Home Networking for the first time

[iEmerald]

Hello World!

 

I'm about to move in to a new house in a couple of months and I want to setup a reliable home network in the house, I came here to get some support from you guys regarding some stuff but first things first. I'll explain my idea first:

 

• The home is wired with a CAT6 Ethernet cable. 
• I'll have 2 different internet connections from 2 different ISPs
• Connection to ISP 1 will be made using a PowerBeam
• Connection to ISP 2 will be made using a NanoStation M5
• Both cables from the PowerBeam and NanoStation will be plugged into a server pc which will contain 3 NICs 
• The Server PC will have VMWare ESXi installed with 2 virtual instances
• An instance will be pfSense that'll be configured with Load Balancing between the first and second NICs (Between ISP 1 and ISP 2) 
• Then an unmanaged 8 port switch will be connected to the server's 3'rd NIC port and all of the Ethernet ports in the house will be connected to the switch
• The second instance in ESXi will be a machine running Ubuntu which will be configured with Plex Media Server, CouchPotato, Sonarr and some other useful software. 

Now on to my concerns regarding this setup:

1. Can someone suggest me parts for the server build! Which MB to get and which CPU and why ... 
2. Regarding the second instance in ESXi, should I use Ubuntu or Windows Server? 
3. This is the first time I'm setting up a machine with ESXi so I'm asking is it possible to make pfSense connect directly into my NIC chips?
4. Is the idea possible? What consequences will I face? What do you guys suggest on changing? 

I'm open for suggestions.

 

Thanks in advance

[Sidiox]

I don't know if it is the best idea to have pFsense run on the same server as the rest. If you have any kind of downtime that means you lose all internet access to the house, but that is just my take on it.

I'd personally take something like an EdgeRouter Lite that can also do load balancing with 2 WANs  and then have that connected to the ethernet switch, to which everything including the esxi server are hooked up. That way your network will remain online even if the esxi server needs a reboot or has a hardware failure. 

[iEmerald]

I don't know if it is the best idea to have pFsense run on the same server as the rest. If you have any kind of downtime that means you lose all internet access to the house, but that is just my take on it.

I'd personally take something like an EdgeRouter Lite that can also do load balancing with 2 WANs  and then have that connected to the ethernet switch, to which everything including the esxi server are hooked up. That way your network will remain online even if the esxi server needs a reboot or has a hardware failure.

Well first of all I can't find an EdgeRouter in my city very easily, Ubiquiti products are hard to find here but we have plenty of Nano Stations (Which I don't think will be useful in any way :rolleyes: )

Or let's say I've found an EdgeRouter, in this case I won't have to setup the Homeserver PC at all I will simply build an HTPC, since the idea behind the PC was being a Router / Firewall / Home Media server thingy like an all in one solution.

Besides why would the server get a downtime? I'm not using it as a web SERVER or anything that requires a lot of processing power, the PC will only run pfSense + Ubuntu with some packages and even if I get a downtime I think it'll be ok with a simple restart.

[dzonidev]

Hello World!

 

I'm about to move in to a new house in a couple of months and I want to setup a reliable home network in the house, I came here to get some support from you guys regarding some stuff but first things first. I'll explain my idea first:

 

• The home is wired with a CAT6 Ethernet cable. 
• I'll have 2 different internet connections from 2 different ISPs
• Connection to ISP 1 will be made using a PowerBeam
• Connection to ISP 2 will be made using a NanoStation M5
• Both cables from the PowerBeam and NanoStation will be plugged into a server pc which will contain 3 NICs 
• The Server PC will have VMWare ESXi installed with 2 virtual instances
• An instance will be pfSense that'll be configured with Load Balancing between the first and second NICs (Between ISP 1 and ISP 2) 
• Then an unmanaged 8 port switch will be connected to the server's 3'rd NIC port and all of the Ethernet ports in the house will be connected to the switch
• The second instance in ESXi will be a machine running Ubuntu which will be configured with Plex Media Server, CouchPotato, Sonarr and some other useful software. 

