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    Need recommendation for pfsense computer hardware

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    • F Offline
      firefox
      last edited by

      1 GB connection

      Two lan ports
      Two wan ports
      Wireless network card (option as wan)

      several packages

      arpwatch
      avahi
      havp
      snort
      squid
      sarg reports

      Is there any difference between the various network card
      Or that all standard network card speed of 1 Gb will fit

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      • stephenw10S Offline
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        I assume you mean 1Gbps WAN connection total?

        If you want Snort, Squid and HAVP at 1Gpbs go are going to need some powerful hardware.

        Get Intel NICs if you have a choice.

        Steve

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        • F Offline
          firefox
          last edited by

          I assume you mean 1Gbps WAN connection total?

          yes

          If you want Snort, Squid and HAVP at 1Gpbs go are going to need some powerful hardware.

          How strong
          I currently have these packages installed on an old computer with 756 MB memory

          and it works

          What are the differences between the various cards
          Why Intel's cards are more expensive
          What they have that others do not

          I saw all kinds Intel cards
          Which one
          What is the difference between the various cards from Intel

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          • F Offline
            firefox
            last edited by

            Intel EXPI9301CT
            Intel PWLA8391GTBLK
            Intel PRO/1000 PF
            Intel EXPI9400PTBLK
            Intel Pro/1000 GT
            INTEL PRO/1000 CT

            this is a few of what i saw
            What is the difference between the  cards

            all difrent price

            what i need to look for ?

            why intel and not

            d link
            level one
            tp link
            TRENDnet
            hp
            edimax

            What wireless network card
            Most suitable
            And has drivers in pfsense

            I want a wireless card not for a AP

            I want to make it as wan connection

            When Internet connection falls
            Access will be via the mobile phone network
            {Wireless card Accesst  the phone's AP}

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            • A Offline
              Atlantisman
              last edited by

              Intel cards have the best support in pfsense.

              They're also the best cards all around.

              Just get the least expensive out of all the intel options.

              pfsense has terrible support for wireless cards and at the moment only supports wireless G i believe.

              You will want to check the pfsense hardware support lists over carefully before you buy a wireless card, just a small revision in the model can make it so pfsense doesn't support it at all.

              https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Supported_Wireless_Cards - hardware supported lists.

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              • J Offline
                jasonlitka
                last edited by

                @firefox:

                If you want Snort, Squid and HAVP at 1Gpbs go are going to need some powerful hardware.

                How strong
                I currently have these packages installed on an old computer with 756 MB memory

                and it works

                No offence, but I find that difficult to believe.  Snort eats an enormous amount of RAM if you want it to perform well, I use ~3GB per interface as a general rule for hardware planning, and it's also very CPU intensive.  If you've got snort, squid, and havp all on the same box then you've either not got them actually doing anything (installed doesn't mean working), are running WAY less than 1Gbit/s, or are using much faster hardware than you're implying.

                I can break anything.

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                • F Offline
                  firefox
                  last edited by

                  Currently my Internet connection is 10 MB
                  I'm upgrading the hardware
                  Because I am going to increase the connection to 150 MB or 200
                  Perhaps more if I need

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                  • stephenw10S Offline
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    [pedantry]
                    A quick point of information. 10MB, Mega Bytes is 80Mb Mega bits.
                    Also Mb is quantity, Mbps is a rate.
                    Might not seem important but it can cause all sorts of confusion.
                    [/pedantry]

                    The important part of a NIC is not who made the card but what chipset it uses. Those manufacturers you listed make many cards with many different chipsets from other manufacturers. Some are good many are bad. Generally speaking the prefered chipsets for use in pfSense (in order of preference) are :
                    Intel
                    Broadcom
                    Everyone else (Marvell, Atheros, Nvidia etc)
                    Realtek
                    That's somewhat of a simplification. Check the forum for actual reports. Almost all Intel cards work well. They generally give slightly higher throughput with less CPU loading. About the only exception to that is the Pro/1000 VT about which Jason said recently:
                    @Jason:

                    then light the card on fire and buy a i350. The fewer VT cards that remain in this world the better.

                    :P

                    What CPU were you running in the 756MB box?

                    Steve

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                    • F Offline
                      firefox
                      last edited by

                      The important part of a NIC is not who made the card but what chipset it uses. Those manufacturers you listed make many cards with many different chipsets from other manufacturers

                      The bottom line
                      To buy Intel network card
                      Does not matter which
                      As long as it 10/100/1000
                      and it is not VT

                      Which of the cards I wrote earlier is VT ?

