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    Recommendations for hardware for FIOS connection at over 15/15

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    • J
      jrmitchell83
      last edited by

      Hello everyone!

      I'm new to the forums so please don't blast me for starting yet another new thread. I've searched through the older ones and haven't found exactly what I'm looking for.

      I'm in the need of building a pfsense box from scratch. This box will be utilized on a 15/15+ FIOS connection running multiple servers, streaming, etc.

      Knowing that BSD is pretty selective with hardware over say linux, I need some input before purchasing hardware.

      1. I'd like to stay away from embedded systems say based on ATOM processors.

      2. Looking for at least dual core (maybe even quad core) processor.

      3. Motherboard supporting 2-4 NICs. I'd prefer to have them on the board but this really doesn't matter.

      I'm one to go overboard so I've been looking at Core 2 Duo, i7 and XEON processors. This may be WAY too overboard…then again maybe not?

      Suggestions? Thoughts?

      Thanks so much in advance!

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      • S
        splippity
        last edited by

        other people could chime in and would know more then me, but from reading Ive been doing core2duos and the like are good ideas because they perform better then the atoms.

        I would go intel ethernet ports, and gigabit (Im sure all current boards come with them standard)

        I was thinking a wifi pci card like a TP-LINK TL-WN951N

        a healthy dose of ram would be good.

        probably want to post more info on what you want to run…. squid, snort, av and what not.
        they all require more memory and more cpu power. I would think a core2duo would handle all of that pretty well.

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        • J
          jrmitchell83
          last edited by

          Thanks for the reply splippity.

          Yes, I plan on running squid and snort in this environment…possibly others.

          I've found a couple Pentium Dual Cores and Core 2 Duo machines that I can pick up cheap. What's the best way to tell if the MOBO is supported? I've been trying to reference by chipset but it's difficult to align. Is the main concern the NIC support? I suppose I could always turn off the integrated NIC and install an Intel PCI-Express based NIC.

          The machines I've found that are Pentium Dual Core and Core 2 Duo are made by Dell, Lenovo, and HP. I would assume pfsense would support these but I'd hate to pick one up and find out it's not compatible. The machines I'm looking at have the Intel G41 chipsets.

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          • J
            jasonlitka
            last edited by

            Why the need for so much power?  An Alix has no issue with my 35/35 connection.  If you want a system with more RAM so you can use snort, squid, etc. then go with the Atom.

            I can break anything.

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            • S
              SeventhSon
              last edited by

              @jrmitchell83:

              I'm one to go overboard so I've been looking at Core 2 Duo, i7 and XEON processors. This may be WAY too overboard…then again maybe not?

              Yes, WAY! :-)

              Anyways, my Core i7 can transcode 720p in realtime, so that is WAY overboard for a home router ;-).

              I'm on 30/3 cable now, with my Alix2D3, it's keeping up fine, not running snort or squid though. For that I would go at least Atom of some not-so-powerhungry Core2 or Pentium, and add a bit of RAM say 1 or 2 GB.

              oh and about this:
              @jrmitchell83:

              The machines I've found that are Pentium Dual Core and Core 2 Duo are made by Dell, Lenovo, and HP. I would assume pfsense would support these but I'd hate to pick one up and find out it's not compatible. The machines I'm looking at have the Intel G41 chipsets.

              http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,25.0.html

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              • S
                siliconboy
                last edited by

                Along the same question, I have a 100/100mb connection.  And yes, this is for real AND at home:

                http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r13329621-What-is-your-speed-service-price-and-location-and-ISP-~start=282

                So I have an old Shuttle SS56G with a Celeron 2.0ghz (1gb mem) that I'd like to use for it.  Will that be enough for a 100mb connection?  I understand I would only eat CPU for VPN's (probably 1 – for myself) and eat memory for translations (4 inside PC's, only 2 used at the same time).

                I want to be able to fully utilize the 100mb connection.  I have a crappy Linksys 110 on it, and as you can imagine, I get 25mbps if I am lucky.

                And yes, I enjoy my (ultra?) high speed for $45 USD per month!  I feel like I am in ... [South] Korea …? I certainly don't feel like I am in the (bad old) US of A! ;)

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                • D
                  dreamslacker
                  last edited by

                  The Celeron (Pentium 4 architecture) might be a little anaemic for VPN at those speeds but I reckon you can at least push about 40mbps through the VPN tunnel.  For regular traffic shaping and NAT, it's more than sufficient for 100mbps though.

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                  • S
                    siliconboy
                    last edited by

                    @dreamslacker:

                    … For regular traffic shaping and NAT, it's more than sufficient for 100mbps though.

                    It was a P4/2.2 after all.  And it pushed 100mb just fine like you said:

                    Now I have the dreaded "CPU0: local APIC error 0x40," but that's a different story …

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