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    Building a pFSense Hardware with Internal modem to replace current modem-router

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    • AryeduinoA
      Aryeduino
      last edited by

      Hi All,

      I have just want to be a proud owner of a pFSense that will replace my current router.
      Reading about the required HW - I have seen all different kind and not exactly what i am looking for.

      The main idea is to replace the router EXACTLY - with no need for external HW - means that I want to have a modem-router pFSense solution.
      The Hardware that I thinking to put together is:

      • Motherboard (not have a model that I should be looking for yet - I need major help on that)
      • 1 PCIE Quad Port Intel I350 Ethernet card - main HW that I want it to replace the 4 ports that I have on my modem-router (M/R) right now.
      • 16 GB RAM (is that OK? too much? I want to be able to run sniffers and I read that it need RAM for that)
      • CPU ?? What should be a good choice for me? i5? i7? Which generation is preferred? I want to have a modem-router that will not need to be reset every week and sometimes a couple of times in one week. So i am aiming for a Good Hardware that I can put together for that task - some will say it is overkill and some not - that is why I cam here to ask the Pro's.

      As I have mentioned I want to replace a modem-router with this build - I am not sure about that since i have not found a build with a modem inside it and that I will be able to set it using PPPoE EXACTLY as I do with the regular M/R - does pFSense Support that? I want to be able to have one box with all the Hardware.

      • I will need your assistance with the modem model for that build. And if that is the Correct Build to choose.
        Regarding Hard Drive - should it be SSD or HDD - Storage capacity? Will it be wise to have a 100GB SSD for that build? will the pFSense use the storage for performance as well? I don't think to have USB for the OS - they are not reliable as far as I see it and I am willing to put SSD instead. What would be the BEST Size of storage device? Do I need more then one SSD?

      This is not related exactly to the build but, pFSense can give NAS when I add USB drives to it? Can I have an internal HDD that I can use for that within pFSense (is the EVEN recommended?)

      • regarding the motherboard - what Chipset I should be looking for - the best practice.
        I am thinking on building the router that will replace the one I have now and I want to be able to that the RIGHT way and with the most help from the Pros!

      I will be happy to build my first pFSense and make it the best solution my house need for connectivity - I want to be able to have it to work at least as the one I have right now - But I am sure it will be better!!! that is for sure.

      The goal is to replace the M/R that I have including a modem as well as the router itslef.

      Thanks for the assistance :)
      Arye

      P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • P
        Patch @Aryeduino
        last edited by

        @aryeduino hardware performance requirements for pfsense depends on what your router / firewall needs are

        • what speed wan do you have?
        • what filtering do you want your firewall to do
        • what encryption requirements eg vpn

        I would not use pfsense as a nas, better isolation between firewall and internal protected software is required. If that functionality was wanted I would

        • run a hypervister on the hardware such as Proxmox
        • pass through all NIC used by pfsense
        • run other virtual machines on Proxmox for Nas etc connected to a different bridged NIC
        AryeduinoA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by stephenw10

          If you really want to put a modem inside it, generally considered a bad idea, what type of modem is it? xDSL of some kind I assume?

          Using pfSense for file sharing is not supported and not easily achieved. I wouldn't recommend doing it but if you have to use a virtual setup as Patch describes.

          16GB is probably more than you need.

          Steve

          AryeduinoA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • AryeduinoA
            Aryeduino @Patch
            last edited by

            Thanks @patch for elaborating and assist.
            I am not sure I do understand exactly the needs you have mentioned, But i hope I will be able to address them with my understanding - Hoping that I will be able to do that

            • what speed wan do you have?

            At this point I am on a DSL 100M - Hope that I will get to Fiber soon and can enjoy 1G - I have just bought an I350 4T NIC for that as well. I am not sure if I can use it with the onboard NIC I have or ONLY the 4 Ports on the NIC are to be used and none of the on-board ones.
            I wnet with I350 T4 since I have read that this card is recommended for pfSense and I wanted to have a good NIC to start with - I have not yet chose the Motherboard and CPU as well as RAM - Just starting and I am here to learn and hope to build a good Router for my home needs and even more.

