Sg-2220 or Sg-2440
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Hello everyone.
I have always wanted to have pfsense and manage my home network from it. I want to try all the posibilities it offers and I am decided to buy a netgate appliance but I really doubt between sg-2220 and sg-2440. I want to learn as much as possible, trying snort, squid, vpn, vlans, doing labs,… my main concern is about if it is better for me, without experience on pfsense, to buy the sg-2220 and a managed switch to learn about vlans or the sg-2440 which has two more network cards.
What do you think could be the best choice for me?
If it is the sg-2220 could you recommended a managed switch as well?
Thank you very much.
Regards
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The devices are great firewalls I'd get a managed switch as functionally a managed switch is better than a pfSense device for vlans, switching etc.
If you want to run "lots" of things on it then get a 2440. There is an option to install a msata in the 2440 while for the 2220 its a M.2 storage. M.2 storage is a lot harder to get in small sizes so you end up paying a lot more than a msata SSD. If you're learning you're going to want lots of logs and hence lots of space to store them.
P.S. if you are running a full install make sure you have the device on UPS, power cuts can really mess up the device on you. Don't go pulling the power plug when something it not working, pfSense is not a dirt cheap plastic router.
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Save yourself $250 and get the 2220. The only reason to get the 2440 is if you absolutely need the extra ports on the router. I needed the ports on the 2440 for the dual-WAN/dual-LAN I had.
For a reasonable switch with a ton of features, this is pretty good for the money: https://www.amazon.com/MikroTik-CRS125-24G-1S-RM-rackmount-enclosure-manageable/dp/B00I4QJSIM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1502842378&sr=8-6&keywords=mikrotik+switch
So for less than US$500 you'd have pfSense hardware and a 24-port fully manageable gigabit Ethernet switch. Perfect for a home network to learn on.
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For a reasonable switch with a ton of features, this is pretty good for the money:
And you are honestly promoting something as a learning switch that can act as router as well and reaches to some cloud services? Ever heard of K.I.S.S ?
For a good GBit switch look at the Cisco SG300 series devices. Pretty much a standard and widely used all around. You can get them on eBay used as well. However you decide, stay away from Netgear's consumer stuff.
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Thanks for the replies guys… I think I'll go for the sg-2220 and a managed switch.
Do you recommend getting additional storage?... It's 50$ for 60GB.
