Pfsense with rj45 to USB
-
Hi,
I am looking to set up a pfsense for home use. As I understand pfsense requires two Ethernet ports. The problem is I can not find any tiny form factor PC that supports dual Ethernet ports. My questions- Would pfsense support RJ45 to USB adaptors?
- Connect WAN cable to ethernet port (input), use the adaptor to connect to switch(output)
Thanks
-
What's your definition of "tiny"? I recently bought a Qotom mini PC with 4 Ethernet ports, i5 CPU, 4 GB of memory and 64 GB SSD. An easy test to see if pfsense will work with a USB adapter is to tether your cell phone to it and see if the interface shows up. I haven't tried it with pfsense, but it does work with Linux. Another way around this would be to use a managed switch & VLAN, provided you can afford the bandwidth loss.
-
@vvt said in Pfsense with rj45 to USB:
As I understand pfsense requires two Ethernet ports.
No. It will also work with a single NIC, if you get a benefit of such an installation.
@vvt said in Pfsense with rj45 to USB:
The problem is I can not find any tiny form factor PC that supports dual Ethernet ports.
In addition to the suggestion of @JKnott which I've in use at home myself you may look of PCengines APU boards.
Adaptor i am considering
You should get knowledge of the chip inside, so you could check the FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE Hardware Notes for compatibility.
USB is just a bus system which is supported by FreeBSD for sure. -
@vvt said in Pfsense with rj45 to USB:
Hi,
As I understand pfsense requires two Ethernet ports.It doesn't require it, but is highly recommended. Here's the way to run pfsense WAN/LAN on a single ethernet port:
pfsense on 1 network/ethernet port PC using VLANS
You have to use a smart/managed switch for this process to work. It is a good solution, if say your internet connection is less than 75-100Mbps. This is because ALL of your traffic, inbound from the internet and outbound from your LAN, all at the same time, are flowing over the same ethernet port. Again, slower internet speeds are OK with a setup like this. USB adaptors aren't a good option, and there's only a couple that actually seem to work.
-
@akuma1x Thanks, I am on 900Mbps fiber. Sounds like this is not going to work for me..
-
@jknott Thanks for the reply. Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 is an eg of Tiny form factor pc
-
I don't know what the dimensions of that M73 are, but the Qotom is designed to be mounted behind a monitor and even comes with the hardware for doing that. Take a look to see what's available. I bought mine from AliExpress.
Yes, with 900 Mb (I assume symmetrical), a VLAN wouldn't work well.
-
@vvt said in Pfsense with rj45 to USB:
@jknott Thanks for the reply. Lenovo ThinkCentre M73 is an eg of Tiny form factor pc
I just bought the Lenovo ThinkCentre M93p SFF 32GB RAM for a new pfSense setup as well as have Lenovo tiny M92p for FreePBX. If I were you, I would get a managed switch to use VLAN with that tiny one Ethernet port.
-
@nollipfsense said in Pfsense with rj45 to USB:
If I were you, I would get a managed switch to use VLAN with that tiny one Ethernet port.
The problem with that is it effectively limits him to 500 Mb and he's got a 900 Mb connection. When you use a VLAN over a single port, a packet has to pass through the same port twice, so a Gb port effectively becomes 500 Mb.
-
@jknott said in Pfsense with rj45 to USB:
@nollipfsense said in Pfsense with rj45 to USB:
If I were you, I would get a managed switch to use VLAN with that tiny one Ethernet port.
The problem with that is it effectively limits him to 500 Mb and he's got a 900 Mb connection. When you use a VLAN over a single port, a packet has to pass through the same port twice, so a Gb port effectively becomes 500 Mb.
I see ... good to know. Seems that OP might need to get the Lenovo SFF.
