Will higher Internet speed be realized on old router?
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Hi,
I volunteer for a group of small non-profits who share a building, providing them with free IT help. They all share the same Internet service and used to do so with a modem/router provided by their Internet provider. Needless to say, there was a lot to be desired in terms of security!
Two years ago, I created a pfSense router out of an old Intel Core 2 Quad (2.93GHz) desktop by installing a number of Intel-based Gb Ethernet cards:
- dual-port 1Gb cards in two PCIe x1 slots
- quad-port 1Gb card in a PCIe x16 slot
- single-port 1Gb card in a PCI slot (not PCIe)
I used the desktop's built-in 1Gb Ethernet interface as the WAN, the PCI interface as the LAN and the eight new 1Gb ports to provide Internet service the offices in the building. Each of the offices are small (4-5 users), but since they represent separate organizations I ensure that their traffic is restricted to their own network via firewall rules. I assigned the LAN to the PCI interface because its network is not being used by any of the offices (I reserve it for troubleshooting purposes). I figured that the offices would be better off with using a PCIe connection versus PCI.
The Internet speed is currently 300Mbps, but the non-profit is looking to increase the speed to 1Gb due to a deal that the Internet provider is offering. My question is whether the non-profit will see a noticeable difference in speed on this router if they go to 1Gb or do I need to consider installing another router?
As a side question - would any additional throughput from the router be gained if I used the ports differently? For example, should the WAN, LAN or both be assigned to one of the newer PCIe card ports? Further, looking at the desktop's chipset diagram, it appears that the PCIe x16 slot has better access to the CPU than the PCIe x1 slots and the built-in interface that the WAN is assigned to. Should I mover the WAN, LAN or both to the ports on the PCIe x16 slot?
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I have not tried on a system as old as that, but I would expect it to perform as well as an Atom CPU. Assuming you are not running a CPU intensive package it should do 1Gb.
I would not expect ay performance change with card/VLAN placement. None of the busses should be strained by the NICs you have.
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Thanks for the quick response. I just updated the router to pfSense 2.6.0; I don't think that is a CPU-intensive app. The router also has 8GB RAM; I have seen RAM usage at running at 15-20%. I forgot to mention that the router is performing DHCP server functions for each of the office networks (5 in total) so it is doing a little more than just routing traffic. No VLAN's or VPN's in use.
The users' needs are basic - Internet browsing, e-mail, video conferencing (some more than others), occasional video streaming, etc. The office use is dynamic; they are not usually all in the building at the same time (especially since COVID). However, there has been occasional complaints about "slow Internet" when they happen to be there together - video conferencing is the app that gets the most complaints in that scenario. This is one of the reasons they are deciding to increase their service to the 1Gb plan. I did not want them to do it if the current router could not handle it. I would have them wait until I replaced it if that was going to be the bottleneck.
I know I can get more updated equipment to build the router, but I am trying to keep this as cheap as possible (they are non-profits). They had two of the desktops lying around; I built two identical routers so that I could have a functioning spare if needed.
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@oldsports With no inter-network routing and just DHCP (trivial) my estimation is you will be fine with 1Gb WAN.
You might keep an eye out for an i3 to reduce the running cost. Core 2's were sweet, but a bit power hungry compared to the "i" CPUs. With Win11 eliminating most CPUs they should start showing up cheap.Good job helping out.
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Yeah, I would expect that to pass 1G no problem. Especially if those are Intel NICs.
I was able to pass 1G, just, with an C2D E4500 back in the day. That was an older pfSense version. An E8400 could do it quite easily.
Another thing to consider is that those are all relatively ancient at this point. If the hardware failed no-one would be especially surprised. Do you have a backup plan? [edit: I see you do!]Steve
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Dell Optiplex 790 for ~$99
240 GB SSD
4 - 8 GB RAM
Intel Core i5 (4C) @3,1GHzQuad Port Intel NIC for ~$42
3 of them is enough for you and your customers -
@dobby_ ,
Thanks for the reply and the quick research. After AndyRH's comment about looking for cheap "i" CPU's due to Win 11, I did some digging and found an HP SFF computer with an i5 in it. It has 4 PCIe slots so I can reuse all of the PCIe Ethernet cards that are in the current machines. I will create a router with it to replace the older HP router. I will keep one of the HP routers as a spare in case I need it.
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I also think the Win11 thing is going to be good for Unix in general. I can buy cheap Gen6 HW, drop a friendly version of Linux on it and give to someone who just surfs the web. A reasonably safe, faster than it needs to be PC that requires little up keep.