How many WAN ????

Droopy

Hi every one

I'd like to share an internet connection for a lot of people (about 250). So I need a large bandwidth. I thought installing a pfSense server wich will be connected to 8 WAN but I wonder if it is possible because I only saw samples with 2 WAN.

So my question is : How many WAN can we use with pfSense ? and is load balancing ever available ?

Thank's everyone

hoba

There is no limit on how many WANs are in a pool. The only limit you might encounter will be physical limits of your hardware (slots, nics, cpu, memory).

The maximum number of nics used with a pfSense I have heared of is 12 (with some quad nics in use).

The maximum number of WANs I have heared of in use with pfSense is 3.

Neither the number of WANs, nor the number of poolmembers is restricted in any way by the software but you should calculate the size of your hardware correctly to push the load.

netsysadmin

Just one important point: if you'll be using the WAN links for FTP as well, be informed that FTP is only supported on the "WAN" interface, not on the additional OPT interfaces.

hoba

Thats true for pfSense 1.0. There is a possible solution that might overcome this limitation but it needs to be implemented first and is not tested yet. Stay tuned for future releases ;)

diegoc

Would be possible to habe just one Wan with subinterfaces? Becuase the physical limit i only have 3 wans, but i need more bandwith, so one solution could be many connections from differents providers connected to one switch with the pf wan`s all together, and each subinterface with different ip range.

thanks in advance

Diego

hoba

If your switch is VLAN capable you can configure it as seperate VLAN nterfaces running at one physical NIC at the pfSense.

rsw686

Why do you need so many WAN interfaces. You can get an internet connection with 15mb downstream and 2-5mb up. With 2 or 3 of those thats more than enough for 250 people.

billm

@rsw686:

Why do you need so many WAN interfaces. You can get an internet connection with 15mb downstream and 2-5mb up. With 2 or 3 of those thats more than enough for 250 people.

He never mentioned usage pattern :) In a corporate environment, that's probably correct. In a apartment, I can see the bandwidth getting eaten up fast by people watching streaming pr0n.

–Bill

diegoc

thanks hoba I will try this solution,

regards

Diego.

Pd: i have more than 1500 users behind my pf, so i need a loot of bandwith ;)

gsgi

I noticed this thing on the page of "recommended vendors". Has anyone tried to make it do 5 WAN connections?

http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=4&products_id=909

-gsgi

hoba

I don't see why it shouldn't work and this device has some horsepower too, so depending on the bandwidth of your wans it will be a very nice platform for multiwan.

sullrich

@gsgi:

I noticed this thing on the page of "recommended vendors". Has anyone tried to make it do 5 WAN connections?

http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=4&products_id=909

-gsgi

This unit works quite well. Go for it.

dominioz

Friends

I work with 4 wans.

I can arrive up to 5 wans for fisical limit of router

diegoc

Hi All,

I have configured my pf with vlans on Wan interface, and works perfectly, now i can add more wans without physical limits.

Regards

Diego