Would this make a kick ass PfSense router?

[El_Gran_Tecnico]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/381043265671

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/172341959065 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/252592799158 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/292006004703 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/221991752325 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/172496366281 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/152394471158 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/182340740967 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/302188525118 

 

        I'm genuinely considering in building this system. This is just my draft since I'm still working on it, but what do you guys think?!? I really like how it came out and think I would enjoy running this in my house since my family uses around 20 plus devices at once at about any given time besides the night time. I'm upgrading from a Linksys E4200v2 router.

 

Cheers, El_Gran_Técnico.

[79wjd]

The links are all broken, but PfSense can run on a literal potato from the 1980s.

[El_Gran_Tecnico]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

The links are all broken, but PfSense can run on a literal potato from the 1980s.

Oh okay thanks working on that now lol.

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, El_Gran_Tecnico said:

Oh okay thanks working on that now lol.

WAAAAAY overkill. PfSense will run perfectly on literally anything. Also, you'll want to use a wireless router/access point to handle the wifi. 

 

Why do you want to build a PfSense router anyway? 

[Droidbot]

Try to find a cheap Atom-based motherboard and slide it into a small case with a PicoPSU. it will kick ass. 

especially if it has dual 1gb nics. 

[El_Gran_Tecnico]

 

10 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

WAAAAAY overkill. PfSense will run perfectly on literally anything. Also, you'll want to use a wireless router/access point to handle the wifi. 

 

Why do you want to build a PfSense router anyway? 

Why would it better to purchase a wireless access point separately; Can the ASUS WiFi card not output a SSID? I want to build one for its performance, reliability, and the features that PfSense has oppose to consumer routers. Okay should I downgrade it to a Pentium dual core, and 4GB of ram instead? Thanks for your input just a rookie trying to improve his network.

10 hours ago, Droidbot said:

Try to find a cheap Atom-based motherboard and slide it into a small case with a PicoPSU. it will kick ass. 

especially if it has dual 1gb nics. 

Okay I will consider that maybe since @djdwosk97 recommended to me that my build was overkill.

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, El_Gran_Tecnico said:

 

 

8 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

WAAAAAY overkill. PfSense will run perfectly on literally anything. Also, you'll want to use a wireless router/access point to handle the wifi. 

 

Why do you want to build a PfSense router anyway? 

 

[joshfrog]

By the listed hardware you said it should be more then enough. There are alot of packages you can ad to it so theres other stuff you can do with it like running a cache virus scanning so if you plan on using those things make sure you play for those aswell but you really should be good to go.

[79wjd]

3 minutes ago, El_Gran_Tecnico said:

Why would it better to purchase a wireless access point separately; Can the ASUS WiFi card not output a SSID? I want to build one for its performance, reliability, and the features that PfSense has oppose to consumer routers. Okay should I downgrade it to a Pentium dual core, and 4GB of ram instead? Thanks for your input just a rookie trying to improve his network.

You'll run into a lot of headaches by using a wireless adapter. You're much better off with an actual access point. 

 

Why do you think you need more performance or reliability than a traditional consumer router? And what additional features are you looking for? 

 

Literally the cheapest used computer you can find will be sufficient. You can run PfSense on a Pentium 4 with 1GB of RAM without issue (now some of the features -- like a VPN -- require a bit more power, but nowhere near what you listed). 

[El_Gran_Tecnico]

2 minutes ago, joshfrog said:

By the listed hardware you said it should be more then enough. There are alot of packages you can ad to it so theres other stuff you can do with it like running a cache virus scanning so if you plan on using those things make sure you play for those aswell but you really should be good to go.

Wow that'd probably be the route I'd go with some powerful firewall features and so I can monitor my network as well as  website and file caching.

[joshfrog]

If you do web and download caching you may need to watch your free disk space if you download ALOT may need more then 120gb ssd 

[El_Gran_Tecnico]

3 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Literally the cheapest used computer you can find will be sufficient. You can run PfSense on a Pentium 4 with 1GB of RAM without issue. 

 

You'll run into a lot of headaches by using a wireless adapter. You're much better off with an actual access point. 

 

Why do you think you need more performance or reliability than a traditional consumer router? And what additional features are you looking for? 

Okay looks like I'm going to get a wireless AP instead, what AP would you recommend me and I'll definitely downgrade my hardware to save a lot of money. I want this because consumer routers just suck, they always tend to get really slow when everybody in my family gets home, I just want something beefy that'll last me for years and I'm thinking about some PfSense features like caching, and network monitoring etc.

[El_Gran_Tecnico]

2 minutes ago, joshfrog said:

If you do web and download caching you may need to watch your free disk space if you download ALOT may need more then 120gb ssd 

Wow hmm didn't think I'd need more than that amount of storage, okay with the saved money from downgrading the hardware I'll consider purchasing a 512GB Crucially SSD on eBay since they're going for about $120! I remember in 2012 SSDs used to cost $1 per GB. What do you think of this choice to go with the Crucial? Thanks for the fast replies guys too I really appreciate it.

[79wjd]

1 minute ago, El_Gran_Tecnico said:

Okay looks like I'm going to get a wireless AP instead, what AP would you recommend me and I'll definitely downgrade my hardware to save a lot of money. I want this because consumer routers just suck, they always tend to get really slow when everybody in my family gets home, I just want something beefy that'll last me for years and I'm thinking about some PfSense features like caching, and network monitoring etc.

