Can Watchguard units do what Alix2D3 can?
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Hi everyone,
Just noticed there is an alternative to Alix units. I see quite a few watchguards posted out there.
What are some of the draw backs to the Watchguard units VS Alix boards?
Can I use the CF on Watchguard units?
Do Watchguard units last longer?
Are they good with VPN?
Are they noisy? having moving parts?
Which version of Watchguard best copares with an Alix2D3 or is better than it?
***Most importantly: What models of Watchguard units can run pfSense without any hiccups?Thanks for your feedback.
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The smaller Watchguard boxes, the X10e X55e etc, are all ARM based and hence cannot run pfSense.
The larger units (19" rack mount) are all more powerful the the Alix board by some margin. They all have fans and are quite loud as standard though there is some scope for quietening them down.
Of the larger units only the X-peak box (X5000, X6000 and X8000) will work completely without any tweaking. They have 9 Intel NICs. They come with a 2.8GHz Pentium-4 and hence use a fair bit of power though it can be easily and cheaply swapped out.The X-e units (x550e, x750e, x1250e etc) have some great features and work very well. However they require a bios tweak to boot the CF card and current versions of pfSense have a buggy driver for 4 of the 8 interfaces that means they cannot be relied upon at high load. The other 4 NICs work perfectly though and newer versions of FreeBSD have fixed those bugs.
Steve
