Questions on a new pfSense build - i5 7400, ASRock H270M-ITX/ac
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That card is at least supported, by the iwm(4) driver.
However as it says there it supports station mode (client) only.
As far as I know no Intel cards support hostap mode, in FreeBSD at least.It will also connect only at 802.11N because there is no AC support in FreeBSD.
Steve
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ASUS router: It sounds like you need to support a lot of simultaneous connections, so just about anything you build is going to be better than this cheap toy.
Mobo: Nice dual Intel NICs. pfSense doesn't support AC wifi yet, so the wireless probably won't work. If it isn't Atheros, it's probably never going to work. You should also check that it can run as an AP if you want to use, but you're probably better off using the ASUS as an AP. That's about the only thing it's good for.
CPU: Maybe overkill. I would build with a power efficient chip rather than a powerful one.
RAM: Probably overkill unless you are getting a great deal, and you are going to use ZFS and snort.
Samsung NVMe: Pointless. pfSense only needs IO when it is updating, which is pretty rare. I use USB drives in my build for the cost and power use advantages.
Intel NIC: Good card. It's probably what I would use if the onboard NICs don't deliver.
Case: Cheap is good. It doesn't need to do anything but be a box.
It's a very powerful build that leaves you a lot of room to grow, but you are paying for it with the additional electricity costs. Also, you are reaching the price point where the more compact and power efficient SG-3100 is a competitive option.
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@signalz and @stephenw10
Thanks both for you answers. It appears i have no chance using the wifi card onboard, as an host AP. I will move on then...
Regarding the setup, it is a bit overkill , yes. I have a 35W i3 CPU and 8GB RAM with a normal HDD. I read about the inutility of having a SSD in this case. THe power supply has 250W and it is the smallest one i could find to fit in a 1U case.
Thank you again guys.