Help on cheap build…
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My main reason for the build will be to run OpenVPN for the whole network. Everything that connects wi be under vpn. I would ultimately love for the box to be as small as possible. I have a 100mb/20 line and wants to max it out.
My main questions of course are:
What's the monthly/yearly cost of running these vs an actual router?
What build do you recommend and how do I wireless to work? (Switch coming off 2nd nic connected to a home router in access point mode?)
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This is my "on the cheap" setup.
Repurposed notebook running pfSense connected to a smart switch (port n: member vlan x).
pfSense WAN as VLAN x interface
pfSense LAN as native NIC interface
AP connected to switch
ISP connected to switch (port n+1: vlan id x, member vlan x)One of the beauties of a notebook is the built-in console and UPS.
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The cost of using any old laptop or old computer is generally electricity because old equipment uses more of it than newer equipment generally. That being said, if its not my money being spend I don't usually press the hardware efficiency issue. I use a old Athlon X2 for my personal box (60W maybe). When that breaks I will update to a new 5 or 10 Watt machine.
If I were going to spend money to update the efficiency of something just to save electric, it would probably be spent on a new air conditioner or refrigerator but thats just me.
The pfsense store is full of new machines that will work for you.
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My main reason for the build will be to run OpenVPN for the whole network. Everything that connects wi be under vpn. I would ultimately love for the box to be as small as possible. I have a 100mb/20 line and wants to max it out.
You want to max out the 100/20 MBit/s line but the pfSense hardware should be the tiniest you
can get hands on? Hm, as I see it right you can get a $30 used router and flash him with DD-WRT
or OpenWRT to get your OpenVPN running as I see it right there is nothing in the price comparison
that beats a set up like this, but if you want to go with pfSense and related to your Internet connection
speed I would be prefer to get a device that can also handling the Internet connection right.My main questions of course are:
What's the monthly/yearly cost of running these vs an actual router?
There are routers out there that are alsoi using much of electric power and often more
then a small self made appliance for sure and vice versa there are also many alliances
that needs many more power then a consumer great router like a Netgear or D-Link.But this is like viewing only with one eyes on the situation, owed to the circumstance
what pfSense is really able to serve and what a consumer router is able to do.I would at his day have a closer look on two devices, Alix APU based platforms if
VPN is not the entire goal and angle point in the game and a Intel Atom C2000 SoC
based device that is beating them all in VPN, speed and power consuming.
C2558 is <14 watt
C2758 is <20 wattBut both comes with AES-NI and intel QuickAssist.
What build do you recommend and how do I wireless to work? (Switch coming off 2nd nic connected to a home router in access point mode?)
Ok to be really truth I think you can get the most benefits from pfSense by;
- Intel CPU
- Intel NICs
- No WLAN
But this is no matter as you where telling you are using a WLAN AP or router in AP mode
this would be fine as I see it right and matching the Captive portal of pfSense really.The pfSense store offers also some nice boxes based on the above chips and brands
but they are also comming woth 3 miniPCIe slots + 1 SIM slot for mSATA, modem and
WLAN cards so it could be an ideal choice for many years. -
DDWRT wont handle openvpn on a 100/20 network - you would be lucky to get 6/6 and that would be smoking your CPU 24/7.
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DDWRT wont handle openvpn on a 100/20 network - you would be lucky to get 6/6 and that would be smoking your CPU 24/7.
This is right but it matches also his wish like;
I would ultimately love for the box to be as small as possible.
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There is only a couple of boxes that small that can handle what he wants and they are in the pfsense store. Other than that, you can build a cheap computer, or recycle and old one but the size and power draw will be higher.
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Forget the size of the box.
Using a normal router for open vpn will not get anywhere close to the speeds I want.
I don't want to use a laptop as my box because I am not skilled I'm pfsense to get that working.
I was looking at this box on eBay that has been upgraded and is quite small, but do you think it can handle the speeds I'm looking for ? 100mbit down 20mbit up?
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=321707965681
Or
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=261849217216
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Second one might get it but I'd rather recycle a used quad core AMD machine than either of those.
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I do have a spare Asus pb z77 lx motherboafd with a i5 processor. I'm just concerned with power consumption… I'm new to all this, how many watts do you think it would run at? Also does the power supply itself play a roll? Not sure what power supply I have in it
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Well - It will pull more than 10 watts. Look up the power consumption of the CPU and add 20% or so. Just a guess.
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http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=261849217216
Tested here:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=87606.msg481510#msg481510 -
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=261849217216
Tested here:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=87606.msg481510#msg481510Sending you a message
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Hello and thank you for your post confirming the hp t5730w works. Couple questions to make sure I can get this working if I buy on eBay. I have a 100mb connection but if I could get 66mb is be more than happy honestly.
Now… Since this only has 1 nic... That would be from the cable modem to the nic... If I wanted other direct Ethernet connections how could I get this to work ?
Also what could I do to get this client machine to be a wireless router ? Any help would be awesome!!
Thank you !
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1st - You are just going to melt that CPU if you keep it pegged at max throughput all the time.
2nd - You need a vlan router and you use its port as WAN/LAN and put a VLAN trunk on the one available pfsense NIC
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Another words… Look for 2 nic machine ? ;)
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and abit more processor….
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http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=261849217216
Same as above but upgraded to a dual core AMD and 5 gbit Ethernet…
What do you think ?I am not doing constant downloads, it's for a NAS server that downloads tv shows via rss and just normal web traffic. All home use.
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I'm pretty sure a single thread of openvpn will be core-locked.
Meaning 2 cores of the same speed might not get you more than one.
I'd be looking for 2.5GHZ in that architecture or 2.0 GHZ per-core in a modern architecture.
And at least dual core.
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Okay… How about this build ?
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Amendolaro/saved/tMsxFT
