In 2012, I wrote a blog entry called PFSENSE a DIY Router/Firewall. The article covered what PFSENSE is and why it is a good solution for a DIY Router/Firewall. Over the past 5 years, I have been using PFSENSE exclusively as my edge connectivity solution. Since then my network has evolved and my needs have changed and I have gone through multiple revisions of my home network.
My previous hardware for my router/firewall was suitable for a small office home office. However, it didn’t meet the my needs when my internet connection jumped from 15 Mbps to over 300 Mbps. This is when I needed to upgrade my hardware in 2014.
My previous PFSENSE build has been working for over a year since I started using it and below was the hardware requirements.
- The PFSENSE Box is running:
- Dual Pentium 3 Processors running at 1GHZ
- 4 Gigs of PC133ECC Memory
- 200 Gig hard Drive
- 350 Watt Power supply
- 3 Netgear 10/100/100 Network Cards
- The Services running.
- NAT
- DHCP Server
- Port Forwarding
- DNS SERVER
- DNS RELAY
- UPNP
- Bandwidth Graphing
- Network Monitoring/IPS/IDS
My current router is now running a completely different set of hardware.
Current hardware:
- Supermicro SuperServer
- Intel Atom D525 Processor.
- 4 GIGS of Ram
- Dual 10/100/1000 Network Cards with IPMI
- 250 Gig hard drive
- 25 Watt Power Supply
- Services Running:
- NAT
- DHCP
- Port Forwarding
- DNS
- DNS Relay
- UPNP
- Bandwidth Monitoring
- Network Monitoring
- IPV6 Connectivity
- IPS/IDS
- OSPF Routing
- and Traffic Shaping
This set up is working well for my current internet connection of 300/25. It handles the connection fine and all my users have no problems. I will soon be upgrading this router/firewall when I am able to get gigabit fiber to the home. When that happens I will most likely upgrade to a xenon based server with 8 gigs of ram and server based hardware.
I know I will be able to perform more advanced features such as IPSEC VPN tunnels, captive portals and failover. But for now this will have to make due. However, When I do that project I will make sure I do a photo blog detailing the whole process. But for now this is a revisit to the past with updated information.