Advice for pfSense deployment

karloz

Hi all,

I'm about to deploy a pfSense server into some student accommodation. The instance will be running on an old Dell PE850 1U Rack Server (Intel Celeron (unfortunately) 2.53GHz, 3GB RAM, 250GB SATA, 2 x Embedded Gigabit NICs).

There are around 80 students in the building each with multiple devices (iPads, Phones, Laptops, Kindle's etc) The building has been divided up into flats, each with approx. 5 rooms. The flats are over 5 floors with most flats having their own Wireless Access Point (Engenius EAP350) which are running PoE to a switch on each floor. Each switch is then connected to a core switch in the comms room. A wireless signal is available throughout the building.

The current connection is a Bonded ADSL2+ x4 lines giving a total speed of around 30MB Down and 5MB up at best. This was put in place as the building was still being developed last year and was only running at around half capacity. This year, the building is running at capacity and they will look to get a bigger pipe into the building (although Leased lines are looking to be the only available option for anything decent - but these obviously come at a very high cost).

Anyway, back to my pfSense install…

I've done a basic install and run through the traffic shaping wizard which let me give priority to HTTP and Email Traffic. All other traffic is running at a lower priority. I appreciate that I will need to monitor what the internet is being used for and then implement rules to prevent bandwidth hogging.

I'm very new to pfSense, and so I was hoping someone had some good practices in this kind of environment. Students are into HEAVY usage and I need to take control of this - but need a little input from someone with more experience in this sort of thing.

Thanks in advance,

Karloz