[aklug] Re: EdgeOS vs Pfsense

On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 7:41 PM, Christopher Howard <
christopher.howard@frigidcode.com> wrote:

> Can anybody tell me any more about their thoughts on EdgeOS
> vs. Pfsense? EdgeOS certainly is advertised well (Good documentation,
> all the features I wanted to see). And the EdgeRouter Lite at under
> $90 looked like a good buy to tinker with. But after about five
> minutes hanging out at the pfsense forum, you'd think EdgeOS was the
> most horrifying monstrosity ever conceived. Maybe sometime could tell
> me a bit about the differences in terms of interface or other
> considerations?
>

My $.02. I have no direct experience with EdgeOS, although a fair amount
with AirOS, the Ubiquiti radio software/distro on which it is based. And I
have had pfsense in active use for many years.

pfsense is usually run embedded but it is fairly close to a full BSD
distro. I don't use it for my core router because (at least at the time I
had to choose) it didn't support asymmetric load balancing. Essentially
anything can be compiled against it and installed as a package. I do use it
for some edge and remote routers though.

EdgeOS reportedly is high performance, yada yada. You've read the
literature. You are unlikely to find a $90 router with pfsense embedded
that has anywhere near the performance of EdgeOS, but that's speculation on
my part, not experience. I haven't used it yet because I can't use it as a
core router, and haven't needed any new edge routers.

YPMV = Your Packets May Vary

Sometimes a setup that works fine for 20 nodes just doesn't scale to 200,
or 400, and it's tough to simulate that in a lab. Network traffic is a
moving target. What works for one may not work for others in a different
environment.

jermudgeon

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Received on Sat Jun 28 06:45:45 2014