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    PfSense 2.5 will only work with AES-NI capable CPUs

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      @Gram:

      You guys chose a hell of a week to announce a baked in Intel requirement!

      The timing was indeed unfortunate! However AES-NI is not exclusive to Intel:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES_instruction_set#Intel_and_AMD_x86_architecture

      Steve

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      • G
        Gram
        last edited by

        @stephenw10:

        @Gram:

        You guys chose a hell of a week to announce a baked in Intel requirement!

        The timing was indeed unfortunate! However AES-NI is not exclusive to Intel:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AES_instruction_set#Intel_and_AMD_x86_architecture

        Steve

        That's a good point. Also some good points in the Reddit post.

        For most users, hardware, and companies, this requirement will probably go by practically unnoticed. And if Intel's (or AMD's) implementation of AES-NI is flawed, unintentionally or otherwise, it's going to affect more than just pfSense.

        Regardless of whether or not I trust the code in Intel's chips, I do have confidence that Netgate is making the decision for good reasons. The advanced notice is appreciated too.

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        • W
          W4RH34D
          last edited by

          @VAMike:

          @W4RH34D:

          @thehammer86:

          Push the AES-NI requirement to pfSense 3.0 roadmap.

          Lots of people here have re-purposed older hardware which they have under-volted and under-clocked with the plan to dial it up as needs arise..

          Dropping 32-bit support recently was understandable but this is ludicrous!

          Is it?  Or is it ludicrous to be running any internet facing hardware that is 6 years after EOL.

          The first one.

          Well you could always go back to carrier pigeon, they don't have any of those ludicrous hardware acceleration instruction sets.

          Did you really check your cables?

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          • V
            VAMike
            last edited by

            @W4RH34D:

            @VAMike:

            @W4RH34D:

            @thehammer86:

            Push the AES-NI requirement to pfSense 3.0 roadmap.

            Lots of people here have re-purposed older hardware which they have under-volted and under-clocked with the plan to dial it up as needs arise..

            Dropping 32-bit support recently was understandable but this is ludicrous!

            Is it?  Or is it ludicrous to be running any internet facing hardware that is 6 years after EOL.

            The first one.

            Well you could always go back to carrier pigeon, they don't have any of those ludicrous hardware acceleration instruction sets.

            I see you've gone from the ludicrous to the absurd. The strength of your argument is clear.

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            • W
              W4RH34D
              last edited by

              @VAMike:

              @W4RH34D:

              @VAMike:

              @W4RH34D:

              @thehammer86:

              Push the AES-NI requirement to pfSense 3.0 roadmap.

              Lots of people here have re-purposed older hardware which they have under-volted and under-clocked with the plan to dial it up as needs arise..

              Dropping 32-bit support recently was understandable but this is ludicrous!

              Is it?  Or is it ludicrous to be running any internet facing hardware that is 6 years after EOL.

              The first one.

              Well you could always go back to carrier pigeon, they don't have any of those ludicrous hardware acceleration instruction sets.

              I see you've gone from the ludicrous to the absurd. The strength of your argument is clear.

              We may as well be walking on the Sun, right?

              You guys thinking of forking off here at 2.4?  Ya'll can call it PFsenseless.  ;D

              Did you really check your cables?

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              • F
                fredfox_uk
                last edited by

                YAY !!!!

                Excuse for me to buy more kit to "test" :D

                Seriously though, 2 years notice? I'll take that.

                My wife bought me an APU2C4 for Christmas to run pfSense, I'll start speccing new hardware in 12 - 16 months time, ready for Christmas.

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                • A
                  athurdent
                  last edited by

                  Well, feel terribly sorry for you…  :)

                  CPU: AMD Embedded G series GX-412TC, 1 GHz quad Jaguar core with 64 bit and AES-NI

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                  • ivorI
                    ivor
                    last edited by

                    @fredfox_uk:

                    YAY !!!!

                    Excuse for me to buy more kit to "test" :D

                    Seriously though, 2 years notice? I'll take that.

                    My wife bought me an APU2C4 for Christmas to run pfSense, I'll start speccing new hardware in 12 - 16 months time, ready for Christmas.

                    APU2C4 has AES-NI

                    Need help fast? Our support is available 24/7 https://www.netgate.com/support/

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • ivorI
                      ivor
                      last edited by

                      A bit more on AES-NI https://www.netgate.com/blog/more-on-aes-ni.html

                      Need help fast? Our support is available 24/7 https://www.netgate.com/support/

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                      • F
                        fredfox_uk
                        last edited by

                        @ivor:

                        @fredfox_uk:

                        YAY !!!!

