Home Network Upgrade

[tronder]

HI guys looking to upgrade my network setup wanted to get some opinions on what is best.

 

Current Setup

Standard ISP issued Cable Modem => Netgear R8000 x6 (Router) => 8 port managed netgear switch => Computers and NAS

 

Potential Upgrade

Possible PF sense box (not sure if it makes sense to though)

16 port netgear switch JGS516PE with POE

Ubiquiti AC PRO (for speed upstairs)

Ubiquit AC LR (for range downstairs and outside)

Future upgrade - Synology 1517+ 

 

Would a PF sense box make sense  in this situation?

[dmaes]

I guess most people would say a pfSense box wouldn't make sense in a small setup.

Personally I would do the pfSense just for fun/learning new things/more control (actually I would just build a router from scratch with Linux, but you can start with a pfSense to learn).

POE switch makes sense 'cause you listed POE devices (you could also use POE adapters), you have to decide how many ports you need.

[tronder]

1 minute ago, 101dmrs said:

-SNIP-

Well i was thinking PF sense more for the firewall/ security and also control? 

 

Im gonna do link aggregation with the new synology box which is why i need 16 port switch over the 8 

 

Any idea if the ubiquiti access points are any good?

[Jarsky]

They're very good APs especially for the price. You might want to look at Ubiquiti edgeswitches as well

[SCHISCHKA]

I like the way pfsense makes suricata/snort easy to setup. 

As a firewall your router and computer already does this.

Level1tech has a good video on pfsense.

 

4 minutes ago, tronder said:

Any idea if the ubiquiti access points are any good?

They are not shit. Ceiling mount ones are best.

[tronder]

4 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

They're very good APs especially for the price. You might want to look at Ubiquiti edgeswitches as well

I had a look at the edge switches, they're about double what it would cost for the netgear switch with only half POE ports which should be enough. Is there some hidden feature that would justify the cost of the edge switch? 

 

4 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

snip

So not really any point in building a PF sense box? e.g. keep the R800 and just turn off the wifi feature?

[SCHISCHKA]

16 minutes ago, tronder said:

So not really any point in building a PF sense box

Only if you are interested in Intrusion detection. 

[luigi90210]

5 hours ago, tronder said:

I had a look at the edge switches, they're about double what it would cost for the netgear switch with only half POE ports which should be enough. Is there some hidden feature that would justify the cost of the edge switch? 

 

So not really any point in building a PF sense box? e.g. keep the R800 and just turn off the wifi feature?

building a pfsense box was the single best thing i did for my network, i recommend it

alternatively if you want to not have to tinker with pfsense you can install sophos home firewall XG, its free and not limited feature wise, the only downside to that is its limited to a 4c processor and 6gb of ram which imo is plenty for a home network

the reason why you would want a custom router as opposed to a consumer router is security and performance, pfsense and sophos firewall xg will offer much better network security than any off the shelf consumer router and have features like web caching so if you are on a limited data connection you dont have to redownload things like windows updates, ect., load balancing if you happen to have multiple wan connections, or you can even setup a LTE failover connection in case your main internet service has an outage