shown under the links in the next lines. Lanner has also distributors in various countries, here in Germany where I am, we have two of them and like jason was telling before, we also call them, order and whait three till five weeks and the hardware is there! The Lanner FW-8895 is capable of many ports in many assets and comes also with 4 hot swap able HDD slots. And on top we where looking with one eyes on this module for the FW-8895 for faster DPI packet processing and VPN speed but we are not nowing anything over the support in pfSense. Lanner FW-8895 Lanner NCS-MTX401