Guidance for 1Gbps symmetric fiber
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Hi,
I'm looking at Netgate applicances for my 1Gbps symmetric fiber. I am converting my home network to wired+APs instead of a Wi-Fi Router. I have read a lot of conflicting information on the web about what I would actually need to make use of my 1Gbps.
I would really appreciate some advice here before I make a purchase.
My basic need is to be able to make use of my 1Gbps bandwidth for home and work from home activities such as gaming (large downloads, low latency) & very large file transfers (in and out) for my work.
I am not concerned about 1Gbps VPN speed, as that would not matter for my use case. 2-300Mbps would be sufficient there. If I ever get really excited about VPN speed I would upgrade, hah.
What's unclear to me is the "firewall speed". To be honest, I have no need for any fancy firewall setups. The firewall implementations on my Wi-Fi routers was sufficient for my needs. In particular, I see the benchmarks listed with 10,000 ACLs which is... way more than I would ever possibly employ.
What interests me about pfsense is mostly the hobbyist/tinkering/learning angle rather than any particular need for robust security.
My home network will have 2 high end workstations, 2 steaming tVs, a gaming console, 2 APs with 10 or so mobile devices max. There are only 2 of us in the house. We have people over (5-8 max) and they connect their mobiles devices but I am only concerned with getting my 1gbps in situations where only 1 or 2 devices (WFH + 4k stream) are making significant use of the internet.
Edit: I should also clarify that I will be employing a switch as the core of my network and won't have a need for anything but routing between WAN and LAN for this appliance.
So, what Netgate appliance actually makes sense for my use case? Is there other information that would help clarify?
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@milesteg The Netgate 4100 will have you covered - it handles 1Gbe symmetric with ease as long as you are not doing deep packet inspection (Suricata/Snort).
It’s the easy choise for your needs.Reasons to go higher:
4100 MAX: If you really want to log a lot on rules, and in packages NtopNG and pfBlocker. Heavy logging can shorten the lifespan of the regular 4100 because of the small eMMC (a lot less endurance than the 128Gb SSD in the MAX)
Netgate 6100: Twice the CPU power and RAM of the 4100 + 10Gbe interfaces. A good idea if you want to do “normal” Suricata/Snort at 1Gbe speeds, or might think a 10Gbe Fiber is in your future. The extra memory is most likely not needed unless you are doing it for suricata/snort or VERY heavy pfBlocker setups.
Netgate 8200: 4 times the CPU power and memory for HEAVY packet inspection at 1Gbe, or closer to actual 10Gbe throughput in real world multiusage scenarios without deep inspection.
