Low budget hardware supported by pfsense

[shoebeee]

I want to make a router to use at my home. I need to find hardware which costs low and need low power to operate.

[bingo600]

@shoebeee
You missed high performance ...

[akuma1x]

@shoebeee If you truly don't need anything fancy, and you did say home use... the Protectli Vault FW2B two port box is perfect for your use case. I know you said you want "to make a router", but these pre-built units are hard to pass up.

https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Appliance-Gigabit-Celeron-AES-NI/dp/B07G9NTR6Z/

Or, for an even lower cost, support the pfsense project and get the Netgate SG-1100.

https://www.netgate.com/pfsense-plus-software/how-to-buy#1100

If you still want to build, a recent model x86 PC (celeron or i3 or i5 processors) with an available expansion slot is a good choice. Add into the slot an Intel network card, then you're good to go.

[AndyRH]

Look for an i3, Atom, Celeron, etc. most any generation (or AMD equivalents) on the used market. 2 or more cores, 64bit, 2-4 GB RAM, small HD (spinning or not) and if the budget allows all Intel NICs. There are other NICs that work but are less liked in this forum.
That will get you a system that will run pfSense and reasonable rules on a power and money budget.

To save a small amount of power you can disable in the BIOS all of the feature you do not need.
While most like SSDs, really the only difference is boot time and a little more power on the spinner.
RealTek NICs do mostly work just fine and it is getting better (slowly), when they don't work they seem to not work in interesting ways.

[shoebeee]

Thanks everyone for your suggestion. I want to make my router to replace my exiting home router. Small form factor is also important. It would be great if I could bring Wi-Fi 6 capability.

[akuma1x]

@shoebeee said in Low budget hardware supported by pfsense:

It would be great if I could bring Wi-Fi 6 capability.

No, don't do that in the same box! FreeBSD, the software that pfsense is built upon, has terrible support for wifi stuff in the same machine. You are better served by building your own pfsense box, then add on a wifi access point.

Here's a low-cost WIFI6 compatible access point:

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wireless-WAX206-Dual-Band-Ethernet/dp/B098BRF91P

Simply setup your pfsense box, then add this either to your existing network switch, or an extra interface on pfsense. And you're done!

[noplan]

@shoebeee said in Low budget hardware supported by pfsense:

a router to use at my home. I need to find hardware which costs low and need low power to operate.

APU4D4

but better use netgate SG1100

brNP

[stephenw10]

What WAN bandwidth do/will you have?

Do you need to use VPNs? Other packages?

Wifi6 in the pfSense device is right out currently.

Steve

[noplan]

@stephenw10

Do not mix wifi with firewall and create an all on wonder box....

Use a box for firewall
Get a switch with vlan
Get a cloud key
Get a unifi access point

And voila you got yourself an enterprise grade network.... Even if you use a tp link switch to stay within budget ;)

BR Np

[bingo600]

@noplan
Why would you need a CloudKey , for UNIFI AP Only ?

I'm just using their UniFi Controller sw , to do the setup etc ....
I use it on a Debian server , but i suppose it would be even easier to install on Windows.

/Bingo

[noplan]

@bingo600

its more fun to play with a cloud key (always on 24/7) and get more insights on whats going on
and yes u can install the unifi controller (i call it cloud key) even on a raspberry pi or on your onw server or u just use the hardeware version from unifi.

if u use it just to configure the devices u may miss a lot of fun tryin to optimize your wifi ;)

but to be honest a 24/7 cloud key for a singel unifiAP seems a little overKill (maybe not)

NP

[A Former User]

@shoebeee said in Low budget hardware supported by pfsense:

Thanks everyone for your suggestion. I want to make my router to replace my exiting home router. Small form factor is also important. It would be great if I could bring Wi-Fi 6 capability.

PC Engines APU4D4 + pfSense 2.6 CE

• mSATA
• WiFi card
• (LTE modem) & SIM slot are also given for fall back Internet
• Antennas and/or Pigtail on top

All in all it would be around ~$200 so it might be perhaps
also nice to have a look over the Netgate 1100 thinking
on the power and price range. If there is nothing fancy
on your wishlist!

[noplan]

@dobby_

i like the APU4D4 if you can get it for a reasonable price
right now its far above excl VAT 200 EUR (board,case,power)

DO NOT
add a wifi Card
and LTE modem

untill you are fully aware that this add on hardware is 100% fully supported by the main OS of pfS

as I Mentioned earlier, keep it simple
firewall box, VLAN switch, unifi Wifi Gear, and for starters a nice supported USB LTE stick,

That setup if the LTE Stick got enough coverage to get proper connection does the trick
pretty well.

SG1100 & SG2100 will do the trick

brNP

[Bassit]

Take a look at a HP t620plus thin client, it needs to be the plus model though not the t620.
The t620plus is thicker than the non plus because it has a pcie port to add a network card.

They are quad core 2.0ghz and use around 12-15w of power, you can find them on ebay for around £100.

The link below has some good information on the t620plus.
Link to parkytowers site