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    Some questions about pfSense on APU2C4

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    apu2c4coolingdisk
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    • O
      Olivier2553
      last edited by Olivier2553

      Hello,

      I am new to pfSense (but not to FreeBSD) and I have some questions before I take the plunge.

      I live in a condo with central Internet access, 20 to 50Mbps line and a captive portal. As soon as the traffic is building up, the current box starts to give up, ping can take up to 30 minutes to echo! Even in normal condition, every ping reply is duplicated, etc. That gives you an idea of the current mess.

      And I am not allowed to install my own internet line :(

      So I plan to replace the current solution by pfSense build on APU2c4 and my questions are:

      • how APU2C4 supports the heat? I leave in Thailand, the box will be installed in a non air conditioned office, so it will be 30 C most of the time
      • can APU2C4 support 50Mbps WAN and about 100 users? I plan to buy the RAM extension
      • do I need mSATA SSD or external disk or I can run on SD card only? If I need a disk, how big is recommended, I don't plan to keep much log?

      Thanks in advance,

      Olivier

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by stephenw10

        50Mbps should pose no issue at all except that 50Mbps between 100 users could be a problem is they are all trying to watch films etc. The total connection numbers shouldn't be an issue.

        I would use am mSATA drive if you can just to leave your options open. If you choose to run from flash (SD) then you should install with no SWAP and move /var and /tmp to ramdrives. Don't try to run packages with extensive logging or caching from flash without being careful to mitigate that.

        I can't comment specifically on the ambient temperature. I would not expect 30C to be a problem but I also can't find any data on the pcengines site. I can tell you our own hardware is tested to higher ambient conditions than that. 😉
        https://www.netgate.com/solutions/pfsense/sg-3100.html

        Steve

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        • R
          rainer_d
          last edited by

          You should ask pc-engines directly about your concerns with the temperature.
          They are usually very swift in replying.

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