                        Excuse for me to buy more kit to "test" :D

                        Seriously though, 2 years notice? I'll take that.

                        My wife bought me an APU2C4 for Christmas to run pfSense, I'll start speccing new hardware in 12 - 16 months time, ready for Christmas.

                        APU2C4 has AES-NI

                        I know - don't tell the wife though ;)

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                        • D
                          doktornotor Banned
                          last edited by

                          Hmmm… This

                          the new, pure JS GUI (client) architected as a single page web application.

                          seems much more disturbing than the AES-NI requirement. (Just recovering from a complete JS fiasco experience, only a couple of days old.)

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                          • J
                            jwt Netgate
                            last edited by

                            JS (on the GUI, not the backend like Ubuquiti attempted via NodeBB) compared to PHP?

                            I'll take JS, every time.

                            p.s.  false equivalence, dude.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • BBcan177B
                              BBcan177 Moderator
                              last edited by

                              @doktornotor:

                              Hmmm… This

                              the new, pure JS GUI (client) architected as a single page web application.

                              seems much more disturbing than the AES-NI requirement. (Just recovering from a complete JS fiasco experience, only a couple of days old.)

                              No fear when Dok is part of the testing team!!  :P

                              "Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it."

                              Website: http://pfBlockerNG.com
                              Twitter: @BBcan177  #pfBlockerNG
                              Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pfBlockerNG/new/

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                              • A
                                apple4ever Banned
                                last edited by

                                @ivor:

                                A bit more on AES-NI https://www.netgate.com/blog/more-on-aes-ni.html

                                I don't think that makes any more sense. Changing the interface isn't a good reason to drop devices without AES-NI.

                                I'm definitely not happy, as I just bought a nice box 6 months ago without AES-NI support that works great. I was hoping to get a second for HA, and then have these for 4ish years. That's not going to happen now.

                                If this was coming in 3.0 which would be 3-4 years out, I'd understand. But not a year out. I was planning to buy pfSense Gold, but not now.

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                                • ivorI
                                  ivor
                                  last edited by

                                  @apple4ever:

                                  I was planning to buy pfSense Gold, but not now.

                                  Is that supposed to make us feel bad? You are using our product for free. You don't have to use it. I understand you are not happy but don't be disrespectful, please.

                                  Need help fast? Our support is available 24/7 https://www.netgate.com/support/

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                                  • jahonixJ
                                    jahonix
                                    last edited by

                                    @apple4ever:

                                    I was hoping to get a second for HA, and then have these for 4ish years.

                                    If your goal is to have an HA cluster then go for it now.
                                    If your goal is to mainly fiddle with a piece of software then maybe not.

                                    You don't have to update a system once a new version is available, you know. "High availability" systems don't need to run the latest release, they need to perform without interruption. No doubt, you can have that with the current release already. For free.

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                                    • V
                                      VAMike
                                      last edited by

                                      @apple4ever:

                                      I don't think that makes any more sense. Changing the interface isn't a good reason to drop devices without AES-NI.

                                      It's not because they're changing the interface, it's because of how they want to implement their cloud service. It's up to you to decide how well your priorities converge with that.

                                      I'm also fascinated that other algorithms are completely unacceptable because reasons. Clearly the pfsense cloud needs more security than google's or amazon's.

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                                      • jahonixJ
                                        jahonix
                                        last edited by

                                        @VAMike:

                                        … how they want to implement their cloud service ...

                                        That's only a part of it.
                                        Basically the whole SDN is moving to RFC defined APIs and pfSense is moving along. If I understood it correctly, that is.

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                                        • V
                                          VAMike
                                          last edited by

                                          @jahonix:

                                          @VAMike:

                                          … how they want to implement their cloud service ...

                                          That's only a part of it.
                                          Basically the whole SDN is moving to RFC defined APIs and pfSense is moving along. If I understood it correctly, that is.

                                          I'm sure that is also tremendously important to home users with standalone firewalls.

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                                          • W
                                            W4RH34D
                                            last edited by

                                            @VAMike:

                                            @jahonix:

                                            @VAMike:

                                            … how they want to implement their cloud service ...

                                            That's only a part of it.
                                            Basically the whole SDN is moving to RFC defined APIs and pfSense is moving along. If I understood it correctly, that is.

                                            I'm sure that is also tremendously important to home users with standalone firewalls.

                                            well there's already a tremendous amount of less-than router products on the market.  What exactly got you to use pfsense in the first place?  Was it because it was generic like all the other solutions or because it has a modular package system with bells and whistles out the yin yang?

                                            Did you really check your cables?

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