If you're asking can you run pfSense as a VM in proxmox then the answer is yes. But there are some caveats! It's a more complex setup to be sure the traffic is all passing through the VM. If you have to reboot proxmox you lose your router/firewall. There are lots of users doing exactly that though.

@elspoon Yes!
I now have my RT-AC86U running in AP mode, and just have an Ethernet cable running right into its WAN port.
In pfsense DHCP settings (https://192.168.50.1/status_dhcp_leases.php) it shows up as 192.168.50.4 (I have it statically mapped) and so going to http://192.168.50.4 gets me to the web interface for the Asus.
Hope this answers your questions!

Issue with the flux capacitor?

@ljgriz Note that SATA runs out of juice at 6gbps......

So if you run SATA drives, then it wont go higher.

There are two Netgate devices that have a port marked 'LAN4'. In the 2100 that is part of the switch that is connected to the LAN interface by default and no additional config is required to use it.
In the 6100 that is a discrete NIC and not enabled by default. There you would have to enable the interface and set a firewall rule on it at a minimum to use it.

Steve

@Patch @stephenw10 Thanks for your help! Replacing the switch fixed the issue! I factory reset the TP Link managed switch and it's working now too. It's sometimes the simple stuff you over look on the troubleshooting path that trip you up.

I could not determine any reason why the TP Link managed switch was preventing the Proxmox GUI from coming up. I checked everything before I reset it.

Thanks again!

Yeah, I reviewed it with the support agent and we agreed it was an issue that required further testing of the hardware.

Steve

@stephenw10 I just tried it again and it works. Looks like they finally updated their certs. Thanks for the help!

Hi Rico

Danke für die Rückmeldung. Ich konnte es mittlerweilse lösen, hab die Schnittstelle zwar angelegt, aber nicht aktiviert.

Danke

Gruss

@stephenw10 probably, I'm not super knowledgeable on how this stuff works in the back end. It does make sense that its a driver limitation, or maybe bug? Either way its nice that autoselect works as it should. Can't wait to get my other cards in and top out my provisioned speed. I can see when running a speed test it maxes out my 1Gbe nic in my desktop 😂

@valnar said in 2020 home build or buy?:

I have a 200/10Mb cable circuit and run pfSense on a PCEngines APU2C4 (new one is APU2E4). It's more than powerful enough and barely sips electricity. I run Plex through it just fine. It can handle 500Mb+

Concur. I just installed pfSense on a PC Engines APU2E4. I don't have gigabit fiber WAN yet (currently just 25 Mbps ADSL) but there are plenty of credible reports that the APU2E4 will push 500 Mbps (unencrypted) without optimization, and 950-1000 Mbps with a couple of minor tweaks.

The APU2E4 has a few specs that make it especially pfSense-friendly:
AMD Embedded G series GX-412TC, 1 GHz quad-core CPU WITH AES-NI support.
4 GB of ECC RAM
Up to 120GB internal mSATA (not CF card) storage
3 Intel i210AT ethernet ports. (The i210AT has double the number of transmit/receive queues vs the closely-related-and-more-common i211AT.)
DB9 / RS232 serial console port
2 x USB 3.0 ports
Completely fanless, and very low power draw, around ~6 watts idle ~10W max. Compare that to using a random old desktop or server PC which could draw easily 30W-40W idle, maybe much more depending on configuration.)
Very compact (about 6" x 6" x 1" thick)
Very competitive price point

If you enjoy spending hours to days messing around with random old hardware, trying to figure out whether the ethernet interfaces in it are a) compatible with BSD b) reliable in general c) performant enough to allow pfSense to shine as it should, and mucking around with BIOS-related boot quirks, etc, by all means, dig around in your closet or go to Goodwill or a flea-market.

If you want a smoother, easier pathway to a decent-performing and reliable pfSense community-edition install, go with a well-known hardware vendor with recent good compatibility reports.

Generally speaking most things should work. If something works with FreeBSD 11.1 it will almost certainly work with 11.2 or 11.3 (or 12). The sort of regression that would prevent that is very unusual.
Brand new hardware may require FreeBSD 12 for example or even not be supported at all so it's better to use stuff that has been around for a while in most cases.

I don't have any specific recommendations though.

Steve

Like an i3-8100t? Then yes. Easily.

Steve

Firewall rules are by interface, not IP address.