Which hardware to buy

p2ranger

My medium sized church has hired me to do part time IT work for them. I'm no professional, but a computer hobbyist who learns along the way. I have pfSense running on a computer at home for my home network.

At our church, the current router, Cisco Linksys E1500, is just not cutting it anymore as there has been growth since it was first bought a few years ago (it has to be restarted at times and doesn't like to make connections to devices sometimes until it is restarted). I have been using it as just a router and turned off the WiFi radio which was replaced by some Ubiquiti Unifi APs for a staff of about 15 to use for wireless access in the office. We do not currently offer nor do we currently have plans to offer public wifi to the ~400 church members. The current configuration has a cable modem to the router to a switch and patch panel, with more switches in other parts of the building. So the router is currently only using the WAN port and one LAN port.

I'm trying to decide between the pfSense SG-2220 ($299) and the SG-2440 ($549). What would justify the extra cost of the 2440 over the 2220? Is the performance of the 2220 strong enough for my needs? Would having additional LAN ports be necessary for the future?

Thanks for any input

Jason

jahonix

@p2ranger:

… has hired me ... I'm no professional, but a computer hobbyist

I always thought you hire a pro while hobbyists volunteer.

@p2ranger:

Is the performance of the 2220 strong enough for my needs? Would having additional LAN ports be necessary for the future?

We currently don't know your needs.
To give us an idea maybe tell us what speed your internet connection has. Will there be VPN connections to or from this church?

You know better about future needs in this church than we do. The need for additional router ports is always a "maybe", depending on how you will design the network and how you estimate future growth.

p2ranger

Thanks for the reply

Internet speeds are currently 27 Mbps down and 7 Mbps up. Possible expansion to 50 Mbps down.

I do not foresee VPN sessions.

Jason

jahonix

@p2ranger:

Would having additional LAN ports be necessary for the future?

Still no answer, not even a hint, to what you plan for the future. How are we supposed to know?
(my personel crystal ball is broken currently, sorry!)

Best bet is to get an SG-2440 because you don't know about future needs and this way you are safe. Having spent money on too small a device means these funds could be wasted.

ivor

@p2ranger:

My medium sized church has hired me to do part time IT work for them. I'm no professional, but a computer hobbyist who learns along the way. I have pfSense running on a computer at home for my home network.

At our church, the current router, Cisco Linksys E1500, is just not cutting it anymore as there has been growth since it was first bought a few years ago (it has to be restarted at times and doesn't like to make connections to devices sometimes until it is restarted). I have been using it as just a router and turned off the WiFi radio which was replaced by some Ubiquiti Unifi APs for a staff of about 15 to use for wireless access in the office. We do not currently offer nor do we currently have plans to offer public wifi to the ~400 church members. The current configuration has a cable modem to the router to a switch and patch panel, with more switches in other parts of the building. So the router is currently only using the WAN port and one LAN port.

I'm trying to decide between the pfSense SG-2220 ($299) and the SG-2440 ($549). What would justify the extra cost of the 2440 over the 2220? Is the performance of the 2220 strong enough for my needs? Would having additional LAN ports be necessary for the future?

Thanks for any input

Jason

SG-2220 and SG-2440 are appropriate for your requirements. 2440 is a better choice because of an extra 2GB of RAM and 2 additional ports.

p2ranger

Thanks for the replies

I apologize for not citing needs for future LAN ports. For now we don't need it, but I'm not quite sure what future need that might arise that would require us to need an additional port. As far as I can tell, the switch is where we have the need for ports at this time. I'm still learning my way around networking. Could you give me some examples of what an additional LAN port at the router level would be used for?

Thanks

Jason

ivor

@p2ranger:

Thanks for the replies

I apologize for not citing needs for future LAN ports. For now we don't need it, but I'm not quite sure what future need that might arise that would require us to need an additional port. As far as I can tell, the switch is where we have the need for ports at this time. I'm still learning my way around networking. Could you give me some examples of what an additional LAN port at the router level would be used for?

Thanks

Jason

Sure! With more networking ports you can have two internet connections in multi-wan scenario. So when ISP1 breaks, pfSense automatically switches to ISP2. You can also use a free port to create a separate network for your wifi users. Just an example.

Please let me know if you have more questions!