[aklug] Small PFSense Router?

Hi. Completely new here, so this might not be what you seek. I'm not in Alaska - just lurking before a visit next month. Always look into Linux groups before travel. ;)

Picked up an APU2 system from PCengines a few months ago for about $150 inc 3day shipping from the EU. Blows away the old Alix stuff (which I've used too). Running pfSense now. http://pcengines.ch/apu.htm - need these parts.
* MB+CPU - apu2c4
* case (part of the cooling solution)
* PSU and
* 16G mSATA (cheap from them)

Be certain to get the Intel NICs, not Realtek.

Not getting GigE throughput (tested before deploying), but perhaps have too many rules. My WAN connection isn't anywhere near GigE, so it won't matter. A buddy is seeing 800Mbps+ on his GigE connection. He's
switched over to running Ubuntu-lxde on the machine via x2go with the box as his edge router too. He had pfsense running a few weeks first. Says it performs fine as a remote desktop system. It does support AMD-v and with 4G, there's enough of a system there to do some neat/stupid things. ;) IMHO, an edge router should do 1 job.

Also been impressed with the Ubiquiti RouterLite. Amazing for the $60, but they've been caught violating the GPL (like Mikotek and others have), so if you are a purist, it could matter. Runs vignette as the OS. Unrelated, but I'm completely addicted to Ubiquiti WAPs, never plan to use a combined router/WAP again.

Anyway, hope this helps.

-jd

> From: Christopher Howard <christopher@alaskasi.com>
> Date: Tue Jul 05 2016 - 14:06:30 AKDT
>
> Might Royce or someone be able to give me a little guidance? I wanted to
> play around with integrating a PFSense box into our network, chiefly for
> routing, firewall, and DHCP... maybe play around with VPN functionality
> too. I'm trying to find the cheapest one I can get that is still energy
> efficient. I need only 3 ports. Would maybe this be a good buy?:
>
> http://corpshadow.biz/bizstore/alix-combo-kits/alix-2d13-black-combo-kit.html#/compactflash_card-1_gb_cf1slc
>
> I actually found an ERL which was a great price, but I couldn't make
> myself agree to their ridiculous licensing terms, so I'm returning it. I
> could probably get by with DD-WRT on one of our old Linksys routers, but
> I'm rather allured by all the snazzy PFSense screen shots I've been
> looking at lately. :)

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Received on Sat Jul 9 08:29:24 2016