A lot of those features are available on modern high end routers, and a modern high end router would also likely solve your issue with everyone jumping on the network at once. 

 

A linksys E4200 is pretty antiquated these days. I'm using an Asus RT68u and it can easily handle gaming, multiple 30mbps plex streams, six cameras, and three laptops browsing the web all simultaneously. 

 

And in terms of saving money in the long term by not having to upgrade as often....well, you'll still likely need to keep your wireless access point relatively up to date, and the power consumption will be significantly higher than just a router (think $40~ more a year on electricity alone if you use modern hardware). 

[Droidbot]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-D525MW-Dual-Core-Atom-CPU-D525-1-8Ghz-Mini-ITX-Motherboard-Intel-/272293627847?hash=item3f65f707c7:g:sh0AAOSwX~dWs6Tx

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Foxconn-D52S-NM10-Motherboard-Mini-ITX-Atom-D525-1-80GHz-CPU-Fan-I-O-Plate-/361402905630?hash=item54254ab41e:g:se8AAOSw14xWQurq

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-D525MW-Dual-Core-Atom-CPU-D525-1-8Ghz-Mini-ITX-Motherboard-Intel-/272509197990?hash=item3f72d05ea6:g:JvgAAOSwo4pYbBng

 

get a 1gb nic for PCI and connect it to an access point

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-J1900I-Motherboard-CPU-Combo-Intel-Celeron-J1900-DDR3-USB3-0-HTPC-HDMI-DVI-/262758008533?hash=item3d2d9906d5:g:L~EAAOSwImRYTWga

 

this has pcie x1 and a quicker processor by a long shot, and you can get an intel dual-port gb nic: http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-Express-10-100-1000M-Dual-Gigabit-Ethernet-LAN-Network-Controller-Card-FS-/400679738930?hash=item5d4a5f9e32:g:t5sAAOxyj4hTJ6qk

[El_Gran_Tecnico]

11 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

A lot of those features are available on modern high end routers, and a modern high end router would also likely solve your issue with everyone jumping on the network at once. 

 

A linksys E4200 is pretty antiquated these days. I'm using an Asus RT68u and it can easily handle gaming, multiple 30mbps plex streams, six cameras, and three laptops browsing the web all simultaneously. 

 

And in terms of saving money in the long term by not having to upgrade as often....well, you'll still likely need to keep your wireless access point relatively up to date, and the power consumption will be significantly higher than just a router (think $40~ more a year on electricity alone if you use modern hardware). 

Huh very true about the cost of electricity that you pointed out. I guess you could be right about my router being obsolete, I haven't really tried a modern router yet, but  @Droidbot recommend me a sick deal on a Intel Celeron plus motherboard combo. Would the Intel Celeron last for at least 5 years or more in terms of processing power for being a router before being beat by a consumer router? I What type of wireless AP would you recommend? Noob question, but wouldn't the AP be bogged down by all the network devices in my home? We have four phones, two tablets, two laptops, and a PS4 for the kids (All WiFi devices I could think of in my home). Wouldn't the PCIE WiFi card be better since the Intel Celeron would be processing the load as oppose to just the AP processing the clients on its own or no?

[79wjd]

8 minutes ago, El_Gran_Tecnico said:

Huh very true about the cost of electricity that you pointed out. I guess you could be right about my router being obsolete, I haven't really tried a modern router yet, but  @Droidbot recommend me a sick deal on a Intel Celeron plus motherboard combo. Would the Intel Celeron last for at least 5 years or more in terms of processing power for being a router before being beat by a consumer router? I What type of wireless AP would you recommend? Noob question, but wouldn't the AP be bogged down by all the network devices in my home? We have four phones, two tablets, two laptops, and a PS4 for the kids (All WiFi devices I could think of in my home). Wouldn't the PCIE WiFi card be better since the Intel Celeron would be processing the load as oppose to just the AP processing the clients on its own or no?

Yeah, but understand that you really don't need powerful hardware for a router. A pentium 4 is sufficient and it's from over a decade ago. But the wireless access point will still need to be kept modern and modern routers are sufficient for the vast majority of users -- so when you upgrade the access point you'll also be upgrading the router in the access point (you just won't be using it). 

 

And by access point, I basically mean buying a wireless router like an Asus RT 68u/88u/etc... and just using it as an access point. There are also legitimate access points as well instead of routers, but they're also expensive. 

 

There are issues when using wifi adapters. But again, to be clear, your load is nowhere near able to max out a modern router. Like I said, my router can easily handle FAR more load than what you're describing. Basically nothing on my network is wired -- everything is wireless except for the connection between my server and the router. So I can game on my desktop (wirelessly), while streaming multiple 30mbps videos from my server (wirelessly), while streaming one 30mbps video off to the internet, while multiple devices are browsing the web and watching a youtube video (wirelessly), while six cameras are streaming data to an offsite third party (wirelessly), while running openVPN on the router.

[LAwLz]

I got a very strong feeling that pfSense isn't for you OP.

It's not something you just build, install and then all of a sudden you got a badass router which outperforms consumer routers.

 

What do you want/expect by building a pfSense router?

You said your connection gets slow when other family members are at home, using the network, but are you sure that's your router's fault and not your Internet connection? Because a better router won't make your connection any faster.