pfSense Hardware

[joshfrog]

Hi There

 

I have being looking for a router for a while and want to get a pfSense router. 

I have being looking for a while a the Netgate 7100 1U but price is quite high for me to import it into Australia. I dont care so much about the price but its a factor,

The hardware used in the 7100 is also about 4 years old at this point so is there anything that's more updated, I understand its still perfectly good hardware but Intel also hasn't being sitting on there hands in the last 4 years.

I was wondering if anyone new of hardware options that could work.

I want the 7100 because it can do 10gig, runs pfSense and from all the reviews i have seen its not bad at its job, happy to get the 7100 just want to look at other options.

I dont want any of those cheap chines brand routers, id like something that would last.

 

Thanks for any help.

[JRocker]

I've been looking into setting up a pfsense firewall over the last few weeks, and from the many forums and comments I've seen, most recommend building/purchasing a micro PC to install pfsense on for various reasons, including having stronger X86 type CPUs and RAM, sharing key components with standard PCs or laptops so you can fix/replace some components as they age, better cooling, and hardware flexibility. ARM-type CPU support is dodgy for pfsense outside their own hardware from Netgate, hence why pfsense is not supported yet on Raspberry Pi. That said, key hardware capability with pfsense isn't universal as I understand it, so it's worth checking in forums online once you've found a micro PC that you can source or are looking at specific hardware to use. I've found a handful of full micro PC options on Amazon after reading through forums and comments on the Amazon product reviews that I plan to test out. Lastly, the various forums recommended a separate device for managing your wireless, so keep your old router if you have one to act as an Access Point (AP), and don't get stuck on using a wireless-capable router for your pfsense firewall. "Networkchuck" and "Lawrence Systems" have good material on pfsense hardware and software setup.

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 12/15/2021 at 10:14 AM, joshfrog said:

I dont want any of those cheap chines brand routers, id like something that would last.

It being Chinese doesn't mean it wont last.  Lots of us use the Qotom devices but you hit the nail with their one drawback, none of them do 10Gbit.  I currently have mine bonded using two ethernet ports to my switch so that when I get Gigabit FTTP I can still use the 500Mbit 5G backup at the same time.