Hardware Issue/Question
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I'm having a few issues with hardware recently and would be grateful for any advice people could give.
Background on setup:
A few years ago I got fed up with the lack of options with off the shelf routers and ISP modem/router combos. I had a spare PC that I put in 2 Intel NIC's and installed PFSense. All was fine initially but eventually I had a problem that required a re-install (connection dropped randomly and when I came back I found it needed a re-install).
Realizing this may happen again, I ordered a VK-2D13. I realize this is low powered but I didn't think it would be an issue as I was only had a 15Mbps down and 1Mbps up. I was also running minimal packages (LCD Proc, RRD Email).
I forget why, but eventually I swapped back to my old PC instead of running the VK-2D13. Well, the same thing happened with the PC after awhile and, after needing a complete re-install (which gets old having to do multiple times) I decided to go back to the VK-2D13 as it was just sitting there. I think I found out why I stopped using it.
The issue:
So having used the VK-2D13 for about a month, I've been having a recurring issue. About once a week, the unit will seem to be struggling (web pages will load most of the time but sometimes would error out randomly) and, when trying to access the web interface to see what's going on, it will not go. It is currently doing this now. The internet will still work (as I am using it to type this now) but no amount of remote access to the device will work (SSH or Web Interface) and the only way around this is to manually power down the device and power it back on. This gets annoying to do every week. I have added one other package (pfBlocker) but still thought I wasn't really running that much.
The Questions:
- Has anyone else encountered this with this device?
- Is this a sign this device isn't powerful enough for what I'm trying to do with the packages? Outside the packages, I'm not doing anything fancy (no VPN, just firewall/port forwarding for the most part)
- If I get the newer hardware (VK-T40E) would the 4GB RAM and the 8GB SDHC card be enough for what I want to do?
- Could this be an issue with something in the config/settings? I do routine backups of the config and when I need to re-install, I just restore the config but, maybe this is causing issues after so long of different packages and setting changes? I just didn't have the time to setup everything all over again.
Other than this issue, I've been really happy with PFSense and would like to hopefully learn why this is happening so I could make sure it doesn't happen again.
Any help/advice would be appreciated.