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    New to PfSense. Can my hardware work?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • B
      biggyk
      last edited by

      Hey all,

      New to pfsense I was looking for a solution thats much better than my modem's router (Hitron). It appears my isp has now assigned me an ivp6 address which creates some issues for remote applications I had that does not support it so I was hoping for some sort of workaround. But overall, I just want much more control and security.

      I have an older small mini-itx build that I was using as an htpc but now have upgraded that so this is laying around. Just wondering if it wroth using. I know I would need to buy a at least a dual NIC card. My ideal setup would be a 1u setup that can go under my switch in my utility room as I still have rack space but if I can use this hardware il keep it in the same case.

      Amd 5350 APU
      MSI-7865 Mobo
      4gb ram
      250g  WD Drive

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      • P
        pfBasic Banned
        last edited by

        It will work with pfSense, but it depends on your connection and what features you want to use.

        Since you already have a switch, assuming it supports VLANs then you can very likely use pfSense with one NIC and VLAN's if you like, for sub-gigabit speeds.

        It's very unlikely that your ISP has abandoned IPv4 altogether, i.e. they have not. So you can just ignore IPv6 and continue to use v4 only.

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        • B
          biggyk
          last edited by

          @pfBasic:

          It will work with pfSense, but it depends on your connection and what features you want to use.

          Since you already have a switch, assuming it supports VLANs then you can very likely use pfSense with one NIC and VLAN's if you like, for sub-gigabit speeds.

          It's very unlikely that your ISP has abandoned IPv4 altogether, i.e. they have not. So you can just ignore IPv6 and continue to use v4 only.

          My modem supports full gigabit but I only have 150mbit D and 10mbit U. It looks like I only have a ipv6 public address now so its causing issues with my services that need me to enter an ipv4 address to forward.

          I need to double check but the built in NIC on the mobo I think it realtek so i would buy a card anyways. I did not know that its possible to only use one NIC. Thought you had to have a minimum of two. One for LAN and one for WAN.

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          • chpalmerC
            chpalmer
            last edited by

            @biggyk:

            It looks like I only have a ipv6 public address now so its causing issues with my services that need me to enter an ipv4 address to forward.

            I did not know that its possible to only use one NIC. Thought you had to have a minimum of two. One for LAN and one for WAN.

            A single physical interface can do multiple VLAN's. Each VLAN can be assigned a different virtual interface.  Your still limited to the physical speed of the port so that bandwidth is shared by all VLAN's.  But you have to have a managed switch to make use of them.

            The world is not IPv6 ready yet.  Getting there but Im not sure why any ISP would limit you to IPv6 only.  Mind sharing who they are?

            Triggering snowflakes one by one..
            Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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            • B
              biggyk
              last edited by

              @chpalmer:

              @biggyk:

              It looks like I only have a ipv6 public address now so its causing issues with my services that need me to enter an ipv4 address to forward.

              I did not know that its possible to only use one NIC. Thought you had to have a minimum of two. One for LAN and one for WAN.

              A single physical interface can do multiple VLAN's. Each VLAN can be assigned a different virtual interface.  Your still limited to the physical speed of the port so that bandwidth is shared by all VLAN's.  But you have to have a managed switch to make use of them.

              The world is not IPv6 ready yet.  Getting there but Im not sure why any ISP would limit you to IPv6 only.  Mind sharing who they are?

              Rogers in Canada.

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              • P
                pfBasic Banned
                last edited by

                Id give them a call, i can't imagine that any ISP would not offer IPv64 at this point.

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                • B
                  biggyk
                  last edited by

                  @pfBasic:

                  Id give them a call, i can't imagine that any ISP would not offer IPv6 at this point.

                  I did use a website that managed to show me an ipv4 address so I guess I have both at the moment.

                  Laos, my switch is a TP-Link TL-SG1024 so I dont believe it supports vlan as its an unmanaged switch. So just so I understand correctly If I bought a dual Intel NIC then one port would be WAN and the other LAN? Or does one need two NICs?

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                  • chpalmerC
                    chpalmer
                    last edited by

                    @biggyk:

                    So just so I understand correctly If I bought a dual Intel NIC then one port would be WAN and the other LAN? Or does one need two NICs?

                    Ive got a dual port Intel NIC on a customers machine and it works just fine. :)

                    Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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                    • P
                      pfBasic Banned
                      last edited by

                      Without VLANs the minimum number of ports is 2. It doesn't matter if you get two ports from one NIC or two.

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                      • B
                        biggyk
                        last edited by

                        @pfBasic:

                        Without VLANs the minimum number of ports is 2. It doesn't matter if you get two ports from one NIC or two.

                        Great thanks. Il try to find a cheap NIC to throw in and see how she runs. If not il try to find a used 1u server that Il be able to use.

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                        • W
                          whosmatt
                          last edited by

                          @biggyk:

                          Great thanks. Il try to find a cheap NIC to throw in and see how she runs. If not il try to find a used 1u server that Il be able to use.

                          I'd go the dual NIC server pull route.  $20 or $30 on ebay or Amazon.  The rest of the hardware is entirely capable.  A cheap desktop NIC will certainly work along with the built-in one, but if you have a very fast WAN connection you might be giving up some performance at the top end.

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                          • B
                            biggyk
                            last edited by

                            @whosmatt:

                            @biggyk:

                            Great thanks. Il try to find a cheap NIC to throw in and see how she runs. If not il try to find a used 1u server that Il be able to use.

                            I'd go the dual NIC server pull route.  $20 or $30 on ebay or Amazon.  The rest of the hardware is entirely capable.  A cheap desktop NIC will certainly work along with the built-in one, but if you have a very fast WAN connection you might be giving up some performance at the top end.

                            Put in an order this morning on ebay.  Have to wait a while but decent price. I still wonder if in the future I can fit it in a 1u case

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                            • W
                              whosmatt
                              last edited by

                              @biggyk:

                              Put in an order this morning on ebay.  Have to wait a while but decent price. I still wonder if in the future I can fit it in a 1u case

                              Depends on the case, but yes, generally. They'll use a riser card that allows you to install the PCI-e NIC horizontally (parallel to the motherboard) rather than perpendicular.

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                              • R
                                Reece5646
                                last edited by

                                I  use a Dell R210II - Xeon - 12GB ram, 250SSD
                                With DUAL 1GB WAN  connections from two different providers
                                No issues whatsoever handles it like a breeze,

                                You can grab the R210's cheap

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