Recommendations
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I have some old HP dc5000 computers that I plan to use as my firewall solution. I also have some SMC1211TX NICs I going to use. I want to use an HP A3000 8 port PoE Wireless Switch and LAN controller to control my access points. Do you think this switch will work with pfSense ok? And what APs could I use? I'd like to use PoE access points as well.
Trying to make the best of both worlds; old and new equipment.
Thanks in advance.. dlh
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Look at the sticky under 'Supported Hardware for pfSense/FreeBSD (HCL)' to see if your hardware is supported.
If you plan on doing traffic shaping, then here is a link to ALTQ drivers that support traffic shaping
http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/ALTQ_drivers -
I see where my SMC1211-TX NIC is supported by the software. Should I look for a switch or router with a similar interface or does that matter?
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After having looked further down the line I see where a NetGear GS108T switch and a RB250GS if 5 Gigabit switch were suggestions to use for more than 1 access point.
If I get a NetGear GS108T switch and plug it into the firewall with the SMC1211-TX NIC, I should work fine.. correct?
Thanks again.. dlh
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The Netgear and RB switches are recommended for low cost VLAN usage. Your HP switch supports VLAN trunks and you should be able to use it just fine unless you do not have enough physical ports.
You will need 3 physical ports for the pfSense unit, 1 for the router VLAN trunk, 1 for LAN and one for WAN. The APs will use the other 5 ports and run through the VLAN trunk where required.The SMC NIC uses a RTL8139 Fast Eth. chipset. I would hardly recommend this. Pick up a cheap Intel PCI-X Gigabit NIC from eBay instead. Saves you lots of grief from chipset/ driver related troubles in the long run and they're available for a song.