pfsense ?

[tthurman]

Who here is running it and on what? I’ve seen a good mix of homebrew solutions, but some of the netgate products themselves are ready to go. The 4200 looks like the sweet spot for me the netgate offerings.

I’m upgrading my home network with better switches and moving on from Wi-Fi routers and will instead utilize POE+ access points, so I need a good firewall with features I’ve become accustomed to with the Synology router management software. 

[Tom Speirs]

Ive been using it and for some time. i love it and have had no real issues to speak of. it just works.

You just need two intel ports on a mini pc. nothing more. intel i226 is the norm these days.

ive had several pcs from aliexpress. i know the orange man made ordering things a bit harder but that was my go to for these things. just search pfsense router. Amazon has them too these days but less choice.

An N100 or newer is a reasonably good choice like this. i never used the official netgate products. They always looked low spec for more money. The software is good for free.  Not missing a single feature. There is also the alternative opensense which is more "free". For someone like you, you should definitely do it yourself.

https://www.amazon.com/Firewall-Appliance-Fanless-Router-Barebone/dp/B0CSJZXZ6H/ref=sr_1_16?sr=8-16

ps: Unfortunately, terrible time to buy a PC. I am personally holding off as long as i can. They were not much more with ram and ssd.

ps 2: pfsense is like one of my greatest finds. Thinking about it, i've been a user for at least 12 years. ive used it in hypervisors, in a shuttle pc (remember those) and these days Chinese mini pc's.

ps 3: Again, it just works. Once setup right, you don't need to worry about it

 

 

[Tom Speirs]

totally overkill but i found a deal:

https://www.amazon.com/GMKtec-K11-Desktop-Computer-DisplayPort/dp/B0G1GZ8ZF9/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1

[tthurman]

Yes, timing is definitely bad between the tariffs and data center insanity.

[Tom Speirs]

i know i am crazy but i bought that and set it up yesterday.

its using 2% under full load. lol. At least i have a spare now. i am probably going to put it into low power mode.

Was definitely a deal. $200 more now.

its perfect.

[Tom Speirs]

ps: pfsense is the best option if you want network wide vpn. I like that i can add exceptions to bypass vpn for things like banking, paypal etc. i only have to turn it off occasionally.

you can also ditch pihole and most other iot devices.

the learning curve is really good too in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

[tthurman]

Yep, that was a fantastic deal you found there. Some I’ve seen are okay, but still $799.

Seems somewhat of a dip in prices is occurring right now, but I don’t expect it will last.