Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    pfSense box advice

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
    17 Posts 8 Posters 3.1k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • provelsP
      provels
      last edited by provels

      Cost and support-wise, you may want to look at the SG-1100 from Netgate for $160. SG-1100 (3 ports, perfect for your AP) or if you want to home-build, there are quite a few Intel J-1900 variations available on EBay (with 2-4 ports), but will be more costly. They mostly come direct from China, so warranty on failure may be an issue. Personally, I run mine virtualized on my main PC using Hyper-V.

      Peder

      MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
      BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

      GrimsonG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GrimsonG
        Grimson Banned @provels
        last edited by

        @provels said in pfSense box advice:

        there are quite a few Intel J-1900 variations available on EBay.

        Don't use J-1900 based systems, they are old, don't support AES-NI (and you still want it, even though pfSense 2.5 will not require it) and they tend to have compatibility issues with newer FreeBSD versions.

        provelsP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • provelsP
          provels @Grimson
          last edited by provels

          @Grimson Does the SG-1100 support AES-NI. I looked and didn't see anything. Thanks.

          This might be the hot ticket before they run out. MBT-4220, but only 2 ports.

          Peder

          MAIN - pfSense+ 24.11-RELEASE - Adlink MXE-5401, i7, 16 GB RAM, 64 GB SSD. 500 GB HDD for SyslogNG
          BACKUP - pfSense+ 23.01-RELEASE - Hyper-V Virtual Machine, Gen 1, 2 v-CPUs, 3 GB RAM, 8GB VHDX (Dynamic)

          NogBadTheBadN GrimsonG 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • NogBadTheBadN
            NogBadTheBad @provels
            last edited by

            @provels said in pfSense box advice:

            @Grimson Does the SG-1100 support AES-NI. I looked and didn't see anything. Thanks.

            This might be the hot ticket before they run out. MBT-4220, but only 2 ports.

            re "but only 2 ports" buy a switch that supports VLANS :)

            Andy

            1 x Netgate SG-4860 - 3 x Linksys LGS308P - 1 x Aruba InstantOn AP22

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • GrimsonG
              Grimson Banned @provels
              last edited by

              @provels said in pfSense box advice:

              @Grimson Does the SG-1100 support AES-NI. I looked and didn't see anything. Thanks.

              ARM doesn't have AES-NI, it has other crypto accelerators. Netgate is IIRC working on adding support for them.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • 1
                1druid1
                last edited by

                Hi

                Thanks for the replies.

                I was looking at the SG-1100, but cant find a UK supplier with stock, I only need 2 LAN ports, 1 for WAN and 1 for LAN, LAN port goes into a switch, not managed as I don't really need VLANS.

                There used to be a list of compatible routers that could be flashed with pfSense but cant seem to find that on the website now.

                The MBT-4220 looks nice but not at the prices.

                As I say my use of pfSense is really limited, so still not sure what it all can do, I just downloaded it and installed it onto my old laptop to force all my connections to go through VPN, even that isn't the best as it doesn't have a kill switch that I recently found out as when my VPN went down all clients went out through normal internet.

                Cheers

                DJ

                R 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • 1
                  1druid1
                  last edited by

                  Hey All

                  Any thoughts on this board?

                  https://www.mini-itx.com/~J3455N-D3H

                  Cheers

                  DJ

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • NogBadTheBadN
                    NogBadTheBad
                    last edited by

                    I'd be tempted not to use a celeron mother board.

                    If your looking at building your own tot up the total cost against a SG-3100 pre building one if you cant get a SG-1100.

                    I've dealt with Amica in the UK when I purchased my SG-4860 and they were great to deal with.

                    Andy

                    1 x Netgate SG-4860 - 3 x Linksys LGS308P - 1 x Aruba InstantOn AP22

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • B
                      bluepr0
                      last edited by

                      You might find my last post here useful https://forum.netgate.com/topic/140954/returning-user-needs-a-new-pfsense-box/16

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • 1
                        1druid1
                        last edited by

                        @bluepr0

                        Hi, thanks for the reply, had a look, the prices have gone up quite a bit since then, I cant get that board and CPU plus memory for that cheap, the board and CPU cost around £200.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • 1
                          1druid1
                          last edited by

                          Oh, just come across something, what about one of these with 2 USB network adaptors?

                          https://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-compute-stick-quad-core-atom-x5-z8300-2gb-ram-32gb-emmc-micro-sdxc-slot-ac-wifiplusbt-hdmi-2x-

                          I use a USB network adaptor in my current configuration and works great.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • JeGrJ
                            JeGr LAYER 8 Moderator
                            last edited by

                            If you want a serious pfSense box, skip USB adapters.

                            Don't forget to upvote 👍 those who kindly offered their time and brainpower to help you!

                            If you're interested, I'm available to discuss details of German-speaking paid support (for companies) if needed.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • 1
                              1druid1
                              last edited by

                              Hi

                              I wouldn't say my use is serious, its just getting used to route network in the home through VPN.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • R
                                R1200RT
                                last edited by stephenw10

                                This is what I just bought to run at home: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Minisys-4-Lan-pfsense-minipc-Intel-atom-E3845-quad-core-mini-itx-motherboard-linux-firewall-computer/3282568428.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.260.30453c00MTfxbC

                                I have 3 subnets/networks at home. The main LAN, Google WIFI and VMWare LAB(VLAN off LAN). I am running PFSense with the AES-NI turned on for OpenVPN connected to NordVPN. I have also created Firewall Rules to allow my 2 Roku Boxes to bypass NordVPN as Amazon and Netflix seem to have problems with NordVPN.

                                The Google WIFI nodes have a static route on the LAN. I normally get 200Mbps/200Mbps from my ISP, with NordVPN on, it drops to about 160-180Mbps/100Mbps.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • R
                                  rebi @1druid1
                                  last edited by rebi

                                  @1druid1 said in pfSense box advice:

                                  I was looking at the SG-1100, but cant find a UK supplier with stock, I only need 2 LAN ports, 1 for WAN and 1 for LAN, LAN port goes into a switch, not managed as I don't really need VLANS.

                                  Try searching for a german one with UK delivery, e.g. voleatech.de does currently have it on preorder (delivery is mid-april ... hopefully before brexit ☺ )

                                  BTW since pfSense now supports ARM, it might be possible to be installed on a Raspberry PI (never dug into the topic, it's just an idea)

                                  JeGrJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • JeGrJ
                                    JeGr LAYER 8 Moderator @rebi
                                    last edited by JeGr

                                    @rebi said in pfSense box advice:

                                    BTW since pfSense now supports ARM, it might be possible to be installed on a Raspberry PI (never dug into the topic, it's just an idea)

                                    No it isn't. The two devices with ARM have custom images. There is no "generic ARM" image for pfSense. Sorry. Besides, a RasPi is a really bad choice for routing.

                                    Don't forget to upvote 👍 those who kindly offered their time and brainpower to help you!

                                    If you're interested, I'm available to discuss details of German-speaking paid support (for companies) if needed.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                    • First post
                                      Last post
                                    Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.