Now on to my concerns regarding this setup:

1. Can someone suggest me parts for the server build! Which MB to get and which CPU and why ... 
2. Regarding the second instance in ESXi, should I use Ubuntu or Windows Server? 
3. This is the first time I'm setting up a machine with ESXi so I'm asking is it possible to make pfSense connect directly into my NIC chips?
4. Is the idea possible? What consequences will I face? What do you guys suggest on changing? 

I'm open for suggestions.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Thumbs up for CAT 6. The idea is pretty neat, I see your links are all wireless, so it's good you have two. Now, let's start with pfSense, loadbalancing is possible and very popular however you won't see any real effect unless you download from a P2P network like torrents and so on. The main issue with load balancing is that you can't go on the internet with two IP addresses at the same time. However there are "commercial" solutions that are pretty good at doing the job and can provide actual load-balancing performance even when you browse the web. Now these comercial solutions somehow manage connections...

 

Suggested devices:

 

TP-LINK TL-R470T+ - Cheaper, Check out Barnacule's video

Ubiquiti Edge Router Lite - Better Performance

Both are very good products, but Ubiquiti is the boss.

 

If you are building just a file server, then you don't need a high speced PC. I run WHS 2011 on a Shuttle K45 PC (DO NOT BUY IT), it came with a Celeron E1500 Dual Core @ 2.2Ghz, 2GB DDR2, Custom MB. And it was great, but it wasn't snappy when I needed something done, the WHS Dashboard is poorly optimized IMO, so I upgraded the CPU to C2D E6600, now it's running great, also upgraded the cooler and swapped the HDD for a Seagate Barracuda. It serves as a Media Server and a File Server (SMB). You can see that it's not that powerful however it serves me pretty nicely.

 

P.S. Get a good network switch.

[FMQ203]

it's cheaper and easier to buy a load-balancing router and snap that to a good switch, down the road you can build a nas or a htpc, or even buy one (you would be better off building one), 

[iEmerald]

Thumbs up for CAT 6. The idea is pretty neat, I see your links are all wireless, so it's good you have two. Now, let's start with pfSense, loadbalancing is possible and very popular however you won't see any real effect unless you download from a P2P network like torrents and so on. The main issue with load balancing is that you can't go on the internet with two IP addresses at the same time. However there are "commercial" solutions that are pretty good at doing the job and can provide actual load-balancing performance even when you browse the web. Now these comercial solutions somehow manage connections...

Suggested devices:

TP-LINK TL-R470T+ - Cheaper,

Ubiquiti Edge Router Lite - Better Performance

Both are very good products, but Ubiquiti is the boss.

If you are building just a file server, then you don't need a high speced PC. I run WHS 2011 on a Shuttle K45 PC (DO NOT BUY IT), it came with a Celeron E1500 Dual Core @ 2.2Ghz, 2GB DDR2, Custom MB. And it was great, but it wasn't snappy when I needed something done, the WHS Dashboard is poorly optimized IMO, so I upgraded the CPU to C2D E6600, now it's running great, also upgraded the cooler and swapped the HDD for a Seagate Barracuda. It serves as a Media Server and a File Server (SMB). You can see that it's not that powerful however it serves me pretty nicely.

P.S. Get a good network switch.

I'll try to look for ERPoe-5 and hopefully I can find one.

http://imgur.com/K1V2Qjl

The problem is it has 5 ports and I have FIVE rooms now this may not sound like a problem but I think 2 of the ports will already be used, so ... (Actually that was a terrible idea .. lol) then what about the ER8 or the ERPro8? What are the main differences and which one you recommend to choose? Also are there any differences between "EdgeRouter" and "EdgeRouter Lite"?

[iEmerald]

it's cheaper and easier to buy a load-balancing router and snap that to a good switch, down the road you can build a nas or a htpc, or even buy one (you would be better off building one),

I'm a firm believer in Ethernet, so wireless routers are not really my thing, but I think I'll have to get a UniFi AP for my mobile device sometime down the road.

EDIT: Spelling.

