Best hardware for my setup ? - ADSL with Huawei EchoLife HG556a modem + wifi
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Hi guys,
After playing around with pfSense after installing it on VMware, I have decided I need it for my home network. My network is a small one, about 6 phones/tablets, 2 laptops and 3 smart devices (tv/set top box etc).
I was thinking of using a Thin Client and placing it in front of my ADSL modem + wifi router. However having a closer look, the input to my ADSL modem is a RJ11 which is going into the ADSL port marked. From what I have googled around, I could not find any suitable hardware which can support dual NICs with RJ11 interfaces.
I am assuming that is what I will need a system with a dual NIC RJ11 interfaces. I have had a look at the HP/WYSE Thin Clients and also the Barebones PCs from Intel and Gigabyte and cannot seem to find anything.
What can my possible options be ?
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I would use a similar setup to that I have here.
My preference is to use a switch with VLANs as the core of the network. ZyXEL GS1920-24 is relatively inexpensive and, I believe, fanless. If 24 ports is more than you need, there are 8 port "smart switches" out there - I believe there is a ZyXEL GS1900 model - but I find that having plenty of ports is helpful.
I would use an inexpensive DSL bridge (sometimes described as a DSL modem) to connect between the DSL line and the switch. A single port DSL router will likely do, as will the Huawei you already own if you don't want to use it as a Wi-Fi access point. Huawei, Draytek and ZyXEL likely have inexpensive equipment. Exactly what hardware want and how you configure it depends on the type of connection. I use a Huawei HG612 with unlocked firmware on my VDSL2 line. The HG612 which is a VDSL2 / ADSL2+ / ADSL2 / ADSL modem, as they are plentiful in the UK because they were one of the VDSL2 "modems" used by BT Openreach.
If you use this approach, you bring the DSL onto a dedicated VLAN using a DSL bridge.
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Hey Dave,
sorry its been a while. thanks for response above. Just because I do not have time on my side, I am thinking of buying from the pfsense store. If I get the SG-2440, https://store.pfsense.org/SG-2440/, that should cater to my needs for the next couple of years.
I will turn the wireless off on my modem, and have it just as a bridge between the DSL line and the SG-2440, i.e.
Modem - ADSL in
Modem - LAN out
SG-2440 - WAN In
SG-2440 - LAN out - will be my actual devicesDo you think this will work out for me.
Cheers for the help.