Just learned about PFSense! Want to setup a dedicated powerful home router! Help
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New to the scene Home Tech geek dad that maintains the home networking
and looking into replacing my crap AirPort Extreme router with a powerful router to run my home network which consist of 20-25 wireless devices (laptops, tablets, phones, smart thermostats) and about another 20 plus cat6 wired devices (desktops, gaming devices and streaming devices)!
I have a Qnap home server (TS-569L) that holds our media/date and we also login remotely. I als have a dedicated closet windows 10 pc (DELL OPTIPLEX 990 3.40GHZ INTEL CORE I7 GEN2 TOWER) on 24/7 running plex server that pulls from the qnap and transcode media to various devices (ps4, xbox one, amazon sticks, Apple TV, smart tv!) We also do a lot of netflix, hbo go and amazon video streaming at home and we play video games. I find that I constantly get dropped wifi signal on my Airport Extreme which constantly chokes! I have a 16 gb switch at the primary point and then in the living room I use an aditional 5 port gb switches to try and maintain most devices wired up.Looking into replacing the apple router for a PFSense computer and then deploying a few Ubiquiti Networks UniFi AC Lite AP to take care of the wifi devices!
I've watched a bunch of youtube videos and been doing some reading and I would like some guidance as to what device to use to handle the PSSense!
I would like to not spend too much money but at the same time I don't want to cheap out on performance!I have a HP DC7800 Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83Ghz (E6300), 4GB Memory that has a license for both win 7 and 10 that does not get used anymore! It only has one ethernet port and no expansion slots so I guess thats a no got right? Even if I was to get like a usb to ethernet adapter?
So looking on eBay I saw http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=HP+6005+Pro&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XHP+6305+Pro.TRS0&_nkw=HP+6305+Pro&_sacat=0
With pci-e slots where I could add some dual ethernet pci-e card etc etc I could probably find one of those computers for 50 bucks on eBay ! What are your thoughts? Why about running PFSense virtually on my already on 24/7 desktop? I am not really liking that idea I think I would much rather have a dedicated computer for the PFsense ! Maybe in the budget of $200 bucks max!! Obviously electricity can factor in if its going to cost too much money to run an older computer 24/7 then I'll have to look into newer more energy efficient devices !
Thoughts, advice anything would be sweet thanks
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What is your connection speed?
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50 mbps up and down
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Well if you look at this thread it's a pretty cheap build that would work well for what you need.
I priced the items out on Amazon needed to build one with 4GB of memory and a 32GB SSD and they come in under $200 before shipping.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019Z8T9J0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A14HQ326MGQ4AS
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LDLV6S/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ELQZD10/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2UXO5LPTDY3LN
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Cool I will check it out
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For a 50x50 connection almost any hardware will do just fine. If you're feeling adventurous you could just use the machine you have with a single NIC and buy a small "smart" switch and use VLANs. If not, find a cheap desktop that you can add an extra NIC to and have fun.
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…a usb to ethernet adapter?
Better forget about USB adapters. They are either not supported under FreeBSD or don't work reliably to consider purchasing.
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Cool I will check it out
I just bought this unit, preconfigured. I wiped the existing PFSense install and redid it with the newly released version. After playing with it at work to see what it can handle (it runs win10 surpringly well!) (i'll never use a preconfigured security appliance incase they made it, insecure)
It's a great little box
