Need cheapest humanly available hardware to run pfsense

crashnburn

@BlueKobold:

But often Watchguard Firebox X or Nokia IP6xx appliances are very cheap to get the hands on for
a small budget it would be really impressive to build a good firewall based on such boxes.

I was thinking of the same for an SMB Non Profit that has 15-20 old & new machines on their LAN. Any specific recommendations of these?

Harvy66

@NOYB:

@gazoo:

Like the title says.
. . .
Don't want to use an old laptop or anything like that.

So the title was just a baseless grab line. Either your willing to go with an old notebook or it's not "like the title says" after all.

I'm feel suckered. ;)

Right? Beggars can't be choosers.

Guest

I was thinking of the same for an SMB Non Profit that has 15-20 old & new machines on their LAN. Any specific recommendations of these?

Nokia IP650 with some slots filled up, l likes you need it. It comes with GB LAN Ports. At eBay for cheap
without not problem.

crashnburn

@BlueKobold:

I was thinking of the same for an SMB Non Profit that has 15-20 old & new machines on their LAN. Any specific recommendations of these?

Nokia IP650 with some slots filled up, l likes you need it. It comes with GB LAN Ports. At eBay for cheap
without not problem.

Thanks. I just ebay searched for them and they seem Huge & more expensive than some Watchguard stuff on Ebay. Are they more/ less power hungry {Given their huge boxes}??

crashnburn

@fibrewire:

@gazoo:

…considered a firebox as this is what I have, but the X core E are little more than I want to spend...

$59 + $12 S&H doesn't seem like very much. The core-e and peak-e lines are mostly identical, as I have several of these operating in production environments as we speak - extremely solid performers, and way overkill for a home system. Then again, so is pfSense ;)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271939834232

I am getting one x5500e peak for around similar price. Would this work well for an SMB with recent PFS?

Are they too power hungry that you might recommend something else in hardware?

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=25011.0
Why is this thread for the x5500e peak closed?

Guest

Thanks. I just ebay searched for them and they seem Huge & more expensive than some Watchguard stuff on Ebay.

Nokia or Watchguard whatever you get your hands on, for less money or cheap you should take to start.

And by the way, the entire thread here was starting cheap as cheap can and for home usage
and now we are drifting to the SMB business terrain with an looking eye on less power consuming!

Are they more/ less power hungry {Given their huge boxes}??

The Nokia IP 650 is hot swap dual psu build and can be upgraded to 12 LAN Ports and also ports for
connecting fiberline.

Are they too power hungry that you might recommend something else in hardware?

If the Nokia IP 650 is to great go and have a look for a Nokia IP 390HD or Nokia 560 perhaps,
there are up to;

12 GBit/s LAN Ports
miniPCI slot for VPN Soekris vpn1411 crypto card
dual psu
change and upgradeable RAM

Nokia IP 390HD 1 ~$35
Nokia IP 390HD 2 ~£60
Nokia IP 390HD 3 ~$125
Nokia IP560 ~$200

Why is this thread for the x5500e peak closed?

Where is the problem open a new one.

cmb

@crashnburn:

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=25011.0
Why is this thread for the x5500e peak closed?

Threads that have been inactive for a long time get locked to prevent hijacking. Always welcome to start a new thread if you want.

crashnburn

Thanks for the help in finding some models.. but I am in the US so shipping from UK may be $$$.

I will look for those models on Ebay.com US and see if I find something low power wattage for Home/ SOHO/ SMB.

Guest

Thanks for the help in finding some models.. but I am in the US so shipping from UK may be $$$.

If you are in the USA you can also easily watch out to the netgate store and go with a APU variant for this
perhaps.

I will look for those models on Ebay.com US and see if I find something low power wattage for Home/ SOHO/ SMB.

Would be also a fine deal because the VPN card can be choosen to one that is available in the pfSense
or netgate store (Soekris vpn1411) if needed.

crashnburn

I am wondering if there is some kind of "low power" mode / speed step that can be done on PFS like this thing for Fans. https://www.hexhound.com/quiet-the-fan-on-your-pfsense-watchguard-firewall/

stephenw10

@crashnburn:

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=25011.0
Why is this thread for the x5500e peak closed?

In addition that thread does not cover the X5500e which is identical to the x750e and similar. The original X-Peak covered in that thread is a different beast. See the docs page.

Steve

crashnburn

@stephenw10:

@crashnburn:

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=25011.0
Why is this thread for the x5500e peak closed?

In addition that thread does not cover the X5500e which is identical to the x750e and similar. The original X-Peak covered in that thread is a different beast. See the docs page.

Steve

You mean this - https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox

That is how I reached the Peak thread I linked to. x550e / 750e core thread is open but Peak thread is closed.

Someone said its just more powerful, and you are saying its a different beast.. Please explain/ help/ clarify.

crashnburn

https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox
I read thru the steps here for x-core-e and although I am technically savvy I am a bit iffy as I may not have/ or be doing this on the right hardware / cables and that could get me stuck.

Anyone here from the Bay Area done this before/ has the cables etc, I wouldnt mind a spotting buddy.

kkarhan

I know this topic is quite old, but I'd like to add my own & successful try to build a low-cost pfSense router.

In detail it was just projected to be an upgrade to an old D-Link 524 in a mechatronics lab envoirment, wit just a few features - like static IP assignment of clients via their MAC adress & MAC-Whitelisting as well as blocking access to the internet from or to the lab equipment [including several Siemens Siematic PLCs, a Kubota robot arm, Several printers and a professional 3D Printer], but not the PCs.

The D-Link was used as an AP instead, this saving the cost of buying a wifi card that isn't faster anyway...
[I hope 802.11ac support and drivers for the Intel 7260ac will soon come!].

I used an ASRock J1900M Mainboard [€ 40],
an LC-Power 1400 Case w/ 250W PSU [€ 40],
3 Realtek 811x NICs with PCIe x1 [€ 5 each]
as well as a Corsair ValueRAM 2x 2GB DDR3-1333 Kit [€ 30]
and a Transcend 32GB 2,5" SSD [€ 20]

Which totaled around € 145 in parts and € 150 with shipping.

Since it neither needed VPN or any crypto handling besides it's HTTPS web interface, performance is sufficient.
On the WAN side, this unit just goes straight into a Cable CPE with roughly 150M/10M, and it can fully saturate that [before the D-Link capped it with it's 100M ports...

This setup was easy to deploy and fully satisfied the customer's needs, as it was just the needed and reasonable priced upgrade to a customer/SoHo router and while being cheaper than the famous Fritz!Box routers, it had significantly more features and didn't have arbitrary and artificial limitations [like MAC-Whitelisting only on the Wireless interface and limited to 25 devices like the D-Link].

Sadly, with some of those cheap ASRock boards being in low supply, espechally the QC5000M [same board, but with an AMD A4-5000, thus having AES-Ni], the few offers on Amazon ramp up prices to 300% or more - at least in Germany.

But I'm pretty shure some Celeron J4xxx or J5xxx as well as potentially upcoming, low-end Ryzen-based SoCs will fill the gap without getting too pricy.