                      Intel EXPI9301CT
                      Intel PWLA8391GTBLK
                      Intel PRO/1000 PF
                      Intel EXPI9400PTBLK
                      Intel Pro/1000 GT
                      INTEL PRO/1000 CT

                      What CPU were you running in the 756MB box?

                      Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz

                      A quick point of information. 10MB, Mega Bytes is 80Mb Mega bits.
                      Also Mb is quantity, Mbps is a rate.
                      Might not seem important but it can cause all sorts of confusion.

                      I know
                      always get confused between them
                      the rate is 10 Mbps

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                      • J Offline
                        jasonlitka
                        last edited by

                        @firefox:

                        Which of the cards I wrote earlier is VT ?

                        Intel EXPI9301CT
                        Intel PWLA8391GTBLK
                        Intel PRO/1000 PF
                        Intel EXPI9400PTBLK
                        Intel Pro/1000 GT
                        INTEL PRO/1000 CT

                        Thankfully, none of them.

                        Those are:
                        82574L - Relatively-new Workstation/Entry Server
                        82541PI - Desktop adapter (PCI, and really old)
                        82572 - Older Server (useless unless you've got a multi-mode fiber connection with LC connectors)
                        82572 - Older Server (same as above except twisted pair)
                        82541PI - Same card as the first one of these, just the retail name instead of the bulk part number
                        82574L - Same card as the first one of these, just the retail name instead of the bulk part number.

                        If these are your choices, the cards based on the 82574L are way out in front.

                        @firefox:

                        What CPU were you running in the 756MB box?

                        Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz

                        Ok, that would have no problems with the packages you mentioned at 10Mbit/s.

                        I can break anything.

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                        • F Offline
                          firefox
                          last edited by

                          I saw the list of supported wireless cards in pfsense

                          https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AojFUXcbH0ROdHgwYkFHbkRUdV9hVWljVWl5SXkxbFE&hl=en#gid=0

                          By accident
                          I have a card with a chip from the second row
                          That supports All

                          This card is a 5 years old maybe more
                          If I want to buy a new
                          Today everything is standard on N or AC
                          is there any supported cards?

                          Is it possible to know with which chip the network card is manufactured
                          On the packaging of the product
                          Or just check online ?

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                          • stephenw10S Offline
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            There is currently (2.1.3) no support for 802.11N at all. Some 'N' cards are supported but only in 'G' mode. This is mostly because of the lack of support in FreeBSD 8.3 on which pfSense is built. pfSense 2.2 will have much better support because it's built on FreebSD 10. Still no 'AC' support though.

                            Exactly which card do you have? Since you've already got it you may as well try it.
                            A good place to look up wireless hardware is: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Main_Page

                            Most people will recommend you use an external access point for wifi. They can be bought very cheaply these days and will give you better features and usually better coverage.

                            Steve

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                            • F Offline
                              firefox
                              last edited by

                              Most people will recommend you use an external access point for wifi

                              I do not need the wireless card for wifi
                              I already have AP connected to pfsense

                              I want the card to be kind of a backup internet connection

                              Internet connection occasionally falls because a power outage or infrastructure work

                              Cellular Internet connection is still active
                              I want to turn the AP  option in the cell phone
                              Then connect to it with a wireless card

                              I do that in several cases
                              But without success

                              https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,67694.msg387570.html#msg387570
                              https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=75362.0
                              https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,71096.0.html

                              Exactly which card do you have

                              Tp link card TL-WN650G

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                              • stephenw10S Offline
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                That card is an older chipset it should work well. I have a very similar card my home box.

                                Steve

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                                • F Offline
                                  firefox
                                  last edited by

                                  How much memory should be put on the computer ?

                                  Which processor

                                  amd can be good or just Intel

                                  Thanks for the help

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                                  • J Offline
                                    jasonlitka
                                    last edited by

                                    @firefox:

                                    How much memory should be put on the computer ?

                                    Which processor

                                    amd can be good or just Intel

                                    Thanks for the help

                                    Snort+Squid means "as much RAM as possible.  To be honest though, using squid will likely slow you down.  Squid is useful when you've got a bunch of users on a slow connection.  You don't have a slow connection.

                                    With a 1Gbit/s connection you will want a CPU with the fastest clock speed you can find.  An Intel i3-3240 is a good option, though an i5 would be a better one since those add AES-NI (not terribly useful now, will be under pfSense 2.2) and ship with 4 cores instead of 2 (useful with snort on multiple interfaces, squid, and multi-threaded pf in pfsense 2.2).

                                    I can break anything.

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