pfSense box advice

1druid1

Hi All

I am still a new user to pfSense although I have had my current setup running for a while now.

At the moment my pfSense is running on an old Lenovo W510, which is fine and works but I have a couple of issues with it.

It s noisy and its power hungry even at idle.

So I am looking for a low cost quiet solution.

My use of pfSense is quite limited at the moment, really only using it so all my network connections go through my NordVPN, at the moment my wireless connections still go through my ISP router and are not VPN connected as I could not get pfSense working with the internal network adaptor on my W510.

So looking for a solution to replace my W510 Laptop and a decent AP that will connect to my pfSense so that both my wired and wireless connections go through my VPN.

It doesn't have to be a PC, if anyone has had good luck with routers that can use the pfSense software that is also an option. Just looking for a solution on the cheap end.

Cheers

DJ

provels

Cost and support-wise, you may want to look at the SG-1100 from Netgate for $160. SG-1100 (3 ports, perfect for your AP) or if you want to home-build, there are quite a few Intel J-1900 variations available on EBay (with 2-4 ports), but will be more costly. They mostly come direct from China, so warranty on failure may be an issue. Personally, I run mine virtualized on my main PC using Hyper-V.

Grimson

@provels said in pfSense box advice:

there are quite a few Intel J-1900 variations available on EBay.

Don't use J-1900 based systems, they are old, don't support AES-NI (and you still want it, even though pfSense 2.5 will not require it) and they tend to have compatibility issues with newer FreeBSD versions.

provels

@Grimson Does the SG-1100 support AES-NI. I looked and didn't see anything. Thanks.

This might be the hot ticket before they run out. MBT-4220, but only 2 ports.

NogBadTheBad

@provels said in pfSense box advice:

@Grimson Does the SG-1100 support AES-NI. I looked and didn't see anything. Thanks.

This might be the hot ticket before they run out. MBT-4220, but only 2 ports.

re "but only 2 ports" buy a switch that supports VLANS :)

Grimson

@provels said in pfSense box advice:

@Grimson Does the SG-1100 support AES-NI. I looked and didn't see anything. Thanks.

ARM doesn't have AES-NI, it has other crypto accelerators. Netgate is IIRC working on adding support for them.

1druid1

Hi

Thanks for the replies.

I was looking at the SG-1100, but cant find a UK supplier with stock, I only need 2 LAN ports, 1 for WAN and 1 for LAN, LAN port goes into a switch, not managed as I don't really need VLANS.

There used to be a list of compatible routers that could be flashed with pfSense but cant seem to find that on the website now.

The MBT-4220 looks nice but not at the prices.

As I say my use of pfSense is really limited, so still not sure what it all can do, I just downloaded it and installed it onto my old laptop to force all my connections to go through VPN, even that isn't the best as it doesn't have a kill switch that I recently found out as when my VPN went down all clients went out through normal internet.

Cheers

DJ

1druid1

Hey All

Any thoughts on this board?

https://www.mini-itx.com/~J3455N-D3H

Cheers

DJ

NogBadTheBad

I'd be tempted not to use a celeron mother board.

If your looking at building your own tot up the total cost against a SG-3100 pre building one if you cant get a SG-1100.

I've dealt with Amica in the UK when I purchased my SG-4860 and they were great to deal with.

bluepr0

You might find my last post here useful https://forum.netgate.com/topic/140954/returning-user-needs-a-new-pfsense-box/16

1druid1

@bluepr0

Hi, thanks for the reply, had a look, the prices have gone up quite a bit since then, I cant get that board and CPU plus memory for that cheap, the board and CPU cost around £200.

1druid1

Oh, just come across something, what about one of these with 2 USB network adaptors?

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-compute-stick-quad-core-atom-x5-z8300-2gb-ram-32gb-emmc-micro-sdxc-slot-ac-wifiplusbt-hdmi-2x-

I use a USB network adaptor in my current configuration and works great.

JeGr

If you want a serious pfSense box, skip USB adapters.

1druid1

Hi

I wouldn't say my use is serious, its just getting used to route network in the home through VPN.

R1200RT

This is what I just bought to run at home: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Minisys-4-Lan-pfsense-minipc-Intel-atom-E3845-quad-core-mini-itx-motherboard-linux-firewall-computer/3282568428.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.260.30453c00MTfxbC

I have 3 subnets/networks at home. The main LAN, Google WIFI and VMWare LAB(VLAN off LAN). I am running PFSense with the AES-NI turned on for OpenVPN connected to NordVPN. I have also created Firewall Rules to allow my 2 Roku Boxes to bypass NordVPN as Amazon and Netflix seem to have problems with NordVPN.

The Google WIFI nodes have a static route on the LAN. I normally get 200Mbps/200Mbps from my ISP, with NordVPN on, it drops to about 160-180Mbps/100Mbps.

rebi

@1druid1 said in pfSense box advice:

I was looking at the SG-1100, but cant find a UK supplier with stock, I only need 2 LAN ports, 1 for WAN and 1 for LAN, LAN port goes into a switch, not managed as I don't really need VLANS.

Try searching for a german one with UK delivery, e.g. voleatech.de does currently have it on preorder (delivery is mid-april ... hopefully before brexit )

BTW since pfSense now supports ARM, it might be possible to be installed on a Raspberry PI (never dug into the topic, it's just an idea)

JeGr

@rebi said in pfSense box advice:

BTW since pfSense now supports ARM, it might be possible to be installed on a Raspberry PI (never dug into the topic, it's just an idea)

No it isn't. The two devices with ARM have custom images. There is no "generic ARM" image for pfSense. Sorry. Besides, a RasPi is a really bad choice for routing.