PfSense and CSU/DSU
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Can I pop a CSU/DSU into our pfSense box?
I see external options for these types of devices is that the better way to go?
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I can't see any sign of there being any supported CSU/DSU unit in the FreeBSD 7.1 hardware support list at
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.1R/hardware.html
so its unlikely there will be any pfSense support. -
Well, there are the Cronyx Tau ce(4),cp(4) devices, but as far as I can tell they're E1 only. You could just go with a DSU like a Digi SYNC/570i (ar(4)) which can be found on eBay for $5 and get an outboard CSU, but this gear might not be easy to configure in the pfSense web UI for framing type and so on.
If you're looking for slightly 'newer' gear, check out Sangoma's offerings. They have T1/E1 and T3/E3 data and voice cards available with FreeBSD support. Drivers aren't in the tree though (AFAIK), so you'll probably have to build them yourself, and then as with the older gear, set up some way to configure it manually.
It makes more sense to just buy an external CSU/DSU I think, they're more flexible, easier to use and should be dirt cheap on the surplus market since nobody really uses this technology anymore ;).
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Support for the Sangoma may be making its way into pfSense before too long, there has been a bit of buzz on the topic over the last couple days.
I know at least one dev has a Sangoma card (for FreeSWITCH) and there is interest in supporting these. Someone else mentioned having a couple on order but it may be 3+ months before anything is done with them.
The FreeBSD drivers can be found here: http://www.freshports.org/misc/wanpipe/
Since it's already a FreeBSD port, it may not be that difficult to pull in the necessary bits. You'd just need to compile the KLD on a system that was of the same "vintage" (FreeBSD release) as the pfSense version you're running, copy it over, and have it load on boot.
The downside of the Sangoma cards is cost, at $425-500 or so a piece, they have quite a price tag, but there are definitely cases where it is well worth the cost.
