I want to make a pfSense router

[orangecat]

I want to have a very low power but powerful router so I can manage it myself and do what i want to it but I have no clue where to start.

[Duffman]

Virtual Machines ?

[Woodypc]

pfSence is a right B!t(h to make work on virtual machines lol, I could never get it to work. Other have had the same problem.

[qwertywarrior]

the current D2700 CPU will max it out at 550+ Mbps (its around that if i remember correctly)

u want more than that u need to settle for a mobo with a embedded 847 chip or a 1007u chip

 

u need to tell me what ull use it for

whats ur internet connection

do u need wifi

if ur gonna add more things to it u need a switch which is a much cheaper solution that adding a four 1 Gigabite connections or a jetway with a 3 gigabite daughter board

 

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for me looking into this it was overkill so i just bought a powerful last gen used router for 20$ that could handle shibby tomamto and 100mbps with QoS - working great never restarted it for 1 month+and Qos working wonderfully

 

if you want to be a hardcore networking guy at least look into this first the routerOS is great u can do pretty much everything with it

 

http://routerboard.com/RB951G-2HnD

the RB951G is a great bang for the buck

 

u want SFP and more ports

http://routerboard.com/RB2011UAS-2HnD-IN

 

both of these router can handle (if i remember correctly) around 120mbps

[rufee]

If you go the routerOS route don't throw away your old router because setting it up the first time will be hard.

[techswede]

I think logan from teksyndicate made a guide on how to do that a while back

 

 

Hope that helps you in some way^^

[_Rogue]

If you want low power then find an old laptop with an intel lan chip inside and has an express card slot and get an Ethernet express card again preferably intel. a dell d630 works great, its what i have. :) ohh and kudos on being the first other person from windsor that ive seen on here.

[Ssoele]

If you want low power then find an old laptop with an intel lan chip inside and has an express card slot and get an Ethernet express card again preferably intel. a dell d630 works great, its what i have. :) ohh and kudos on being the first other person from windsor that ive seen on here.

 

D630s have Broadcom chips if I'm not mistaken. Doesn't really matter, Intel or Broadcom are both excellent chips. Don't go with a Realtek or a Marvell however.

[_Rogue]

D630s have Broadcom chips if I'm not mistaken. Doesn't really matter, Intel or Broadcom are both excellent chips. Don't go with a Realtek or a Marvell however.

Sorry confused the chip with the one in my e6400 but like you said it doesn't matter both work great. And I actually use some crappy ralink (i think) usb ethernet on mine as an auxiliary for some low priority stuff and I've had no issues with it as long as i run it through a powered usb hub. 

[LAwLz]

What do you mean by "powerful"?

[gibbsy81]

D630s have Broadcom chips if I'm not mistaken. Doesn't really matter, Intel or Broadcom are both excellent chips. Don't go with a Realtek or a Marvell however.

Intel has proven time after time to be a good solution INTEL ALL THE WAY.

[.Jay]

I want to have a very low power but powerful router so I can manage it myself and do what i want to it but I have no clue where to start.

 

My best advice is to find a router that is compatible and put ddwrt or tomato firmware on it.  If you have "no clue where to start" then a full firewall inside is going to overwhelm you. Start slow and learn before jumping too far into things as you probably don't know the terminology and/or functionality.

[orangecat]

What do you mean by "powerful"?

speed...

[LAwLz]

speed...

Well most modern routers can easily handle over 1Gbps, and at that speed you might even be bottlenecked by your HDD.

[Gob]

.....and at that speed you might even be bottlenecked by your HDD.

 

I don't believe this is true. The embedded version, NanoBSD (the linux distro that pfsense is based around) loads completely into memory at boot, and does not read/write to disk during operation. The full install FreeBSD version, may not load completely into memory, but the modules dedicated for routing operations are (basically the same modules used by NanoBSD). Only add-ons like a web proxy will be affected by disk read/write speed.

[LAwLz]

I don't believe this is true. NanoBSD (the linux distro that pfsense is based around) loads completely into memory at boot, and does not read/write to disk during operation (unless you download add-ons like a web proxy).

I was talking about the clients. You will most likely get bottlenecked by your HDD when transferring files over the network if you got a good gigabit router.

My point was that pretty much any half decent router will fit OP's criteria. It doesn't even need to be pfSense.

[.Jay]

Well most modern routers can easily handle over 1Gbps, and at that speed you might even be bottlenecked by your HDD.

 

That is with no gateway monitoring and/or antivirus.  If any of that is turned on you see a hugeeee gateway performance decrease.  In reality, home equipment is at its begining phases.  At some point people won't be just putting in a dumb router in a house - they will be performing network security functions also.

[N7_Zer0]

I built one using a Mini-Box case and an Atom board. Build log is here: http://forums.ncix.com/forums/?mode=showthread&forum=191&threadid=2383125&pagenumber=3&msgcount=71&subpage=1

 

I've since changed the Supermicro board to an Intel D2500CC board. Using the NanoBSD version of pfsense which boots off a SATA-CF adapter. Draws around 15W or so.

 

Pics: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hmc80pl83uv8jfw/UrHFrD5TtP

[LAwLz]

That is with no gateway monitoring and/or antivirus.  If any of that is turned on you see a hugeeee gateway performance decrease.  In reality, home equipment is at its begining phases.  At some point people won't be just putting in a dumb router in a house - they will be performing network security functions also.

Do you even know what a gateway is? It sounds like you just added that word to sound smart. Anyway...

1) Yes, a lot of consumer routers do have "gateway monitoring" as you like to call it.

2) I would recommend you don't have anti-virus software on your router since that will either introduce a lot of latency, or it won't protect from atomic attacks (assuming it uses the same kind of principle as an IDS).

3) My router (as well as most consumer routers) do have security functionality. DMZ, firewall (as well as other filters), logging, traffic monitoring etc, are all common features these days.

[.Jay]

^ the funniest part is it is called gateway monitoring - better get some more experience cause you sound pretty noobish trying to rip on someone that is trying to help

[LAwLz]

^ the funniest part is it is called gateway monitoring - better get some more experience cause you sound pretty noobish trying to rip on someone that is trying to help

Well I've never heard it, and Cisco has nothing called that, so if that's what some other company calls some feature then sorry. Anyway, please don't nitpick on my post and ignore my actual arguments. If you were talking about SGMP then please don't use that, because it has been outdated for several decades.

[.Jay]

No matter I hope the original guy takes my advice and flashes a router and starts there with tomato or ddwrt. I have used pfsense and smoothwall and starting there is going to discourage him.

[LAwLz]

No matter I hope the original guy takes my advice and flashes a router and starts there with tomato or ddwrt. I have used pfsense and smoothwall and starting there is going to discourage him.

Well I can at least agree with that.

[madcow]

Virtual Machines ?

This is a good option if you already have another home server running. Add a second NIC as needed and bridge it to your VM.