            • what filtering do you want your firewall to do

            The filtering I ma thinking of is for the IOT devices that I have and plan to have in the furture - making sure that NOTHING is gettiong out of my house without me knowing that - I am hoping to be able to integrate and "Adguard-like" solution inside pfSense - Or maybe it is already integrated and I am not aware of it. I want to have something like Pi-Hole & Adgaurd to filter and monitor my IOT devices (Cloud managed devices)

            • what encryption requirements eg vpn

            I do think Wireguard or openVPN are the ones I am looking forward to be able to use and make my home an "isolated" location for my needs. Not sure about the exact encryption to use - I would probably follow exactly what you the pros will tell me to choose :)

            And regarding the NAS solution with pfSense:

            • run a hypervister on the hardware such as Proxmox

            I already have a Proxmox server - should I install Proxmox With pfSense - i am not sure that I can do that - when you say "on the hardware" you mean the Router HW or any other HW that I have laying around? Since I do need a NAS solution as well and I was not sure how to really investigate with the storage in the pfSense build I am trying to do.
            I don't know if 100GB SSD will be a good choise - and if it is small or not, and also if it is big - I will not be bale to use all of the disk space - sure that I can just ignore the unused storage space and move on - But, i want to be able to get the maximum from this build - that is why I am not sure about the SSD size for the OS.

            • pass through all NIC used by pfsense

            This I truely don't understand and I am not sure what you mean by that?
            you want me to have a PCI Pass-through for the cards from the real machine to a VM on Proxmox? I was thinking about SRIOV but not with the pfSense build and I am in a middle of a POC for it. Will be happy if you can help me understand that.

            • run other virtual machines on Proxmox for NAS etc connected to a different bridged NIC

            again, The Virtualization will imp[act the performance of the networking.

            The idea I read behind what you are telling me is that - I should stick with pfSence ONLY build and have another machine for NAS (like OMV or TrueNAS)

            Thanks,
            Aryeduino

            P 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • AryeduinoA
              Aryeduino @stephenw10
              last edited by

              Thanks @stephenw10 ,

              I understand that I should NOT put a modem with my build at all.
              in that case I should stick with ONLY the NIC I purchased (Not yet received) I350 T4 by Intel.
              I hope it will have a good compatibility with pfSense - I have already asked this but I will be happy to mentioned it here as well. Can I use the NIC 4 ports and the RJ45 connection that I have on the motherboard together? that will give me 5 Ports and I can use them exactly as I have right now 1 Port for WAN and 4 Ports for LAN. can that be done?

              regarding the modem that i will need - I have PPPoE connection that provide me with a static IP - how can I achieve that from the pfSense that have only Ethernet connection - I know that I will need to connect the WAN port with a "ridged router" or maybe buy an external modem for that?

              I am not sure I do understand how to do that with PPPoE and bridged modem - I would be happy to get assistance with that. The PPPoE credentials should be on the side of the modem or the pfSense? I have read several posts regarding this and I have not yet understand how I can do that? I would be happy if you can assist me with understanding the steps needed to have a transparent migration from a modem-router to pfSense with "external modem".

              Thanks for your help.
              Aryeduino

              stephenw10S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • P
                Patch @Aryeduino
                last edited by Patch

                @aryeduino the easiest is to run pfsense directly on hardware and run your nas on different hardware.

                Putting a modem on the pfsense hardware doesn’t make sense to me. The modem is at the physical EMI boundary so more at risk of lightning damage. And external modems are cheap.

                Your requirements for your firewall / pfsense sound achievable. Use Netgate hardware as a benchmark and possible solution. That should give you some idea of the required hardware. If you use a DIY solution you will need a bit more as your solution will not be as optimised as theres.

                If you really wanted to use the same hardware for both functions, you will need more powerful hardware.

                • run Proxmox on the hardware

                • Enable pass through in Proxmox

                • create a virtual machine on Proxmox with no NIC

                • Pass through all the NIC used by pfsense to this pfsense virtual machine so you can use hardware off loading. Doing so means these NIC will not be able to be used by Proxmox or other virtual machines so your hardware will need another NIC for that.

                • create another virtual machine using a different bridged NIC and load NAS software on that virtual machine.

                Btw I run pfsense on Proxmox but run a separate NAS.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @Aryeduino
                  last edited by

                  @aryeduino said in Building a pFSense Hardware with Internal modem to replace current modem-router:

                  Can I use the NIC 4 ports and the RJ45 connection that I have on the motherboard together?

                  Yes.

                  Since you already have a Proxmox host you should just use that for file sharing and keep the firewall separate.

                  If you can it's better to have the PPPoE session on pfSense itself so that the public IP is on the interface.

                  Steve

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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