I am really new to this just have questions.

boohoo

Hi,
I am new to the whole pfSense scene however I am very interested in making my own server since my current router which is a linksys flashed with tomato 1.23. Currently its an awesome router but it hangs with my FIOS connection so here comes my newbie questions.

1. If I actually accomplish in building a pfSense serverwill it handle many users on the same time and handle FIOS 20//20meg which maybe upgrade to 50//20meg? Basically is pfSense better than tomato firmware?

2. What spec I should be looking for the pfSense router? I really would like to future-proof it like one big bang and done for a long long time. I want one that can handle many p2p and gaming ideally. I read the Hardware Sizing Guidance but just curious but I am curious in others' experiences.

3. Ok this is bad but I was reading around forums and I am curious why people have 3 NIC cards for pfsense server?

4. This is what I'm curious about but I'll try best to word it. For example if I assign a low priority QoS on the pfserver to a computer that only affects Internet data or everything such as sending data from a computer to another computer on the same network (switch) or that is managed from the switch's QoS?

thank you.

Cloverleaf

1) pfSense can certainly handle 50/20 from a software perspective, no problem. The tomato firmware is really being limited likely by the hardware spec of the linksys.

2) A lot of people use old computers, which usually (unless you're talking VERY old) can handle your requirements no problem. Really the thing would be the Quality of your NICs. Look around on the forums, especially at the Hardware forum, for hints. As far as future-proofing, well, it's hard to say what your future looks like. Probably your future will include old hardware, and you can always upgrade to those, but otherwise, any multi-ghz system is likely to hold your bandwidth needs for years to come.

3) Some people have multiple internet connections, for failover and additional bandwidth needs. This is commonly referred to as a MultiWan setup. One of the forum boards http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/board,21.0.html specifically deals with this.

4) If it's on the same network, then pfSense will not be involved, as the first computer will locally talk to the second computer, and pfSense, as the second computer, will not be involved.

boohoo

Thank you very much CLoverleaf.

Cry Havok

There's a section in the WIKI (ISTR) about hardware sizing.
I've got a trio of differently trusted local networks. The wired LAN I trust. The HomePlug LAN I trust less. The wireless I trust the least. By having multiple NICs I can separate the networks.

boohoo

With a pfSense server will I have latency issues or just make sure I get intel NIC cards and it'll be fine because currently I ping game servers ~20ms. Will having this pfSense and a HP switch increase my game latency or it'll be about the same or better?

thank you.

Cry Havok

"It depends".

Sticking Intel Server grade NICs in a P233 probably won't help you much. Your underlying hardware makes a big difference and the complexity of your configuration matters a lot. If you're running nothing more than a few firewall rules then you'll get away with lower spec hardware than if you're running multiple packages and some cheap Realtek NICs. Quality hardware costs more money than cheap hardware ;)