[dzonidev]

I'll try to look for ERPoe-5 and hopefully I can find one.

http://imgur.com/K1V2Qjl

The problem is it has 5 ports and I have FIVE rooms now this may not sound like a problem but I think 2 of the ports will already be used, so ... (Actually that was a terrible idea .. lol) then what about the ER8 or the ERPro8? What are the main differences and which one you recommend to choose? Also are there any differences between "EdgeRouter" and "EdgeRouter Lite"?

 

I think it's better if you get the 5 port router and an 8 port switch. Upgrading to an 8 port Edge will cost you more than getting the 5 port model and a good 8 port switch. You will even have room for an access point or two.

[iEmerald]

I think it's better if you get the 5 port router and an 8 port switch. Upgrading to an 8 port Edge will cost you more than getting the 5 port model and a good 8 port switch. You will even have room for an access point or two.

I will check the availability and price of the EdgeRouter in my city, if it's not available or too expensive I will go with my old method.

Thank you and everyone else for your support.

[iEmerald]

I think it's better if you get the 5 port router and an 8 port switch. Upgrading to an 8 port Edge will cost you more than getting the 5 port model and a good 8 port switch. You will even have room for an access point or two.

I will check the availability and price of the EdgeRouter in my city, if it's not available or too expensive I will go with my old method.

Thank you and everyone else for your support.

EDIT: Sorry for the double post (TapTalk crashed)

[Sidiox]

I will check the availability and price of the EdgeRouter in my city, if it's not available or too expensive I will go with my old method.

Thank you and everyone else for your support.

EDIT: Sorry for the double post (TapTalk crashed)

Yeah do that, its probably a lot easier to set up (I don't know how much you know about networking but I always find it to be a pain in the butt), than the virtualized pfSense instance. The EdgeRouter Lite even has a wizard to set up the dual WAN config. 

I got my Lite last week and it really has quite good performance, so far I'm impressed. 

[iEmerald]

I got my Lite last week and it really has quite good performance, so far I'm impressed.

How much did it cost in your country?

What model did you get?

[Sidiox]

How much did it cost in your country?

What model did you get?

I got the EdgeRouter Lite ( I don't know if it has different hardware versions, I couldn't find any others) and it cost me about 120 euros so a little over 130 dollars I think

[TAtari]

One thing to bare in mind when running pfSense (or any routing software) as a vm is that patching the host can be a real pain. Since you will not have any internet access while doing it and most host systems needs to enter maintenance mode to be patched.

Other then that it works fine I was running it like that for years but I have now switched over to having a dedicated pfSense box.

 

Now on to my concerns regarding this setup:

1. Can someone suggest me parts for the server build! Which MB to get and which CPU and why ... 
   I would go for a Workstation or Server grade ASUS board and non K rated Intel cpu. Just make sure it has the VT features enabled (most have that now a days)
   Here is a good link to see what hardware is officially supported:
   http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=io
2. Regarding the second instance in ESXi, should I use Ubuntu or Windows Server? 
   Depends on what you plan on using it for and you can run both with ease.
3. This is the first time I'm setting up a machine with ESXi so I'm asking is it possible to make pfSense connect directly into my NIC chips?
   No, you will have to use the virtual nics easiest is to use the E1000 mode then pfSense will work out of the box but you will be limited to 1gbit, to get 10gbit support you need the vmxnet3 mode but that requires that you load the drivers for them before the installation and its a bit fiddley if you don't know how bsd works.
4. Is the idea possible? What consequences will I face? What do you guys suggest on changing?

[iEmerald]

No, you will have to use the virtual nics easiest is to use the E1000 mode then pfSense will work out of the box but you will be limited to 1gbit, to get 10gbit support you need the vmxnet3 mode but that requires that you load the drivers for them before the installation and its a bit fiddley if you don't know how bsd works.

This is a bit turn off for me. So this is why I changed my mind and switched over to EdgeRouter.

[TAtari]

This is a bit turn off for me. So this is why I changed my mind and switched over to EdgeRouter.

 

You can still go with the pfSense option if you have some old hardware, it doesn't need much when it comes to hardware power. I currently have Pentium G3220 and I can get that to about 12-15% (cpu usage) when pushing 900mbit+ though my wan.