PfSense 2.2 & Realtek 8111G, or dual-wan Intel NIC mobo with Braswell?

A Former User

Dear all,

I'm completely new to pfSense, and I'm trying to put together a very small low-power home firewall with pfSense.

Intel 'Braswell' is the current low-power Atom CPU, but I can't seem to find a Braswell motherboard with two Intel NICs. The closest that I can find is Asrock IMB-154, which seems great except it has two Realtek 8111G NICs.

pfSense 2.2.x is based on FreeBSD 10.1, which should support Realtek 8111 series NICs. But … is it recommendable? Has anyone here had experience with pfSense on 8111G's?

Alternatively, has anyone here seen a Braswell or other very-low-power motherboard with dual Intel NICs, and preferably DC power input on the motherboard?

Thanks!

doktornotor

Hmmm, Realtek…

Guest

Intel 'Braswell' is the current low-power Atom CPU, but I can't seem to find a Braswell motherboard with two Intel NICs. The closest that I can find is Asrock IMB-154, which seems great except it has two Realtek 8111G NICs.

Then it will be better to go with the PC Engines APU 1D4 bundle, it deliveres max. throughput around
~650 MBit/s - 750 MBit/s, comes with three GB LAN NICs Realtek based, three miniPCIe & SIM slot,
case and PSU or a Jetway board that is sufficient! Jetway NF9HG-2930 Thin mini-ITX Network Motherboard

A Former User

Thank you very much, Frank. Do I understand correctly that you use pfSense on that PC Engines board, and you know that pfSense works with those Realtek NICs?

Guest

@Jasper-SE:

Thank you very much, Frank. Do I understand correctly that you use pfSense on that PC Engines board, and you know that pfSense works with those Realtek NICs?

Yes and no, I have one PC Engines APU 1D4 and yes pfSense 2.1.5 - 2.2.4 is running well on this board
but now I am using another mainboard for pfSens based on an intel CPU and NICs from Supermicro.
And on the other hand the 3 Jetway solutions are also running pfSense 2.1.5 -2.2.4 well and liquid on it,
better then the PC Engines APU.

Jasper-SE from where you are? Th USA or Canada? Or from Europe?
To know this makes it easier to suggest you something to buy with hyperlinks that shows you up the actual price range!

Jetway Board with 4 Intel GB LAN Ports
Complete bundle with 5 Intel GB LAN Ports & 2 x miniPCIe Slot
Complete bundle with 4 Intel GB LAN Ports & 2 x miniPCIe + SIM Slot

Compared against the PC Engines APU 1D4 board this solutions comes with;

double the max. amount of RAM
double the CPU cores (4 cpu cores)
up to double the CPU frequency (GHz)
1 or 2 Intel based GB LAN Ports
one less mini PCIe slot

So now you should come closer to the point for what exactly you want to use this pfSense box!

Firewall
IDS/IPS (Snort, Suricata)
HTTP Proxy (Squid)
Extra packets like SquidGuard and DansGuardian on top

A Former User

Thank you very, very much Frank! :) :)

Please don't do more, I will research this a bit further myself. I was kind of hoping to do a cheap'ish but still very compact build, something like Intel NUC size. But maybe I will get a regular Mini-ITX motherboard, and add a dual-port Intel NIC to it, if I can find one for cheap on eBay.

BTW, I'm north of you, in Sweden. :) Thanks again!

RAND0M1ZER

There are a few, but availability is scarce.

Check out these:

Aewin MB-8305 (2 Intel NICs)
BCM MX3150N (2 Intel NICs)
Supermicro X11SBA-LN4F (4 Intel NICs)